A-103 was the eighth unmanned Saturn flight of the Apollo program. It was the initial vehicle in the operational series of Saturn I launch vehicles and the third to carry an Apollo boilerplate payload. The vehicle also orbited the first of three meteoroid technology satellites, Pegasus A.
Of 12 flight objectives assigned, two were concerned with the operation of the Pegasus satellite, eight with launch vehicle systems performance, one with jettis...
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A-103 was the eighth unmanned Saturn flight of the Apollo program. It was the initial vehicle in the operational series of Saturn I launch vehicles and the third to carry an Apollo boilerplate payload. The vehicle also orbited the first of three meteoroid technology satellites, Pegasus A.
Of 12 flight objectives assigned, two were concerned with the operation of the Pegasus satellite, eight with launch vehicle systems performance, one with jettisoning the launch escape system, and one with separation of the boilerplate spacecraft. The satellite objectives were (1) demonstration of the functional operations of the mechanical, structural, and electronic systems and (2) evaluation of meteoroid data sampling in near-earth orbit. Since the launch trajectory was designed to insert the Pegasus satellite into the proper orbit, it differed substantially from the Saturn-Apollo I trajectory used in missions A-101 and A-102.
The launch vehicle (SA-9) consisted of an S-I first stage, an S-IV...
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