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NASA's Apollo Digest film Testing Apollo follows the spacecraft from prototypes to launch: every module, from the engines to the launch escape system on top of the capsule, had to prove itself before anyone flew it to the Moon.
Proving the prototypes
Long before the real spacecraft existed, models and prototypes of each part faced severe tests of their flightworthiness.
| Part | Tests |
|---|---|
| Command module (the crew compartment) | drop tests for seaworthiness; abort tests, in which the launch escape system pulled the capsule away from an exploding rocket; parachute tests; earth-impact tests, in case of a landing on land |
| Prototypes of each module | launched into space to test flight equipment |
| Heat shield | the service module's main engine drove the command module back into the atmosphere at 25,000 miles an hour |
| Service module engine | static-fired before launch to prove it reliable — vital, since it maneuvers the spacecraft, slows it into lunar orbit and powers the trip home |
| Lunar module | tested in an elaborate facility that imitated the Moon's weaker gravity — the craft that would land two astronauts on the Moon and carry them back up to the orbiting command module |
Building and checking the flight craft
After years of prototype testing, work began on the flight models, each part built to exact specifications under strict quality control. Testing never stopped — through manufacture, assembly, installation and flight.
- 2,000 measurements reported what was happening aboard, fed to computers that processed and displayed the data for test engineers; several such computers watched the spacecraft from assembly to liftoff.
- Only when the astronauts who would fly it and agency officials were satisfied that every system worked was the spacecraft approved for shipment to the Kennedy Space Center.
At Kennedy
- The modules arrived at the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building, where the three segments met for the first time — and were tested again separately.
- Joined temporarily, they went into a large vacuum chamber, where astronauts rehearsed their missions in something close to the airlessness of space. Crew and spacecraft were both checked, with computers comparing every result against what was expected.
- The lunar module was fitted into an adapter, which shields it and supports the other modules; the command and service modules went on top. The complete spacecraft was tested again.
- More than a year after its first test, the spacecraft was ready to be mounted on its launch vehicle, the Saturn V — and testing continued right up to the final test: liftoff, spaceflight and return to Earth.
Sources
Based on "Apollo Digest Series: Testing Apollo," a film from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA Image and Video Library, NDTV000907), and its narration; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The film's description calls the rocket "Apollo V"; the narration names it as the Saturn V.
Licença: CC0 1.0 (domínio público) · Adaptado de images.nasa.gov
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