AS-500-F rolled out to
39A on
May 25, 1966 and remained there until
June 8, 1966 when it was hastily more back to the VAB for protection from a hurricane. It rolled back out to
39A on
June 10, 1966 and was moved off 39A for the last time on
October 14, 1966.
There were only only
2 launches of a Titan IIIC during that time span and both were from
LC 41. The launch on
June 16, 1966 was the
4th launch of the IIIC so that had to be the one in the picture.
Bob
Sources below.
Chronology from
https://astronautix.com/
1966 May 25 - First full-scale Apollo Saturn V launch vehicle rolled out AS-500-F, the Pathfinder first full-scale Apollo Saturn V launch vehicle and spacecraft combination, was rolled out from Kennedy Space Center's Vehicle Assembly Building to the launch pad
39 A, for use in verifying launch facilities, training crews, and developing test procedures. The 111-meter, 227,000-kilogram vehicle was moved by a diesel-powered steel-link-tread crawler-transporter exactly five years after President John F. Kennedy asked the United States to commit itself to a manned lunar landing within the decade. Meanwhile, schedule for Saturn V threatened by continued problems in development of S-II stage (inability to get sustained 350-second burns without instrumentation failures, shutoffs, minor explosions).
Chronology from NASA SP-4204
Less than two weeks later, that concept received an unscheduled test under emergency conditions. In early June hurricane Alma skirted Florida's east coast. Debus put the mobile concept through its paces. At 1:00 p.m. on
8 June, he ordered 500-F back to the assembly building. Within three hours, the launch team had disconnected the mobile launcher from its moorings. Wind gusts over 80 kilometers per hour spurred the efforts. The crawler began the return trip at 5:33, taking one hour to descend the 392-meter sloping ramp. Sheets of rain and 96-kilometer-per-hour gusts accompanied the crawler team on the straightaway as they urged their ponderous vehicle to its top speed. The crew reached the assembly building at 11:43 p.m. and had the mobile launcher secure on its mounts one hour later.
49
During the delay caused in cleaning the LOX lines, the board scheduled the crawler's first lift of the mobile service structure for
20 July. Mobile launcher 1, with 500-F aboard, was back at pad A where the crawler had transported it after hurricane Alma's departure. The Bendix crawler crew spent two days in preliminary runs on the crawlerway and pad ramp and then carried the mobile service structure to the top of pad A for compatibility tests. Interest centered on the fit of the structure's five clamshells around the Saturn. Launch officials also tested the service structure's water deluge System.
53
500-F came down in mid-October, ending seven months of valuable service.
57
Chronology from
https://www.space.com/news/cs-080107-saturn5-tennisshoes-topple.html
On
May 25, 1966, 500F made its first trip
out to the pad atop a crawler transporter (the same pad and crawler are
still in use today by the space shuttle). Testing continued successfully throughout the summer, only interrupted by a series of minor problems.
On
June 8, the Saturn V was rolled back into the Vertical Assembly Building (VAB) temporarily as Hurricane Alma moved close to the Florida coast. As the winds remained below critical levels, the ground crew expressed surprise by the order to return the rocket to its shelter. The general consensus among workers was that the center's director, Kurt Debus, had called for the roll back as an opportunity to practice a maneuver not yet tried.
Ray Byrd, a Boeing mechanical systems engineer for the Saturn V's first stage, remembers spending a lonely night monitoring pressures in the rocket as it was returned to the VAB. There were concerns related to maintaining the integrity of the stack were the pressures to fall. Byrd sat alone on the crawler beneath the booster as it swayed in the driving rain and high winds.
Another Boeing engineer, Art Scholz, was stationed as an observer in a cab on top of the mobile launcher platform, where he reported measured wind velocities. Byrd recalls the fear in Scholz's voice as he called back during gusts.
Byrd, Scholz and the 500F made it safely inside the VAB that evening and two days later, on
June 10, the rocket returned to the launch pad for further fuel loading tests.
During propellant loading trials on Aug. 19, an 18-inch (46-cm) liquid oxygen (LOX) feed line ruptured, dumping 800,000 gallons (three million liters) of fuel from the storage tank at the pad. The loss of propellant caused the inner shell of the LOX storage tank to collapse inwards 16 feet (4.8 meters). Re-pressurization of the tank popped it back out again.
Testing with the rocket was completed at the pad and
on Oct. 14, it was brought to the VAB to be destacked. There were tentative plans, never realized, to reassemble SA-500F and repeat the facilities checkout operations at the other Saturn launch pad, 39-B, the following summer.
LC40 Chronology
1965 June 18 - 14:00 GMT -
Launch Vehicle:
Titan.
LV Model:
Titan 3C .
Titan IIIC 3C-7 Titan 3C Transtage 5 Mass: 9,694 kg (21,371 lb).
Agency: USAF.
Perigee: 168 km (104 mi).
Apogee: 191 km (118 mi).
Inclination: 32.10 deg.
Period: 88.10 min. Launch vehicle test. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).
1965 October 15 - 17:23 GMT -
Launch Vehicle:
Titan.
LV Model:
Titan 3C .
Titan IIIC 3C-4 FAILURE: Partial Failure.
LCS 2 Spacecraft:
LCS.
Agency: USAF.
Perigee: 730 km (450 mi).
Apogee: 785 km (487 mi).
Inclination: 32.30 deg.
Period: 99.98 min. Dual launch with OV2-1; upper stage broke up.
1966 November 3 - 13:50 GMT -
Launch Vehicle:
Titan.
LV Model:
Titan 3C .
Titan IIIC 3C-9 OV4-03 Spacecraft:
OV4.
Agency: USAF.
Perigee: 298 km (185 mi).
Apogee: 305 km (189 mi).
Inclination: 32.80 deg.
Period: 90.40 min. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).
LC41 Chronology
1965 December 21 - 14:00 GMT -
Launch Vehicle:
Titan.
LV Model:
Titan 3C .
Titan IIIC 3C-8 OV2-03 Mass: 193 kg (425 lb).
Spacecraft:
OV2.
Agency: USAF.
Perigee: 321 km (199 mi).
Apogee: 22,846 km (14,195 mi).
Inclination: 26.80 deg.
Period: 399.30 min. Upper stage separation failed. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).
1966 June 16 - 14:00 GMT -
Launch Vehicle:
Titan.
LV Model:
Titan 3C .
Titan IIIC 3C-11 GGTS 1 Mass: 47 kg (103 lb).
Spacecraft:
GGTS.
Agency: USAF.
Perigee: 33,663 km (20,917 mi).
Apogee: 33,858 km (21,038 mi).
Inclination: 4.20 deg.
Period: 1,334.00 min. Gravity gradient stabilization tests. Space craft engaged in investigation of spaceflight techniques and technology (US Cat A).
1966 August 26 - 13:59 GMT -
Launch Vehicle:
Titan.
LV Model:
Titan 3C .
Titan IIIC 3C-12 FAILURE: Payload fairing broke up 78 seconds after launch.
IDCSP (8) ... IDCSP (14) Spacecraft:
IDCSP.
Agency: U.S. Air Force. 8 satellites, each weighing 45 kg.