“Unlocking the Secrets of the Moon: The Ingenious Strategies That Made NASA’s Historic Landing Possible”
Without aerodynamic forces to provide resistance and damping, the LM was an extremely difficult and unforgiving machine to fly. As a result, Bell Aerospace was contracted to construct three strange, spider-like aircraft known as the Lunar Landing Training Vehicles or LLTVs. Nicknamed the “flying bedstead” by the astronauts, the LLTVs were powered by a downwards-facing 19 Kilonewton thrust General Electric CF700 jet engine and controlled by hydrogen peroxide thrusters, allowing the unusual handling characteristics of the LM to be replicated on earth. The unusual vehicle proved tricky and even dangerous to fly – so much so that on May 6, 1968, astronaut Neil Armstrong was forced to eject from his LLTV when it suddenly flew out of control, barely escaping with his life. His quick reaction and overall skill at piloting the “flying bedstead” were among the many factors behind Armstrong’s eventual selection as the commander of Apollo 11. Hardly remembered today, the unorthodox-looking LLTV was considered by many astronauts to be the “unsung hero” of Apollo, without which a successful lunar landing would have been impossible.
With most of the major unknowns regarding Lunar Orbit Rendezvous now resolved, NASA was finally ready to test the Apollo hardware in the harsh environment of outer space. The first flight of a production Block 1 Apollo CSM took place during the February 26, 1966 launch of AS-201, the spacecraft being lofted on a suborbital trajectory by a Saturn IB rocket. The test was partially successful, the spacecraft suffering serious – but easily corrected – failures in its engine and guidance system. AS-201 was followed on August 25, 1966 by AS-202, which was entirely successful and convinced NASA that the CSM was ready for manned flight. However, the tragic deaths of the Apollo 1 astronauts in a pad fire on January 27, 1967 revealed a laundry list of faults with the Block 1 spacecraft, requiring it to be completely redesigned. Meanwhile, development work continued on the larger Saturn V rocket and the Lunar Module, with the first unmanned launch of the former, Apollo 4, taking place on November 9, 1967. The flight, which completed 3 orbits of the earth, was a complete success, reassuring NASA that achieving a manned lunar landing by the end of the decade just might be possible.
Post Comment