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By NASA
On March 24, 1975, the last in a long line of super successful Saturn rockets rolled out from the vehicle assembly building to Launch Pad 39B at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. The Saturn IB rocket for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project was the 19th in the Saturn class stacked in the assembly building, beginning in 1966 with the Saturn V 500F facilities checkout vehicle. Thirteen flight Saturn V rockets followed, 12 to launch Apollo spacecraft and one to place the Skylab space station into orbit. In addition, workers stacked four flight Saturn IB rockets, three to launch crews to Skylab and one for Apollo-Soyuz, plus another for the Skylab rescue vehicle that was not needed and never launched. Previously, workers stacked Saturn I and Saturn IB rockets on the pads at Launch Complexes 34 and 37. With the successful liftoff in July 1975, the Saturn family of rockets racked up a 100 percent success rate of 32 launches.
Workers lower the Apollo command and service modules onto the spacecraft adaptor.NASA Technicians in the assembly building replace the fins on the Saturn IB rocket’s first stage. NASA Workers in the assembly building prepare to lower the spacecraft onto its Saturn IB rocket.NASA Inspections of the Saturn IB rocket’s first stage fins revealed hairline cracks in several hold-down fittings and managers ordered the replacement of all eight fins. While the cracks would not affect the flight of the rocket they bore the weight of the rocket on the mobile launcher. Workers finished the fin replacement on March 16. Engineers in Kennedy’s spacecraft operations building prepared the Apollo spacecraft for its historic space mission. By early March, they had completed checkout and assembly of the spacecraft and transported it to the assembly building on March 17 to mount it atop the Saturn IB’s second stage. Five days later, they topped off the rocket with the launch escape system.
The final Saturn IB begins its rollout from the vehicle assembly building. NASA The Saturn IB passes by the Launch Control Center. NASA Apollo astronauts Thomas Stafford, left, Vance Brand, and Donald “Deke” Slayton pose in front of their Saturn IB during the rollout.NASA On March 23, workers edged the mobile transporter carrying the Saturn IB just outside the assembly building’s High Bay 1, where engineers installed an 80-foot tall lightning mast atop the launch tower. The next morning, the stack continued its rollout to Launch Pad 39B with the prime crew of Thomas Stafford, Vance Brand, and Donald “Deke” Slayton and support crew members Robert Crippen and Richard Truly on hand to observe. About 7,500 people, including guests, dependents of Kennedy employees and NASA Tours patrons, watched as the stack moved slowly out of the assembly building on its five-mile journey to the launch pad.
Mission Control in Houston during the joint simulation with Flight Director Donald Puddy in striped shirt and a view of Mission Control in Moscow on the large screen at left. NASA A group of Soviet flight controllers in a support room in Mission Control in Houston during the joint simulation. NASA On March 20, flight controllers and crews began a series of joint simulations for the joint mission scheduled for July 1975. For the six days of simulations, cosmonauts Aleksei Leonov and Valeri Kubasov and astronauts Stafford, Brand, and Slayton participated in the activity in spacecraft simulators in their respective countries, with both control centers in Houston and outside Moscow fully staffed as if for the actual mission. The exercises simulated various phases of the mission, including the respective launches, rendezvous and docking, crew transfers and joint operations, and undocking.
Astronauts Thomas Stafford, left, Vance Brand, and Donald “Deke” Slayton in a boilerplate Apollo command module preparing for the water egress training. NASA Stafford, left, Slayton, and Brand in the life raft during water egress training. NASA Astronauts Stafford, Brand and Slayton participated in a water egress training activity on March 8, completing the exercise in a water tank in Building 260 at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. The astronauts practiced egressing from their spacecraft onto a lift raft and being lifted up with the use of a Billy Pugh rescue net. They practiced wearing their flight coveralls as well as their spacesuits.
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By NASA
With the historic first international space docking mission only six months away, preparations on the ground for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project (ASTP) intensified. At NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida, workers in the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) stacked the rocket for the mission, the final Saturn rocket assembled for flight. In the nearby Manned Spacecraft Operations Building (MSOB), the Apollo prime crew of Commander Thomas Stafford, Command Module Pilot Vance Brand, and Docking Module Pilot Donald “Deke” Slayton, and their backups Alan Bean, Ronald Evans, and Jack Lousma conducted vacuum chamber tests of the Command Module (CM), the final Apollo spacecraft prepared for flight.
Inside the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB) at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, workers attach fins to the Saturn IB’s first stage. In the VAB, workers secure the first stage of the Saturn IB rocket onto the milk stool, perched on Mobile Launcher-1. Workers lift the second stage of the Saturn IB rocket prior to mating with the first stage. Workers lower a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft onto the Saturn IB rocket. The Saturn IB rocket, serial number SA-210, used for ASTP had a lengthy history. Contractors originally built its two stages in 1967, at a time when NASA planned many more Saturn IB flights to test Apollo spacecraft components in Earth orbit in preparation for the Moon landing. By 1968, however, after four uncrewed Saturn IB launches, only one launched a crew, Apollo 7. Four more Saturn IBs remained on reserve to launch crews as part of the Apollo Applications Program, renamed Skylab in 1970. Without an immediate mission, the two stages of SA-210 entered long-term storage in 1967. Workers later modified and refurbished the stages for ASTP before shipping them to KSC. The first stage arrived in April 1974 and the second stage in November 1972.
On Jan. 13, 1975, inside the cavernous VAB, workers stacked the Saturn IB rocket’s first stage onto Mobile Launcher-1 (ML-1), modified from its use to launch Saturn V rockets during the Apollo program with the addition of the milk stool pedestal. The milk stool, a 128-foot tall platform, allowed the Saturn IB to use the same Launch Umbilical Tower as the much larger Saturn V rocket at Launch Complex 39. The next day, workers lowered the second stage onto the first, followed by the Instrument Unit two days later. Finally, on Jan. 17 workers topped off the rocket with a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft while engineers continued testing the flight article in the MSOB.
The ASTP Apollo Command and Service Modules arrive at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in Florida. The ASTP Command Module arrives in KSC’s Manned Spacecraft Operations Building. The Command and Service Modules – CSM-111 – arrived at KSC from the Rockwell International plant in Downey, California, on Sept. 8, 1974, by C-5A Galaxy cargo plane. Rockwell had finished building the spacecraft in March 1970 and placed it in storage until July 1972. Modifications for ASTP took place between August 1972 and August 1974, following which Rockwell shipped the spacecraft to KSC. The sign on the shipping container bore the legend “From A to Soyuz – Apollo/Soyuz – Last and the Best.” Workers at KSC towed the modules to the MSOB for inspection and checkout, joined the two modules, and placed the combined spacecraft into a vacuum chamber.
The prime Apollo crew of Thomas Stafford, left, Vance Brand, and Donald “Deke” Slayton suit up in preparation for an altitude chamber test in the Command Module (CM). The astronauts inside the CM in the altitude chamber. In the MSOB, the prime and backup ASTP crews conducted tests of their spacecraft in an altitude chamber. After both crews completed simulated runs in December 1974, the prime crew of Stafford, Brand, and Slayton suited up, entered the CM inside the chamber, closed the hatch, and conducted an actual test on Jan. 14, with the chamber simulating altitudes of up to 220,000 feet. Two days later, the backup crew of Bean, Evans, and Lousma completed a similar test.
he backup Apollo crew of Alan Bean, left, Ronald Evans, and Jack Lousma suit up in preparation for an altitude chamber test in the Command Module (CM). Workers assist backup crewmember Lousma into the CM. To solve the problem of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft operating at different atmospheric pressures and compositions and using incompatible docking mechanisms, engineers designed a Docking Module (DM) that acted as both an airlock and a transfer tunnel and a Docking System (DS) that allowed the two nations’ spacecraft to physically join in space. NASA contracted with Rockwell International to build the DM. Engineers equipped one end of the DM with the standard Apollo probe-and-drogue docking mechanism and the other end with the androgynous system that linked up with its opposite half installed on the modified Soyuz spacecraft. During launch, the DM rested inside the Spacecraft Lunar Module (LM) Adaptor (SLA) atop the rocket’s upper stage, much like the LM during Apollo flights. Once in orbit, the astronauts separated the CSM from the upper stage, turned the spacecraft around, docked with the DM and pulled it free.
Workers lower the DM into Chamber B in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. Workers lower the DM into Chamber B in the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston. After extensive vacuum testing in Chamber B of the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, the flight DM arrived at KSC on Oct. 29, 1974, and workers prepared it for more testing in a vacuum chamber in the MSOB. The flight DS arrived at KSC on Jan. 3, 1975, and two weeks later workers installed it on the DM. On Jan. 27, engineers lowered the DM onto the CM in the altitude chamber to conduct a mechanical docking test. Engineers conducted 10 days of joint tests of television and audio equipment to ensure systems compatibility.
Workers conduct a docking test of the Docking Module with the Command Module at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida. NASA support astronaut Robert Overmyer, right, works with engineers during compatibility testing. To be continued…
Major events around the world in January 1975:
January 5 – Musical The Wiz opens on Broadway, runs for 1,672 performances.
January 6 – The game show Wheel of Fortune debuts on NBC.
January 8 – Ella Grasso of Connecticut becomes the first elected female governor in the U.S.
January 11 – The S-II second stage of the Saturn V rocket that launched Skylab reenters the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
January 12 – The Pittsburg Steelers beat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX, played in Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.
January 15 – Space Mountain opens at Disney World in Orlando.
January 18 – The Jeffersons premieres on CBS.
January 22 – Launch of the Landsat-2 Earth resources monitoring satellite.
January 30 – Ernő Rubik applies for a patent in Hungary for his Magic Cube, later known as Rubik’s Cube.
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By European Space Agency
Week in images: 25-29 November 2024
Discover our week through the lens
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By NASA
The NASA Ames Science Directorate recognizes the outstanding contributions of (pictured left to right) Forrest Melton, Ariel Deutsch, Dan Sirbu, and Chanel Idos. Their commitment to the NASA mission represents the entrepreneurial spirit, technical expertise, and collaborative disposition needed to explore this world and beyond.
Earth Science Star: Forrest Melton
Forrest Melton serves as Senior Research Scientist with the Atmospheric Science Branch, and leads the OpenET consortium, which develops a unique satellite-driven support system for water resources management using six satellite-driven models and publicly available data from NASA, USGS and NOAA. OpenET currently provides data for 23 states in the western U.S., delivers data at daily, monthly, seasonal and annual timescales, and has become a necessary tool for domestic and international water managers and agricultural producers (feature story).
Space Science & Astrobiology Star: Ariel Deutsch
Ariel Deutsch is an early career planetary scientist in the Planetary Systems Branch for the Bay Area Environmental Research Institute. She is recognized for being invited to join the Artemis II Science Team to support the Artemis II Lunar Science Objectives. Her Lunar Data Analysis Program grant was selected to improve our understanding of the distribution and abundance of volatiles cold-trapped on the Moon, which include Artemis III candidate landing sites.
Space Science & Astrobiology Star: Dan Sirbu
Dan Sirbu is a key member of the Exoplanet Technologies group within the Astrophysics Branch. He currently serves as the principal investigator on the Photonic Integrated Circuit High-Contrast Imaging for Space Astronomy (AstroPIC) early career initiative, serves multiple roles on the Multi-Star Wavefront Control (MSWC) project, and is involved in outreach efforts. In recent months, Dan has been the primary operator performing MSWC testing, setting several new performance records demonstrating high contrast imaging of planets around binary stars. Dan’s work also advances NASA’s and humanity’s capability of imaging exoplanets in multi-star systems, including Alpha Centauri, the nearest star system to the Sun.
Space Biosciences Star: Chanel Idos
Chanel Idos serves as the ARC Resource Analyst for the Human Research Program (HRP) in the Space Biosciences Division. HRP is a multifaceted initiative encompassing six Elements and Offices at JSC and three Divisions across two Directorates at ARC. Her exceptional expertise, coupled with outstanding organizational skills and clear, effective communication, have been instrumental in ensuring the seamless operation of HRP activities at ARC. Chanel’s contributions have been pivotal in achieving excellent cost performance for FY24, positioning ARC to enter FY25 in an optimal state.
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By European Space Agency
Week in images: 18-22 November 2024
Discover our week through the lens
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