Apparently, S/C 103 may fly one month after S/C 101

See list belowAUG 29 196767-FM-T-73FM/Deputy ChiefApparently, S/C 103 may fly one month after S/C 101

1. At his staff meeting on Monday, George Low made a strong point about uncoupling Spacecraft 101 and Spacecraft 103. Apparently, he feels it is likely that 103 will be launched on a Saturn 5 which implies no pad readiness schedule implications. The LM-2 will be available at the Cape early and, apparently, Spacecraft 103 is trailing 101 by about one month. He feels that, although the absolute schedules themselves may be mushy, the relative schedule between 101 and 103 will probably be maintained.

2. The point of all this is that there is no obvious reason for a delay of 3 months, or even 2 months, between the launch dates of those two spacecraft. In fact, he would like to see us retain the capability of flying one month apart. Apparently, crew training will not preclude this and I guess there is some sort of exercise going on in FCD to see if we can handle it. This note is to make sure you are aware of the situation so you won't get caught assuming a period of 3 months is necessary between the two missions. I must say this had not been clear to me before.