Editing Little Joe II (section)

== Background ==

[[Man-rating]] of the Apollo launch escape system was planned to be accomplished at minimum cost early in the program. Since there were no reasonably priced launch vehicles with the payload capability and thrust versatility that could meet the requirements of the planned tests, a contract was awarded for the development and construction of a specialized launch vehicle. The rocket's predecessor, [[Little Joe (rocket)|Little Joe]], had been used in testing the launch escape system for the [[Project Mercury|Mercury]] spacecraft from 1959 to 1960.

The program was originally planned to be conducted at the [[U.S. Air Force]] [[Eastern Test Range]] at [[Cape Canaveral Air Force Station|Cape Kennedy]], Florida. However, because of a heavy schedule of high-priority launches at that facility, other possible launch sites were evaluated including [[Wallops Flight Facility]], Wallops Island, Virginia, and [[Eglin Air Force Base]], Florida.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Chariots for Apollo, ch4-2 |url=https://history.nasa.gov/SP-4205/ch4-2.html |page=93}}</ref> Launch Complex 36 at White Sands Missile Range, previously used for [[Redstone missile]] tests, was selected as the most suitable for meeting schedule and support requirements. White Sands also allowed land recovery which was less costly and complicated than the water recovery that would have been required at the Eastern Test Range or at the [[NASA]] [[Wallops Island]] facility.

The program was conducted under the direction of the Manned Spacecraft Center (now [[Johnson Space Center]]), [[Houston, Texas]], with joint participation by the prime contractors for the launch vehicle ([[General Dynamics]]/[[Convair]]) and spacecraft ([[North American Rockwell]]). The White Sands Missile Range administrative, range, and technical organizations provided the facilities, resources, and services required. These included range safety, [[radar]] and camera tracking, command transmission, real-time data displays, photography, telemetry data acquisition, data reduction, and recovery operations.