The Explorers' Club, № MCLXXVI

Operation AXIOM: Destination Moon—The 60th Anniversary of AS-202
25 August 1966: AS-202 (Saturn IB S.A.-202), A.K.A. Apollo 2, lifted off from Florida's Cape Kennedy Air Force Station, Apollo C.S.M.-011 atop a Saturn IB rocket; the suborbital flight tested the S-IB first stage, the S-IVB second stage, & the C.S.M.'s Service Propulsion System; the Saturn IB was crew-rated for Apollo 1; the C.M. re-entered the atmosphere & was recovered by the U.S.S. Hornet CV-12.

Commentary: Luna 11 launched on 24 August 1966; Apollo 2 launched on 25 August 1966. "The Explorers' Club" protocols mandate three days between episodes, so as not to take over completely The Secret Base. Our compromise was to commemorate the sixtieth anniversary of Luna 11 a day early & the sixtieth anniverary of Apollo 2 a day late.

It's so easy searching for images from the Apollo program—really any N.A.S.A. mission of the era, even robotic probes—compared to the often futile slog of searching for images from Soviet missions like, for example, Luna 11.

Ex Luna, scientia.