boilerplate (rocketry)

Information about boilerplate (rocketry)

Enlarge picture
Boilerplate version of Gemini spacecraft on display at Air Force Space and Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral, Florida October 15, 2004.


The term Boilerplate in rocketry refers to a non-functional craft, system, or payload which is used to test various configurations and basic size, load, and handling characteristics. During these tests, procedures are developed in mating boilerplates to rocket boosters along with emergency access and egress, maintenance support activities, and various transportation processes. It is far less expensive to build multiple full scale spacecraft and test individual components, while detailed contracts for the final project are being negotiated. It is cost-prohibited to develop the full system (design, test, redesign, and launch) to test all the unknown aspects of cutting edge aerospace projects.

Boilerplate spacecraft are most commonly used to test manned spacecraft, for example, in the early 1960s, NASA performed many tests of boilerplates. Such boilerplates were made for Apollo spacecraft atop Saturn I rockets, Gemini spacecraft atop Titan II rockets, and Mercury spacecraft atop Big Joe 1 rockets. Future space travel to destinations in our solar system will include boilerplate Orion spacecraft atop Ares boosters.

Mercury Boilerplates

Mercury Boilerplates were manufactured "in-house" by Langley AFB technicians prior to McDonnell Aircraft Company builing the Mercury spacecraft. The boilerplate capsules were designed and used to test spacecraft recovery systems, and escape tower and rocket motors. Formal tests were done on test pad at Langley and at Wallops Island using the Little Joe rockets.[1] [2]

A summary of Mercury Boilerplates can be found at A Field Guide to American Spacecraft.

Noteable Events

Section sources.[3] [4]
  • 1959 July 22 - First successful pad abort flight test with a functional escape tower attached to a Mercury Boilerplate.
  • 1959 July 28 - A Mercury Boilerplate with instruments to measure sound pressure levels and vibrations from the Little Joe test rocket and Grand Central abort rocket/escape tower.
  • 1959 September 9 - A Big Joe Atlas boilerplate Mercury (BJ-1) was successfully launched and flown from Cape Canaveral. This test flight were to determine the performance of the heat shield (greater than 100,000 deg F) and heat transfer to the boilerplate, observe flight dynamics of boilerplate during reentry into the South Atlantic, to perform and evaluate capsule floation and recovery system procedures; and to evaluate the entire capsule and rocket characters and system controls.[5]

Photos


Mercury pad test.

Mercury parachute test.

Mercury floation test.


Gemini Boilerplates

Gemini Boilerplate 3A had functional doors and had muli-uses for testing water-tightness, flotation collars, and egress procedures.

Photos


McDonnell plant, St. Louis, Mo.

Flotation and rescue test.

Flotation and egress test.


Apollo Boilerplates (BPs)

NASA created a variety of Apollo BPs. A list of them can be found in Apollo Section of A Field Guide to American Spacecraft.

Lauch Escape System Tests (LES)

Apollo Boilerplate BPs were used in the Launch Escape System (LES) for tests of the jetison tower rockets and procedures:
  • BP-6 with Pad Abort Test-1 - LES pad abort test from launch pad; with photo.
  • BP-23A with Pad Abort Test-2 - LES pad abort test of near Block-I CM; with photo.
  • BP-23 with Mission A-002 Test Flight -- LES test of canards, Oct.29-Nov.5, 1964.[6]
Enlarge picture
BP-29 at Barringer Crater (used for flotation tests)

Other BPs

BP-1101A

This McDonnell Boilerplate is now on loan to the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum[7], Denver, Colorado, from the Smithsonian. BP-1101A has an external painted marking of AP.5. Examination of the interior in 2006 revealed large heavy steel ingots. A. After further research, a new paint scheme was applied in June 2007.




BP1101A AP5. Front view, Wings Museum.

BP1101A AP5. Side view.

Display plaque.

New paint scheme June 2007.


BP-1220/1228 Series

Section source.[8]

The purpose of this series design was to simulate various external physical characteristics and it’s weight of the Apollo command module. These prototypes were in the 9000 lbs range for both laboratory water tanks and ocean tests. These experiments tested floatation collars, collar installations, and buoyancy characteristics. NASA had the Navy test their recovery personnel to train for ocean collar installation and shipboard retrieval procedures. These boilerplates rarely had internal equipment. See BP-1228 Photo.

Orion Boilerplate

Section source.[9]

NASA’s future space flights to the Moon are being planned for 2015. These flights will be based upon the Orion spacecraft and its Ares booster. The Shuttles are planned to be retired in 2010. The Orion boilerplates will be used between 2008 and 2014 using the Ares I booster and the heavy-lift launches Ares V, both of which are slated to launch initially from NASA’s Pad 39B site at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida.

The construction of the first Orion Boilerplate, will be a basic mockup prototype to test the assembling sequences and launch procedures at NASA’s Langley Research Center while Lockheed aerospace engineers assemble the first rocket motors for the spacecraft’s escape tower. The first boilerplate will go to Dryden Flight Research Center at Edwards, California, for integration of Lockheed's avionics and NASA's developmental flight instrumentation[10] prior to shipment to New Mexico’s White Sands Missile Range for the first Orion pad abort test (PA-1) in September, 2008. PA-1 is the first of the six test events in Orion Abort Flight Test subproject. Lockheed Martin Corp. was awarded the contract to build Orion on Aug. 31, 2006

Other boilerplates will be used to test thermal, electromagnetic, audio, mechanical vibration conditions and research studies. These tests for the Orion spacecraft will be done at Plum Brook Station in the agency’s Ohio-based Glenn Research Center. The first boilerplate Orions will launched/tested as early as 2008.[11][12]

The Orion-Ares configuration is known as a part of NASA’s Project Constellation. This project’s plan is to send humans to the Moon, Mars, and other destinations in the solar system. Its base components will consist of the Launch Abort System the Crew Module, the Service Module, and the Spacecraft Adapter.

Further information: Orion (spacecraft)#Testing

References

A Lance Barber, Curator of Military Aircraft, Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum.

See also

External links

rocket is a vehicle, missile or aircraft which obtains thrust by the reaction to the ejection of fast moving fluid from within a rocket engine.

The history of rockets goes back to at least the 13th century[1].
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Booster may refer to:

In science and technology:
  • Booster (electric power), a motor-generator set used for voltage regulation in direct current electrical power circuits

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spacecraft is a vehicle or device designed for spaceflight. On a sub-orbital spaceflight, a spacecraft enters outer space but then returns to the planetary surface (such as Earth) without making a complete orbit.
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Please help [ improve this article] by expanding this section.
See talk page for details. Please remove this message once the section has been expanded. (tagged since March 2007)

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National Aeronautics and Space Administration

NASA logo
Motto: For the Benefit of All[1]

NASA seal
Agency overview
Formed 29 July 1958

Headquarters Washington D.C.

Annual Budget $16.
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Apollo spacecraft was designed as part of the Apollo Program, by the United States in the early 1960s to land men on the moon before 1970 and return them safely to earth. This goal was set forth by President Kennedy after the first flight of the Mercury Space Program.
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Saturn I

The first Saturn I was launched October 27, 1961
Fact sheet
Function Manned LEO launch vehicle
Manufacturer Chrysler (S-I)
Douglas (S-IV)
Convair (S-V) - Unflown
Country of origin USA
Size
Height
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Project Gemini was the second human spaceflight program of the United States of America. It operated between Projects Mercury and Apollo, with 10 manned flights occurring in 1965 and 1966.
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The Titan II was an ICBM and space launcher developed by the Glenn L. Martin Company from the earlier Titan I missile. Titan II

Launch of a Titan II ICBM from underground silo 395-Charlie at Vandenberg AFB, CA in the mid-1960s.
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Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a man in orbit around the Earth. The Mercury-Atlas 6 flight on February 20, 1962 was the first Mercury flight to achieve this goal.
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Big Joe 1
Mission insignia

Mission statistics
Mission name: Big Joe 1
Spacecraft name: Boilerplate Mercury Capsule
Call sign: Big Joe 1
Number of crew members: 0
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Type Crew Exploration Vehicle
Manufacturer Lockheed Martin
Status Under development
Primary user NASA

Orion is a spacecraft design currently under development by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA).
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Langley Air Force Base (IATA: LFI, ICAO: KLFI) is the home of the United States Air Force 1st Fighter Wing and the 480th Intelligence Wing. It also hosts Headquarters, Air Combat Command.
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For people with the surname McDonnell, see .


The McDonnell Aircraft Corporation was an American aerospace manufacturer, based near St. Louis, Missouri.
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Project Mercury was the first human spaceflight program of the United States. It ran from 1959 through 1963 with the goal of putting a man in orbit around the Earth. The Mercury-Atlas 6 flight on February 20, 1962 was the first Mercury flight to achieve this goal.
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rocket engine is a reaction engine that takes all its reaction mass from within tankage and forms it into a high speed jet, thereby obtaining thrust in accordance with Newton's third law.
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Wallops Island is a 6 square mile (15.5 km²) island off the east coast of Virginia, part of the barrier islands that stretch along the eastern seaboard of the United States of America.

It is located in Accomack County, Virginia.
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Little Joe

Pre-launch of the Little Joe launch vehicle.
Fact sheet
Function Unmanned test capsule
Manufacturer North American Aviation
Country of origin USA
Size
Height 55 ft
Diameter
Mass

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Launch Escape System (LES) is a top-mounted rocket connected to the crew module of a crewed spacecraft and used to quickly separate the crew module from the rest of the rocket in case of emergency.
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Pad Abort Test 1
Mission insignia

Mission statistics
Mission name: Pad Abort Test 1
Call sign: PA-1
Launch pad: White Sands Missile Range
Area 3
Launch: November 7, 1963
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Apollo Pad Abort Test 2
Mission insignia

Mission statistics
Mission name: Apollo Pad Abort Test 2
Call sign: PA-2
Launch pad: White Sands Missile Range
Launch: June 29, 1965
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A-002 was the third abort test of the Apollo spacecraft.

Objectives

Mission A-002 was the third in the series of abort tests to demonstrate that the launch system would perform satisfactorily under selected critical abort conditions.
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A-001 was the second abort test of the Apollo spacecraft.

Objectives

Mission A-001 was the second in the series of tests conducted to demonstrate that the launch escape system could safely remove the command module under critical abort conditions.
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The Environmental Control System of an airliner provides air supply, thermal control and pressurization for the passengers and crew. Avionics cooling, smoke detection, and fire suppression are also commonly considered part of the Environmental Control System.
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A-003 was the fourth abort test of the Apollo spacecraft.

Objectives

Apollo mission A-003 was the fourth mission to demonstrate the abort capability of the Apollo launch escape system.
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Downey, California

Seal
Location of Downey in Los Angeles County, California
Coordinates:
Country United States
State California
County Los Angeles
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Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum (WOR) is located on the former grounds of Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. The museum, which opened in 1994, is housed in the 40,000 sq ft (0 m) Hangar #1 built in 1939.
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Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum (WOR) is located on the former grounds of Lowry Air Force Base in Denver, Colorado. The museum, which opened in 1994, is housed in the 40,000 sq ft (0 m) Hangar #1 built in 1939.
..... Click the link for more information.
Apollo spacecraft was designed as part of the Apollo Program, by the United States in the early 1960s to land men on the moon before 1970 and return them safely to earth. This goal was set forth by President Kennedy after the first flight of the Mercury Space Program.
..... Click the link for more information.
The Command/Service Module (CSM) was a spacecraft built for NASA by North American Aviation. It was one of the two spacecraft that were utilized for the Apollo program, along with the Lunar Module, to land astronauts on the Moon. Together they were called the Apollo spacecraft.
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