Apollo Artifacts

Apollo 11 flown flight plan page

This is page 3-108a from the Apollo 11 flight plan. The sheet is from the detailed timeline section located at the beginning of hour 150 in the mission. The flight plan was the most significant documentation used by the astronauts on Apollo 11.

The page has a grid of terms and values associated with mid-course correction engine burn number 5, including pitch and yaw rates, attitude deviation, engine shutdown time, and residuals.

The MCC5 was an eleven second burn using Columbia’s Reaction Control System thrusters which were fired at 150 hours, 29 minutes into the mission. The retrograde maneuver changed Columbia’s velocity by approximately 4.8 feet per second in order to fine-tune the flight path angle into the entry corridor of the earth’s atmosphere.

The burn was small in relation to Columbia’s velocity of 4,075 feet per second at that time, but was critical to align to the center of the corridor. Too shallow and the spacecraft would skip off, too steep and it would burn up.

I particularly like this page because this MCC5 burn is described on page 424 in Apollo 11 Command Module Pilot Michael Collins’ book Carrying the Fire: An Astronaut’s Journey.

Flown Apollo 9 Command Module flown cue card

This oddly shaped cue card fit snugly into a particular spot on the command module control panel. The cue card provides quick instructions for problems faced by the crew.

I really like this cue card because some of the issues it deals with – such as Oxygen, CO2, Glycol, and Cyro – uses instrument readouts found on Apollo Command Module Main Control Panel 2F, and an unflown example is in this collection. The CM Panel 2F controls the Cryogenics and Environmental System controls and is positioned in front of the CM pilot and LM pilot.

In the photo below, taken prior to launch, you can see the Apollo 9 crew with their checklists and cue cards as they prepare for the mission.

Apollo 15 CSM Updates checklist used in training

This 6"x 8" Apollo 15 CSM Updates training manual dated March 29, 1971 was used in the Mission Simulator and then used for study in the astronaut crew quarters just prior to mission launch.

The checklist consists of six tabbed sections including P30 Maneuver, P37 Block Data, Earth Orbit Block Data, P27 Update, P24 Landmark Tracking and Flight Plan Update.

I particularly enjoy the annotations (most likely made by CMP Al Worden) that have been made in various parts of the manual.

Apollo 13 CSM Launch Checklist used in training

This checklist containing more than 100 pages on 8 by 6 inch card stock was the personal training copy of Apollo 13 lunar module pilot Fred Haise.

This manual lists the events that occurred during the Saturn V launch and has specific steps to be carried out by the flight crew. Sections cover boost preps, launch trajectory, launch aborts, boost, orbit insertion and orbital check-outs, TLI preps, and booster (S-IV-B) separation. An emergency section printed on pink paper covers the MODE I to IV aborts. The last sections cover Earth re-entry procedures in the event that that the flight remained in Earth orbit and did not travel to the moon.

For space geeks like me, this checklist makes fascinating reading.

Apollo 17 Command Module Flown CSM Malfunction Procedures Book

From the Personal Collection Mission Commander Gene Cernan this 8.5" x 10.5" book of approximately 140 pages separated by tabs bound in stiff covers with three binder rings.

The tabs include (in order) G&C, SCS, G&N, SPS, RCS, CRYO, FUEL CELL, PW, T/C, ECS, EMS, DOCK & HATCH, EVA, CAMERA, and REAL TIME CHECKLIST.

The Part Number is "SKB32100123-341" and the Serial Number is "1001". This is essentially a troubleshooting guide for anything that might have gone wrong with the command module and thus was a critical and important reference on board the flight.

href="http://freshspot.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451f23a69e20120a718a660970b-popup" onclick="window.open( this.href, '_blank', 'width=640,height=480,scrollbars=no,resizable=no,toolbar=no,directories=no,location=no,menubar=no,status=no,left=0,top=0' ); return false">
In this photo of the Apollo 17 crew taken prior to the mission, you can see the many cue cards and checklists that will be taken aboard the spacecraft.

Apollo 13 flown launch abort cue card

This cue card was from the personal collection of Fred W. Haise, Apollo 13 Lunar Module Pilot.

The information that Haise supplied about the card reads:
"This cue card was carried around the moon on the flight of Apollo 13 during April 11 to 17, 1971. This card was positioned on the instrument panel with Velcro during the launch to be used in the event of a Mode III abort. This abort mode became available in the period of launch just before achieving the Abort-to-Orbit capability. On the cards are blanks to be filled in for a manually executed SPS retrograde maneuver such as Time Of Ignition (TIG), Burn Time (BT), Pitch attitude, Ground Elapsed Time (GET) to reach 300k feet altitude, Pitch attitude reaching .05G, and the time for Drogue parachute deployment. The burn was to change velocity by 6999.9 feet per second to assure an Atlantic splashdown short of the African continent. We did not have to use this card but did have to deal with a much more complicated abort case on Apollo 13."

Apollo Spacecraft News Reference for Lunar Module and Command Module

These Apollo News Reference Manuals were used by journalists who covered the Apollo program. It took me four years to acquire a pair as these manuals have become highly sought after. The pair include almost 500 pages of in depth detail about the Apollo spacecraft in the words of the contractors who built them.

Chapters include: Crew Systems, Displays and Controls, Docking, Earth Landing, Electrical Power, Environmental Control, Launch Escape, Reaction Control, Service Propulsion, Stabilization & Control, Telecommunications, Guidance & Navigation, Space Suit, Automatic Checkout Equipment, Kennedy Space Center Operations, Training Equipment, Test & Reliability, Manufacturing, Launch Vehicles, Mission Description, Crew Personal Equipment, Propulsion, Electrical Power, Lighting, PLSS, LM Anatomy, Biographies and more.

Apollo CSM Cryogenic ground umbilical coupler

This coupler was used for supplying liquid Oxygen to the Apollo Fuel Cell storage tanks. Subcontracted by North American Aviation (builder of the CSM) to Fairchild Hiller Corporation under NASA Contract NAS9-150 (CSM).

Cryogenic Hydrogen and Oxygen comprised the constituent reactants used by the onboard Fuel cells to provide power, drinking water and heating. The Oxygen tanks also supplied metabolic breathing oxygen to the crew.

Apollo Service Module RCS Helium Pressurization Solenoid Valve

Helium is supplied to the Reaction Control System propellant with the helium pressure used drive the propellant out of the bladders at the proper feed rate to the R-4D reaction control engines in the quads.

The helium isolation valves between the helium tank and pressure regulators contain two solenoids: one solenoid is energized momentarily to unlatch the valve, and spring pressure and helium pressure forces the valve closed. The helium isolation valves in each quad are individually controlled by their own individual SM RCS Helium switch on Command Module panel MDC-2.

The momentary OPEN position energizes the valve into the magnetic latch (open). The momentary CLOSE position energizes the valve to unlatch the magnetic latch (closed). The center position removes electrical power from either solenoid. The valves are normally open in respect to system pressure substantiating the magnetic latching feature for power conservation purposes during the mission in addition to prevent overheating of the valve coil.

Thanks to Scott Schneeweis for the technical description of this interesting artifact.

Accessory Products Company
Solenoid Valve, Helium
part # 512000-0014
serial # 100200000059
control # ME 284-0336-0014
contract # NAS 9-150

Rope memory module for the Model 100 Apollo Guidance and Navigation Computer

This is a rare rope memory module made for the Block I (before the Apollo 1 fire) Model 100 Apollo Guidance and Navigation Computer.  The computers that formed the basis of the Apollo Guidance and Navigation System (AGNS) were at the cutting edge of technology in the 1960s. They were the first to use the integrated circuit technology that subsequently gave us desktop computers and so many of the consumer electronic products that fill our lives today.

Each computer had two types of memory, erasable and fixed. The fixed memory contained the programs, constants and landmark coordinates using 36,864 terms or words, each of 15 bits length. That came to a grand total of 74 kilobytes of memory.

The fixed memory was made from coincident-current ferrite cores woven into a rope with copper wires and sealed in plastic. Software components were encoded into a core according to the "pattern" of its weave. Each core functioned as a small transformer, with up to 64 wires connected to each core. If a wire passed through a particular core, a "1" would be read. If a particular wire bypassed the core, a "0" would be read. If you wanted to change the software contained in fixed memory, you had to rewire the sealed core to change the bits. The erasable memory was made from similar materials but with a different design. Each core in the erasable memory could be changed using magnets. Turning clockwise to indicate a "1" or anti-clockwise indicating a "0".

The module is labeled: C P ASSY 1031103 NO.  1003733-011, MFG BY RAYTHEON CO., SERIAL NO. RAY 4

Thanks to Jim Loocke for the technical description of this artifact.