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CSM-107, better known as Colombiawith LTA-8 lunar module in the background.
Lee Hutchinson
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Colombia in peace.
Lee Hutchinson
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Another look at Colombia. Visible at the bottom left is the “steam channel”, where vapor from the capsule’s cooling evaporator was able to escape into space. Other openings include the roller motors for the CM’s RCS (oval openings), the urine and wastewater dump valves (under the oval RCS openings), and, below the hatch, the CM RCS pitch motors.
Lee Hutchinson
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From the side, from Colombia yaw thrusters visible at bottom.
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Details on from Colombia lower and upper ablative heat shields. The heat shield is made of a material called AVCOAT, a phenolic resin fixed in a fiberglass honeycomb. The small, white, irregular marks indicate areas where assembly technicians had to drill out and reapply the coating due to subsurface air pockets.
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Details on from Colombia wide-field Scanning Telescope (left) and sextant (right), which were used, among other things, to align the spacecraft’s inertial guidance platform with the stars at various points during the mission.
Lee Hutchinson
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Detail on the utility connection between Colombia and its service module.
Lee Hutchinson
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from Colombia hatch, shown separately. Despite the apparent complexity of the mechanism, it allowed crews to open the hatch in just seconds in an emergency, thanks to a gas-assisted system.
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Trying to push some light in from Colombia dark interior with a flash. The center console controls are slightly exposed.
Lee Hutchinson
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Detail on LTA-8. Although it now hangs from the ceiling of Space Center Houston, LTA-8 was the first flight-specification production lunar module and was used extensively for ground environmental testing. It has never flown.
Lee Hutchinson
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Lee Hutchinson
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Back view. The injector plate was located at the top of the rocket’s plenum and injected fuel and oxidizer into the plenum for combustion. Huge pumps pushed about a ton of refined RP-1 fuel and two tons of liquid oxygen through this plate… per second.
Lee Hutchinson
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A few items from the private collections of Buzz Aldrin and Mike Collins.
Lee Hutchinson
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A top view of the entire exhibition, which will remain open to the public until March 2018.
Lee Hutchinson
HOUSTON — After Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins were taken to the moon in 1969, the Apollo 11 command module crashed into the Pacific Ocean. The spacecraft then returned to Houston with the astronauts before embarking on a trip to all 50 states in 1970 and 1971. An estimated three million people visited the spacecraft en route, as it stopped in one city per state, usually the capital.
After that tour, the historic capsule was installed in the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum, where it remained as one of the institution’s most prized artifacts. Now the 3.9 meter wide spacecraft is finally going on tour again. It won’t visit all 50 states, but instead a select few cities: Houston, St. Louis, Pittsburgh and, finally, for the 50th anniversary of the Apollo 11 landing in 2019, Seattle. The latter city gets the credit because Amazon founder Jeff Bezos is one of the signatories to the tour.
The capsule will make its first public appearance on Saturday, October 14 at Space Center Houston. During a media preview, we got a peek inside the exhibit, putting visitors just over an arm’s length from the capsule. Up close, we could see how hard the return journey through the atmosphere was on the spacecraft’s heat shield, as well as the wear and tear on the reaction control system’s thrusters. The capsule is indeed an iconic sight to behold, and it looks all the better for a thorough cleaning and preservation effort before the tour began.
During its engagement until March 2018 at the Visitor Center near Johnson Space Center, space enthusiasts can see both the Apollo 11 capsule and, in a nearby exhibit, the Apollo 17 capsule. Both vehicles have been launched to the moon and back and are similar. “This is an opportunity to see the historic bookends of the Apollo program,” said William Harris, president and chief executive of Space Center Houston.
Other intriguing objects in the “Destination Moon” exhibit include the visor and gloves Aldrin wore on the lunar surface, a shiny lunar sample return container, Michael Collins’ Omega Speedmaster watch, and more. A 3D tour of the spacecraft also highlights graffiti left in the “Columbia” module by the astronauts. There is of course also a moonstone.
Taking place on the 50th anniversary of NASA’s moon landings, this four-city tour is a welcome addition to efforts to highlight the amazing things humans can do in space with clear goals and the funding to achieve them. In the coming months, Ars will launch his own ambitious series to commemorate the Apollo program, from its successes and trials to a legacy that reverberates even today in the spaceflight community.
Frame image by Lee Hutchinson