Manned Space Flight (1963)

[Music] late in October 1961 the first Saturn vehicle was successfully launched at Cape Canaveral three days later the office of manned space flight was formed this film will show the steady progress that has occurred in manned spaceflight in the months that have followed within a few weeks Chrysler prepared to produce Saturn s1 stages at Misha Louisiana actual production was to start as soon as the research and development phase was completed at the Marshall Space Flight Center midway through November 61 the rl10 liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen engine successfully performed in a preliminary flight rating test nine days later NASA selected North American aviation to design and build two units the command and service modules of the Apollo spacecraft that will be employed in the first exploration of the moon at the close of that month a spacecraft carrying a chimpanzee named eNOS made two orbits around the earth early in December NASA put its final approval on project Gemini a two-man spacecraft program specifically designed to provide experience in long-term weightlessness and rendezvous procedures then on December 15th the Boeing industrial team was chosen to produce the giant first stage of the Saturn 5 at miss you within days engineers from Douglas Aircraft began work on modification of the Saturn S 4 stage for use in the third stage of Saturn 5 at this time the second stage was already under contract and the configuration of the saturn v launch vehicle was firmly established the first stage was 5 F 1 s the second stage was 5 J 2 s and the third stage was 1 J 2 on December 21 the office of manned space flight held the first meeting of a management council established to assure a thorough coordination of all manned spaceflight activities January of 1962 saw Aerojet general start development work on the m1 this liquid hydrogen liquid oxygen engine will be capable of developing a million two hundred thousand pounds of thrust early in February NASA selected General Electric to supply equipment at Merritt Island Florida for integrated space vehicle checkout and to support NASA in its reliability assessment and integration analysis On February 20th astronaut John Glenn went into orbit to circle the earth three times two days later Bell comm Incorporated was signed to provide overall systems engineering support for the manned spaceflight program to improve interagency communications the Air Force established a liaison office with the office of manned space flight through the appointment of a deputy commander Major General Richland before the end of the month a mock-up of the Gemini capsule was completed at the McDonald plant in st. Louis also in March the NASA manned spacecraft center moved from Langley field Virginia to Houston Texas on the 25th of April the second Saturn was successfully launched this included an experimental test explosion of water filled tanks at high altitude at the end of the flight early in May the separate contacts to produce the major components of the Apollo guidance system were awarded to three companies AC sparkplug Raytheon and Coleman instrument will work with MIT in charge of systems development about the same time convair was chosen to design and manufacture Little Joe to a launch vehicle for Apollo spacecraft sub orbital test flights Mae was also the month when astronaut Malcolm scott Carpenter successfully made his three orbit flight around the earth before the end of May the f1 engine was fired at full thrust for the first time it happened that Edwards California moving into June the green Hut construction company contracted to modify the Saturn test stand at the Marshall Center the modification provided to test positions shortly afterwards a computer center to service the Mishu operation was established at Slidell Louisiana on July 11th space administrator James E Webb announced the decision to base the planning research development and procurement of its space program on a lunar orbit rendezvous mode of flight to the moon the vehicle was informally named the bug with this planning decision for lunar orbital rendezvous NASA authorized and improved at launch vehicle the Saturn 1b had instituted studies of a nova vehicle larger than previously contemplated a few days later it was announced that the new control center located at the manned spacecraft Center in Houston Texas would be the primary earth station for the control of manned spaceflight missions shortly after IBM was awarded the contract to develop and supply the computer facility for the Mission Control Center on July 21st the design of the saturn v launch complex was selected to include a vertical Assembly Building and an earth crawler to carry the 350 vehicle to the launchpad in an erect position off the California coast the first full-scale model of Apollo spacecraft underwent a successful preliminary flotation test in August September 17 1962 the selection of nine new astronaut candidates was announced in Houston NASA approved plans for static and flight testing of the Apollo spacecraft propulsion and abort systems at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico late in September plans were approved for the development of a test facility in Mississippi which will be used for firing the large launch vehicle stages produced at the Misha plant in New Orleans on October 3rd Walter schirra successfully orbited the earth six times he made his landing in the Pacific Ocean a few days later the Saturn s for stage successfully completed its first full duration static firing test a seven minute run at Sacramento at this time teams from Hamilton standard and international Latex were contracted for work on the development of spacesuits for Apollo space man within the week the j2 engine underwent a full duration four minutes static firing test at Rocketdyne toward the end of the month a nasa test pilot flew a paraglider over edwards California it was a successful development test for the Gemini recovery system at that same location three separate contractors began work on a complex of three stands for testing the big f1 rocket engine by the 7th of November Grumman was selected for development work on the lunar excursion module of the Apollo spacecraft NASA announced its confirmation of lunar orbit rendezvous as the selected mission mode for Apollo on November 9th the s1 first stage of the Saturn was test-fired at a full thrust of one and a half million pounds previous firings have all been 1.3 million pounds but this was in preparation for the first two-stage flight to be launched in 1963 on November 14th astronaut Gordon Cooper was selected for a one-day orbital flight to take place this spring Alan B Shepard will be his backup within a few days the third test flight of Saturn succeeded this included a second high water explosion at the Marshall Space Flight Center the Saturn 4 stage arrived for dynamic tests it had completed a 23 day voyage from the West Coast coming by way of the Panama Canal the Mississippi Ohio and Tennessee rivers late in the month the first successful firing of a development engine for the Apollo spacecraft service module took place at the Aerojet general plant in December and NASA contracted with the Army Corps of Engineers to study the problems involved in constructing a base on the moon at the end of 1962 North American Aviation completed the fabrication of an Apollo command module it was delivered to Northrop for installation of the parachute landing system and will be used in the first unmanned flight test with this background of accomplishment in the manned spaceflight program NASA looks forward to 1963 as another period of continuing progress