posted November 03, 2008 12:46 AM               

Part: SKB32100123-341
Serial: 1001

We know this is flown because it is signed by Gene Cernan, but my question is how would I determine this solely based on the Part and Serial number (if that is possible)? The front page of each Apollo Stowage list document provides some information about how to interpret the document, but I am not confident that I am interpreting the document correctly.

The Apollo 17 Stowage List contains this line from Section 1 (Stowed Operational GFE):

A 0114.9 SKB32100123-341 CSM MAL.PR.. R12 1

The column heading for the last column is:

"QTY/SC" (which for this document is "1")

Is this related to serial number (1001)? Not sure what "SC" means either.

Is there an unambiguous way to determine flown/unflown if you have a document part number and serial number or is there something more required? I think I recall seeing documents that have the same part number with different serial numbers (eg, 1001, 1002, 1003, etc.) and am wondering if only certain serial numbers were flown while others were not? And finally, was there only one original document for every serial number (or is it possible that multiple copies with identical part and serial numbers were produced - for crew training for example)?

posted November 03, 2008 05:24 AM               

The "QTY/SC" means quantity per spacecraft. Each item would have its own assigned serial number. Essentially any item in the spacecraft that needed to be tracked (for reliability and configuration control) would have its own serial number. Every switch, every gauge, every strap, every piece of metal in the structure, would be tracked by a unique number. I would think items used in training would have serial numbers as well.