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Episodes Tagged with "Convair"

Posted on February 12, 2015

In January 1960, President Eisenhower directed NASA Administrator Glennan to accelerate the Super Booster Program that had recently been assigned to NASA. This order ensured the transfer of the von Braun group from the Army Ballistic Missile Agency t...

Using a model at upper left, William Rector of General Dynamics Corp. describes the design his company proposed for the Apollo lunar mission

Spacecraft modules in this drawing were identified in the Space Task Group’s request for proposals from contractors for developing and producing the command module

Saturn 1 test

Saturn 1 test 2

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At lower left, E. E. Clark and Carlos de Moraes of the Martin Company display three of a dozen command module configurations considered before the choice of the one to the right

ASA’s second Administrator, James E. Webb (at center above), and George M. Low (right above) of NASA Headquarters receive a model of General Electric’s proposed vehicle

Posted on February 19, 2015

In May 1961, NASA was not really prepared to direct an enormous Apollo program designed to fly its spacecraft to the moon. New and special facilities would be needed and the aerospace industry would have to be marshaled to develop vehicles not easily...

David G. Hoag, technical design director at the laboratory, examines the inertial measuring unit that would measure changes in Apollo spacecraft velocity when propulsion systems were fired

MIT Instrumentation Laboratory Director C. Stark Draper inspects a mockup of the Apollo guidance and control system in the September 1963

astronaut positions

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 syste...

a-002

A-001_launch_1964_05_13

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Little Joe II- On Pad, Complex 36 (December 7, 1964)

BP12

Apollo_LJ_II_flight_profile

a-001 bp-12

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

Posted on July 9, 2015

The key to high-energy stages was to use liquid hydrogen as the fuel.  Liquid hydrogen fuel appealed to rocket designers because of its high specific impulse, which is a basic measure of rocket performance. Specific Impulse is the impulse delivered p...

4-SIV-SIVB

3-Saturn 1b-V

2-Cutaways

1- SIV_rocket_stage