posted 01-17-2018 10:59 AM
There would be so many iconic photos taken during the Apollo program. One of these shows the intertank structure between the Saturn first and second stages as it falls away from the ascending stack.
These photos are stills from 16mm cameras that were developed to hitch a ride on the early Saturn V unmanned launches when still in the atmosphere.
With the job done, the camera was catapulted out of its protective tube within the rocket stage with a burst of pressurised nitrogen gas and recovered from the sea.
I have a sketch of one of these cameras but have not seen any photos of one, or even seen one displayed in a museum. Can anyone shed any light on these amazing cameras?
Robert Pearlman Editor
Posts: 42981 From: Houston, TX Registered: Nov 1999
posted 01-17-2018 11:42 AM
There are photos of the camera and its recoverable pod on the Wes Oleszewski's Growing Up With Spaceflight blog from 2015.
Did you ever wonder how that really cool onboard movie film of Saturn vehicles staging, or their LOX tanks draining got back to to Earth? Well, here's how it was done...
GACspaceguy Member
Posts: 2474 From: Guyton, GA Registered: Jan 2006
posted 01-17-2018 11:45 AM
This photo was taken at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The display shows a Popular Science magazine with an article written by von Braun, which can be found here online.
holcombeyates Member
Posts: 243 From: UK Registered: Dec 2010
posted 03-29-2018 03:28 AM
I understand from a respected NASA scientist that on Apollo 6 that the one S-IC stage camera successfully recovered (from Pos I) yielded good quality film but the view was somewhat obscured by the firing of the S-II engines. Both S-II cameras were ejected but only that from Pos III was recovered, which produced the iconic images of skirt separation.
I have no idea at all as to the whereabouts of that S-IC camera footage. Can anyone help?