a (CM-007A)_v_bw_o_n (1968, unnumbered press photo)

“Apollo spacecraft in upright position for remainder of 48-hr test. Air bags at top were inflated to right spacecraft.”

A fantastic non-NASA photograph, taken by Houston Chronicle staff photographer, David Nance.

Can you spot some of the external CM-007-to-CM-007A modifications when compared to my other linked photos, below? That is, if you even care to.

Further…it don’t get no better than this:

“CM-007/007A is a North American Aviation production-line Apollo Command Module (CM) spacecraft designated as a ground test vehicle for water impact, acoustic and vibration, and postlanding tests. The CM was skinned with cork on the aft and crew compartment heat shields to simulate the flight ablator. CM-007 was in the Block I configuration and initially used in impact and acoustic testing at the manufacturer in Downey, California. It was the first Apollo Command Module delivered to the NASA-Manned Spacecraft Center (NASA-MSC) and was assigned to be used in manned postlanding tests to be conducted by the Landing and Recovery Division. These tests included systems operational and crew compatibility tests for uprighting, postlanding ECS, postlanding communications systems and recovery.

After delivery to Houston in April, 1966, CM-007 was prepared for open water tests in the Gulf of Mexico to operationally qualify the Block I CM postlanding systems. The manned Block I 48-hour open water tests in the Gulf of Mexico were successfully conducted with a NASA test subject crew (Harry Clancy, Tex Ward, Lou DeWolf) onboard CM-007 on September 30 - October 2, 1966.

Following completion of the Block I tests, CM-007 was shipped back to North American Rockwell in 1967 for modification to Block II (CM101/Apollo 7 had a two-hatch configuration in the tunnel as compared to subsequent missions which had a single unified tunnel hatch configuration.) After modification, CM-007 was designated CM-007A and returned to NASA-MSC for testing.

After the modifications, the manned Block II 48-hour open water tests in the Gulf of Mexico were successfully conducted with an astronaut crew (James A. Lovell, Jr., Stuart A. Roosa, and Charles M. Duke, Jr.) onboard CM007A on April 5-7, 1968. After returning to NASA/MSC, the tunnel hatch was reconfigured to the single unified hatch by a contractor team. Additional static water testing of the uprighting system bag failure modes continued in 1968 in NASA-MSC Building-260 water tank. To support Skylab, CM-007A was used in extreme postlanding environment by simulating equatorial summer heat/humidity and higher latitude cold conditions to test the performance of the Skylab command module postlanding and recovery systems. Skylab flights were launched on a 50-degree inclination with the spacecraft passing over regions of the Earth considerably warmer/colder than experienced before. The equatorial conditions were achieved in the Building-260 water tank with an enclosure. The cold conditions were achieved in Eglin Air Force base’s Climatic Laboratory in September, 1971 in Florida.

Following the cold environment tests, CM-007A was returned to MSC and stored until being restored by SpaceWorks at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in 1988 for museum static display purposes. CM-007A is currently displayed at The Museum of Flight in Seattle, Washington.

July 22, 2011

Written By:
Coye Mac Jones
NASA-MSC/LRD Vehicle Project Engineer for CM-007/007A in 1966-68
Retired NASA-Johnson Space Center/Houston in January 2003”

The above at/from…WITH PHOTOS!!!:

www.jonessite.net/upload/LRD/stories/CM007A.pdf
Credit: Coye Mac Jones’ wonderful website

Also:

www.popsci.com/blog-network/vintage-space/when-astronauts...
Credit: Popular Science website

Taken on: March 19, 2024

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Sets appears in: • Breaking The Bonds & Firsts • Early Apollo: Construction, Testing & Flying Begin

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