jewel 1

jewel 1

image gallery about apolli 11

In an unpiloted test launch on July 8, 2009, from Wallops Flight Facility in VA, the Max Launch Abort System (MLAS) reached an altitude of 1 mile before separating as planned.

A view of the MLAS after separation, with drogues and parachutes deployed, seen from a NASA helicopter.

The MLAS test vehicle features fixed fins and drag plates to inexpensively simulate deployable fins or other aerodynamic devices that would be used on an operational launch vehicle.
A rendering of the four major structural components. From top, they are the foreward fairing, the crew module simulator, the coast skirt and the boost skirt.

The four major structural components being positioned for assembly. At center, the boost skirt with the peak of the motor cage assembly visible above the gold rim. In the foreground, clockwise from top, is the forward fairing, crew module simulator, and coast skirt.

The bullet-shaped forward fairing of the MLAS. The vehicle weighs more than 46,000 lbs and is 33 feet, 5 inches tall.

An illustration of the sequence of events during the MLAS test launch. Simulating an emergency event on the launch pad, the demonstration began at 7 seconds after launch with boost skirt separation, vehicle reorientation, and stabilization followed by crew module simulator separation from the fairing, stabilization, and parachute recovery of the crew module simulator.

Workers attend to the crew module in the foreground while the lower sections of the test vehicle take shape in the background. The point of separation between the larger boost skirt and the coast skirt is the metallic strip visible just above the orange ladder.

A technician at NASA's Wallops Flight Facility works inside the boost skirt of the MLAS vehicle.

In the control room, before launch.

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)