The Explorers' Club, № MCLXV

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of AS-203
5 July 1966: AS-203 (Saturn IB S.A.-203), A.K.A. Apollo 3, lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, without an Apollo C.S.M., the first orbital flight of a Saturn IB rocket; the mission tested the S-IVB second stage's* ability to refire once on orbit, necessary for Trans-Lunar Injection on Moon missions; the S-IVB was destroyed on the fourth orbit during a fuel tank pressurization experiment.

Commentary: *The S-IVB was the second stage of a Saturn IB but the third stage of a Saturn V.

Ex Luna, scientia.