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Author
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Topic: Report of the Apollo 13 Review Board photos
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LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-11-2020 07:03 AM
  
From the final Report of the Apollo 13 Review Board starting on page 4-6: Figures 4-5 through 4-8 are photographs of portions of the Apollo 13 service module (SM 109) at the North American Rockwell plant prior to shipment to KSC ... Figure 4-7 shows the hydrogen tank shelf with hydrogen tank no. 1 on top and hydrogen tank no. 2 below ... Figure 4-8 is a photograph of the bay 4 panel, which was missing from the service module after the accident. It looks to me like both those photos were taken in the Mobile Service Structure on the pad at Kennedy Space Center, not at the North American Rockwell plant. Isn't that the SLA seen under the service module in photo 4-7?The San Diego Air and Space Museum Archives has colour versions of those two photos: Hydrogen tank shelf (4-7)  Bay 4 panel (4-8)  |
Space Cadet Carl
Member Posts: 225
From: Lake Orion, Michigan
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 01-11-2020 10:20 AM
Wow, so they have a flight-ready CSM outer panel just unceremoniously leaning backwards against an electrical cable tray draped with a blanket, with some unsupported random step ladder propped against the wall right next to it? I'm having a really hard time believing what I'm seeing. |
Blackarrow
Member Posts: 3160
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 01-11-2020 10:29 AM
I hope you never heard how Gemini 4 ground-crew solved the problem of the circuit-breaker that kept popping out when they tried to lower the launch vehicle erector. |
Buel
Member Posts: 653
From: UK
Registered: Mar 2012
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posted 01-11-2020 01:52 PM
Go on, I’ll bite. Please elaborate? |
randy
Member Posts: 2231
From: West Jordan, Utah USA
Registered: Dec 1999
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posted 01-11-2020 03:51 PM
I'm a perch, I'll bite. What happened with Gemini 4? |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-11-2020 07:54 PM
That looks like metal tape on the SLA joints in photo 4-7, like in this Apollo 13 photo at the pad. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-12-2020 02:14 AM
In the report preface on page iv, the CSM photo shows Bay 4 between the service module RCS quads labelled B and C. In the SM photo on page v, Bay 4 is not between the service module RCS quads labelled B and C. Which one is correct? |
Andy Anderson
Member Posts: 87
From: Perth, Australia
Registered: Dec 2009
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posted 01-12-2020 02:52 AM
This might help. Looks like Bay 4 was between Quads "C" and "D". |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-12-2020 03:32 AM
Yes, very helpful. Thanks Andy.So if I have this right, the SM photo is correct. And in the CSM photo, quad B should be quad C and quad C should be quad D.
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LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-12-2020 03:31 PM
It looks like "70-H-872" is scribbled above Figure 4-7 in the report. It might be the photo number. |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-13-2020 06:52 AM
Modifications to the SM after the Apollo 13 accident included the addition of a third oxygen storage tank in Bay 1 and and auxiliary battery in Bay 4.
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SpaceAholic
Member Posts: 4494
From: Sierra Vista, Arizona
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 01-13-2020 07:29 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Space Cadet Carl:
Wow, so they have a flight-ready CSM outer panel just unceremoniously leaning backwards against an electrical cable tray draped with a blanket, with some unsupported random step ladder propped against the wall right next to it?
Garage walls also work... |
Jim Behling
Member Posts: 1488
From: Cape Canaveral, FL
Registered: Mar 2010
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posted 01-13-2020 08:35 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Space Cadet Carl:
I'm having a really hard time believing what I'm seeing.
Because you aren't seeing it right. You don't know that it is restrained at the top. How do you know the ladder isn't restrained. It isn't a blanket but foam padding, which it is also sitting on. |
Blackarrow
Member Posts: 3160
From: Belfast, United Kingdom
Registered: Feb 2002
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posted 01-13-2020 08:57 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Buel:
Go on, I’ll bite. Please elaborate?
OK, here goes. In April, 2008 (and I have it on tape) Jim McDivitt was giving a talk in England and he dealt with the issue of risk-taking in the 1960s compared with today's risk-averse society. The solution to the Gemini 4 erector circuit-breaker popping out was for the launch-crew to find two wooden brooms (obviously non-conducting). Two guys on either side of the circuit-breaker pressed against it with the brooms to hold it closed, and the erector was successfully lowered. After the mission Jim and Ed were presented with part of the brooms as souvenirs and the rest was chopped up into smaller pieces for each of the launch-crew. There is what appears to be a slightly sanitized version of this incident on p.245 of the softback edition of "On the Shoulders of Titans" with no mention of the brooms. |
Buel
Member Posts: 653
From: UK
Registered: Mar 2012
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posted 01-13-2020 03:42 PM
Brilliant!! Thank you for that! |
LM-12
Member Posts: 3324
From: Ontario, Canada
Registered: Oct 2010
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posted 01-20-2020 11:13 PM
The Bay 4 panel is also mentioned in the report on page 5-7: The panel covering of bay 4 could be blown off by pressurization of the bay. About 25 psi of uniform pressure in bay 4 is required to blow off the panel.The various bays and sectors of the SM are interconnected with open passages so that all would be pressurized if any one were supplied with a pressurant at a relatively slow rate. The CM attachments would be failed by an average pressure of about 10 psi on the CM heat shield and this would separate the CM from the SM. ... The high-gain antenna damage probably resulted from striking by the panel, or a portion thereof, as it left the SM. |
Space Cadet Carl
Member Posts: 225
From: Lake Orion, Michigan
Registered: Feb 2006
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posted 01-21-2020 07:49 AM
quote:
Originally posted by Jim Behling:
Because you aren't seeing it right.
With 2020 OSHA and my own employer's safety rules, I would be written up and be given disciplinary time off of work for what I'm seeing in that photo, especially leaning that panel against an electrical cable tray with that foam padding and no harness securing the middle rungs of the ladder. That's all I'm saying. 1970 was a different time. |
David Carey
Member Posts: 802
From:
Registered: Mar 2009
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posted 01-21-2020 06:23 PM
quote:
Originally posted by SpaceAholic:
Garage walls also work...
OSHA-compliant or not, it looks like you have a fun garage. Very cool. |
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