Sometimes a malfunctioning test setup actually gives the tested system a chance to show what it can do in an unrehearsed emergency. During a test of an Apollo escape system in the 1960s, the escape system successfully got the capsule clear of a malfunctioning test rocket. Henry Spencer Read Quote
The Orion capsule uses an escape system quite like that of the Apollo spacecraft in the 1960s and 70s: an ‘escape tower’ containing a solid-fuel rocket that will pull it up and away from Ares I in a pinch. Henry Spencer Read Quote
Whether solid rockets are more or less likely to fail than liquid-fuel rockets is debatable. More serious, though, is that when they do fail, it’s usually violent and spectacular. Henry Spencer Read Quote
Past experience, on the shuttle and the Titan rockets, suggests that large multi-segment solid rockets have a probability of failure of 0.5 to 1 per cent. Henry Spencer Read Quote
Trying to build a spaceship by making an aeroplane fly faster and higher is like trying to build an aeroplane by making locomotives faster and lighter – with a lot of effort, perhaps you could get something that more or less works, but it really isn’t the right way to proceed. Henry Spencer Read Quote
As plans for the first lunar landing started to be made, nobody had really thought about who would be out first. Henry Spencer Read Quote
The original specifications for Apollo navigation called for the ability to fly a complete mission, including a lunar landing, with no help from Earth – none, not even voice communications. Henry Spencer Read Quote
On the technical side, Apollo 8 was mainly a test flight for the Saturn V and the Apollo spacecraft. The main spacecraft system that needed testing on a real lunar flight was the onboard navigation system. Henry Spencer Read Quote
In a small spacecraft, it was hard for the other two guys to sleep when the on-duty man was talking to Mission Control regularly. Henry Spencer Read Quote
Claiming that solid rockets are necessary for a heavy-lift launcher is obvious nonsense. Henry Spencer Read Quote
