The Saturn IB rocket, serial number SA-210, used for ASTP, had a long history. Contractors originally built two of its stages in 1967, at a time when NASA planned many more Saturn IB flights to test components of the Apollo spacecraft in Earth orbit in preparation for the moon landing. was made By 1968, however, after four uncrewed Saturn IB launches, only one had launched a crew, Apollo 7. Four more Saturn IBs were reserved for launching crews as part of the Apollo application program, renamed Skylab in 1970. Without an immediate mission, two stages of the SA-210 entered long-term storage in 1967. Workers later modified and renewed the stages. Before sending them to KSC for ASTP. The first phase came in April 1974 and the second phase in November 1972.
On January 13, 1975, inside the cavernous VAB, workers stacked the first stage of a Saturn IB rocket onto the Mobile Launcher-1 (ML-1), which had been modified for use on Saturn V rockets during the Apollo program. Can be launched to which milk is added. The stool pedestal milk stool, a 128-foot-tall platform, allowed the Saturn IB to use the same launch umbilical tower as the much larger Saturn V rocket at Launch Complex 39. The next day, workers lowered the second stage from the first, followed two days later by the instrument unit. Finally, on January 17, workers stepped off the rocket with a boilerplate Apollo spacecraft while engineers continued testing the flight article at MSOB.
Command and Service Modules – CSM-111 – arrived at KSC on September 8, 1974 from the Rockwell International Plant in Downey, California via C-5A Galaxy cargo plane. Rockwell completed construction of the spacecraft in March 1970 and placed it in storage until July 1972. Modifications to ASTP took place between August 1972 and August 1974, after which Rockwell shipped the spacecraft to KSC. The marking on the shipping container symbolizes “From A to Soyuz – Apollo/Soyuz – Last and Best”. KSC workers brought the modules to MSOB for inspection and checkout, joined the two modules, and placed the combined spacecraft into a vacuum chamber.
At MSOB, the prime and backup ASTP crews conducted tests of their spacecraft in the high-altitude chamber. After the two crews completed simulation runs in December 1974, the primary crew of Stafford, Brand, and Slayton prepared, entered the CM inside the chamber, closed the hatch, and conducted an actual test on January 14, in which the chamber The heights of Up to 220,000 feet. Two days later, Bain, Evans, and Lusma’s backup crew completed a similar test.
To solve the problem of the Apollo and Soyuz spacecraft operating at different atmospheric pressures and compositions and using asynchronous docking mechanisms, engineers designed a docking module (DM) consisting of an airlock and transfer tunnel and The Docking System (DS) served as both spacecrafts from the two countries would physically join in space. NASA contracted with Rockwell International to build the DM. Engineers fitted one end of the DM with a standard Apollo probe-and-drogue docking mechanism and the other end with an androgenic system that connected to its opposite half mounted on a modified Soyuz spacecraft. During launch, the DM rested on the upper stage of the rocket inside the spacecraft Lunar Module (LM) Adapter (SLA), similar to the LM during the Apollo flights. Once in orbit, the astronauts detached the CSM from the upper stage, turned the spacecraft around, docked with the DM and set it free.
After extensive vacuum testing in Chamber B of the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory at NASA’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, Flight DM arrived at KSC on October 29, 1974, and workers prepared it for further testing in a vacuum chamber at MSOB. Flight DS arrived at KSC on January 3, 1975, and two weeks later workers installed it on the DM. On January 27, engineers lowered the DM onto the CM in an altitude chamber to conduct mechanical docking tests. Engineers conducted 10 days of combined tests of television and audio equipment to ensure system compatibility.
To be continued…
Major World Events in January 1975:
January 5 – The musical The Wiz opens on Broadway, runs for 1,672 performances.
January 6 – The game show Wheel of Fortune debuts on NBC.
January 8 – Ella Grasso of Connecticut becomes the first elected female governor in the United States.
January 11 – The S-II second stage of the Saturn V rocket Launched Skylab. re-enters the Earth’s atmosphere over the Indian Ocean.
January 12 – The Pittsburgh Steelers defeat the Minnesota Vikings in Super Bowl IX, played at Tulane Stadium in New Orleans.
January 15 – Space Mountain opens at Disney World in Orlando.
January 18 – The Jeffersons premieres on CBS.
January 22 – Launch of Landsat-2 Earth resources monitoring satellite.
January 30 – Ernő Rubik applies for a patent in Hungary for his magic cube, later known as Rubik’s Cube.