Today In History: March 13 1969

After ten days in space, one of the most important missions in the race to reach the moon landed in the Atlantic ocean.
On this day in 1969, at five o’clock, Apollo 9 splashed down into the North Atlantic Ocean, after 10 days, one hour and 54 seconds of flight. The objective of the mission was to test the lunar module that was to be used in subsequent missions in order to reach the moon. It was the first manned flight of the module, which was led by astronaut Russel L. Schweickart. Among the tests that were developed successfully for the mission was to test the reactions of the body to space and weightlessness, the strength of the spacesuits in the vacuum, vision equipment, and communication thereof. The results were very positive, later revealed as essential a few months later another mission Apollo 11 , the successfully landed on the moon.