A YEAR OF DEVELOPMENT TESTING

this is the f1 engine for the first stage of Saturn 5 the vehicle that will launch American astronauts on Apollo missions to explore the moon in November in December of 1960 for this engine reached a program milestone in its development testing when it successfully performed a series of static firings and was declared flight rated the f1 flight rating development tests were reflective of the extensive development testing in progress throughout this nation's manned spaceflight programs development testing design to ensure reliability flight safety and the success of manned missions to this end considerable progress was achieved as the government industry team grew to near 300,000 and as pipelines of Hardware continued to fill Germany development testing was nearly completed and unmanned flights verified systems and structures Apollo Saturn 1 testing was essentially completed and unmanned flights verified systems and structures in Apollo Saturn 1b intensive development testing was in progress in Apollo Saturn 5 intensive subsystem development testing was when Progress basic design being essentially completed for the astronauts Apollo flight crew equipment developed in pace with the program for upcoming tests as well as mission operations facilities continued to grow and confidence in spacecraft designs was increased by the first close-up photographs of the lunar surface the achievements and development testing flight operations and other areas were the result of the efforts of the manned space flight government industry team the team is directed by the NASA headquarters office Washington DC and three field centers the manned spacecraft Center Houston Texas the Marshall Space Flight Center Huntsville Alabama and the John F Kennedy Space Center Merritt Island Florida more than 90% of the work is conducted by contractors spread across the nation Downey California Bethpage New York st. Louis Missouri New Orleans Louisiana Sarasota Florida San Diego California Milwaukee Wisconsin East Hartford Connecticut Davenport Iowa Mesa Arizona in fact some 20,000 prime contractors subcontractors and suppliers located in virtually every state are participating in the manned spaceflight programs during the past year the efforts in development testing and other areas moved program steadily closer to operational flight phases in Gemini the program for developing rendezvous and docking techniques and performing long-duration two-man missions in Earth orbit the government industry team nearly completed development testing during the past year and verified designs and test results in two unmanned launches the first launched an orbital mission had verified the structural integrity of the space vehicle the second mission delayed for several weeks because of a malfunction in a launch vehicle hydraulic system was successfully launched from the Air Force's eastern test range Cape Kennedy on an unmanned sub orbital trajectory on January 19 1965 [Music] the mission verified heat protection spacecraft structural integrity and final qualification of systems including the recovery system when the spacecraft splashed into the Atlantic some 2,100 miles downrange it was recovered by Navy and Air Force units and NASA its reliability now established Germany was declared ready for man the spacecraft for the first manned mission was accepted by NASA at McDonnell Aircraft st. Louis in late 1964 then shipped to Cape Kennedy it was immediately installed in pre-flight check out facilities and within three days the flight crew and technical personnel had begun communications interference tests meanwhile McDonnell proceeded with final assembly and factory checkouts of the next three Gemini spacecraft four manned missions one of the three is scheduled for the first rendezvous and docking mission parallel with McDonnell the Martin company under Air Force direction proceeded with Gemini launch vehicle final assembly and factory checkouts at Baltimore Maryland and Lockheed Aircraft Sunnyvale California continued fabrication of Gemini Agena target vehicles for the rendezvous and docking missions completing the first vehicle and delivering it for an early 1965 static firing as in Gemini development testing was the key note in Apollo the program to achieve preeminent capability and manned space flight for the unmanned Apollo Saturn 1 the government industry team essentially completed development testing in 1964 and the soundness of the Saturn 1 testing was verified by the reliability demonstrated in 3 1964 Saturn 1 launches sa 5 sa 6 and sa 7 these launches extended to Saturn one flight record to seven successes in seven missions the SI 5 and si 6 missions provided flight verification of structures and propulsion and control systems si 5 the first Saturn one with two live stages launched 19 tons into orbit verifying stage design using high performance liquid hydrogen fuel si 6 and si 7 launched Apollo spacecraft test hardware into orbit and provided the first flight verification of a guidance reference platform of the st1 24 type the st1 24 will be used in future Saturn 1b and Saturn 5 missions after si 6 Saturn 1 was declared essentially operational in six instead of the originally planned 10 missions the remaining Saturn one vehicles will launch Pegasus meteoroid technology satellites being developed under the direction of NASA's office of Advanced Research and technology having neared the completion of development testing fairchild hiller delivered the first pegasus payload a fully operational engineering test model to Cape Kennedy in December 1964 for flight verification in space the Pegasus wings will extend to detect the frequency and sizes of meteoroids the Pegasus test model was mated with its Saturn one launch vehicle in January 1965 and pad checkouts were initiated for launch in the near future in Apollo's second phase Apollo Saturn 1b the government industry team concentrated its resources on intensive development testing of subsystems advancing systematically toward unmanned flights and then this nation's first three-man earth orbital missions for the spacecraft North American Aviation and subcontractors proceeded with the thorough testing required to ensure the reliability of command and service module subsystems for example Northrop Ventura dropped test vehicles from aircraft in proving out reliable performance of the three parachute earth landing subsystem North American conducted water drops and tests of command module structural integrity Pratt & Whitney's East Hartford Connecticut plant proceeded with qualification testing of fuel cells which will be the primary electrical power source for the spacecraft Aerojet conducted static firing tests of the propulsion subsystem engine of the service module one series of the tests was the first in the new spacecraft propulsion system development facility at NASA's White Sands operation New Mexico and at the Army's White Sands Missile Range a NASA contractor team launched two little Joe two vehicles in tests of the Apollo rocket escape subsystem under launch abort conditions in both tests the escape subsystem fulfilled all objectives in the first test however one parachute of the earth landing subsystem tore free when its riser was severed and a second parachute sustained damage to a canopy Gore although the command module was returned to Earth within impact tolerances safe for man modifications were made and in the second test the earth landing system functioned near perfection thorough subsystem development testing also characterized the progress of the Saturn 1b launch vehicle Rocketdyne for example completed development test firings of the upgraded h1 engine and prepared for qualification tests eight h1 engines will power Saturn 1b first stages Chrysler conducted vibration tests of a first stage fuel pressurization manifold subsystem to ensure functional reliability during launch and for the second stage Rocketdyne completed preliminary flight rating tests of the j2 engine and prepared for flight rating development tests in early 1965 and late in 1964 the government industry team began phasing from the testing of Saturn 1b subsystems into development testing of major systems following the well established building block approach for example in late November Douglas Aircraft erected a ground test second stage and fired the vehicle in a short duration test the first hot firing of a Saturn 1b second stage following three additional short duration firings that was conducted the first long duration firing about seven minutes in length in late December still other major systems development tests were soon to follow in October Chrysler and Lang tempo Vaught converted the Saturn one dynamic development tests first stage to the 1b configuration following completion of the Saturn one dynamic test program the stage was shipped to Marshall in late December Douglas in the meantime completed the dynamic test second stage and shipped it to Marshall the first flight type second stage to be built and while IBM and other contractors proceeded with instrument unit subsystems tests General Dynamics delivered sections of a dynamics test instrument unit structure to Marshall for assembly the dynamic test stages were erected in January and tests were scheduled to begin in the near future the final verification of Apollo Saturn 1b development test results will be achieved in unmanned flight tests scheduled to begin in early 1966 by early 1965 North American had completed structural assembly and begun subsystem installation of the spacecraft command and service modules for the first Apollo Saturn 1b launch a highly significant flight verification of an all systems up vehicle and subcontractors assemble the spacecraft subsystems for example stabilization and control equipment built by Honeywell the command module reaction control subsystem built by Rocketdyne and heat shield ablation applied by Avco progressing in step with the first flight spacecraft was the first Saturn 1b flight test launch vehicle on an assembly line at the NASA Michoud plant near New Orleans Chrysler completed Assembly of the vehicles first stage in November 1964 and undertook final checkouts in preparation for acceptance static firings for the vehicle second stage Douglas completed major assembly at Huntington Beach California in the fall of 1964 the pattern of development testing and hardware assembly in Apollo Saturn 1b was also predominant in Apollo Saturn 5 the vehicle for the manned lunar mission and other extended manned spaceflight operations while North American essentially completed basic design work for the command and service modules to be used in lunar missions and while Grumman aircraft essentially completed basic design work for the lunar excursion module or LEM subsystems tests were in progress for example NASA conducted dynamic tests of prototype spacecraft docking subsystems to establish an optimum design concept space technology laboratories proceeded with lambda scent engine testing Grumman aircraft continued structural tests of crushable materials for the lam landing gear pratt & whitney conducted performance tests of an experimental prototype fuel cell for the lam while spacecraft testing proceeded basic design work was completed for the saturn v launch vehicle and development testing ranged from functional verification of components to demonstration tests of major systems for the 138 foot first stage boeing for example functionally verified components such as sliding brackets and after similar attention to detail testing Rocketdyne achieved the f1 engine flight rating status for the second stage north american conducted for example structural tests of propellant tank insulation x' and adhesives evaluated the performance of special-purpose rocket motors investigated functional characteristics of engine actuation system hardware phasing into major systems tests north american achieved a first on november 9th with a ground test vehicle single j2 engine firing following the building block approach the company next began mounting the vehicles remaining for j2 engines to conduct full static firing development tests beyond spacecraft and launch vehicle hardware development testing was also in progress for flight crew equipment having accepted applications from scientists to serve on future flight crews nasa conducted development tests of equipment for possible use in lunar surface experimentation and exploration including for example portable systems for life support equipment for seismic measurements articulated plastic garments for protection against meteoroids thermal over garments for protection against the lunar extremes of heat and cold as apollo advanced toward forthcoming tests and missions necessary in the trian NASA facilities progress toward completion for instance the Douglas Huntington Beach California facility and the NASA Mississippi test facility the progress in facilities is typify by the growth of the John F Kennedy Space Center Apollo launch complex 39 where pad a which will be used to launch the first lunar mission was transformed from compacted earth into a near-complete structure to the space vehicle transporter from a five and a half million pound stockpile of Steel into the world's largest land vehicle the Mobile launching structures from a first early assembly into 11 a half million pound towers 447 feet high and the Vehicle Assembly Building was transformed from a cluster of pilings into a 400 foot steel framework the completed building will stand over 520 feet high as the government industry team advanced across a broad front toward this nation's goals in manned spaceflight a milestone of high significance for manned lunar exploration was achieved in July by NASA's Office of Space Sciences and applications and the Jet Propulsion Laboratory when they completed the Ranger 7 mission Ranger was significant because it's photographic data of the moon's surface provided confidence that critical manned spacecraft designs were adequate for lunar surface operations during the past year this nation completed major milestones toward meeting its goal to begin manned lunar exploration within this decade it was a year of development testing a year in which the steps were taken to ensure the reliability flight safety and success of the manned Gemini missions and the unmanned Apollo missions in the following month