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Author
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Topic: How long to "Tower Cleared"?
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collocation
Member Posts: 387
From: McLean, VA
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 08-18-2007 08:33 AM
   
Just curious on how long it took for the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo to clear their respective towers on liftoff. Did some take longer than others? Was there an average for each type of rocket? |
nasamad
Member Posts: 2141
From: Essex, UK
Registered: Jul 2001
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posted 08-18-2007 03:10 PM
I can find no reference to the "tower clear" call until the flight of Apollo 7. I don't have a Mercury Atlas video to hand so I can't say how long the clearance took (the Redstone didn't have a tower to clear). Watching the Gemini 12 launch it seems to be about 6 seconds from first motion to the engines clearing the tower.
Apollo 7 was 6 seconds according to the TEC commentary. |
Michael Davis
Member Posts: 530
From: Houston, Texas
Registered: Aug 2002
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posted 08-18-2007 04:33 PM
Ten seconds as I recall for a Saturn V. |
collocation
Member Posts: 387
From: McLean, VA
Registered: Feb 2004
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posted 08-18-2007 05:54 PM
Thanks for the info, for the Saturn V, any idea on how fast it was going when it cleared the tower, how high is the tower |
Sy Liebergot
Member Posts: 501
From: Pearland, Texas USA
Registered: May 2003
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posted 08-18-2007 08:47 PM
Let's see, yes, 10 seconds for the Saturn V to clear the tower and was going only 60 mph. Al Worden said that Apollo 15 was heavy and took 13 seconds till tower clear. |
leslie
Member Posts: 231
From: Surrey, England
Registered: Aug 2005
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posted 08-21-2007 08:07 AM
I think the height of the Apollo tower was 380ft. Wasn't their a campaign to prevent it from being scrapped? |
kr4mula
Member Posts: 642
From: Cinci, OH
Registered: Mar 2006
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posted 08-21-2007 11:11 AM
I remember reading one of the Gemini/Apollo astronauts (I think it was Stafford) commenting that the Titan accelerated much faster off the pad than did the Saturn V, which seemed to sit there for ever before ot burned off enough fuel to really get moving. If you compare the total first stage thrust with the take-off weight, you can use that thrust-to-weight ratio to get an idea of how quickly they left the pad. And comparing the Gemini time to tower clear to Apollo probably isn't a valid comparison of acceleration (if that's what you're interested in), given that the towers were different heights. |
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