Why were Apollo missions limited to 2.5 earth orbits?
Just a minor query that I have, which someone with knowledge may be able to answer.
I understand that Apollo missions were schedules to have one and a half orbits of Earth to check things out before TLI and could do a further one of necessary to resolve any unexpected issues after which the the mission would have to be scrapped. I have come across two reasons for this. The first was that cryogenic hydrogen leaked out the third stage of the Saturn V and the second was limited battery capacity, presumably for the instrument unit. Does anyone know which?
I suppose that there could have been a third reason, missing the launch window but I have never seen this mentioned.