Apollo 9. Apollo 9 (March 3–13, 1969) was the third human spaceflight in NASA's Apollo program. Flown in low Earth orbit, it was the second crewed Apollo mission that the United States launched via a Saturn V rocket, and was the first flight of the full Apollo spacecraft. The three-man crew consisted of Commander James McDivitt (1929- ), Command Module Pilot David Scott (1932- ), and Lunar Module Pilot Rusty Schweickart.(1935- ). The backup crew was Charles “Pete” Conrad (1930-1999), Alan Bean (1932-2018) and Richard Gordon (1929-2017). This crew would later command Apollo 12 on the second lunar landing mission. Apollo 9 Launch Cover, signed by both crews.