Boilerplate (rocketry)

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For other uses, see Boilerplate.
Boilerplate version of Gemini spacecraft on display at Air Force Space and Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral, Florida October 15, 2004.
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. It is far less expensive to build multiple, full-scale, non-functional boilerplate spacecraft than it is to develop the full system (design, test, redesign, and launch). In this way, boilerplate spacecraft allow components and aspects of cutting-edge aerospace projects to be tested while detailed contracts for the final project are being negotiated. 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.

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, and Mercury spacecraft atop Atlas rockets (for example Big Joe 1). Space Shuttle Enterprise is also an example of a boilerplater spacecraft. The development of NASA's Project Constellation will utilise boilerplate Orion spacecraft atop Ares I rockets for initial testing.

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[edit] Mercury boilerplates

Mercury boilerplates were manufactured "in-house" by Langley AFB technicians prior to McDonnell Aircraft Company building 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 the 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.

[edit] Notable 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 was to determine the performance of the heat shield (greater than 100,000 °F) and heat transfer to the boilerplate, to observe flight dynamics of boilerplate during re-entry into the South Atlantic, to perform and evaluate capsule floatation and recovery system procedures, and to evaluate the entire capsule and rocket characters and system controls.[5]
  • Mercury-Redstone BD

[edit] Photos

Mercury pad test.

Mercury parachute test.

Mercury flotation test.


[edit] Gemini boilerplates

There were 7 Gemini boilerplates: BP-1, 2, 3, 3A, 4, 5, and 201. [6] Gemini Boilerplate 3A had functional doors and had multi-uses for testing watertightness, flotation collars, and egress procedures.

[edit] Photos

McDonnell plant, St. Louis, Mo.

Floatation and rescue test.

Floatation and egress test.

[edit] Apollo boilerplates

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

[edit] Lauch escape system tests (LES)

Apollo boilerplates 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.[7]
BP-29 at Barringer Crater (used for flotation tests)
BP-29 at Barringer Crater (used for flotation tests)
  • BP-27 with LES-015 - Dynamic tests.[8]

[edit] Boilerplate tests

  • BP-1 - Water impact tests[8]
  • BP-2 - Floatation tests storage[8]
  • BP-3 - Paracute tests[8]
  • BP-6 - Aerial drop test vehicle[8]
  • BP-9 with Mission A-105(SA-10) Test Flight, Micro Meteroid Dynamic Test; not recovered.[8]
  • BP-12 with Mission A-001 Test Flight[7]
  • BP-13 with Mission A-101(SA-6) Test Flight, not recovered[8]
  • BP-14 with environmental control system tests, Oct. 22-29, 1964,[7], consisted of Command Module 14, Service Module 3, Launch Escape System 14, and Saturn Launch Adapters.[8]
  • BP-15 with Mission A-102(SA-7) Test Flight, not recovered.[8]
  • BP-16 with Mission A-103 Test Flight, another Micro Meteriod test, not recovered.[8]
  • BP-19A - VHF antenna recovery tests[8]
  • BP-22 with Mission A-003 Test Flight[9]
  • BP-23A - Display only[8]
  • BP-25 Command Module (CM) - Water recovery test, at Fort Worth Museum of Transportation[8]
  • BP-26 with Mission A-104(SA-8) Test Flight - another Micro Meterioid test.[8]
  • BP-27 CM and Service Module with LES-16 - Stack and engine gimbal test.[8]
  • BP-28A - Impact tests[8]
  • BP-29 - Uprighting drop tests at Downey, CA, Oct. 30, 1964, on display at Meteor Crator, Arizona[7][8]
  • BP-30 - Swing arm tests[8]

[edit] Specific Apollo BP units

[edit] BP-1101A

BP-1101A was used in numerous tests to develop spacecraft recovery equipment and procedures. Specifically, 1101A tested the air bags as part of the "up-righting" procedure when the Apollo lands upside down in the water. The sequence of the bags inflating caused the capsule to roll and up-right itself. [10]

This McDonnell boilerplate is now on loan to the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum[11], 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.[12] After further research, a new paint scheme was applied in June 2007.

BP1101A AP5. Front view, Wings Museum, 2006.

BP1101A AP5. Side view.

Display plaque.

New paint scheme June 2007.

[edit] BP-1220/1228 Series

Section source.[13]

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 lb 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.

BP-1224 Photo

BP-1224 was a Component level Flammability Test Program to test for design decisions on selection and application of nonmetallic materials. Boilerplate configuration comparisons with Command Service Module 2TV-1 and 101 were performed by North American. The NASA Review Board decided on February 5, 1967, that the boilerplate configuration had determined reasonable "worst case" configuration, after more than 1,000 tests were performed.[14]

[edit] Space Shuttle OV-101 in boilerplate configuration

Enterprise on Launch Pad 39A
Enterprise on Launch Pad 39A

First in March 1978 at the Marshall Space Flight Center[15] and then again in June 1979,[16] the Space Shuttle Enterprise was fitted together with an external tank and 2 solid rocket motors in a test-bed or boilerplate configuration. The STS-1 preliminary mission test program was vibration tests in a horizontal mode at the Marshall Center, and then in a vertical launch configuration on Launch Pad 39A[17] at Kennedy Space Center, Florida. In 1985, the boilerplate configuration was used to test the Air Force shuttle facilities at Vandenberg Air Force Base, including a full mating on the SLC-6 launch pad.

[edit] Orion boilerplate

Section source.[18]

[edit] Ares boosters

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.

[edit] Development

The construction of the first Orion boilerplate,[19] 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[20] 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.[21][22]

[edit] Photos

Orion full size boilerplate getting its first coat of paint at Dryden Research Center.

[edit] Project Constellation

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

[edit] References

  1. ^ NASA Mercury History Sections #44 and #47
  2. ^ Mercury Project Boilerplates and Little Joe Rockets with Boilerplates
  3. ^ Mercury Boilerplate Tests
  4. ^ NASA History Archives
  5. ^ NASA History Chronology
  6. ^ Field Guide to American Spacecrafts
  7. ^ a b c d NASA History Apollo
  8. ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l m n o p q r LJSC: APOLLO/SKYLAB ASTP AND SHUTTER ORIBTER MAMOR END ITEMS, Final Report, March, 1978
  9. ^ Little Joe II Mission A-003 / BP-22 - April 1965 (PDF)
  10. ^ Charles A. Biggs, Sr., Chief, Special Activities Section, Special Event Office, Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX, letter dated July 1, 1975. Files of Wings Museum, Denver, CO.
  11. ^ Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum Official Site
  12. ^ Lance Barber, Curator of Military Aircraft, Wings Over the Rockies Air & Space Museum, Denver, CO.
  13. ^ Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum BP-1228 Photo.
  14. ^ NASA: Apollo BP-1224
  15. ^ NASA Marshall Space Flight Center: Enterprise Boilerplate Tests
  16. ^ NASA Kennedy Space Center: Enterprise on Launch Pad 39A
  17. ^ NASA: OV-101 Vertical Tests
  18. ^ NASA's Project Constellaton Official Site
  19. ^ NASA: Orion mockup
  20. ^ NASA Centers in California: Keys to the Future. California Space Authority.
  21. ^ Environmental Assessment for NASA Launch Abort System (LAS) Test Activities at the U.S. Army White Sands Missile Range, NM FINAL. NASA.
  22. ^ A Spiral Stairway to the Moon and Beyond

[edit] See also

[edit] External links