Thank you for the information. This just confirms my suspicion that the N1 and the N1F while not the best design however could be be made workable. They are kind of forced to continue with the N1 if they want to get something working that will allow human BEO missions. The Energia design is still a long ways off.
Relaunched Moonshot "The Journeys of the Saturn"
- Thread starter brovane
- Start date
Thank you for the information. This just confirms my suspicion that the N1 and the N1F while not the best design however could be be made workable. They are kind of forced to continue with the N1 if they want to get something working that will allow human BEO missions. The Energia design is still a long ways off.
Yeah well it depends what the American's do, maybe the soviets should try on orbit assembly for their missions. Salyut's not far off, and if you could use that as a construction shack, you could assemble a moonship with a few smaller rocket launches. It would be doable quicker (to catch the Americans) and would avoid the issues of the N-1, but if the American's are staying BEO than I guess yeah the Politburo might be more prepared to dedicate the resources to fix the N-1. There are going to have to be big changes though, when those things go bang they go bang in a big way, and I assume the Russian's are going to have to realise that many more of those is going to do Baikanor no good....
Historically the N1-7L did work fairly well until pogo oscillation caused the vehicle to fail. I suspect the Soviet's where fairly close to working out the bugs and probably the N1-8L launch would have been succesful. They had planned 12 test launches for the program.
That is a hell of alot of test launches, still if it got the bugs ironed out.
That is how the Soviets did test programs. When you have a rocket as large as the N1 this practices serious flaws started coming to light. However from my reading by after 4 launches they where fairly well on their way to ironing out the flaws in the N1. So I don't think they would have needed 12. However it is telling this is how many test launches that where needed. However even with NASA and the Saturn-V it was originally though that enough issues would come up that it would take until Apollo-16 before a manned landing could be attempted. Obviously the Saturn-V had a lot better launch record.
Apollo Part - 9
After all the excitement of Apollo-11 it seemed like almost a letdown for Apollo-12. The Apollo 12 mission commander was Gus Grissom, the command module pilot was Roger Chaffee and the Lunar Module Pilot was Neil Armstrong. The Apollo-12 mission was aiming to land close enough to surveyor-3 in the Ocean Storms that it could be visited and parts removed for analysis back on Earth. The surveyor 3 had soft landed on the moon on April 20, 1967. It was time for humans to visit a unmanned probe that had been sent ahead to another world. In order to successful explore the Lunar surface the Apollo astronauts and hardware had to demonstrate the ability to have pin-point landings. Gus had to put down the LM within walking distance of Surveyor-3 for the mission to be successful. Landing miles away from the chosen landing site like Apollo 11 was not acceptable.
The Apollo-12 mission would also have a longer surface stay time of over 30 hours with 2 EVA’s of almost 4-hours of duration. The mission would start demonstrating the ability to actually perform science on the moon, beyond just planting the flag and collecting a few rocks. The key science addition to the Apollo-12 mission would be the nuclear powered ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package). On Apollo 11 the surface experiment package was solar powered and didn’t last the long lunar night. The Apollo 12 ALSEP would be powered by a (RTG) (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator). The RTG used heat from decaying Plutonium-238 to generate about 70 watts of power for years. The primary part of the ALSEP was the central station which would receive commands from Earth, transmit data and also distribute power to each experiment. Using the central station different experiments could then be flown on each Apollo flight. On Apollo 12 there was a Lunar Surface Magnetometer, Solar Wind Spectrometer Experiment, Passive Seismic Experiment, Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment and Cold Cathode Ion Gauge.
However first Deke Slayton had to plug the hole for Apollo 14. The original scheduled commander was Jim Lovell. For temporary purposes he had asked Tom Stafford to be the backup Commander for Apollo 11 until the launch of the 11 flight, god forbid he would lose another Commander. However for the Apollo 14 mission he needed a new commander. He certainly wasn’t going to move Aldrin from the Lunar Module Pilot position to Commander he even though Aldrin had spoken to him about being assigned the Commander spot. Aldrin really got on his nerves and the guy just didn’t seem to understand how much he irritated him or anybody else for that matter. He was a skilled astronaut but a Commander of a mission needed to be more than just skilled. Well for Deke their really wasn’t any better choice but Gene Cernan for the Commander spot. He had been already the backup Command Module pilot on Apollo-11 and he was a veteran of two spaceflights already. Cernan handled the difficult, orbital issues of the Wally cold fiasco during Apollo-7 very well. He was well qualified for the commander spot for Apollo 14. He knew that after Apollo-7, Gene was hoping for a Commander spot on a later missions and he was disappointed at being assigned the Command Module Pilot backup for Apollo-11, but he kept his mouth shut about it and did his job. If anyone at NASA had a issue with his choice, then they could have a frank and open discussion in his office. That left the command module pilot position open. Slayton decided to assign a rookie, Stuart Roosa to the Command Module Pilot job.
After the success of Apollo-11 landing on the moon. The Soviet Moon program was in turmoil. Successes were few and far between and the failure of the N1 launch in July didn’t help the situation. However with the continued US push into flights beyond Earth Orbit the Soviet Union had to respond. Unlike the Soviet Union, the US didn’t keep their space program secret and it was well known that the US was building on the Apollo program and would keep exploring beyond Earth Orbit. The Soviets had no choice but to continue the moon program and development with the N1 rocket. The next Soyuz flights would attempt docking and crew transfer again. This time 3 Soyuz craft would be launched within days of each other and a total of 7 astronauts would be in space together which would set a new record. During the mission Soyuz-7 and 8 would dock and exchange crew and Soyuz-6 would film the procedure. This would help to further develop successful docking techniques for the Soviet Lunar program. All 3 spacecraft launched successfully which was a huge feat in itself. However the Soviet Program continued to have docking issues, Soyuz-7 and 8 were not able to successfully dock. The Soviet’s claimed publicly that docking was never intended. The biggest success for the mission was in Soyuz-6 when the crew carried demonstrated that welding in a zero-G environment was possible.
The last astronaut group hired, group 6 in 1967 and was a group of 8 scientists. However the Scientist group overall was lacking in Earth Science specialists. As Deke said, they were a group of scientists but in the wrong specialities for serious lunar geological work. NASA management decided to put out a call for more scientists in 1969 and decided to specifically encourage Earth Science specialists to apply. This time the requirement of flight experience would be waived for this group. These science astronauts would only be flying as mission specialists so flight training and experience would no longer be required. Something that Deke and NASA hadn’t thought about was the removal of flight experience resulted in the first female applicants. While NASA was in the middle of conducting this search a group of astronauts from the canceled USAF MOL program was also dropped in NASA’s lap. These were pilots that were part of the USAF manned spaceflight program. Really Deke didn’t need more pilots right now but NASA decided to offer any of the USAF astronauts that were 35 or younger astronauts jobs with NASA, however he didn’t promise them any flight assignments anytime soon. He had more than enough astronaut pilots in Houston already. The MOL astronauts would become astronaut group 7 which included the first African American astronaut, Robert lawrence. The next astronaut group 8 would broke even more new ground when the first female astronaut was selected, Dr. Angela Green a Geologist. When Angela Green was selected as part of Group 8 this created a major sensation in the press. All sorts of questions where being asked of NASA about a woman in space with endless speculation. As far as Deke was concerned she was expected to perform just as well as the male astronauts. If Dr. Green couldn’t hack it she would be bounced from the program.
On November 14, 1969 SA-507 lifted off from Cape Canaveral with the Apollo 12 crew. During launch day on and off again rainstorms had been hovering around Cape. However Launch Control did see a window in the cloud cover and decided it was a go for launch, which might not of been the best decision. The launch of the vehicle into the clouds would trigger two discharges of lightning through the Saturn-V and back down the rocket plume to the launch pad. These lightning strikes took all 3 fuel cells in the CSM offline and much of the instrumentation in the CSM with it. The failures in the power lit up nearly every warning light on the panel. Despite all this the launch vehicle continued to fly correctly, the strikes had not affected the Instrument Unit on the Saturn-V. The telemetry stream going back to the Mission Control was completely garbled by the lightning strikes. On duty in Mission Control at EECOM (Electrical Environmental and Consumables Manager) was John Aaron, the original NASA “Steely-eyed missile man”. He remembered seeing this pattern before during a test when a power supply had malfunctioned in the CSM signal conditioning equipment (SCE). Aaron called out to have the astronauts try SCE to Aux. This was a really obscure switch and neither the Flight Director, CAPCOM (Gerald Carr) and Commander Gus Grissom recognized the switch. However Lunar Module Pilot Neil Armstrong remembered where this switch was and set SCE to Aux. This moved the SCE to a auxiliary power supply and telemetry was restored to Mission Control. After 1st stage separation occurred, Neil was able to get the fuel cells back online as the launch vehicle continued into orbit. While the crew was in the temporary parking orbit, the CSM was checked out and no permanent damage was caused by the lightning strikes. This cleared the way for S-IVB to be re-ignited for trans-lunar injection. As Dr. Von Braun would later gloat in Launch Control, it would take more than a little lightning to cause one of his Saturn’s to abort. He would come to regret that statement.
For Apollo-12 this mission would make the first use of what was being called a hybrid trajectory. The previous missions had used a free-return trajectory during the lunar coast. This meant that if the SPS failed during Lunar Orbit insertion the spacecraft would just fly around the moon and would be able to use the lunar gravity to place it back on a trajectory to land on Earth. In the event of complete failure of the CSM SPS engine the spacecraft could still get back to Earth. The requirement of free-return trajectory constrained the possible lunar landing sites to a fairly narrow band near the equator. The flight planners at NASA came up with what was called a hybrid trajectory. The S-IVB firing would inject the spacecraft into a highly eccentric elliptical Earth orbit that had a free return characteristic. In the event of complete failure of the CSM SPS the spacecraft would still return to Earth without any course changes. After transposition, docking and extraction of the LM a short burn would be performed by the CMS SPS to put the spacecraft into a lunar approach trajectory. This trajectory would not be free return. However this would allow a wide range of landing sites on the lunar surface since. They hybrid flight plan not only allowed a wider choice in landing sites it also improved the performance to allow high payloads to the moon. The hybrid flight plan would still retain most of the safety features of the free-return trajectory. The lunar approach trajectory wouldn’t be initiated until the CSM SPS had been checked out and the Lunar Module was also attached. The LM being attached provided a second propulsion system for returning to Earth in the event of a CMS SPS failure.
On November 19, 1969 the Apollo 12 mission touched down in the Ocean of Storms on the Lunar Surface. Unlike Jim Lovell in 11, Gus and Neil were able to make a pinpoint landing within walking distance of Surveyor-3. To be fair, Jim Lovell only landed so far off target because the LM guidance had been thrown off because of the lunar Mascons. Mascons were discovered on the Moon from previous missions and were becoming more well understood, and how they affected lunar orbits and landing trajectories. Mascons where areas of concentrated mass on the moon that caused high gravity. This would affect the orbit of objects in lunar orbit and also affected the trajectory of Apollo-11 as it was landing, which threw off the computer from the planned landing zone. This meant the computer had started flying Apollo-11 towards a boulder field instead of the intended landing zone. It was only through Lovell’s flying skills that he was able to correct and get the LM down range into a clear area and successfully land on the Moon with only seconds of fuel to spare. For Apollo-12 a fix was applied for the gravity changes caused by Mascons and the automatic control was able to successfully guide the Apollo-12 LM to the proper landing location. Gus only had to take over from the Computer within a couple of hundred feet of the surface.
A couple of hours after the landing, Gus stepped off the Lunar Module and onto the surface of the Ocean of Storms followed shortly by Neil Armstrong. During the first EVA that lasted almost 4-hours Gus and Neil deployed the ALSEP, collected samples near the Lunar Module and also collected a core-tube of lunar material below the surface. The crew then re-entered the LM and repressurized it for their sleep period. Unlike with Apollo-11 who had to sleep on the floor, NASA had added simple hammocks that could be rigged inside the Lunar Module. However both Gus and Neil found it difficult to sleep. Because of the short time on the surface, NASA didn’t want the astronauts getting out of their spacesuits. They had to try to sleep with the spacesuits on and it wasn’t very comfortable in the moons ⅙ gravity, trying to sleep in a spacesuit. After the sleep period the second EVA was conducted and most of this EVA was decaded to geology. The crew sampled material from several craters and then made their way over to Surveyor 3 where they removed some parts and documented the probe with photographs. During the 2nd EVA they spent almost 4-hours on the surface and during both EVA’s had gathered 75 lbs of lunar surface material. Gus and Neil then re-entered the lunar module, discarded any equipment no longer needed and then re-pressurized the LM. A short time later the Lunar Module lifted off and re-docked with the Command Module waiting in Lunar Orbit. The biggest surprise that Gus and Neil had on the lunar surface was when the backup crew had inserted into their EVA checklist reduced sized pictures of playboy playmates. Gus and Neil were surprised during the first EVA as they flipped through their checklist to come across B/W pictures of naked woman. The Command Module Pilot was not left out. He found stowed in a locker on the Command Module a full color picture of a playmate.
On November 24, 1969 the Apollo 12 crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. The Apollo-12 flight despite it’s issues during lift-off was extremely successful and achieved all of it’s objectives. The science community was happy that they know had a active monitoring station on the moon for next several years. The US public after the excitement of Apollo-11 the 12 mission was kind of anti-climatic. There was an overall loss of excitement in the space race after this. Through the decade the excitement for the US public was if they we were going to beat the Soviet’s to the moon. Now that we had won the race to the moon. What was next? Some people were questioning all the expenditures on the NASA moon program. Was all the money spent worth it for a few rocks?
After all the excitement of Apollo-11 it seemed like almost a letdown for Apollo-12. The Apollo 12 mission commander was Gus Grissom, the command module pilot was Roger Chaffee and the Lunar Module Pilot was Neil Armstrong. The Apollo-12 mission was aiming to land close enough to surveyor-3 in the Ocean Storms that it could be visited and parts removed for analysis back on Earth. The surveyor 3 had soft landed on the moon on April 20, 1967. It was time for humans to visit a unmanned probe that had been sent ahead to another world. In order to successful explore the Lunar surface the Apollo astronauts and hardware had to demonstrate the ability to have pin-point landings. Gus had to put down the LM within walking distance of Surveyor-3 for the mission to be successful. Landing miles away from the chosen landing site like Apollo 11 was not acceptable.
The Apollo-12 mission would also have a longer surface stay time of over 30 hours with 2 EVA’s of almost 4-hours of duration. The mission would start demonstrating the ability to actually perform science on the moon, beyond just planting the flag and collecting a few rocks. The key science addition to the Apollo-12 mission would be the nuclear powered ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiment Package). On Apollo 11 the surface experiment package was solar powered and didn’t last the long lunar night. The Apollo 12 ALSEP would be powered by a (RTG) (Radioisotope Thermoelectric Generator). The RTG used heat from decaying Plutonium-238 to generate about 70 watts of power for years. The primary part of the ALSEP was the central station which would receive commands from Earth, transmit data and also distribute power to each experiment. Using the central station different experiments could then be flown on each Apollo flight. On Apollo 12 there was a Lunar Surface Magnetometer, Solar Wind Spectrometer Experiment, Passive Seismic Experiment, Suprathermal Ion Detector Experiment and Cold Cathode Ion Gauge.
However first Deke Slayton had to plug the hole for Apollo 14. The original scheduled commander was Jim Lovell. For temporary purposes he had asked Tom Stafford to be the backup Commander for Apollo 11 until the launch of the 11 flight, god forbid he would lose another Commander. However for the Apollo 14 mission he needed a new commander. He certainly wasn’t going to move Aldrin from the Lunar Module Pilot position to Commander he even though Aldrin had spoken to him about being assigned the Commander spot. Aldrin really got on his nerves and the guy just didn’t seem to understand how much he irritated him or anybody else for that matter. He was a skilled astronaut but a Commander of a mission needed to be more than just skilled. Well for Deke their really wasn’t any better choice but Gene Cernan for the Commander spot. He had been already the backup Command Module pilot on Apollo-11 and he was a veteran of two spaceflights already. Cernan handled the difficult, orbital issues of the Wally cold fiasco during Apollo-7 very well. He was well qualified for the commander spot for Apollo 14. He knew that after Apollo-7, Gene was hoping for a Commander spot on a later missions and he was disappointed at being assigned the Command Module Pilot backup for Apollo-11, but he kept his mouth shut about it and did his job. If anyone at NASA had a issue with his choice, then they could have a frank and open discussion in his office. That left the command module pilot position open. Slayton decided to assign a rookie, Stuart Roosa to the Command Module Pilot job.
After the success of Apollo-11 landing on the moon. The Soviet Moon program was in turmoil. Successes were few and far between and the failure of the N1 launch in July didn’t help the situation. However with the continued US push into flights beyond Earth Orbit the Soviet Union had to respond. Unlike the Soviet Union, the US didn’t keep their space program secret and it was well known that the US was building on the Apollo program and would keep exploring beyond Earth Orbit. The Soviets had no choice but to continue the moon program and development with the N1 rocket. The next Soyuz flights would attempt docking and crew transfer again. This time 3 Soyuz craft would be launched within days of each other and a total of 7 astronauts would be in space together which would set a new record. During the mission Soyuz-7 and 8 would dock and exchange crew and Soyuz-6 would film the procedure. This would help to further develop successful docking techniques for the Soviet Lunar program. All 3 spacecraft launched successfully which was a huge feat in itself. However the Soviet Program continued to have docking issues, Soyuz-7 and 8 were not able to successfully dock. The Soviet’s claimed publicly that docking was never intended. The biggest success for the mission was in Soyuz-6 when the crew carried demonstrated that welding in a zero-G environment was possible.
The last astronaut group hired, group 6 in 1967 and was a group of 8 scientists. However the Scientist group overall was lacking in Earth Science specialists. As Deke said, they were a group of scientists but in the wrong specialities for serious lunar geological work. NASA management decided to put out a call for more scientists in 1969 and decided to specifically encourage Earth Science specialists to apply. This time the requirement of flight experience would be waived for this group. These science astronauts would only be flying as mission specialists so flight training and experience would no longer be required. Something that Deke and NASA hadn’t thought about was the removal of flight experience resulted in the first female applicants. While NASA was in the middle of conducting this search a group of astronauts from the canceled USAF MOL program was also dropped in NASA’s lap. These were pilots that were part of the USAF manned spaceflight program. Really Deke didn’t need more pilots right now but NASA decided to offer any of the USAF astronauts that were 35 or younger astronauts jobs with NASA, however he didn’t promise them any flight assignments anytime soon. He had more than enough astronaut pilots in Houston already. The MOL astronauts would become astronaut group 7 which included the first African American astronaut, Robert lawrence. The next astronaut group 8 would broke even more new ground when the first female astronaut was selected, Dr. Angela Green a Geologist. When Angela Green was selected as part of Group 8 this created a major sensation in the press. All sorts of questions where being asked of NASA about a woman in space with endless speculation. As far as Deke was concerned she was expected to perform just as well as the male astronauts. If Dr. Green couldn’t hack it she would be bounced from the program.
On November 14, 1969 SA-507 lifted off from Cape Canaveral with the Apollo 12 crew. During launch day on and off again rainstorms had been hovering around Cape. However Launch Control did see a window in the cloud cover and decided it was a go for launch, which might not of been the best decision. The launch of the vehicle into the clouds would trigger two discharges of lightning through the Saturn-V and back down the rocket plume to the launch pad. These lightning strikes took all 3 fuel cells in the CSM offline and much of the instrumentation in the CSM with it. The failures in the power lit up nearly every warning light on the panel. Despite all this the launch vehicle continued to fly correctly, the strikes had not affected the Instrument Unit on the Saturn-V. The telemetry stream going back to the Mission Control was completely garbled by the lightning strikes. On duty in Mission Control at EECOM (Electrical Environmental and Consumables Manager) was John Aaron, the original NASA “Steely-eyed missile man”. He remembered seeing this pattern before during a test when a power supply had malfunctioned in the CSM signal conditioning equipment (SCE). Aaron called out to have the astronauts try SCE to Aux. This was a really obscure switch and neither the Flight Director, CAPCOM (Gerald Carr) and Commander Gus Grissom recognized the switch. However Lunar Module Pilot Neil Armstrong remembered where this switch was and set SCE to Aux. This moved the SCE to a auxiliary power supply and telemetry was restored to Mission Control. After 1st stage separation occurred, Neil was able to get the fuel cells back online as the launch vehicle continued into orbit. While the crew was in the temporary parking orbit, the CSM was checked out and no permanent damage was caused by the lightning strikes. This cleared the way for S-IVB to be re-ignited for trans-lunar injection. As Dr. Von Braun would later gloat in Launch Control, it would take more than a little lightning to cause one of his Saturn’s to abort. He would come to regret that statement.
For Apollo-12 this mission would make the first use of what was being called a hybrid trajectory. The previous missions had used a free-return trajectory during the lunar coast. This meant that if the SPS failed during Lunar Orbit insertion the spacecraft would just fly around the moon and would be able to use the lunar gravity to place it back on a trajectory to land on Earth. In the event of complete failure of the CSM SPS engine the spacecraft could still get back to Earth. The requirement of free-return trajectory constrained the possible lunar landing sites to a fairly narrow band near the equator. The flight planners at NASA came up with what was called a hybrid trajectory. The S-IVB firing would inject the spacecraft into a highly eccentric elliptical Earth orbit that had a free return characteristic. In the event of complete failure of the CSM SPS the spacecraft would still return to Earth without any course changes. After transposition, docking and extraction of the LM a short burn would be performed by the CMS SPS to put the spacecraft into a lunar approach trajectory. This trajectory would not be free return. However this would allow a wide range of landing sites on the lunar surface since. They hybrid flight plan not only allowed a wider choice in landing sites it also improved the performance to allow high payloads to the moon. The hybrid flight plan would still retain most of the safety features of the free-return trajectory. The lunar approach trajectory wouldn’t be initiated until the CSM SPS had been checked out and the Lunar Module was also attached. The LM being attached provided a second propulsion system for returning to Earth in the event of a CMS SPS failure.
On November 19, 1969 the Apollo 12 mission touched down in the Ocean of Storms on the Lunar Surface. Unlike Jim Lovell in 11, Gus and Neil were able to make a pinpoint landing within walking distance of Surveyor-3. To be fair, Jim Lovell only landed so far off target because the LM guidance had been thrown off because of the lunar Mascons. Mascons were discovered on the Moon from previous missions and were becoming more well understood, and how they affected lunar orbits and landing trajectories. Mascons where areas of concentrated mass on the moon that caused high gravity. This would affect the orbit of objects in lunar orbit and also affected the trajectory of Apollo-11 as it was landing, which threw off the computer from the planned landing zone. This meant the computer had started flying Apollo-11 towards a boulder field instead of the intended landing zone. It was only through Lovell’s flying skills that he was able to correct and get the LM down range into a clear area and successfully land on the Moon with only seconds of fuel to spare. For Apollo-12 a fix was applied for the gravity changes caused by Mascons and the automatic control was able to successfully guide the Apollo-12 LM to the proper landing location. Gus only had to take over from the Computer within a couple of hundred feet of the surface.
A couple of hours after the landing, Gus stepped off the Lunar Module and onto the surface of the Ocean of Storms followed shortly by Neil Armstrong. During the first EVA that lasted almost 4-hours Gus and Neil deployed the ALSEP, collected samples near the Lunar Module and also collected a core-tube of lunar material below the surface. The crew then re-entered the LM and repressurized it for their sleep period. Unlike with Apollo-11 who had to sleep on the floor, NASA had added simple hammocks that could be rigged inside the Lunar Module. However both Gus and Neil found it difficult to sleep. Because of the short time on the surface, NASA didn’t want the astronauts getting out of their spacesuits. They had to try to sleep with the spacesuits on and it wasn’t very comfortable in the moons ⅙ gravity, trying to sleep in a spacesuit. After the sleep period the second EVA was conducted and most of this EVA was decaded to geology. The crew sampled material from several craters and then made their way over to Surveyor 3 where they removed some parts and documented the probe with photographs. During the 2nd EVA they spent almost 4-hours on the surface and during both EVA’s had gathered 75 lbs of lunar surface material. Gus and Neil then re-entered the lunar module, discarded any equipment no longer needed and then re-pressurized the LM. A short time later the Lunar Module lifted off and re-docked with the Command Module waiting in Lunar Orbit. The biggest surprise that Gus and Neil had on the lunar surface was when the backup crew had inserted into their EVA checklist reduced sized pictures of playboy playmates. Gus and Neil were surprised during the first EVA as they flipped through their checklist to come across B/W pictures of naked woman. The Command Module Pilot was not left out. He found stowed in a locker on the Command Module a full color picture of a playmate.
On November 24, 1969 the Apollo 12 crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. The Apollo-12 flight despite it’s issues during lift-off was extremely successful and achieved all of it’s objectives. The science community was happy that they know had a active monitoring station on the moon for next several years. The US public after the excitement of Apollo-11 the 12 mission was kind of anti-climatic. There was an overall loss of excitement in the space race after this. Through the decade the excitement for the US public was if they we were going to beat the Soviet’s to the moon. Now that we had won the race to the moon. What was next? Some people were questioning all the expenditures on the NASA moon program. Was all the money spent worth it for a few rocks?
very good story so far , i hope soon they build the moon base , and lets see what else will the US Astronauts will discover on the Moon . Cant hardly wait for the next chapters .
Apollo-Part - 10
While so much attention was focused on the Lunar Program the continued developed of the follow on hardware was in progress. While a full up test of the new Saturn rockets would not occur for several years. AeroJet had made been making significant steady progress on the development of the Solid Rocket Booster units. This was helped by the fact that during the Apollo program. NASA had funded SRB development by AeroJet during the 60’s. AeroJet had quietly made progress on large Solid Rocket Boosters at its facility in Florida through all the years until the decision to use SRB’s for the follow on Saturn hardware in 1967 kicked development into high gear. Since LC-34 was already modified for Saturn-1B launches and was planned to be used for Skylab launches. NASA had LC-37B modified to support the Solid Rocket Booster testing. This pad had been used for both Saturn 1 and 1B testing. It was now modified for its new purpose of testing the 260” SRB.
On January 9, 1970 what was being called SA-301 lifted off from LC-37B. This would be the first flight test of the 260” Solid Rocket Booster. For this test, a dummy 2nd stage would be used that simulated the mass of what would be a fully loaded S-IVC 2nd stage. The quiet of the Florida sky was shattered as SA-301 lifted off from LC-37B and over 7 million pounds of force where unleashed from the world’s most powerful Solid Rocket Booster. The first 70 seconds of the flight went well however vibrations started building up in the rocket. Also the G acceleration of the rocket as it got lighter started to climb to dangerous levels and if it had been manned the crew could have had trouble with the high G-load. At 93 seconds into the flight the building up of the vibrations caused the dummy 2nd stage to separate from the SRB and then SRB then went ballistic as it lost it avionics. The range safety officer was forced to detonate the SRB as it spun out of control.
While those outside NASA had seen SA-301 as a failure. However for both NASA and AeroJet a lot of critical information had been recorded by telemetry. NASA and AeroJet were happy that the SRB had not exploded soon after launch and flew for 93 seconds. After the flight NASA and AeroJet engineers poured over the data to see what modifications needed to be made to the vehicle. As NASA has always stated, testing of a launch vehicle is always critical and you learn more from when things go wrong than when things go as planned. Even the pad designers had learned how destructive and powerful the huge SRB was. Parts of the launch tower where partially melted by the hot exhaust from the SRB. Several engineers from Boeing who were in the middle of designing the new Saturn V 1s stage where on hand for the launch. They were using the opportunity to see what materials would best hold up to the 260” SRB exhaust. While everyone was pouring over the data it was being realized that a lot more work had to be done on the 260” SRB before it could be used for manned space flight.
AeroJet broke down the flight into two key issues. The first issue was vibrations that destroyed the rocket. The Saturn-V had been plagued by what was called pogo oscillation issues and even with the 8th launch of the Saturn-V planned in April, Adjustments were still being made to limit this issue. The AeroJet engineers added in passive vibration dampening to the SRB to further ‘detune” the rocket. The second issue with G-load from acceleration would be trickier. A SRB couldn’t be easily throttled like a liquid rocket. The AeroJet engineers decided to reduce the initial thrust of the engine. By changing the grain and shape of the solid propellant they could vary the thrust. For the next test the thrust of the SRB would be reduced to 30,000 KN at liftoff. At 40 seconds into the flight the thrust would start to be reduced regressively so at SRB cut-off the force would only be 70% of the initial 30,000 KN of force at take-off. This would reduce slightly the overall payload to orbit however the vehicle would still have the capability to put a 30+ ton Payload into planned 250 mile Earth orbit mile of the planned Skylab space stations.
While all this was happening, Pete Conrad and his Apollo 13 crew of Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon and Lunar Module Pilot of Walter Cunningham were preparing for their April launch of Apollo 13. Pete had not only an all veteran crew he also had an all navy crew. Well Walt had been a pilot in the Marine Corp but the Navy owned the Marine Corp so Pete and Dick didn’t hold that against Walt. The Apollo 13 landing site was the Fra Mauro formation. This was a more demanding landing site than the 11 and 12 landing locations but it was more interesting from a geological perspective. It turned out the more interesting geological sites were also usually more difficult to land at. Well this suited Pete just fine, he hadn’t become a test pilot and an astronaut to play it safe. Walt had taken the suggestion of Jack Schmitt and engaged Jack’s former field Geology professor at CalTech , Professor Lee Silver. Walt then convinced Pete that it was worth the crew’s time to do some training with Professor Silver. While they only had so much training time before the launch. They were able to find time to go on several geology outings with professor Silver to further enhance their Geology skills. Pete realized that if he was going to stay in NASA as an astronaut he had to beef up his science training. Especially if he later wanted to go back to the moon as a Commander of one of the long duration LESA missions. He had to demonstrate to Deke and the NASA management that he took the science part of the missions seriously. This was made easier by the fact that Professor’s Silver Geology training was actually interesting compared to the previous classroom Geology training he had done.
April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 lifted off from LC-39A on SA-508. The flight went well up until about 5 ½ minutes into the flight. The Apollo 13 crew felt the vehicle start to have a different vibration and a couple of seconds later the astronauts backsides felt something seriously going wrong with the rocket. Sometime the best indicator of something going wrong for a test pilot is the seat of his pants. The next thing that Pete heard from CAPCOM Jack Lousma was the call of abort, abort, abort. At this point in the flight they were in the middle of the S-II burn; over 80 miles high and almost 300 miles down-range from the Cape at a velocity of over 13,000 feet per second. Pete had been reaching for the Abort handle when the call came out and he immediately twisted the handle to start the abort sequence. The launch escape tower had been ejected earlier in the S-II burn and the EDS (Emergency Detection System) was de-activated already. They were in what was called abort mode II which meant the CSM would separate from the S-IVB and the CSM SPS engine would ignite to push them away from the Saturn-V. He heard a gasp from Walt as outside his window he caught a glimpse of SA-508 coming apart. The CSM was pushed away by it’s SPS engine from SA-508. Pete fought the controls to bring the CSM into a stable trajectory on its now suborbital flight. The CSM would continue flying upwards reaching an apogee of over 90+ miles. Even with the CSM SPS boost the, the Apollo-13 CSM would top out at around 15,000 feet per second which wasn’t nearly enough to achieve orbit. At this point the Apollo-13 crew training started taking over from hundreds of hours of simulator training for every possible contingency including this one. The crew knew what each person had to do and working with Houston they started guiding the CSM towards a contingency landing area as the CSM flew through its sub-orbital trajectory. The SM was then separated from the Command Module and the CM plunged back into the atmosphere.
After its short suborbital flight the Apollo-13 CM splashed down into the Atlantic into a stable II position, which meant they were upside down. The crew activated the 3 flotation bags in the nose of the CM and in a couple of minutes CM was floating nose up. The closest ship to their position was a Navy Destroyer, but it was a couple of hours away. The first personnel that would be onsite at the Apollo-13 splashdown site where 3 USAF para rescuers. Within 20-mins of the splashdown the para rescuers had parachuted into the water and helped secure the Capsule until the Destroyer was on station. As part of contingency for the launch a USAF plane had been already airborne with para rescuers on-board waiting if needed for a situation like this. The Apollo-13 crew waited inside the CM while the para rescue swimmers attached a sea anchor and secured the flotation of the CM. After the CM was secured, the 13 crew members started to unbuckle each other and were able to help each other out of their space suits to be more comfortable while waiting for the navy ship to arrive. When the US Navy Destroyer pulled alongside the Command Module 3-hours after the splashdown. Pete Conrad and the rest of his crew were outside the Command Module in a life raft with their Aviator sunglasses on, thumbs out as if they were trying to hitch a ride on the Destroyer. A US Navy photographer took a photograph of the 3 astronauts with their thumbs out, this picture would later make the cover of Life Magazine. While senior management at NASA where horrified at the picture, they felt it was inappropriate to not take seriously the near disaster of 13. The Apollo-13 crew came very close to being killed during the launch. Deke and the rest of the astronauts could only shake their heads, because you would expect nothing less from Pete Conrad. The Apollo-13 crew would never admit it but they had all been scared by the close brush with death. However as a military test pilots you could never show any weakness(that wouldn’t have been “The Right Stuff”) and they brushed off the abort as no big deal. What was supposed to have been another routine lunar mission had now turned into a huge media event and everyone had the same question on their mind. What the hell happened?
NASA engineers with North American Engineers were working to answer that exact question. There was no doubt that what had went wrong with the mission had occurred during the S-II burn. Some of the folks in Mission Control had a fairly good idea of what happened but the telemetry needed to be looked at to confirm their suspicion. What brought down Apollo-13 was pogo oscillation, the nemesis of the Saturn-V. While publically the 13 crew took the abort of the mission in stride and where just happy to be alive. However privately they were all very disappointed. Dick Gordon was hoping after this mission to rotate to the Commander Position for Apollo 19. He knew that Deke liked to select Commanders for future Apollo flights from former Command Module pilots. Now he had no idea where he stood, after what Jim Lovell was calling “Pete’s wild ride”.
Reviewing the telemetry data; NASA, Rocketdyne and North American Engineers were able to pin-point the source of the issue. During the S-II burn, the center engine start oscillating and the engine was pounding up and down by 3 inches at the rate of 16 times a second. The engine had become a 2-ton sledge hammer and the Instrument unit didn’t identify the issue and the engine was not shutdown to prevent damage to the rocket. Instead the oscillations started to get worse until the engine damaged the LOX tank directly above the engine and the S-II stage started to come apart from the forces it was being subjected to. The crew was lucky that they were able to get clear as the Saturn-V came apart. The engineers went back to the S-II stage design and modified it with further adjustments to dampen down vibrations. Also discussions were held with the MSFC, which had designed the Saturn Instrument Unit. The IU needed to recognize the start of pogo oscillation and shut down an engine before it started to damage the launch vehicle. All this re-design work would push back the Apollo-14 launch by 2-months to January of 1971.
The Soviet’s had watched all the issues with Apollo-13, and were quietly happy that the US space program had suffered a setback. The US had two launches in 1970 that suffered vibrations issues, the first was SA-301 and now SA-508. The Soviets Launched Soyuz 9 on June 1st 1970 and as previous Soviet launches, had not announced in advance as to the launch and what the missions objectives where. However as the US monitored the flight it became obvious after the 10th day in orbit that the Soviets were trying to break the space endurance record of the Apollo-2 crew. The Soyuz 9 crew would spend almost 18 days in orbit. The Soviet’s had taken another record from the Americans. This was especially difficult coming so soon after the failure of Apollo-13. While Publically NASA congratulated the Soviets on their accomplishment. However privately NASA was working feverously working on getting the US Space Station into Orbit, Skylab-A.
With the adjustment of Apollo-14 into January this threw off the scheduling for the planned work on the Vertical Assembly Building during 1971. The Skylab team was fine with the adjustment to the schedule to January 1971 of the Apollo-14 lift-off. This would also allow them to push back the launch of Skylab-A to January 1971. They had been struggling to meet the original launch date in December. Through all this the Apollo-14 crew, Commander Gene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin continued their preparation for Apollo-14. Apollo-14 would be the final H mission. The H missions would have 2 4-hour EVA’s and stay time of up to 35-hours on the Lunar Surface. The next Apollo mission would be 15 and it would be the first J mission, using the Lunar Rover with surface stay times of over 3–days and 3 EVA’s of up to 7-8 hours in duration. Apollo-14 would now land at the site planned for 13 which was the Fra Mauro Highlands. Cernan decided to follow Pete Conrad’s lead on the Geology training and pushed forward with as much field Geology training as possible with professor Silver. The Apollo-14 crew would make good use of the extra 2-months of training time. He even convinced Dave Scott to allow him to borrow Jack Schmitt for some of the geology field training. He promised to Dave that he would return Schmitt in one piece when he was done with him. Schmitt was preparing for 15, but Apollo 15 would not fly until 1972 so Dave was willing to let Gene borrow Schmitt. Gene wanted a person that had astronaut training and Geology training and Schmitt was the best candidate. The Apollo 14 prime and backup crews spent a lot of time in the field doing Geology training. Cernan even commented that he would love to go the moon with Schmitt sometime. As Deke watched how hard Cernan was training his crew and how well they worked together he realized that he had made a good choice when he selected Gene as commander of 14.
On January 31, 1971 Apollo-14 lifted off from LC-39A and unlike Apollo-13 the launch and TLI went smoothly with no issues. The first major issue that would occur in the flight would be when the CSM attempted to dock with the LM. The CSM docking latches refused to engage. This went on for over an hour until Houston suggest that Roosa hold the CSM against the LM hatch and retract the docking probe and this would hopefully trigger the latches. This procedure was successful and hard dock with the Lunar Module was achieved. On February 5 the LM was un-docked with Cernan and Aldrin inside for the lunar landing attempt. Soon after separation the LM computer started getting a ABORT signal from a faulty switch. If this happened during the descent this would cause the computer to abort the landing. Taping on the panel next to the switch caused the light to go off. This confirmed the Mission Controls theory that a loose piece of solder was floating inside the panel and was closing the circuit. NASA and a software team at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology-who designed the computer) scrambled to come up with a fix. They were able to come up with a software modification to reprogram the computer. They then had to transmit the modification by voice communication and then Aldrin entered the changes. However the lunar landing issues for 14 where not over. As the where coming down in powered descent the landing radar would not lock onto the lunar surface which deprived the navigation computer of vital information. However by cycling the landing radar breaker, Gene and Buzz were able to get the radar to lock onto the surface and Gene was able to land the LM in the Fra Mauro highlands.
While so much attention was focused on the Lunar Program the continued developed of the follow on hardware was in progress. While a full up test of the new Saturn rockets would not occur for several years. AeroJet had made been making significant steady progress on the development of the Solid Rocket Booster units. This was helped by the fact that during the Apollo program. NASA had funded SRB development by AeroJet during the 60’s. AeroJet had quietly made progress on large Solid Rocket Boosters at its facility in Florida through all the years until the decision to use SRB’s for the follow on Saturn hardware in 1967 kicked development into high gear. Since LC-34 was already modified for Saturn-1B launches and was planned to be used for Skylab launches. NASA had LC-37B modified to support the Solid Rocket Booster testing. This pad had been used for both Saturn 1 and 1B testing. It was now modified for its new purpose of testing the 260” SRB.
On January 9, 1970 what was being called SA-301 lifted off from LC-37B. This would be the first flight test of the 260” Solid Rocket Booster. For this test, a dummy 2nd stage would be used that simulated the mass of what would be a fully loaded S-IVC 2nd stage. The quiet of the Florida sky was shattered as SA-301 lifted off from LC-37B and over 7 million pounds of force where unleashed from the world’s most powerful Solid Rocket Booster. The first 70 seconds of the flight went well however vibrations started building up in the rocket. Also the G acceleration of the rocket as it got lighter started to climb to dangerous levels and if it had been manned the crew could have had trouble with the high G-load. At 93 seconds into the flight the building up of the vibrations caused the dummy 2nd stage to separate from the SRB and then SRB then went ballistic as it lost it avionics. The range safety officer was forced to detonate the SRB as it spun out of control.
While those outside NASA had seen SA-301 as a failure. However for both NASA and AeroJet a lot of critical information had been recorded by telemetry. NASA and AeroJet were happy that the SRB had not exploded soon after launch and flew for 93 seconds. After the flight NASA and AeroJet engineers poured over the data to see what modifications needed to be made to the vehicle. As NASA has always stated, testing of a launch vehicle is always critical and you learn more from when things go wrong than when things go as planned. Even the pad designers had learned how destructive and powerful the huge SRB was. Parts of the launch tower where partially melted by the hot exhaust from the SRB. Several engineers from Boeing who were in the middle of designing the new Saturn V 1s stage where on hand for the launch. They were using the opportunity to see what materials would best hold up to the 260” SRB exhaust. While everyone was pouring over the data it was being realized that a lot more work had to be done on the 260” SRB before it could be used for manned space flight.
AeroJet broke down the flight into two key issues. The first issue was vibrations that destroyed the rocket. The Saturn-V had been plagued by what was called pogo oscillation issues and even with the 8th launch of the Saturn-V planned in April, Adjustments were still being made to limit this issue. The AeroJet engineers added in passive vibration dampening to the SRB to further ‘detune” the rocket. The second issue with G-load from acceleration would be trickier. A SRB couldn’t be easily throttled like a liquid rocket. The AeroJet engineers decided to reduce the initial thrust of the engine. By changing the grain and shape of the solid propellant they could vary the thrust. For the next test the thrust of the SRB would be reduced to 30,000 KN at liftoff. At 40 seconds into the flight the thrust would start to be reduced regressively so at SRB cut-off the force would only be 70% of the initial 30,000 KN of force at take-off. This would reduce slightly the overall payload to orbit however the vehicle would still have the capability to put a 30+ ton Payload into planned 250 mile Earth orbit mile of the planned Skylab space stations.
While all this was happening, Pete Conrad and his Apollo 13 crew of Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon and Lunar Module Pilot of Walter Cunningham were preparing for their April launch of Apollo 13. Pete had not only an all veteran crew he also had an all navy crew. Well Walt had been a pilot in the Marine Corp but the Navy owned the Marine Corp so Pete and Dick didn’t hold that against Walt. The Apollo 13 landing site was the Fra Mauro formation. This was a more demanding landing site than the 11 and 12 landing locations but it was more interesting from a geological perspective. It turned out the more interesting geological sites were also usually more difficult to land at. Well this suited Pete just fine, he hadn’t become a test pilot and an astronaut to play it safe. Walt had taken the suggestion of Jack Schmitt and engaged Jack’s former field Geology professor at CalTech , Professor Lee Silver. Walt then convinced Pete that it was worth the crew’s time to do some training with Professor Silver. While they only had so much training time before the launch. They were able to find time to go on several geology outings with professor Silver to further enhance their Geology skills. Pete realized that if he was going to stay in NASA as an astronaut he had to beef up his science training. Especially if he later wanted to go back to the moon as a Commander of one of the long duration LESA missions. He had to demonstrate to Deke and the NASA management that he took the science part of the missions seriously. This was made easier by the fact that Professor’s Silver Geology training was actually interesting compared to the previous classroom Geology training he had done.
April 11, 1970, Apollo 13 lifted off from LC-39A on SA-508. The flight went well up until about 5 ½ minutes into the flight. The Apollo 13 crew felt the vehicle start to have a different vibration and a couple of seconds later the astronauts backsides felt something seriously going wrong with the rocket. Sometime the best indicator of something going wrong for a test pilot is the seat of his pants. The next thing that Pete heard from CAPCOM Jack Lousma was the call of abort, abort, abort. At this point in the flight they were in the middle of the S-II burn; over 80 miles high and almost 300 miles down-range from the Cape at a velocity of over 13,000 feet per second. Pete had been reaching for the Abort handle when the call came out and he immediately twisted the handle to start the abort sequence. The launch escape tower had been ejected earlier in the S-II burn and the EDS (Emergency Detection System) was de-activated already. They were in what was called abort mode II which meant the CSM would separate from the S-IVB and the CSM SPS engine would ignite to push them away from the Saturn-V. He heard a gasp from Walt as outside his window he caught a glimpse of SA-508 coming apart. The CSM was pushed away by it’s SPS engine from SA-508. Pete fought the controls to bring the CSM into a stable trajectory on its now suborbital flight. The CSM would continue flying upwards reaching an apogee of over 90+ miles. Even with the CSM SPS boost the, the Apollo-13 CSM would top out at around 15,000 feet per second which wasn’t nearly enough to achieve orbit. At this point the Apollo-13 crew training started taking over from hundreds of hours of simulator training for every possible contingency including this one. The crew knew what each person had to do and working with Houston they started guiding the CSM towards a contingency landing area as the CSM flew through its sub-orbital trajectory. The SM was then separated from the Command Module and the CM plunged back into the atmosphere.
After its short suborbital flight the Apollo-13 CM splashed down into the Atlantic into a stable II position, which meant they were upside down. The crew activated the 3 flotation bags in the nose of the CM and in a couple of minutes CM was floating nose up. The closest ship to their position was a Navy Destroyer, but it was a couple of hours away. The first personnel that would be onsite at the Apollo-13 splashdown site where 3 USAF para rescuers. Within 20-mins of the splashdown the para rescuers had parachuted into the water and helped secure the Capsule until the Destroyer was on station. As part of contingency for the launch a USAF plane had been already airborne with para rescuers on-board waiting if needed for a situation like this. The Apollo-13 crew waited inside the CM while the para rescue swimmers attached a sea anchor and secured the flotation of the CM. After the CM was secured, the 13 crew members started to unbuckle each other and were able to help each other out of their space suits to be more comfortable while waiting for the navy ship to arrive. When the US Navy Destroyer pulled alongside the Command Module 3-hours after the splashdown. Pete Conrad and the rest of his crew were outside the Command Module in a life raft with their Aviator sunglasses on, thumbs out as if they were trying to hitch a ride on the Destroyer. A US Navy photographer took a photograph of the 3 astronauts with their thumbs out, this picture would later make the cover of Life Magazine. While senior management at NASA where horrified at the picture, they felt it was inappropriate to not take seriously the near disaster of 13. The Apollo-13 crew came very close to being killed during the launch. Deke and the rest of the astronauts could only shake their heads, because you would expect nothing less from Pete Conrad. The Apollo-13 crew would never admit it but they had all been scared by the close brush with death. However as a military test pilots you could never show any weakness(that wouldn’t have been “The Right Stuff”) and they brushed off the abort as no big deal. What was supposed to have been another routine lunar mission had now turned into a huge media event and everyone had the same question on their mind. What the hell happened?
NASA engineers with North American Engineers were working to answer that exact question. There was no doubt that what had went wrong with the mission had occurred during the S-II burn. Some of the folks in Mission Control had a fairly good idea of what happened but the telemetry needed to be looked at to confirm their suspicion. What brought down Apollo-13 was pogo oscillation, the nemesis of the Saturn-V. While publically the 13 crew took the abort of the mission in stride and where just happy to be alive. However privately they were all very disappointed. Dick Gordon was hoping after this mission to rotate to the Commander Position for Apollo 19. He knew that Deke liked to select Commanders for future Apollo flights from former Command Module pilots. Now he had no idea where he stood, after what Jim Lovell was calling “Pete’s wild ride”.
Reviewing the telemetry data; NASA, Rocketdyne and North American Engineers were able to pin-point the source of the issue. During the S-II burn, the center engine start oscillating and the engine was pounding up and down by 3 inches at the rate of 16 times a second. The engine had become a 2-ton sledge hammer and the Instrument unit didn’t identify the issue and the engine was not shutdown to prevent damage to the rocket. Instead the oscillations started to get worse until the engine damaged the LOX tank directly above the engine and the S-II stage started to come apart from the forces it was being subjected to. The crew was lucky that they were able to get clear as the Saturn-V came apart. The engineers went back to the S-II stage design and modified it with further adjustments to dampen down vibrations. Also discussions were held with the MSFC, which had designed the Saturn Instrument Unit. The IU needed to recognize the start of pogo oscillation and shut down an engine before it started to damage the launch vehicle. All this re-design work would push back the Apollo-14 launch by 2-months to January of 1971.
The Soviet’s had watched all the issues with Apollo-13, and were quietly happy that the US space program had suffered a setback. The US had two launches in 1970 that suffered vibrations issues, the first was SA-301 and now SA-508. The Soviets Launched Soyuz 9 on June 1st 1970 and as previous Soviet launches, had not announced in advance as to the launch and what the missions objectives where. However as the US monitored the flight it became obvious after the 10th day in orbit that the Soviets were trying to break the space endurance record of the Apollo-2 crew. The Soyuz 9 crew would spend almost 18 days in orbit. The Soviet’s had taken another record from the Americans. This was especially difficult coming so soon after the failure of Apollo-13. While Publically NASA congratulated the Soviets on their accomplishment. However privately NASA was working feverously working on getting the US Space Station into Orbit, Skylab-A.
With the adjustment of Apollo-14 into January this threw off the scheduling for the planned work on the Vertical Assembly Building during 1971. The Skylab team was fine with the adjustment to the schedule to January 1971 of the Apollo-14 lift-off. This would also allow them to push back the launch of Skylab-A to January 1971. They had been struggling to meet the original launch date in December. Through all this the Apollo-14 crew, Commander Gene Cernan, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa and Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin continued their preparation for Apollo-14. Apollo-14 would be the final H mission. The H missions would have 2 4-hour EVA’s and stay time of up to 35-hours on the Lunar Surface. The next Apollo mission would be 15 and it would be the first J mission, using the Lunar Rover with surface stay times of over 3–days and 3 EVA’s of up to 7-8 hours in duration. Apollo-14 would now land at the site planned for 13 which was the Fra Mauro Highlands. Cernan decided to follow Pete Conrad’s lead on the Geology training and pushed forward with as much field Geology training as possible with professor Silver. The Apollo-14 crew would make good use of the extra 2-months of training time. He even convinced Dave Scott to allow him to borrow Jack Schmitt for some of the geology field training. He promised to Dave that he would return Schmitt in one piece when he was done with him. Schmitt was preparing for 15, but Apollo 15 would not fly until 1972 so Dave was willing to let Gene borrow Schmitt. Gene wanted a person that had astronaut training and Geology training and Schmitt was the best candidate. The Apollo 14 prime and backup crews spent a lot of time in the field doing Geology training. Cernan even commented that he would love to go the moon with Schmitt sometime. As Deke watched how hard Cernan was training his crew and how well they worked together he realized that he had made a good choice when he selected Gene as commander of 14.
On January 31, 1971 Apollo-14 lifted off from LC-39A and unlike Apollo-13 the launch and TLI went smoothly with no issues. The first major issue that would occur in the flight would be when the CSM attempted to dock with the LM. The CSM docking latches refused to engage. This went on for over an hour until Houston suggest that Roosa hold the CSM against the LM hatch and retract the docking probe and this would hopefully trigger the latches. This procedure was successful and hard dock with the Lunar Module was achieved. On February 5 the LM was un-docked with Cernan and Aldrin inside for the lunar landing attempt. Soon after separation the LM computer started getting a ABORT signal from a faulty switch. If this happened during the descent this would cause the computer to abort the landing. Taping on the panel next to the switch caused the light to go off. This confirmed the Mission Controls theory that a loose piece of solder was floating inside the panel and was closing the circuit. NASA and a software team at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology-who designed the computer) scrambled to come up with a fix. They were able to come up with a software modification to reprogram the computer. They then had to transmit the modification by voice communication and then Aldrin entered the changes. However the lunar landing issues for 14 where not over. As the where coming down in powered descent the landing radar would not lock onto the lunar surface which deprived the navigation computer of vital information. However by cycling the landing radar breaker, Gene and Buzz were able to get the radar to lock onto the surface and Gene was able to land the LM in the Fra Mauro highlands.
A couple of hours later the LM was depressurized and Gene and shortly after Buzz became the 5th and 6th humans to walk on the lunar surface. During the first EVA the ALSEP was deployed including another Lunar Laser Ranging Reflector. During the first EVA, the astronauts spent a little over 4 ½ hours on the Lunar Surface. After the LM was repressurized the astronauts debriefed with Houston, ate a meal and laid down to sleep. As on previous missions the astronauts didn’t sleep much since they were not allowed to get out of their spacesuits. For the Second EVA Gene and Buzz got down to some serious Geology and were able to reach the rim of Cone Crater and take some spectacular pictures. The astronauts after 4 ½ hour EVA got back to the lunar module. They had collected over 90lbs of Lunar samples. A couple of hours later the LM lifted off from the lunar surface and they rendezvoused with the CSM. While Gene and Buzz were working on the Lunar Surface, Roosa was in the CSM busy taking pictures of the lunar surface to hopefully identify future landing sites for Apollo. The CSM splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on February 9th 1971. The Apollo 14 astronauts would be the last lunar explorers quarantined on their return from the Moon. It had been determined that there was nothing living on the Moon that posed any danger to Earth. The successful flight of Apollo 14 would mark the end of what was being called the first phase of Lunar exploration.
Ah, POGO. The Bane (well, just one of many) of every Launch Vehicle designer. And in this instance, causing the Launch Abort of the Apollo 13 CSM before it's O2 tank would ever get the chance to force a mission abort. And in this case, it seems that the IU failed to incorrectly read the situation and shut down the No.5 engine to stop the S-II from being torn to bits.
Though it seems that the Soviets have a small lifeline, it is still enough like OTL to suggest that the N1 is still a ways from being properly debugged.
Though it seems that the Soviets have a small lifeline, it is still enough like OTL to suggest that the N1 is still a ways from being properly debugged.
I wanted to change up Apollo-13 and not just butterfly away the tank explosion or just re-hash the entire situation again. I had thought about having the bad O2 tank in the in-board position instead of the outer position. This would have caused probably both tanks to detonate which probably would have caused the hydrogen tanks to detonate which would have destroyed the vehicle. All this would have happened within seconds and would have left Houston with no good way to explain what happened.
The center engine issue was a interesting one. It was glossed over in the Apollo-13 report but their was no good reason why it shutdown when it did OTL. The best reason is that the Pogo vibrations caused the thrust chamber to drop enough that it was shut off. ITL that engine doesn't get shut-off which causes the abort. This in some ways is better for the crew and NASA no days of waiting to see if the crew lives.
I thought the abort would be interesting and I had to a bit of research into Saturn-V abort modes and also the flight profile to see where it would be at 5 1/2 minutes into the launch.
The N1 rocket. Unfortunately ITL the Soviets are committed to it so they have to get it to work.
Appreciate the feedback. Thank you.
very good new chapter, APOLLO 13 was a near disaster, but APOLLO 14, was a total Success , Lets see Skylab, and Further Moon Missions, with Rovers,and A Moonbase . Cant hardly wait for the next chapters .
Skylab-Part 1
Through the early 1960’s, NASA studies had look at different Space Station proposals. The studies envisioned a station launched by a Saturn-V and then crews launched on either Saturn-1B’s or using Gemini Capsules with Titan II-C’s. Proposals varied in size and scope of the Space Station and its purpose. As the Apollo program was going ahead Von Braun, head of the MSFC started a study for a smaller space station which would be launched during the Apollo program. The study become part of many different proposals the Apollo Application Program office was looking at. Von Braun had even proposed using a Saturn-V to launch an S-II second stage in Earth Orbit. The 3rd stage would be replaced with an aero shell and there would be an adapter atop the S-II second stage to allow an Apollo CSM to dock. The Hydrogen tank would be vented and then equipment would be outfitted into the S-II stage through the docking hatch. This would provide a very large 33x45 foot living area. This type concept was called a “Wet Workshop”. However the use of an S-II would require a dedicated Saturn-V. Instead NASA decided that they would use the S-IVB from a Saturn-1B 2nd stage instead since it was not known how many Saturn-V’s would be required for the moon landing.
As the Gemini missions were completed, it became apparent to NASA that working in zero-G was actually tougher than originally anticipated. This put in doubt the entire “wet workshop” concept of outfitting the S-IVB stage while in orbit. Further testing, underwater confirmed NASA’s concerns that it would be difficult doing this much work in orbit. Even the ability to open the S-IVB inspection hatch underwater during testing was proving difficult. In 1967 with Kennedy’s decision to procure more Saturn-V’s beyond the original 15 contracted for. This decision opened up the possibility of using a Saturn-V for launching the space station. From this decision the Skylab program was born. This program would use a series of space stations launched over several years to increase NASA understanding of how humans were affected by long-term stays in space. With the availability of Saturn-V’s it was decided to switch to a “dry workshop concept” where an S-IVB could be launched into Earth Orbit with the interior already prepared with all the necessary supplies and fully outfitted.
By 1967 the Skylab program was fully funded and the launch of Skylab-A was planned for the end of 1970. As part of NASA long term strategy a stand-down time had to be identified to allow the expansion of the Vertical Assembly Building to support the additional height of what was Saturn-VB rockets. These new rockets would to be too tall to fit through the current doors at the VAB. The construction of the VAB would require 9-12 months and would bring all launches to a halt from LC39A and B. The Skylab program administrator pointed out that Skylab Saturn-1B launches were not dependent on the VAB since the Saturn-IB could be launched from either LC-37B or LC-34 and for these pads the rocket and payload where just erected at the launch pad. The pads didn’t even use the Launch Control center and instead had their own block-house for launches. After some reviews of the proposed launch vehicle scheduling, Apollo-14 and Skylab-1 would be scheduled to launch at the end of 1970 on Saturn-V’s. After this in 1971 a series of 3 missions using Saturn-1B would be launched to Skylab-A. These launches would occur spread out over 1971 and keep US space exploration moving forward as Launch Complex 39 was modified.
Launch Complex 39 had been originally laid out for up to 5 launch pads. For the Apollo program only 2 launch pads were built, 39A and B. As the hardware for the new version of the Saturn-V was being finalized several problems had to be solved. The first was the use of Solid Rocket Boosters, the launch pads would need to be adjusted to handle the exhaust the SRB would put out. The mobile launcher and tower, Launch umbilical tower would need to be changed, even the mobile service structure would have to be adjusted. A new mobile erection and processing structure (MEPS) would be built for handling the SRB’s. The MEPS would be reasonable for attaching the Solid Rocket Boosters to the Saturn-V while it was at the pad. The MEPS with the SRB’s already inspected would be transported to the pad and then secured to it. The MEPS would then use integral cranes to move and attach the SRB’s to the Saturn-V launch vehicle. This would prevent having to do any work with the SRB’s inside of the VAB. Even the crawlers would have to be uprated to support the increased weight of the new equipment. Another issue was safety margins for the launch pads. The Launch Pad 39A and 39B had been constructed with the safety margins taking into account a fully fueled Saturn-V explosion. With the increased fuel load of the new version and the SRB’s that safety margin was no longer existed between the launch pads. NASA proposed to use 1971 window to also construct a 3rd pad LC39C. So by using LC39A and a 39C for Saturn-V launches there was enough distance between the launch pads to restore the safety margin for the new vehicle. This would mean the LC39A would be modified during 1971 for the new launch vehicle. Pad 39B would be kept for Saturn 1 and Saturn V launches without SRB’s if needed. The pad work was added to the 1971 construction contract.
The primary contractor for Skylab was McDonnell Douglas Corporation and they were contracted to modify a total of 4 S-IVB’s into Skylab space stations. The Skylab program as originally specified called for a series of 4 space stations that would all be built to the same basic design. The Space Station where were not designed for extensive re-supply. Even the trash disposal envisioned a limited window of usage. The S-IVB was converted with the Large Liquid Hydrogen tank making up the bulk of the interior space. The smaller Liquid Oxygen tank was left open to vacuum and was used to hold trash. A small airlock was inside the station and trash would be placed in this airlock and then pushed into the Liquid Oxygen tank. It was realized early into the contract that constructing all 4 Skylab stations to the same design would be not be best use of resources, even if this resulted in overall lower costs. McDonnell Douglas was directed to continue construction on Skylab-A and B and to hold off on additional work on the C and D Skylab space stations. By 1969 McDonnell Douglas was working through the development of the new S-IVC stage which had its lengthened increased by 198 inches over the S-IVB. The Skylab contract was modified to use the S-IVC as the basis for the Skylab-C and D instead of the S-IVB. This would allow additional habitable volume over the S-IVB because of the increased size of the stage.
By 1970 the design for Skylab-C and D was changed into a more permanently manned space station that would use 2 S-IVC’s joined together in orbit. This would create a new large Space Station, designated Independence. This new Space Station would make sure of re-supply from either Apollo CSM or the new Big Gemini that was in development. The Independence space station would have an in-orbit Mass of 200 tons and would have almost 30,000 cu ft. of pressurized volume. Each of the two sections would have its own electrical power, propulsion and guidance capability for maximum redundancy in-case of failure of one of the major modules. The Independence would have a planned crew of 6, who would rotate every 3-4 months. However all these plans were still years away. Right now the focus was on getting Skylab-A into orbit successfully.
As things rolled into December of 1970 it was time for another test launch of the new 260” SRB. On December 2, 1970 from LC-37B SA-302 roared off the pad. As with SA-301 a dummy 2nd stage was used again. This time as the SRB climbed into the atmosphere there was no pogo oscillation. As the SRB continued to climb the thrust started to regressively drop off so by the time of SRB cut-off it was only producing 70% of the original 6.7 Millions pound of force. This reduced the G-load that the astronauts would be subjected to. While still greater than the Saturn-V’s 4.5 G it was still well within tolerable limits. The SRB dropped back into the atmosphere and parachutes deployed successfully and AeroJet was able to recover the SRB from the Atlantic. It was a good flight and everyone was happy with the performance of the new SRB. This cleared the way for full scale testing of the Saturn IB replacement the IC once the S-IVC 2nd stages where available.
In January 1971 the Cape was busy with the preparation of Apollo-14 on LC-39A and Skylab-1 on LC-39B. It was planned that both rockets would launch within days of each other with Apollo 14 on January 31st and Skylab-1 on February 4, 1971. Also waiting on LC-34 was the Saturn-1B for the Skylab-2 crew of Tom Stafford(Commander),Paul Weitz (Pilot) and Joseph Kerwin (Science Pilot). Even as the launch work was continuing the construction contractors where already doing prep work for the major construction projects scheduled for 1971. On February 4, 1971 SA-510 with Skylab-A cleared the launch tower on LC-39B. From people observing the launch including the Skylab-2 crew the launch seemed to go well. However after Skylab made it into orbit and the deployment of solar panels was started from the ground it was realized that something was seriously wrong.
The Apollo Telescope Mount panels deployed without issue. However neither one of the two primary solar panels would confirm deployment and they were not getting voltage from either panel. Looking at the telemetry it was concluded that near Max-Q, the micrometeorite shield had torn loose which then caused the primary solar panels to deploy. If the primary solar panels deployed during launch they would be ripped off. The SkyLab space station was surviving on just power from the Apollo Telescope Mount which wasn’t nearly enough power to run Skylab-A efficiently. NASA worked on getting ground based based images of Skylab to try and determine the status of the Solar Panels. In the meantime Mission Control worked to keep the Space Station in the best position for getting sun to the ATM panels. However the preferred position for power generation was the worse position for heat . Mission control would struggle between to keep a delicate balance for hopefully the first crew to arrive. The heat inside of Skylab quickly climbed past 130 degrees without the micrometeoroid shield in-place.
Over the next 11 days a plan was put together to solve both issues. The problem created by the micrometeorite shield being torn loose would hopefully be solved by using a sunshade that could be deployed through a scientific airlock. This would block the airlock from further use but fixing the heat problem took priority. The issue with the solar panels was a huge unknown, where the panels still there or when the micrometeoroid shield was torn loose did the solar panels come away at the same time? It was feared that when the micrometeoroid shield came loose that both solar panels deployed during launch which means they would both have been ripped away by aerodynamic forces. As ground base images started to come in the worse fears were realized by NASA as it appeared that both panels were gone. The general conclusions where that without one of the main solar panels Skylab operations would be severely hampered. With some care the crew could live and work in the workshop with just the electrical power from the panels on the ATM. The Solar physics experiments would have to be minimized. The crew would need to use lights sparingly and their would be no power for coffee or heated food. It was hoped that maybe one of the solar panels was just stuck. The crew would train to deploy the sunshade and bring tools to hopefully unjam any solar panels that were stuck.
On February 15, 1971 Skylab-2 lifted off on SA-208 and made it into orbit without issue. The CSM quickly caught up with Skylab and as they approached Skylab to do a inspection the worse fears of the crew and rest of NASA were realized. Stafford radioed back to Mission Control that both primary solar arrays were gone. Mission Control acknowledged the report and cleared Skylab-2 to attempt to dock with Skylab. However the CSM docking mechanism wouldn’t engage and achieve hard-dock. Despite repeated attempts. Finally the crew was forced to get back into their spacesuits and dock and attempt a procedure called in the book called FINAL DOCKING ATTEMPT. They would have to depressurize the CSM and remove the hatch to the docking tunnel. The crew then adjusted the docking probe to remove electrical interlock that would prevent the main latches from engaging unless the capture latches were engaged. Stafford would drive the CSM into the docking port while the drogue was commanded to retract. Stafford drove the CSM into the docking port and he held it there using the CSM thrusters while the drogue was commanded to retract. After 10 seconds the crew heard the main latches engage and hard-dock with Skylab was finally achieved. The crew would spend the rest of the first day inside the CSM.
The Second flight day the crew made their way into Skylab-A after first sampling the air to make sure the heat hadn’t released any dangerous chemicals inside. The air was clear and the crew was able to make their way into the main workshop. Over the next several hours with several breaks to cool off because of the heat in the main workshop the crew was able to get the sun shade deployed. The crew then retreated back to the Multiple Docking Adapter that was much cooler. The temperature in the main workshop started lowering by about one degree a hour until it stabilized at around 80 degrees. However the lose of both primary Solar Panels was a huge blow to the Skylab program.
After several internal meetings at NASA, the decision was made that their was enough power to continue Skylab-2. However it made no sense to launch Skylab-3 and 4 because the limited power. Instead Skylab-2 would be expanded to a 60-day mission and do as much medical experiments as possible, since they took very little power. All other experiments would be severely curtailed by the lack of power including solar physics experiments. The one bright spot that the US had launched the world’s first Space Station even if it was crippled. However the failure of Skylab gave critics fresh ammunition to use against NASA and how it was consuming billions with very little to show for all this. Over a 12-month period NASA had suffered the failure of Apollo-13 and now Skylab. A change in leadership at NASA was being demanded by its critics. James E. Webb had been the Administrator at NASA for over 10-years now. In talks with President Johnson, Webb decided that it was best for the US space-program if he would resign. This would give NASA foes in Congress something to distract them with by giving them a “body” over the current failures. Thomas Paine who was the current Deputy Administrator would take over over the Administrator position and George Low took over the Deputy Administrator position. Skylab-2 would stay up in space twice as long as originally planned but despite all the issues the mission was considered overall a success. The US had taken back the Space endurance record from the Soviets.
As NASA was suffering through it’s failure of Skylab-A the Soviet Union would launch it’s first space station on April 19, 1971, Salyut-1. Compared to Skylab-A the Salyut Space Station was small with a pressurized volume of 3,500 cubic ft compared to Skylab at 11,200 cubic ft. The first mission to Salyut 1 would Soyuz 10. With the failure of Skylab, the Soviets were hoping to capitalize on NASA failure. However embarrassingly for the Soviets the Soyuz-10 couldn’t achieve hard-dock with Salyut-1 which meant the crew couldn’t enter the space station. They would have to return to Earth a couple of days later without being able to enter the space station. On June 6 1971, the Soyuz-11 crew launched and successfully docked with the Space Station. The cosmonauts remained on-board for 22-days and conducted several live TV broadcasts. On June 30, 1971 the Soyuz capsule un-docked and shortly afterwards re-entered the Earth’s Atmosphere. The ground had lost communication with the crew shortly before re-entry. As the recovery team opened the capsule they found all 3 crew members were dead. After an investigation it was determined that when the Service Module was jettisoned right before re-entry it had opened a ventilation value at an altitude of 104 miles and this caused the re-entry module to quickly lose pressurization. Within a couple of minutes the cabin pressure was zero and killed the cosmonauts on-board. The cosmonauts, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev would receive a state funeral and be buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. James Lovell was sent as the head of the US delegation for the funeral. He would have the honor of being one of the pallbearers for the funeral. After this mission the Soyuz spacecraft would be re-designed to carry only two astronauts. The extra room meant that the cosmonauts could now wear spacesuits during launch and landing.
The state funeral in Moscow would have a positive effect that was previously not planned on. After the state funeral James Lovell was given a tour of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut training center. Lovell was handed a letter from the President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences proposing a cooperative space missions between the two rival superpowers. Lovell was surprised by the offer but he promised to give the letter to NASA administrator Thomas Paine.
The failures for the Soviet Space Program in 1971 where not over. After the failure of the N1 launch in July of 1969 it took 18-months to rebuild the launch pad. On June 26, 1971 another N1 rocket was launched. This rocket would clear the launch tower but still failed after less than 60 seconds of flight when the vehicle started rolling and the vehicle had to be destroyed. At least this time the N1 launch pad wasn’t destroyed but the Soviets had suffered another N1 failure.
Through the early 1960’s, NASA studies had look at different Space Station proposals. The studies envisioned a station launched by a Saturn-V and then crews launched on either Saturn-1B’s or using Gemini Capsules with Titan II-C’s. Proposals varied in size and scope of the Space Station and its purpose. As the Apollo program was going ahead Von Braun, head of the MSFC started a study for a smaller space station which would be launched during the Apollo program. The study become part of many different proposals the Apollo Application Program office was looking at. Von Braun had even proposed using a Saturn-V to launch an S-II second stage in Earth Orbit. The 3rd stage would be replaced with an aero shell and there would be an adapter atop the S-II second stage to allow an Apollo CSM to dock. The Hydrogen tank would be vented and then equipment would be outfitted into the S-II stage through the docking hatch. This would provide a very large 33x45 foot living area. This type concept was called a “Wet Workshop”. However the use of an S-II would require a dedicated Saturn-V. Instead NASA decided that they would use the S-IVB from a Saturn-1B 2nd stage instead since it was not known how many Saturn-V’s would be required for the moon landing.
As the Gemini missions were completed, it became apparent to NASA that working in zero-G was actually tougher than originally anticipated. This put in doubt the entire “wet workshop” concept of outfitting the S-IVB stage while in orbit. Further testing, underwater confirmed NASA’s concerns that it would be difficult doing this much work in orbit. Even the ability to open the S-IVB inspection hatch underwater during testing was proving difficult. In 1967 with Kennedy’s decision to procure more Saturn-V’s beyond the original 15 contracted for. This decision opened up the possibility of using a Saturn-V for launching the space station. From this decision the Skylab program was born. This program would use a series of space stations launched over several years to increase NASA understanding of how humans were affected by long-term stays in space. With the availability of Saturn-V’s it was decided to switch to a “dry workshop concept” where an S-IVB could be launched into Earth Orbit with the interior already prepared with all the necessary supplies and fully outfitted.
By 1967 the Skylab program was fully funded and the launch of Skylab-A was planned for the end of 1970. As part of NASA long term strategy a stand-down time had to be identified to allow the expansion of the Vertical Assembly Building to support the additional height of what was Saturn-VB rockets. These new rockets would to be too tall to fit through the current doors at the VAB. The construction of the VAB would require 9-12 months and would bring all launches to a halt from LC39A and B. The Skylab program administrator pointed out that Skylab Saturn-1B launches were not dependent on the VAB since the Saturn-IB could be launched from either LC-37B or LC-34 and for these pads the rocket and payload where just erected at the launch pad. The pads didn’t even use the Launch Control center and instead had their own block-house for launches. After some reviews of the proposed launch vehicle scheduling, Apollo-14 and Skylab-1 would be scheduled to launch at the end of 1970 on Saturn-V’s. After this in 1971 a series of 3 missions using Saturn-1B would be launched to Skylab-A. These launches would occur spread out over 1971 and keep US space exploration moving forward as Launch Complex 39 was modified.
Launch Complex 39 had been originally laid out for up to 5 launch pads. For the Apollo program only 2 launch pads were built, 39A and B. As the hardware for the new version of the Saturn-V was being finalized several problems had to be solved. The first was the use of Solid Rocket Boosters, the launch pads would need to be adjusted to handle the exhaust the SRB would put out. The mobile launcher and tower, Launch umbilical tower would need to be changed, even the mobile service structure would have to be adjusted. A new mobile erection and processing structure (MEPS) would be built for handling the SRB’s. The MEPS would be reasonable for attaching the Solid Rocket Boosters to the Saturn-V while it was at the pad. The MEPS with the SRB’s already inspected would be transported to the pad and then secured to it. The MEPS would then use integral cranes to move and attach the SRB’s to the Saturn-V launch vehicle. This would prevent having to do any work with the SRB’s inside of the VAB. Even the crawlers would have to be uprated to support the increased weight of the new equipment. Another issue was safety margins for the launch pads. The Launch Pad 39A and 39B had been constructed with the safety margins taking into account a fully fueled Saturn-V explosion. With the increased fuel load of the new version and the SRB’s that safety margin was no longer existed between the launch pads. NASA proposed to use 1971 window to also construct a 3rd pad LC39C. So by using LC39A and a 39C for Saturn-V launches there was enough distance between the launch pads to restore the safety margin for the new vehicle. This would mean the LC39A would be modified during 1971 for the new launch vehicle. Pad 39B would be kept for Saturn 1 and Saturn V launches without SRB’s if needed. The pad work was added to the 1971 construction contract.
The primary contractor for Skylab was McDonnell Douglas Corporation and they were contracted to modify a total of 4 S-IVB’s into Skylab space stations. The Skylab program as originally specified called for a series of 4 space stations that would all be built to the same basic design. The Space Station where were not designed for extensive re-supply. Even the trash disposal envisioned a limited window of usage. The S-IVB was converted with the Large Liquid Hydrogen tank making up the bulk of the interior space. The smaller Liquid Oxygen tank was left open to vacuum and was used to hold trash. A small airlock was inside the station and trash would be placed in this airlock and then pushed into the Liquid Oxygen tank. It was realized early into the contract that constructing all 4 Skylab stations to the same design would be not be best use of resources, even if this resulted in overall lower costs. McDonnell Douglas was directed to continue construction on Skylab-A and B and to hold off on additional work on the C and D Skylab space stations. By 1969 McDonnell Douglas was working through the development of the new S-IVC stage which had its lengthened increased by 198 inches over the S-IVB. The Skylab contract was modified to use the S-IVC as the basis for the Skylab-C and D instead of the S-IVB. This would allow additional habitable volume over the S-IVB because of the increased size of the stage.
By 1970 the design for Skylab-C and D was changed into a more permanently manned space station that would use 2 S-IVC’s joined together in orbit. This would create a new large Space Station, designated Independence. This new Space Station would make sure of re-supply from either Apollo CSM or the new Big Gemini that was in development. The Independence space station would have an in-orbit Mass of 200 tons and would have almost 30,000 cu ft. of pressurized volume. Each of the two sections would have its own electrical power, propulsion and guidance capability for maximum redundancy in-case of failure of one of the major modules. The Independence would have a planned crew of 6, who would rotate every 3-4 months. However all these plans were still years away. Right now the focus was on getting Skylab-A into orbit successfully.
As things rolled into December of 1970 it was time for another test launch of the new 260” SRB. On December 2, 1970 from LC-37B SA-302 roared off the pad. As with SA-301 a dummy 2nd stage was used again. This time as the SRB climbed into the atmosphere there was no pogo oscillation. As the SRB continued to climb the thrust started to regressively drop off so by the time of SRB cut-off it was only producing 70% of the original 6.7 Millions pound of force. This reduced the G-load that the astronauts would be subjected to. While still greater than the Saturn-V’s 4.5 G it was still well within tolerable limits. The SRB dropped back into the atmosphere and parachutes deployed successfully and AeroJet was able to recover the SRB from the Atlantic. It was a good flight and everyone was happy with the performance of the new SRB. This cleared the way for full scale testing of the Saturn IB replacement the IC once the S-IVC 2nd stages where available.
In January 1971 the Cape was busy with the preparation of Apollo-14 on LC-39A and Skylab-1 on LC-39B. It was planned that both rockets would launch within days of each other with Apollo 14 on January 31st and Skylab-1 on February 4, 1971. Also waiting on LC-34 was the Saturn-1B for the Skylab-2 crew of Tom Stafford(Commander),Paul Weitz (Pilot) and Joseph Kerwin (Science Pilot). Even as the launch work was continuing the construction contractors where already doing prep work for the major construction projects scheduled for 1971. On February 4, 1971 SA-510 with Skylab-A cleared the launch tower on LC-39B. From people observing the launch including the Skylab-2 crew the launch seemed to go well. However after Skylab made it into orbit and the deployment of solar panels was started from the ground it was realized that something was seriously wrong.
The Apollo Telescope Mount panels deployed without issue. However neither one of the two primary solar panels would confirm deployment and they were not getting voltage from either panel. Looking at the telemetry it was concluded that near Max-Q, the micrometeorite shield had torn loose which then caused the primary solar panels to deploy. If the primary solar panels deployed during launch they would be ripped off. The SkyLab space station was surviving on just power from the Apollo Telescope Mount which wasn’t nearly enough power to run Skylab-A efficiently. NASA worked on getting ground based based images of Skylab to try and determine the status of the Solar Panels. In the meantime Mission Control worked to keep the Space Station in the best position for getting sun to the ATM panels. However the preferred position for power generation was the worse position for heat . Mission control would struggle between to keep a delicate balance for hopefully the first crew to arrive. The heat inside of Skylab quickly climbed past 130 degrees without the micrometeoroid shield in-place.
Over the next 11 days a plan was put together to solve both issues. The problem created by the micrometeorite shield being torn loose would hopefully be solved by using a sunshade that could be deployed through a scientific airlock. This would block the airlock from further use but fixing the heat problem took priority. The issue with the solar panels was a huge unknown, where the panels still there or when the micrometeoroid shield was torn loose did the solar panels come away at the same time? It was feared that when the micrometeoroid shield came loose that both solar panels deployed during launch which means they would both have been ripped away by aerodynamic forces. As ground base images started to come in the worse fears were realized by NASA as it appeared that both panels were gone. The general conclusions where that without one of the main solar panels Skylab operations would be severely hampered. With some care the crew could live and work in the workshop with just the electrical power from the panels on the ATM. The Solar physics experiments would have to be minimized. The crew would need to use lights sparingly and their would be no power for coffee or heated food. It was hoped that maybe one of the solar panels was just stuck. The crew would train to deploy the sunshade and bring tools to hopefully unjam any solar panels that were stuck.
On February 15, 1971 Skylab-2 lifted off on SA-208 and made it into orbit without issue. The CSM quickly caught up with Skylab and as they approached Skylab to do a inspection the worse fears of the crew and rest of NASA were realized. Stafford radioed back to Mission Control that both primary solar arrays were gone. Mission Control acknowledged the report and cleared Skylab-2 to attempt to dock with Skylab. However the CSM docking mechanism wouldn’t engage and achieve hard-dock. Despite repeated attempts. Finally the crew was forced to get back into their spacesuits and dock and attempt a procedure called in the book called FINAL DOCKING ATTEMPT. They would have to depressurize the CSM and remove the hatch to the docking tunnel. The crew then adjusted the docking probe to remove electrical interlock that would prevent the main latches from engaging unless the capture latches were engaged. Stafford would drive the CSM into the docking port while the drogue was commanded to retract. Stafford drove the CSM into the docking port and he held it there using the CSM thrusters while the drogue was commanded to retract. After 10 seconds the crew heard the main latches engage and hard-dock with Skylab was finally achieved. The crew would spend the rest of the first day inside the CSM.
The Second flight day the crew made their way into Skylab-A after first sampling the air to make sure the heat hadn’t released any dangerous chemicals inside. The air was clear and the crew was able to make their way into the main workshop. Over the next several hours with several breaks to cool off because of the heat in the main workshop the crew was able to get the sun shade deployed. The crew then retreated back to the Multiple Docking Adapter that was much cooler. The temperature in the main workshop started lowering by about one degree a hour until it stabilized at around 80 degrees. However the lose of both primary Solar Panels was a huge blow to the Skylab program.
After several internal meetings at NASA, the decision was made that their was enough power to continue Skylab-2. However it made no sense to launch Skylab-3 and 4 because the limited power. Instead Skylab-2 would be expanded to a 60-day mission and do as much medical experiments as possible, since they took very little power. All other experiments would be severely curtailed by the lack of power including solar physics experiments. The one bright spot that the US had launched the world’s first Space Station even if it was crippled. However the failure of Skylab gave critics fresh ammunition to use against NASA and how it was consuming billions with very little to show for all this. Over a 12-month period NASA had suffered the failure of Apollo-13 and now Skylab. A change in leadership at NASA was being demanded by its critics. James E. Webb had been the Administrator at NASA for over 10-years now. In talks with President Johnson, Webb decided that it was best for the US space-program if he would resign. This would give NASA foes in Congress something to distract them with by giving them a “body” over the current failures. Thomas Paine who was the current Deputy Administrator would take over over the Administrator position and George Low took over the Deputy Administrator position. Skylab-2 would stay up in space twice as long as originally planned but despite all the issues the mission was considered overall a success. The US had taken back the Space endurance record from the Soviets.
As NASA was suffering through it’s failure of Skylab-A the Soviet Union would launch it’s first space station on April 19, 1971, Salyut-1. Compared to Skylab-A the Salyut Space Station was small with a pressurized volume of 3,500 cubic ft compared to Skylab at 11,200 cubic ft. The first mission to Salyut 1 would Soyuz 10. With the failure of Skylab, the Soviets were hoping to capitalize on NASA failure. However embarrassingly for the Soviets the Soyuz-10 couldn’t achieve hard-dock with Salyut-1 which meant the crew couldn’t enter the space station. They would have to return to Earth a couple of days later without being able to enter the space station. On June 6 1971, the Soyuz-11 crew launched and successfully docked with the Space Station. The cosmonauts remained on-board for 22-days and conducted several live TV broadcasts. On June 30, 1971 the Soyuz capsule un-docked and shortly afterwards re-entered the Earth’s Atmosphere. The ground had lost communication with the crew shortly before re-entry. As the recovery team opened the capsule they found all 3 crew members were dead. After an investigation it was determined that when the Service Module was jettisoned right before re-entry it had opened a ventilation value at an altitude of 104 miles and this caused the re-entry module to quickly lose pressurization. Within a couple of minutes the cabin pressure was zero and killed the cosmonauts on-board. The cosmonauts, Georgy Dobrovolsky, Vladislav Volkov and Viktor Patsayev would receive a state funeral and be buried in the Kremlin Wall Necropolis. James Lovell was sent as the head of the US delegation for the funeral. He would have the honor of being one of the pallbearers for the funeral. After this mission the Soyuz spacecraft would be re-designed to carry only two astronauts. The extra room meant that the cosmonauts could now wear spacesuits during launch and landing.
The state funeral in Moscow would have a positive effect that was previously not planned on. After the state funeral James Lovell was given a tour of the Yuri Gagarin Cosmonaut training center. Lovell was handed a letter from the President of the Soviet Academy of Sciences proposing a cooperative space missions between the two rival superpowers. Lovell was surprised by the offer but he promised to give the letter to NASA administrator Thomas Paine.
The failures for the Soviet Space Program in 1971 where not over. After the failure of the N1 launch in July of 1969 it took 18-months to rebuild the launch pad. On June 26, 1971 another N1 rocket was launched. This rocket would clear the launch tower but still failed after less than 60 seconds of flight when the vehicle started rolling and the vehicle had to be destroyed. At least this time the N1 launch pad wasn’t destroyed but the Soviets had suffered another N1 failure.
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It took me a while to find the information again, but the information you provided concerning the reason for the damage to the Primary Solar Arrays and the loss of the micrometeorite shield is inaccurate.
IOTL, the loss of the shield occurred just after Mach 1, and some 10.6 seconds prior to Max-Q. When after punching through Mach 1, a reverse airflow pushed through a small auxiliary tunnel that pushed the shield segment out enough to have the supersonic airflow tear it loose. All within one second.
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=141b0fb1-42fe-4c7e-b817-3c15de4df77d - that would be one source. [1]
http://historicspacecraft.com/skylab.html - another source.
Back to point, both Primary Arrays torn off? That's Skylab screwed good and proper there, given that the ATM was able to compensate for just one of the Panels IOTL.
AFAIK, the N1-6L Launch Failure was due to an unforeseen Gas Flow Dynamics Issue that twisted the open interstage resulting in the loss of control, but the engines this time worked better. Telling them that despite the new problem, they were slowly working out the bugs in the system, but the Soviet Leadership must be growing weary of these spectacular (or fatal in the case of Soyuz 11) failures.
[1] - Accuracy of the first source I can't give 100% certainty to, E of Pi probably knows the situation with Skylab far better than I do.
IOTL, the loss of the shield occurred just after Mach 1, and some 10.6 seconds prior to Max-Q. When after punching through Mach 1, a reverse airflow pushed through a small auxiliary tunnel that pushed the shield segment out enough to have the supersonic airflow tear it loose. All within one second.
http://www.aero-news.net/index.cfm?do=main.textpost&id=141b0fb1-42fe-4c7e-b817-3c15de4df77d - that would be one source. [1]
http://historicspacecraft.com/skylab.html - another source.
Back to point, both Primary Arrays torn off? That's Skylab screwed good and proper there, given that the ATM was able to compensate for just one of the Panels IOTL.
AFAIK, the N1-6L Launch Failure was due to an unforeseen Gas Flow Dynamics Issue that twisted the open interstage resulting in the loss of control, but the engines this time worked better. Telling them that despite the new problem, they were slowly working out the bugs in the system, but the Soviet Leadership must be growing weary of these spectacular (or fatal in the case of Soyuz 11) failures.
[1] - Accuracy of the first source I can't give 100% certainty to, E of Pi probably knows the situation with Skylab far better than I do.
6.7Mlb thrust for the Saturn I(c?)
Wow. Thats not much less than the 7.5Mlb thrust of the original Saturn Vs!
Wow. Thats not much less than the 7.5Mlb thrust of the original Saturn Vs!
Thanks for that information. My primary source for my Skylab information is "Homesteading space: The Skylab Story". I originally intended to just state that the micrometeroite shield was torn loose near Max-Q but it came out wrong in the txt. I am going to adjust that sentence so it should be more accurate without getting to deep into it technically.
Looking at the telemetry it was concluded that near Max-Q, the micrometeorite shield had torn loose which then caused the primary solar panels to deploy.
Yes in ITL Skylab-A gets hosed. It gets into orbit but it is fairly useless and will only be used for the Skylab-2 mission. At somepoint NASA will have to do something to gracefully aim it for a Ocean De-orbit. I did some reading in Homesteading Space and they briefly discussed contingency's if the stuck panel couldn't be freed. However they where not really good. In ITL after figuring out that both panels are gone they extend Skylab-2's mission to 60-days to bet as much medical data out of the crew and use up some of the supplies on-board but it isn't worth it to send up more crews. with the increased funding the focus is getting Skylab-B right.
The Soviets leadership is getting weary of the failures. The bugs are starting to be worked out on the system. ITL the Soviets are releazing that the US isn't stepping back from manned lunar missions. They have to get Cosmonauts to the moon and the quickest way is the N1.
The 260" SRB was a beast. It was intended to develop over 7+ Millionlb but in this version for the Saturn-1C it has had it's thrust reduced some.
http://www.astronautix.com/engines/aj2602.htm
very good new chapter, it would be good to see cooperation between USA and USSR,in space, maybe in conjunction with ESA, establish a Moonbase , to fully explore the Moon ,and prepare the Missions to Mars , and eventual Colonization of the Red planet , and also explore the Rest of our Solar System , and later discovery of FTL. Cant hardly wait for the next chapters.
Very nice, railroads, and other spin-off's
This all sounds very believable--too bad it didn't happen this way. I'm no rocket scientist, but everything hangs together.
I hope Nasa's railroad grows more along with everything else; it's not what it was in its glory days. (Railroad tracks--many now unused, seem to be EVERYWHERE there.)
One possible spin-off of the increased space activity could help the railroads in another way: Some rocket parts are best shipped by rail, and the larger boosters, and more frequent launches, might encourage the loading gauge on some lines to be widened, with corresponding benefits to the railroad's efficiency.
I liked the Apollo 13 abort--that worked very well--though it will certainly be a very different movie, if they make one. I'd expect a bit of changes coming up in science fiction--not sure what, but an epic tale--or tv series--that has the USA and the USSR taking the cold war into space could be on the agenda soon enough...
This all sounds very believable--too bad it didn't happen this way. I'm no rocket scientist, but everything hangs together.
I hope Nasa's railroad grows more along with everything else; it's not what it was in its glory days. (Railroad tracks--many now unused, seem to be EVERYWHERE there.)
One possible spin-off of the increased space activity could help the railroads in another way: Some rocket parts are best shipped by rail, and the larger boosters, and more frequent launches, might encourage the loading gauge on some lines to be widened, with corresponding benefits to the railroad's efficiency.
I liked the Apollo 13 abort--that worked very well--though it will certainly be a very different movie, if they make one. I'd expect a bit of changes coming up in science fiction--not sure what, but an epic tale--or tv series--that has the USA and the USSR taking the cold war into space could be on the agenda soon enough...
Thank you for the feedback. I tried to make it as believable as possible. I am not a rocket scientist either and I know some parts I get wrong.
The thing is with booster shipments and Saturn-V logistics. A lot of Saturn hardware went by barge either from Michoud, MSFC or the Cape. The parts that didn't go by barge went by Air on the Guppy aircraft. NASA had a serious of barges and ships that they regularly used to move items around. The Cape was setup for barge access of large rocket parts. That is one of the challenges of Vanderberg launch site, no easy barge access. Barge access wasn't added ITL till the shuttle program, to bring he external shuttle tank onsite. The book "Stages to Saturn" covers the logistics of moving Saturn parts fairly well. In a lot of ways the Saturn-V was more of a project management challenge than a technical challenge. For example even the AeroJet facility ITL is situated right down the coast from the Cape. In OTL the site was never fully developed and AeroJet abandoned it, the govt even dug a canal to the site to move large loads from the Inter-coastal waterway.
I don't think Apollo-13 will ever be a movie based on what happens ITL. The thing is with the way the abort happened their is no drama about if the astronauts will live or not. Essentially by the time anyone realizes something happened the abort has already happened and the CSM is getting clear. The Apollo-13 OTL, scared NASA and the Nixon Administration and helped to make is easier to pull the plug on Apollo 18 and 19. The Apollo-13 abort ITL demonstrates fairly clearly the importance of having some way to escape during launch.