|
Author
|
Topic: Photo of the week 221 (January 24, 2009)
|
heng44
Member Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
|
posted 01-24-2009 03:04 AM
   
 Forty years ago today, this photo was taken of the Command and Service modules for the Apollo-11 lunar landing mission (CSM-107). The spacecraft had arrived at Cape Kennedy's Skid Strip by Super Guppy the night of January 22, 1969. After unloading it was taken to the Manned Spacecraft Operations Building, where it was uncrated to begin preliminary checkout and docking tests with LM-5, that had arrived earlier that month. Ed Hengeveld |
ASCAN1984
Member Posts: 1049
From: County Down, Nothern Ireland
Registered: Feb 2002
|
posted 01-24-2009 10:01 AM
Great photo. I guess we all don't see much of the processing that goes on, only the finished product so to speak. The guys do a fantastic job. A shame though it burnt up just before reentry. Treasures like that i wish could be kept somehow. Great photo againGareth |
ejectr
Member Posts: 1751
From: Killingly, CT
Registered: Mar 2002
|
posted 01-24-2009 12:12 PM
If that's the service module, where's the engine bell? I don't see the 4 way thruster clusters either. |
heng44
Member Posts: 3387
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
|
posted 01-24-2009 03:38 PM
The thrusters were only attached after shipment, I guess. And the engine bell was put in place after the altitude chambers tests, shortly before the spacecraft was mated to the launch vehicle.Ed |
golddog
Member Posts: 210
From: australia
Registered: Feb 2008
|
posted 01-27-2009 04:08 AM
It is definitely the SM. The lighter coloured plates at the top and bottom of the SM in the picture (which almost look like fabric to me, although I guess they are plastic or similar) identify the future location of the RCS clusters when fitted. The "United States" logo sat on the panel between thruster quads as seen here. Below that is the scimitar antenna. The other two spots for RCS quads are of course on the side not visible in the photo. The pre flight protective covers on the radiators are apparent, as is the supports for the CM inside the top of the SM and the umbilical connector between CM and SM at the top, and as Mr Hengeveld has indicated the engine nozzle for the SPS was fitted later after the module had been shipped. You can also see the circular attachment area noticable at the bottom (or far end in this pic) of the SM that fitted with the conical adapter fairing that fitted between the third stage of the SV and the SM. I think it was called the SLA or SLMA. Sorry, just my geeky observations from a few years of making models of it. |
Apollo Redux
Member Posts: 346
From: Montreal, Quebec, Canada
Registered: Sep 2006
|
posted 01-30-2009 07:18 PM
Nice pic. Thanks for posting it. |
advertisement