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T O P I C R E V I E WcollshubbyI am making a website on the history of U.S. spaceflight. I have just started and I am doing work on the test flights of the Mercury program (Little Joe and Big Joe, etc.) My question is this: what exactly is a "boilerplate spacecraft"? I just want to make sure so I can make this website accurate.astronutMy understanding is that it was just a steel mockup with no flight instrumentation.------------------q:-)Wayne Edelman(The Texican)Ed KrutulisI agree with Wayne's description of a boilerplate capsule. It looked and weighed the same as an actual capsule(including what flight instrumentation and Astronaut) during rocket test flights of both Mercury Redstone and Mercury Atlas rockets.EdRobert PearlmanIf I am remembering correctly, than I think some (if not all) the boilerplate Mercury capsules included instrumentation to measure flight performance (i.e. forces of gravity, acceleration, altitude, etc.).I remember reading that in several cases the boilerplates did not follow their intended flight path and would ultimately crash to the the Earth, seemingly indicating a mission failure. However, the instrumentation inside had worked successfully, measuring the conditions the test was sought to provide, so the engineers would mark the flight a success.This is probably too simple an explanation, so if anyone has additional details, please feel free to add.[This message has been edited by Robert Pearlman (edited September 11, 2000).]mark plasThey where also used for water recovery training.
------------------q:-)Wayne Edelman(The Texican)
Ed
I remember reading that in several cases the boilerplates did not follow their intended flight path and would ultimately crash to the the Earth, seemingly indicating a mission failure. However, the instrumentation inside had worked successfully, measuring the conditions the test was sought to provide, so the engineers would mark the flight a success.
This is probably too simple an explanation, so if anyone has additional details, please feel free to add.
[This message has been edited by Robert Pearlman (edited September 11, 2000).]
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