Mercury Little Joe 2 (LJ-2) - 1959 December 4

Mercury Little Joe 2 (LJ-2) - LJ-2 was launched from Wallops Island to determine the motions of the spacecraft escape tower combination during a high-altitude abort, entry dynamics without a control system, physiological effects of acceleration on a small primate, operation of the drogue parachute, and effectiveness of the recovery operation. Telemetry was set up to record some 80 bits of information on the flight. The abort sequence was initiated by timers after 59 seconds of elapsed flight time at an altitude of about 96,000 feet and a speed of Mach 5.5. Escape motor firing occurred as planned and the spacecraft was whisked away at a speed of about Mach 6 to an apogee of 53.03 statute miles. All other sequences operated as planned, and spacecraft recovery was effected in about 2 hours from lift-off. The primate passenger, 'Sam,' an American-born rhesus monkey, withstood the trip and the recovery in good condition. All objectives of the mission were met (http://www.astronautix.com/project/mercury.htm).

Raw pictures extracted from vintage NASA movie (Mercury First Quarterly Report Oct-Dec 1959 NASA).

Apollo Escape System Tested

Apollo Launch Escape System Test. (LES) is a system connected to the crew module of a crewed spacecraft and used to quickly separate the crew module from the rest of the rocket in case of emergency. Apollo LES pad abort Test with boilerplate crew module.

Original pictures

Apollo 5, 22 jan. 1968. First test Lunar module 1

Apollo 5 was the first unmanned flight of the Apollo Lunar Module (LM). It lifted off on January 22, 1968, with a Saturn 1B rocket on an Earth-orbital flight. Vertical panorama assembled from NASA Educational Documentary (1968).

 


Raw pictures