Apollo CSM
Apollo CSM
Credit - © Mark Wade
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Other Designations: Command Service Module. Class: Manned. Type: Lunar Orbiter. Destination: Moon. Nation: USA. Agency: NASA. Manufacturer: North American.

The Apollo Command Service Module was the spacecraft developed by NASA in the 1960's as a standard spacecraft for earth and lunar orbit missions. Block II CSM's were the only version to fly manned, and they successfully ferried crews to the moon, to the Skylab space station, and to a joint docking with the Russian Soyuz. No production was undertaken after the initial run of 13 Block II capsules - Apollo was abandoned in favor of the Shuttle as the ferry for American manned spaceflight. Forty years later, the Shuttle was to be retired, and a design similar to the Apollo, the CEV, was conceived as the Shuttle's 'replacement'.

See Apollo Spacecraft Systems Development Diaries for details on development of the CSM by subsystem.

Unit Cost $: 77.000 million. Crew Size: 3. Length: 11.03 m (36.18 ft). Maximum Diameter: 3.90 m (12.70 ft). Habitable Volume: 6.17 m3. Mass: 30,329 kg (66,863 lb). RCS Impulse: 3,774 kgf-sec. Main Engine: AJ10-137. Main Engine Thrust: 97.860 kN (22,000 lbf). Main Engine Propellants: N2O4/UDMH. Main Engine Propellants: 18,488 kg (40,759 lb). Main Engine Isp: 314 sec. Spacecraft delta v: 2,804 m/s (9,199 ft/sec). Electrical System: Fuel Cells. Electric System: 6.30 average kW. Electric System: 690.00 kWh. Associated Launch Vehicle: Saturn I, Saturn IB, Saturn V.

  • Apollo CMOther Designations: Command Module. Part of: Apollo CSM. Class: Manned. Type: Spacecraft Module.

    Crew Size: 3. Length: 3.47 m (11.38 ft). Basic Diameter: 3.90 m (12.70 ft). Maximum Diameter: 3.90 m (12.70 ft). Habitable Volume: 6.17 m3. Mass: 5,806 kg (12,800 lb). Structure Mass: 1,567 kg (3,454 lb). Heat Shield Mass: 848 kg (1,869 lb). Reaction Control System: 400 kg (880 lb). Recovery Equipment: 245 kg (540 lb). Navigation Equipment: 505 kg (1,113 lb). Telemetry Equipment: 200 kg (440 lb). Electrical Equipment: 700 kg (1,540 lb). Communications Systems: 100 kg (220 lb). Crew Seats and Provisions: 550 kg (1,210 lb). Crew mass: 216 kg (476 lb). Miscellaneous Contingency: 200 kg (440 lb). Environmental Control System: 200 kg (440 lb). RCS Coarse No x Thrust: 12 x 410 N. RCS Propellants: N2O4/UDMH. RCS Isp: 290 sec. RCS Impulse: 257 kgf-sec. Main Engine Propellants: n/a. Main Engine Propellants: 75 kg (165 lb). L/D Hypersonic: 0.30. Electrical System: Batteries. Electric System: 20.00 kWh. Battery: 1,000.00 Ah.

  • Apollo SMOther Designations: Service Module. Part of: Apollo CSM. Class: Manned. Type: Spacecraft Module.

    Length: 7.56 m (24.80 ft). Basic Diameter: 3.90 m (12.70 ft). Maximum Diameter: 3.90 m (12.70 ft). Mass: 24,523 kg (54,063 lb). Structure Mass: 1,910 kg (4,210 lb). Electrical Equipment: 1,200 kg (2,600 lb). RCS Coarse No x Thrust: 16 x 440 N. RCS Propellants: N2O4/UDMH. RCS Isp: 290 sec. RCS Impulse: 3,517 kgf-sec. Main Engine: 3,000 kg (6,600 lb). Main Engine Thrust: 97.860 kN (22,000 lbf). Main Engine Propellants: N2O4/UDMH. Main Engine Propellants: 18,413 kg (40,593 lb). Main Engine Isp: 314 sec. Spacecraft delta v: 2,804 m/s (9,199 ft/sec). Electrical System: Fuel Cells. Electric System: 6.30 average kW. Electric System: 670.00 kWh.


Bibliography and Further Reading
  • McDowell, Jonathan, Jonathan's Space Home Page, Harvard University, 1997-present. Jonathan McDowell's complete on-line listing of all objects orbited and over 20,000 rocket launches Accessed at: http://www.planet4589.org/jsr.html.
  • Baker, David, The History of Manned Spaceflight, Crown, New York, 1981. The best overview of America's manned space programs up to Skylab. Information and details not available anywhere else. Unfortunately out of print and difficult to locate.
  • Chaikin, Andrew, A Man on the Moon, Viking, New York, 1994. ISBN: 0140272011. Highly touted but perhaps overrated survey of the Apollo missions. More at amazon.com...
  • Furniss, Tim, Manned Spaceflight Log, Jane's, London, 1986. ISBN: 0710604025. Summary of all manned spaceflights up to 1986. Pre-Glasnost, so many 'war stories' of Soviet manned spaceflight are not included. More at amazon.com...
  • Turnill, Reginald,, The Observer's Spaceflight Directory, Frederick Warne, London, 1978. ISBN: 0723220514. Good miniature encyclopaedia of space programs just before the shuttle started flying. More at amazon.com...
  • Wilson, Keith T., Spaceflight, "EVA Log 1965-1997", 1998, Volume 40, page 85.
  • Wade, Mark, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, "World Manned Spacecraft Characteristics", 1981, Volume 34, page 425.
  • Loftus, J P, Journal of the British Interplanetary Society, "An Historical Overview of NASA Manned Spacecraft and their Crew Stations", 1985, Volume 38, page 354.
  • Kraft, Christopher C, editor, Manned Spacecraft: Engineering Design and Operation, NASA, 1968.. Collection of articles presenting technical aspects of the design of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo spacecraft.
  • Cassutt, Michael and Slayton, Deke, Deke! U.S. Manned Space: from Mercury to the Shuttle, Tom Doherty Associates, New York, 1994. ISBN: 031285918X. Absolutely the best astronaut biography - full inside details on the personalities of the US astronauts from the one who knew them all - and decided who would go to the moon. More at amazon.com...
  • Kamanin, N P, Skritiy kosmos, Infortext, Moscow, 1995. The diary of the Commander of the Soviet Cosmonaut Team in the 1960's - a source of great insights into the space program. Four volumes issued to date.
  • Ezell, Edward Clinton and Ezell, Linda Neuman, The Partnership: A History of the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project, NASA History Series SP-4209, 1978. NASA official history of the first international manned space project.
  • Gatland, Kenneth, Manned Spacecraft, Macmillan, New York, 1968. ISBN: 0025428209. First of a marvelous series of pocket-size hardbacks covering spacecraft and rocketry. More at amazon.com...
  • WDC Rocket File (electronic version, supplied 2001) (via Jonathon McDowell).
  • Oberg, James, and Cassutt, MIchael, Spaceflight, "Phantom Space Crews", Vol 26, June 1984, p. 274.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

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