🚀 go-pugleaf

In article <8371@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU> seldon@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Joe Walker) writes:
>     When visiting Johnson space center I saw a test vehicle for the Apollo
>command and service modules called "Lillte Joe". Does anyone have any data
>on the Little Joes and how they were used. What kind of engine did it have?
>How many test flights were there?

While I cannot tell you much about the early Little Joes I can provide some
information about the Little Joe II series.  For some reason, I find this
rocket very interesting.  Perhaps its the way it looks like a cross between
old and new...

Excerpted from _Apollo_Little_Joe_II_ by Centuri Engineering Company, Inc.,
copyright 1968:

	The Little Joe II is a solid rocket booster designed and produced
	by the Convair Division of General Dynamics for the NASA Apollo
	Program.  Its specific purpose was the man-rating of the Apollo
	Launch Escape System which pulls the three moon-bound astronauts
	to safety in the event of a catastrophic Saturn V booster failure.

	Little Joe II uses a cluster of up to seven ALGOL 1D solid propellant
	motors, which produce a combined total thrust of 860,000 pounds.
	It is the most powerful all [sic] solid propellant rocket ever
	flown in the United States [This was written before the advent of
	the space shuttle!].  All of the unmanned Launch Escape qualification
	flight tests, using the Little Joe II booster, were conducted at
	the White Sands Missle Range in New Mexico between August 28, 1963
	and January 20, 1966.

Following is a summary of the Little Joe II flights:
[A boilerplate is an R&D vehicle that simulates a production craft, whereas
a spacecraft refers to an actual production model.]

	QTV - Test Vehicle	August 28, 1963
	o  dummy Launch Escape System (LES)
	o  dummy Command & Service Modules
	o  Booster: Cluster of seven motors:  a center ALGOL
	   surrounded by six Recruits
	o  Liftoff Weight: 57,165 lbs.
	o  Abort Altitude: No abort capability
	o  Test Objective: Check out the Little Joe II booster, not the LES

	Boilerplate - 12	May 13, 1964
	o  live LES
	o  boilerplate Command Module (CM)
	o  Booster: One ALGOL motor, six Recruits
	o  Liftoff Weight: 57,930 lbs.
	o  Abort Altitude: 19,400 ft.
	o  Test Objective: Transonic buffeting abort

	Boilerplate - 23	December 8, 1964
	o  live LES
	o  boilerplate Command Module (CM)
	o  Booster: Two ALGOL motors, four Recruit motors
	o  Liftoff Weight: 94,331 lbs.
	o  Abort Altitude: 32,000 ft.
	o  Test Objective: Maximum aerodynamic pressure abort

	Boilerplate - 22	May 19, 1965
	o  live LES
	o  boilerplate Command Module (CM)
	o  Booster: Six ALGOL motors
	o  Liftoff Weight: 177,189 lbs.
	o  Abort Altitude: 12,400 ft.  (111,200 intended)
	o  Test Objective: High altitude abort

	Spacecraft - 002	January 20, 1966
	o  live LES
	o  actual production CM and SM
	o  Booster: Four ALGOL motors, five Recruit motors
	o  Liftoff Weight: 139,731 lbs.
	o  Abort Altitude: 61,000 ft.
	o  Test Objective: Power-on tumbling abort

For further information, drop me some e-mail.

-- 
	Eric Cotton
	Commodore-Amiga

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