Hello and welcome back. I you follow me on Patreon, you know I made a recent post about
my visit to the USS Hornet. I was encouraged by several of you to do a video version.
So here we go, a little light hearted video for a change.
The USS Hornet aircraft carrier is moored in the San Francisco bay, off the Alameda
island. Besides its many wartime deployments, it is best known to the public for its late career,
being the recovery ship for the astronauts of Apollo 11 and Apollo 12.
The USS Hornet was celebrating the splashdown anniversary of Apollo 11, and for some reason
they also invited our R2 builders group and the Rebel Legion, a Star Wars fans costuming group.
You might, or might not know, that the CuriousMarc channel started with the build
log of my life-size R2-D2 replica. So I guess R2 builders are considered space people too?
Hey, I'm fine with that. Apollo rockets, star destroyers, it’s all the same thing.
But my primary interest was the Apollo capsule they have onboard, which I had never seen. It's an
early and important capsule, the first essentially complete Block I command module to be flown. It
was flown on the test flight of AS-202 on August 25, 1966. It was a full test flight of the CSM
(the Command and Service Module) that preceded the fateful Apollo 1 mission.
It was essentially the qualification flight preceding the Apollo 1 crewed flight.
Here you can see the brand new CM-011, named after its serial number 11, being hoisted up for
assembly. The Block I modules did not include docking capability with the LM,
so they look more pointy on the end than the eventual Block II.
It was the first capsule with a Block I Apollo Guidance Computer onboard.
The first flight and test of the complete guidance and navigation system actually. It also did the
first tests with the S-Band transponder onboard. So quite an important flight.
Here is CM-011 being mated to its service module. This was going to be
the second flight test of the service module engine, with a total of 4 planned burns.
It is also the first time the fuel cells were flown and used. They were only two of them in
this flight, instead of the eventual 3, and you can see them in this photo.
They are the two cylinders with the blue top in the bay with the removed panel.
Here is the booster for AS-202. It’s a smaller Saturn IB, not a Saturn V booster which was not
ready yet. AS-202 had no third stage. An S-IVB, which would eventually become the 3rd stage of
the Saturn V, was instead used as the second stage. It looks like it’s at Stennis for a test
firing. That’s the same place where the recent tests for the SLS rocket engines were performed.
And voila, it’s all assembled, ready to go.
The flight was suborbital, but then, it went pretty high. The idea was to test the Saturn IVB,
the stage separation, then light the SM engine several times under the guidance of the AGC.
This would increase the apogee to 1142 km. Finally, the last CSM firings accelerated
the command module to 32,000 km/hr, in order to match the speed of a low earth orbit re-entry.
Then they tested CM separation, and the heat shield during re-entry. Quite a lot of new things.
And this is August 25, 1966. Going, going, going, gone! Tower cleared!
The booster performed nominally, as did the S-IVB stage.
This is the separation of the CM from the S-IVB. By the way, Fran Blanche recently
released a video of all the separation footage, I highly recommend you see it.
The Service Module engine performed its 4 burns without issues, and the AGC guided the spacecraft
correctly. The heat shield did very well upon re-entry. The temperature inside the capsule
did not exceed 75ºF or 24ºC, while it got to a toasty 2500ºF outside. Note that they did a
skip re-entry, so you have two peaks. However it did not exactly splash down were it should have,
missing our USS Hornet by 380 km. It took 8 and 1/2 hours for the ship to recover it.
This was attributed to the actual lift to drag ratio of the capsule
being different from the predicted one. This was corrected in the subsequent missions.
The other bugaboo happened with our beloved USB transponder system,
which was not the primary radio link for this mission. There were several ground operational
errors, but mainly the signal was too low due to poorly predicted antenna patterns.
All of which got fixed subsequently. You don’t know until you try.
And here is the nicely toasted spacecraft safely back in the USS Hornet bay.
And now it’s being unloaded in Newport Beach, California.
So the CM-011 got exhibited in Canada in 1967, and you can see its post re-entry condition here.
You’d think they’d be done with it at this point. But not quite.
It was refurbished, now labeled CM-011A, and used for a drop test on land. This was to simulate an
emergency landing in the desert. It survived, but that made a big crack in the heatshield.
And you’d think it would be done by now. But no! It was refurbished once more to
resemble a Block II configuration in which the astronauts could train.
Finally, after a long hard life, it ended up at the Air and Space Museum.
By that time, it was in pretty sad shape. You can see that they took
pretty much everything out of it. No more control panel, no more astronaut couches.
All the electronics we are restoring would be in the empty compartments you see here.
But here it is again! CM-011A has been restored to its post drop test condition
and in 2004, rejoined the USS Hornet that had taken care of her (38) years earlier.
[Marc] OK, it’s pretty empty in there. Oh! It’s a flat panel.
Yes, it was a bit disappointing, as the couches were not the real ones,
and the main control panel was just a cardboard drawing,
and most of the stuff was still missing. But they did the best with what they had.
What is really cool though, is that unlike other exhibits, you can crane you head inside
the spacecraft, and get a good feel of the space. I had not realized that when the couches are down,
the feet of the astronauts almost touch the optics panel in the lower bay.
All the electronics we are restoring would be right behind the foot rests you see here. Yes,
I know, a cardboard Block II DSKY. Guys, we made a better repro that we could lend to you.
Fortunately there was still a few side panels that had been left original.
Note that there is also a Gemini boilerplate capsule behind it in dark blue. It’s just a
mockup of the outside shape, but it makes you realize how small it is compared to Apollo.
But wait, there is more! They also have an actual mobile quarantine facility on display,
where the astronauts of Apollo 11, 12 and 14 spent two long weeks of isolation after
they came back from the Moon. This particular one is from Apollo 14.
People were understandably nervous about possible contamination,
and outfitted our Apollo 11 astronauts in some fully enclosed garments.
The Apollo 12 astronauts got treated much better, with just gas masks.
But then our heroes had to do the walk of shame to the facility,
and be greeted by president Nixon through the window. Although apparently he was very funny.
Later on, their ship was also recovered, and they would be sleeping in its shadow.
So yes, as you can read, it is based on an Airstream trailer,
of course completely refitted with all kinds of 1960's whizz tech inside.
It even has one of the very first experimental microwave ovens.
It's chilling to think that astronauts Alan Shepard,
Stu Roosa and Ed Mitchell were in these seats, freshly back from the moon!
But it must have felt great to partake in the celebratory dinner,
which menu is amusingly still on display on the ship.
They also have the recovery helicopter. Yes, our beloved number 66.
Here famously seen during the Apollo 11 recovery. And it had done 8 and 10 before.
However it is not the one that recovered the astronauts,
but the same model that has been repainted and re-fitted to look like the original.
Inside, it is military rough, but must have felt like paradise to the returning astronauts.
There are also quite a few vintage aircrafts on display, and you can visit the whole ship,
which takes a very long time. I had not realized that an F14 was this large.
Alright, that's it folks, for this slightly different episode than usual.
And you better behave, lest the Ewoks will chop your head off...
See you in the next episode!