Posted on June 4, 2015
A few seconds after liftoff, a fin-vane at the base of the booster stuck and started the 13-meter-tall spacecraft-booster combination spinning like a bullet. Twenty-six seconds into the flight the vehicle started coming apart. The abort-sensing system signaled the launch escape tower rocket to fire and pull the spacecraft away…
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Little Joe II- On Pad, Complex 36 (December 7, 1964)
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A pad abort test at White Sands, left, helped determine that the launch escape system could propel the Apollo command module away from danger if a Saturn launch vehicle explosion should threaten
A desert area at White Sands Test Facility, New Mexico, was used for testing the spacecraft propulsion system module