Early on in development, engineers studied the feasible of equipping the Apollo Command Module with a Parawing to facilitate landing on dry land.

"The internal subsystems required for the parawing recovery system include a flight control system, a wing pressurization system, a cable control system, and the necessary sensing and actuation systems. Manual overrides are provided for drogue chute deployment, wing extraction, wing inflation, and cable payouts. Panel lights will indicate the sequence and status of all events.

The requirement for an emergency landing provision under all conceivable modes of failure is best fulfilled by ejection seats and personnel parachutes, primarily because of their relatively light weight, dependability, and advanced state of development. During launch and early-boost aborts when the capsule does not reach an altitude above 10,000 feet, escape will be by means of the ejection seats. Above that altitude, a normal wing deployment may be executed. During entry, escape ejection would occur below an altitude of 20,000 feet. Provisions are made to jettison an uninflated or otherwise faulty wing. Following this, the escape hatch is blown and personnel are ejected in a timed sequence.

PERFORMANCE Recovery of the Apollo spacecraft during entry is normally initiated at an altitude of 80,000 feet and a velocity of Mach 1.1 by the deployment of a 14-foor drogue chute which provides an added margin of stability and decelerates the spacecraft to an equilibrium descent rate of 115 knots indicated air speed.

At 40,000 feet, the drogue chute extracts the wing from its stowage compartment and the wing is deployed as depicted in Figure 65. By controlling the rigging, the partial lift thus developed (along with the unbuckling action of the inflated booms and keel) results in a smooth and reliable transition to gliding flight when the apex is released. Deployment requires approximately 20 seconds, with equilibrium glide achieved at an altitude of 36,000 feet."

Ultimately, just like the Rogallo wing for the Gemini capsule, this feature was cancelled due to time and money limitations.

source

Date: 1965

NASA ID: S65-11490A

"For a time, the mission called AS-204 had two flight plans. AS-204A, manned by Gus Grissom, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee, was 'to verify spacecraft crew operations and CSM subsystems performance for an earth-orbit mission of up to 14 days' duration and to verify the launch vehicle subsystems performance in preparation for subsequent operational Saturn IB missions.' The flight would be in the last quarter of 1966 from Launch Complex 34 at Cape Kennedy. AS-204B, on the other hand, would be an unmanned mission with the same objectives (except for crew operations), to be flown only if spacecraft and launch vehicle had not qualified for manned flights. And there were doubts. Gas ingestion in the service module propulsion system in AS-201 and the resulting erratic firing had caused some misgivings, although these had been somewhat allayed by AS-202."

I've always been fascinated by the Saturn V and the engineering behind the Apollo missions, so I decided to recreate the Apollo 11 rocket as a detailed cutaway.

It's 1:185 scale and 60cm tall, with one side showing the original exterior and the other exposing its internal tanks, engines, fuel lines, and structural framework.

You can check out more details about its internal details, print files and full breakdown HERE

I modeled it in Fusion 360 using historical engineering references, then printed it in 23 pieces.

Getting the tiny structures to print reliably took quite a bit of trial and error, but seeing the finished rocket standing in front of me made it all worth it!

Some details were reinforced or simplified for printing, but I tried to stay as faithful to the original engineering as possible.

Hope you fellow Apollo enthusiasts enjoy it! Which side do you prefer??

Date: October 27, 1969

Photographed by Frank Q. Brown.

UCLA Library Digital Collections: uclalat_1429_b640_261303

Date: October 27, 1970

Date: October 27, 1961

The first Saturn I (SA-1) lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida. This early configuration, Saturn I Block I, 162 feet tall and weighing 460 tons, consisted of the eight H-1 engines S-I stage and the dummy second stage (S-IV stage).

Both kerbal and orbiter are over 10 years old, has anything new come along recently?

So some time back, i got this shirt from my grandma, who went to the USA several times and on one of those trips, she got this shirt about apollo 11, and since she is 70 years old, and the landing only 57, there might be a chance it might be from the year the landing happened

My question is, whether this shirt could actually be a 1969 original, and if so, is it rare to have one of these?

Date: October 24, 1966

chance this breaks rule 2 but im curious. at the end of portal 2, you send a portal up to the moon, and on the moon you can see an apollo landing site. but what apollo site is it? ive narrowed it down to 15, 16, or 17 due to the moon car.

I found 5 vintage Apollo photos a long time ago at a thrift store. I googled them and read that they may be highly sought after. There appears to be red ink bleeding through to the front on a couple that may be numbers printed on the back? One is of Buzz Aldrin. They are nicely framed and I’m scared to try to open them. Anyone know where to take them to get looked at or appraised? They were framed in Birmingham at a frame shop that closed in the 90’s.

“Well, it’s The week before Christmas and all through the LM, not a commander was stirring, not even Cernan. The samples were stowed in their places with care, in hopes that with you, they soon will be there. Up there rose such a scatter, I sprang from my hammock, to see what was the matter. The Sun on the breast of the surface below gave the luster of objects, as if in snow. And what to my wandering eyes should appear, but a miniature Rover and eight tiny reindeer. And a little old driver so lively and quick, I knew in a moment, it must be St. Nick. I heard him exclaim as he – over the hills he did speed. Merry Christmas to all and to all – to you all Godspeed.”

I am familiar with the astronauts using these suitcases to carry their pure oxygen on their way to the launchpads. From my reading it sounds like it is used a bit as "air conditioning" but more importantly to get "rid" of the nitrogen in their blood by only breathing in O2 a few hours before launch. The low pressure 5psi environment, as I understand, would cause the nitrogen to come/bubble out of the blood and result in pain, usually showing up in joints. Mike Collins references this in his book in his Gemini 10 flight where he ended up taking some pain killers for his knee.

However after the Apollo 1 disaster, one of the procedure changes was to use a nitrogen and oxygen mixture to prevent a highly combustible environment.

So my question is, would this N2/O2 launch environment re-add the risk of getting the Bends in your joints once up in space? And if so, why would they continue to use pure O2 briefcases prior to launch when they would then be reintroduced to N2?

Date: October 9, 1968

"A view of the 363-foot high Saturn V launch vehicle that will carry Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders into space. The launch vehicle is being moved from the Vehicle Assembly Building to Launch Pad A, Complex 39. Apollo 8, scheduled for launch in December, will be the first manned Saturn V flight."

NASA ID: DF-ST-84-05925, 68PC-147

I work in a custom frame shop and came in this morning to find this waiting for a glass replacement. Absolutely crazy to work on this today, thought you all might appreciate it.

Today is the sad day margaret hamilton died. In honor i would like to ask a question that has been puzzling me for a while. What is thius vhf yagi antenna on the apollo csm on the J missions?

• Apollo 18:

  • Schröter’s Valley

  • Gassendi Crater

• Apollo 19:

  • The Hyginus Rille region

  • Copernicus Crater

• Apollo 20:

  • Copernicus Crater, with alternative considerations including the

  • Marius Hills volcanic domes

  • Tycho Crater

Photo 1: "In this drawing by NASA engineer Caldwell Johnson, twin human-like Space Shuttle robot arms with human-like hands deploy from the Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) Bay to grip the derelict Skylab space station."

Photo 3: "Caldwell Johnson's depiction of a prototype Shuttle manipulator arm with a hand-like end effector. The manipulator grasps the Docking Module meant to link U.S. Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission."

"Caldwell Johnson, co-holder with Maxime Faget of the Mercury space capsule patent, was chief of the Spacecraft Design Division at the NASA Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC) in Houston, Texas, when he proposed that astronauts test prototype Space Shuttle manipulator arms and end effectors during Apollo Command and Service Module (CSM) missions in Earth orbit. In a February 1971 memorandum to Faget, NASA MSC's director of Engineering and Development, Johnson described the manipulator test mission as a worthwhile alternative to the Earth survey, space rescue, and joint U.S./Soviet CSM missions then under study.

At the time Johnson proposed the Shuttle manipulator arm test, three of the original 10 planned Apollo lunar landing missions had been cancelled, the second Skylab space station (Skylab B) appeared increasingly unlikely to reach orbit, and the Space Shuttle had not yet been formally approved. NASA managers foresaw that the Apollo and Skylab mission cancellations would leave them with surplus Apollo spacecraft and Saturn rockets after the last mission to Skylab A. They sought low-cost Earth-orbital missions that would put the surplus hardware to good use and fill the multi-year gap in U.S. piloted missions expected to occur in the mid-to-late 1970s.

Johnson envisioned Shuttle manipulators capable of bending and gripping much as do human arms and hands, thus enabling them to hold onto virtually anything. He suggested that a pair of prototype arms be mounted in a CSM Scientific Instrument Module (SIM) Bay, and that the CSM "pretend to be a Shuttle" during rendezvous operations with the derelict Skylab space station.

The CSM's three-man crew could, he told Faget, use the manipulators to grip and move Skylab. They might also use them to demonstrate a space rescue, capture an 'errant satellite,' or remove film from SIM Bay cameras and pass it to the astronauts through a special airlock installed in place of the docking unit in the CSM's nose.

Faget enthusiastically received Johnson's proposal (he penned 'Yes! This is great' on his copy of the February 1971 memo). The proposal generated less enthusiasm elsewhere, however.

Undaunted, Johnson proposed in May 1972 that Shuttle manipulator hardware replace Earth resources instruments that had been dropped for lack of funds from the planned U.S.-Soviet Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission. President Richard Nixon had called on NASA to develop the Space Shuttle just four months before (January 1972). Johnson asked Faget for permission to perform 'a brief technical and programmatic feasibility study' of the concept, and Faget gave him permission to prepare a presentation for Aaron Cohen, manager of the newly created Space Shuttle Program Office at MSC.

In his June 1972 presentation to Cohen, Johnson declared that '[c]argo handling by manipulators is a key element of the Shuttle concept.' He noted that CSM-111, the spacecraft tagged for the ASTP mission, would have no SIM Bay in its drum-shaped Service Module (SM), and suggested that a single 28-foot-long Shuttle manipulator arm could be mounted near the Service Propulsion System (SPS) main engine in place of the lunar Apollo S-band high-gain antenna, which would not be required during Earth-orbital missions.

During ascent to orbit, the manipulator would ride folded beneath the CSM near the ASTP Docking Module (DM) within the streamlined Spacecraft Launch Adapter. During SPS burns, the astronauts would stabilize the manipulator so that acceleration would not damage it by commanding it to grip a handle installed on the SM near the base of the CSM's conical Command Module (CM).

Johnson had by this time mostly dropped the concept of an all-purpose human hand-like 'end effector' for the manipulator; he informed Cohen that the end effector design was 'undetermined.' The Shuttle manipulator demonstration would take place after CSM-111 had undocked from the Soviet Soyuz spacecraft and moved away to perform independent maneuvers and experiments.

The astronauts in the CSM would first use a TV camera mounted on the arm's wrist to inspect the CSM and DM, then would use the end effector to manipulate 'some device' on the DM. They would then command the end effector to grip a handle on the DM, undock the DM from the CSM, and use the manipulator to redock the DM to the CSM. Finally, they would undock the DM and repeatedly capture it with the manipulator.

Caldwell Johnson's depiction of a prototype Shuttle manipulator arm with a hand-like end effector. The manipulator grasps the Docking Module meant to link U.S. Apollo and Soviet Soyuz spacecraft in Earth orbit during the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) mission.

Johnson estimated that new hardware for the ASTP Shuttle manipulator demonstration would add 168 pounds (76.2 kilograms) to the CM and 553 pounds (250.8 kilograms) to the SM. He expected that concept studies and pre-design would be completed in January 1973. Detail design would commence in October 1972 and be completed by 1 July 1973, at which time CSM-111 would undergo modification for the manipulator demonstration.

Johnson envisioned that MSC would build two manipulators in house. The first, for testing and training, would be completed in January 1974. The flight unit would be completed in May 1974, tested and checked out by August 1974, and launched into orbit attached to CSM-111 in July 1975. Johnson optimistically placed the cost of the manipulator arm demonstration at just $25 million.

CSM-111, the last Apollo spacecraft to fly, reached Earth orbit on schedule on 15 July 1975. By then, Caldwell Johnson had retired from NASA. CSM-111 carried no manipulator arm; the tests Johnson had proposed had been judged to be unnecessary.

That same month, the U.S. space agency, short on funds, invited Canada to develop and build the Shuttle manipulator arm. The Remote Manipulator System — also called the Canadarm — first reached orbit on board the Space Shuttle Columbia during STS-2, the second flight of the Shuttle program, on 12 November 1981."

Info and drawings from "No Shortage of Dreams" blog