It was launched on August 25, 1966, and was the first flight which included the spacecraft guidance, navigation control system and fuel cells.

The success of this flight enabled the Apollo program to judge the Block I spacecraft and Saturn IB ready to carry men into orbit on the next mission, AS-204.

The flight was also designed to test the heat shield by subjecting it to 260 megajoules per square meter.

The second stage then burned for a further seven and a half minutes, putting the spacecraft into a ballistic trajectory.

It splashed down at 16.12° N - 168.9° E, 205 nautical miles (380 km) from the target landing site, and the aircraft carrier USS Hornet took 8 hours and 30 minutes to reach the capsule (SouthEast of Wake Island).

It captured footage of the vehicle's second stage, the S-IVB (200 series) pulling away and firing its single J-2 engine.

This article incorporates public domain material from websites or documents of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.