So, who wants to win 1 million Euro?

[dwight]

Hang on Jason, you mean to tell me the asstronuts didnt use the LES to leave the CSM and be flown in total secrecy to Area 51? The mind boggles. Why didnt Jarrah inform me of this??

[gillianren]

The poor things are being hunted to extinction by the Sasquatch.  Something must be done. 

A local beer company is offering $1,000,000 for a capture of Sasquatch.  Of course, I believe they actually have a million dollars, unlike Heiwa's imaginary Euros.

[JayUtah]

Well it continues to throw me. I still have absolutely no idea what the Launch Escape System was actually used for.

It was fastened into the CM docking probe apparatus and pulled the CM free in case the Saturn V exploded.  Consider it has to be powerful enough to outrun an exploding Saturn V.  That should give you an indication of the potential g-forces the crew would have experienced.

I've mentioned before that my friend Chris was working as an engineer on the Orion LES, and they were using the Apollo-Saturn LES as an example (since the company he works for was the original LES contractor).  He was working from full-scale original drawings of the LES from their archives.  Those who say the "plans for the Saturn V don't exist anymore" don't really realize what "the plans" consist of.  I'd be hard-pressed today to find a machine that could copy or digitize the drawings we were looking at.

Moon Machines has some footage of the (in)famous Little Joe test, where the rocket actually suffered an unexpected guidance failure and added some spice to the test.  It's probably YouTubable.

[Hal]

The designers of the Soviet LES for the N1 had to take some consolation from the fact that they successfully 'saved' the dummy capsules from the first two launch failures.  According to Wikipedia, the third N1 launch vehicle wasn't fitted with an LES, but the article isn't clear whether it was present for the fourth.  Since that last flight lasted almost 107s, would the LES have still been viable, anyway?

[Noldi400]

Well it continues to throw me. I still have absolutely no idea what the Launch Escape System was actually used for.

It was fastened into the CM docking probe apparatus and pulled the CM free in case the Saturn V exploded.  Consider it has to be powerful enough to outrun an exploding Saturn V.  That should give you an indication of the potential g-forces the crew would have experienced.

I think I remember hearing Jim Lovell say during an interview that you really didn't want to use the LES because you would be pulling about 20 g for a few seconds.

[smartcooky]

Well it continues to throw me. I still have absolutely no idea what the Launch Escape System was actually used for.

It was fastened into the CM docking probe apparatus and pulled the CM free in case the Saturn V exploded.  Consider it has to be powerful enough to outrun an exploding Saturn V.  That should give you an indication of the potential g-forces the crew would have experienced.

I think I remember hearing Jim Lovell say during an interview that you really didn't want to use the LES because you would be pulling about 20 g for a few seconds.

That is much the same level of "G" as a typical "zero-zero" rocket powered ejection seat.

The F-111 used to eject the whole cockpit/crew module with pilots still inside, but the "G" forces were much lower. I witnessed this personally in 1979 when a RAAF F-111 crashed on takeoff at Ohakea AFB.

[Allan F]

Moon Machines has some footage of the (in)famous Little Joe test, where the rocket actually suffered an unexpected guidance failure and added some spice to the test.  It's probably YouTubable.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AqeJzItldSQ

[Count Zero]

On September 26, 1983 the LES on a Soyuz rocket saved the 2-man crew from a pad fire prior to launch:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Soyuz_T-10-1

I've always been amused by the reaction of the military spectators at 0:38.  "Yeah, oh well..."

[twik]

Don't forget the giant slugs.

And tree octopus!

The poor things are being hunted to extinction by the Sasquatch.  Something must be done.

OK, I'm on it! (goes off to kill all the Sasquatch)

[Glom]

Well it continues to throw me. I still have absolutely no idea what the Launch Escape System was actually used for.

It was fastened into the CM docking probe apparatus and pulled the CM free in case the Saturn V exploded.  Consider it has to be powerful enough to outrun an exploding Saturn V.  That should give you an indication of the potential g-forces the crew would have experienced.

I've mentioned before that my friend Chris was working as an engineer on the Orion LES, and they were using the Apollo-Saturn LES as an example (since the company he works for was the original LES contractor).  He was working from full-scale original drawings of the LES from their archives.  Those who say the "plans for the Saturn V don't exist anymore" don't really realize what "the plans" consist of.  I'd be hard-pressed today to find a machine that could copy or digitize the drawings we were looking at.

Moon Machines has some footage of the (in)famous Little Joe test, where the rocket actually suffered an unexpected guidance failure and added some spice to the test.  It's probably YouTubable.

Full-scale? Did all parts have this?

[Echnaton]

Don't forget the giant slugs.

And tree octopus!

The poor things are being hunted to extinction by the Sasquatch.  Something must be done.

OK, I'm on it! (goes off to kill all the Sasquatch)

Wait for me.  I've got my 12 gauge and .30-06 loaded.

[Noldi400]

A quick question:

We know Apollo 17 landed at (appx)  20.2 N Latitude, 30.8 E Longitude.

The ALSEP antenna orientation page from the LMPs cuff checklist looks like this:



Does anyone know why they would have listed the numbers with the decimal shifted one place to the left?

BTW, this is pursuant to an ongoing battle with Hunchbacked ignorance.

[Count Zero]

In conspiretard-world, nobody ever makes misteaks.

[raven]

In conspiretard-world, nobody ever makes misteaks.

Except when they reveal the conspiracy, but would be incredibly stupid to make, like crosshairs being obstructed by composition errors, or forgetting to dig a crater under the "LEM", or add stars to the sky.

[dwight]

Dont forget using wires set up off centre, 16mm faked to look like video, and coke bottles rolling across the set in all their illegible 320 line glory.

PS I had to chuckle: a few minutes after Jay described the LES/Little Joe tests, I was going through re-compiling all the Skylab footage I have on various DVDs. After the one section I was working on had finished rendering, I see the title pop up for the next film...Little Joe!!