Pad Abort Test 1 was the first abort test of the

Apollo spacecraft The Apollo spacecraft was composed of three parts designed to accomplish the American Apollo program's goal of landing astronauts on the Moon by the end of the 1960s and returning them safely to Earth. The expendable (single-use) spacecraft ...

on November 7, 1963.

Objectives

Pad Abort Test 1 was a mission to investigate the effects on the Apollo spacecraft during an abort from the pad. The

launch escape system A launch escape system (LES) or launch abort system (LAS) is a crew-safety system connected to a space capsule that can be used to quickly separate the capsule from its launch vehicle in case of an emergency requiring the abort of the launch, suc ...

(LES) had to be able to pull the spacecraft away from an exploding rocket on the launch pad. The LES then had to gain enough altitude to allow the command module's parachutes to open, preferably with the spacecraft over water and not land. The flight featured a production model LES and a boilerplate (BP-06) Apollo spacecraft, the first mission to feature one. The spacecraft carried no instruments for measuring structural loads as the capsule's boilerplate structure did not represent that of a real spacecraft.

Flight

On November 7, 1963, an abort signal was sent to the LES at 09:00:01 local time. This began a sequence in which the main solid rockets fired to lift the spacecraft and smaller attitude rockets fired to move it laterally toward the ocean. The LES separated after 15 seconds, allowing the spacecraft to take a

ballistic Ballistics may refer to: Science * Ballistics, the science that deals with the motion, behavior, and effects of projectiles ** Forensic ballistics, the science of analyzing firearm usage in crimes ** Internal ballistics, the study of the proc ...

trajectory A trajectory or flight path is the path that an object with mass in motion follows through space as a function of time. In classical mechanics, a trajectory is defined by Hamiltonian mechanics via canonical coordinates; hence, a complete tra ...

. The parachute system worked perfectly: the drogue chute stabilized the spacecraft, then the three main parachutes slowed the descent to a leisurely 26 kilometers per hour. The only problems found with the flight were that the LES rockets left

soot Soot ( ) is a mass of impure carbon particles resulting from the incomplete combustion of hydrocarbons. It is more properly restricted to the product of the gas-phase combustion process but is commonly extended to include the residual pyrolysed ...

on the spacecraft exterior and the stability of the spacecraft was less than predicted.

Gallery

center, 500px, Apollo Pad Abort Test - Nov. 7, 1963 (NASA)

References

The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology

Nasa support manual - Apollo description manual applicable to boilerplate 6 only

Actual weight and balance report B P 6 at WSMR C M and LES for pad abort 1

Post-launch memorandum report for Apollo pad abort 1
{{Use American English, date=January 2014 Apollo program 1963 in spaceflight Test spaceflights