Apollo Explosion - The Accidental Abort Test

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  • čas přidán 22. 05. 2020
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    Seen here, the fourth simulated abort test of the Apollo Spacecraft designated A-003 took place on May 19, 1965. The footage reveals the sudden surprise that researchers encountered on that day when an actual abort situation that occurred during the assessment tested the launch escape system under less controlled conditions than intended. Everything went spectacularly wrong and then spectacularly right as the command module successfully detached from the disintegrating Little Joe II booster before landing safely thanks to its parachutes...

Komentáře • 402

  • @pauljensen5699
    @pauljensen5699 Před 4 lety +449

    When everything goes so wrong, it actually goes right...

    • @myleswbrown
      @myleswbrown Před 4 lety +4

      Ok.

    • @lolzdatguy4987
      @lolzdatguy4987 Před 4 lety +9

      Only if something is learned

    • @chrismofer
      @chrismofer Před 4 lety +6

      @Zach V.D.90 irrelevant and hyperbolic

    • @howardlitson9796
      @howardlitson9796 Před 3 lety

      @@lolzdatguy4987 that's right. Bacon said Knowledge was powerful. More study knowledge can avoid wasting time and wasting money, which meanwhile can avoid detours.

    • @howardlitson9796
      @howardlitson9796 Před 3 lety

      @@lolzdatguy4987 more studying can avoid detours and avoid wasting more money, meanwhile can save time.

  • @kevinkoepke8311
    @kevinkoepke8311 Před 4 lety +564

    My Father worked on the launch escape system at White Sands, he retired from NASA in 1979 at JSC Houston. At the time, we lived in El Paso.
    My parents let us five kids miss school one morning so we could drive up there and watch this launch.

  • @davidhenderson3400
    @davidhenderson3400 Před 4 lety +251

    This was a good thing. They would have never thought to test it while the rocket was twisting and rolling out of control like that.

    • @Kelekky
      @Kelekky Před 4 lety +5

      the rolling was fine but the twisting was not

    • @user-cz5kd7mw4h
      @user-cz5kd7mw4h Před 3 lety

      Луна , ждёт первых людей... Настоящих.

    • @davidhenderson3400
      @davidhenderson3400 Před 3 lety +1

      @@user-cz5kd7mw4h At one time I would have said your were stupid and man did in fact go to the moon but now days I am not so 100% as I once was.

    • @sushimidnight9539
      @sushimidnight9539 Před 3 lety +2

      @@davidhenderson3400 are you fucking stupid? Have you seen what cgi looked like in the 60s

    • @davidhenderson3400
      @davidhenderson3400 Před 3 lety +2

      @@sushimidnight9539 No, I am not. In fact my lfe would be a lot more simple if I was .

  • @rossmandell8734
    @rossmandell8734 Před 4 lety +237

    Von Braun used to say that a test where everything goes wrong is actually a success because it exposes problems Better in a test than an actual manned flight

    • @KaiHenningsen
      @KaiHenningsen Před 4 lety +19

      Or as Musk put it, if you're not failing, you're not trying hard enough.

    • @georgf9279
      @georgf9279 Před 4 lety +2

      @Anant Tiwari Wernher von Braun*

    • @Geckobane
      @Geckobane Před 3 lety

      *Werbiederbers

    • @MegaUser213
      @MegaUser213 Před 3 lety

      @@georgf9279 Von Braun Wehrner

    • @georgf9279
      @georgf9279 Před 3 lety +1

      @@MegaUser213 From Yellow Manfred

  • @WootTootZoot
    @WootTootZoot Před 4 lety +192

    As Bob Ross would call it, "a happy accident".

  • @acarrillo8277
    @acarrillo8277 Před 4 lety +685

    Task failed successfully.

  • @Diamond_Tiara
    @Diamond_Tiara Před 3 lety +7

    >test a rocket to simulate an accident
    >accident happens
    >the ejection system works flawlessly.

  • @theussmirage
    @theussmirage Před 4 lety +98

    I've never seen this before, pretty cool! In many ways, this was a far better test than the original plan

    • @andrewtaylor940
      @andrewtaylor940 Před 4 lety +4

      Yes and no. They didn’t get the high altitude test that they wanted. But it showed them that the automation worked perfectly. The Abort system was triggered automatically. There were three wires, three circuits, running the length of the rocket. Evenly spaced around it. If any of the three was broken the abort was triggered. Which was way more complicated than it looks. As a number of explosive bolts have to fire very precisely. The bolts holding the command module to the service module and the ones that trigger the guillotine to sever all the umbilical connection between the two. At the same moment the so,I’d rockets in the escape tower fire to drag the capsule away. A few seconds later the bolts holding the protective nose cap that the escape tower is attached to need to fire jettisoning the cap and tower to expose the upper ring of the capsule which houses the parachutes. Really scary is those last bolts have to be strong enough to withstand being the connection point as the escape tower fires and pulls the capsule off the failing rocket. There had been a somewhat amusing incident much earlier in the Space Program, with the last planned Mercury Monkey launch. When the rocket reached it’s peak, instead of firing the bolts to jettison the escape tower, it fired the escape tower rocket, still attached, dragging the Monkey and Mercury Capsule an extra 15 miles down range. To their dying days the Mercury Astronauts swore the damned monkey just figured out which button to push to keep going higher.

    • @drmayeda1930
      @drmayeda1930 Před 3 lety

      @@andrewtaylor940
      There was another incident with the mercury program. There was a plug at the base of the rocket and both plugs were supposed to fall out at exactly the same time. But one plug came out milliseconds before the other. So the launch escape system activated leaving the capsule behind and the engines were running. The engines stopped and the parachutes popped out.

    • @andrewtaylor940
      @andrewtaylor940 Před 3 lety

      drmayeda1 wasn’t that the last Chimp shot. The one that delayed Shepard’s flight? The running gag as Shepard used to tell it was the monkey figured out which bottom to press to keep going.

  • @peterlutz7191
    @peterlutz7191 Před 4 lety +36

    The 'accident' proved out that the launch escape system design would actually work as designed.

  • @Kualinar
    @Kualinar Před 4 lety +74

    When a critical failure is actually a success.

  • @alexis2012fulvlogs
    @alexis2012fulvlogs Před 4 lety +66

    They should’ve added more struts. Rookie mistake

  • @jasonpayne1240
    @jasonpayne1240 Před 4 lety +3

    New narrator??? The original could read my grocery list and make it sound terrifying 😂 I like both of you! Keep up the great work.

  • @markdavis2475
    @markdavis2475 Před 4 lety +2

    Nice episode thanks! The Apollo 6 launch also had issues which actually showed the vehicle could cope with unexpected problems. Top notch engineering all round!

  • @apt.1387
    @apt.1387 Před 4 lety +1

    I did not know this channel existed but am happy I have more dark content to watch now

  • @baddonkey6876
    @baddonkey6876 Před 4 lety

    You and dark docs use the same format, i love both of you, keep up the good work

  • @a.acevedo
    @a.acevedo Před 4 lety +2

    Good stuff 🎥, Dark Footage!
    😃👍 Thanx!

  • @barrywever9984
    @barrywever9984 Před 4 lety +20

    "task failed successfully"

  • @AntifoulAwl
    @AntifoulAwl Před 4 lety +12

    Interesting how the innards were exposed when the skin of the rocket peeled away.
    It reminded me of seeing peoples bathtubs, beds & tables etc, when the side of a building collapsed.

    • @nawal9223
      @nawal9223 Před 4 lety +2

      @@sheru_k his profil pic is more cursed

  • @TyChee
    @TyChee Před 4 lety +1

    Awesome. I never saw this footage or heard this story before. Nice work!

  • @kennysherrill6542
    @kennysherrill6542 Před 4 lety +8

    I remember seeing this film as a kid in Bakersfield, alot of kids there at Frank West had parents who worked at Edwards Air Base.

  • @leifvejby8023
    @leifvejby8023 Před 4 lety +4

    Thanks! We had a few giggles over that incident bach in the days!!

  • @jamesricker3997
    @jamesricker3997 Před 4 lety +5

    The engineers were saying"cool we can test it under real conditions now"

  • @PopeLando
    @PopeLando Před měsícem

    This is one of my favourite bits of rocket footage and TIFO it happened when i was 16 days old!

  • @MasterChief-sl9ro
    @MasterChief-sl9ro Před 4 lety +37

    The Gyro malfunctioned. As it was wired wrong.. And you need to break 2 of the 3 wires...

  • @jimmywrangles
    @jimmywrangles Před 4 lety

    Excellent upload.

  • @Spacey_key
    @Spacey_key Před 2 lety

    Little Joe II: *Explodes*
    NASA: *confused screaming*

  • @eisich153
    @eisich153 Před 4 lety +2

    Nice Videos. Keep it up

  • @arober9758
    @arober9758 Před 4 lety

    Amazing work!!

  • @Shadowkey392
    @Shadowkey392 Před 4 lety +3

    When you mess up your rocket in KSP but are still able to complete the part-test mission.

  • @Ste_Brit
    @Ste_Brit Před 4 lety +6

    I like these videos. Always interesting

  • @terryblack4385
    @terryblack4385 Před 4 lety

    I like your vid's there well done and easy to follow. Thanks keep up the good work.

  • @nipponhouseplayer
    @nipponhouseplayer Před 4 lety +5

    We are 54 years behind the curve of forward! Better late than never? Systems are Go! 2020!

  • @cleatusmcgurkin3740
    @cleatusmcgurkin3740 Před 3 lety +2

    This just goes to show how well engineered the system was

  • @donaldparlettjr3295
    @donaldparlettjr3295 Před 4 lety +18

    I've seen this footage before. I shows a failure that was a complete success

  • @jhyland87
    @jhyland87 Před 4 lety +24

    I was surprised when I read that the structure failed like that due to the stress it was under from the rotation. It didn't seem like it was rotating all that fast, but I guess it's really not meant to rotate more than a couple times (roll program, then just minor adjustments after that, presumably).

    • @coast2coast00
      @coast2coast00 Před 4 lety +15

      260 degrees per second 4m diameter mass 50000 kg
      That's 450,000 kg of extra force pulling the rocket apart if my calculations are correct.
      Maybe 200,000 kg if it was mostly empty of prop at the time.

    • @seditt5146
      @seditt5146 Před 2 lety

      Yeah when you get that big around rotational forces can become quite large. Its why I laugh when people always talk about making large rings in space to simulate gravity. We simply can't do such a thing without causing it to instantly explode.

  • @tobycooper5804
    @tobycooper5804 Před 4 lety +1

    If people build things properly it will work when you need it. Thank the techs for those parachutes. Excellent video.

  • @eriklund294
    @eriklund294 Před 3 lety

    My right ear is loving this.

  • @Jeeptalkshow
    @Jeeptalkshow Před 4 lety +1

    That BLOW'D up realll good!

  • @bonefishboards
    @bonefishboards Před 4 lety

    That is spectacular!

  • @ericksuarezb.5994
    @ericksuarezb.5994 Před 3 lety

    amazing, never seen it before

  • @ronaldtartaglia4459
    @ronaldtartaglia4459 Před 4 lety

    Fascinating thank you

  • @bobbysammons333
    @bobbysammons333 Před 3 lety

    There is an intact Little Joe rocket assembly on display at the Space Museum in Alamogordo New Mexico.

  • @slypask9185
    @slypask9185 Před 4 lety +1

    Journalists : "So, the test ended up in a fail ?"
    Nasa : "Well yes but actually no"

  • @thelatiosmaster
    @thelatiosmaster Před 4 lety +4

    Engenieer be like: "... well, not what we wanted to do, but it works greatfilly"

  • @paulyiustravelogue
    @paulyiustravelogue Před 4 lety +2

    First time I heard about this test

  • @Pgcmoore
    @Pgcmoore Před 4 lety

    outstanding!!!

  • @nickmeier4098
    @nickmeier4098 Před 4 lety +1

    You should do a darkdocs on the Battle of Attu.

  • @SpencerRichKM4KFG
    @SpencerRichKM4KFG Před 4 lety +5

    2:18 That’s actually old pictures of the Old AFTAC building and the rocket garden that was out front along A1A

    • @Jdpanzone
      @Jdpanzone Před 4 lety +1

      I was going to post that but you beat me to it! There's something of beauty of the old building and the rocket garden. Awesome organization with an even greater mission.

  • @bruinflight1
    @bruinflight1 Před 3 lety

    Pretty darned cool.

  • @cvbabc
    @cvbabc Před 4 lety +1

    I must be losing my mind. Did you have to remake/upload your channel for some reason? I thought for sure you'd been on CZcams more than a year and had many videos. Doesn't matter. Your stuff is entertaining and well made. I subbed. Good luck!

  • @BzBlade
    @BzBlade Před 4 lety +4

    When your rocket blows up in KSP because you screwed up the staging

  • @MrSlim1959
    @MrSlim1959 Před 4 lety

    Learn something new everyday.

  • @samclemons9086
    @samclemons9086 Před 4 lety

    The guys that worked on it said that it was the perfect test for the escape tower.

  • @soda1636
    @soda1636 Před 3 lety

    You know something bad is gonna happen when he starts telling specifics

  • @samsignorelli
    @samsignorelli Před 4 lety +1

    It wasn't one wire running down the vehicle...it was 3. If power was lost to 2 of the 3 wires, that was when the system would automatically fire. One of the engineers stated this in an ep of "Moon Machines."

  • @ericstyles3724
    @ericstyles3724 Před 3 lety

    The 'ole rapid unscheduled disassembly, done right !

  • @User0000000000000004
    @User0000000000000004 Před 4 lety +13

    "A can-nerd system." Nope.

    • @PhillipLandmeier
      @PhillipLandmeier Před 4 lety +1

      Well, some Americans have trouble with languages other than English. ;-)

    • @richardmillhousenixon
      @richardmillhousenixon Před 4 lety +2

      This does also boil down to different dialects

    • @llYossarian
      @llYossarian Před 3 lety

      It's also Kennedy Space Center @ Cape Canaveral not "Cape Kennedy"...

  • @Kevinrothwell1959
    @Kevinrothwell1959 Před 3 lety

    Interesting... I've never thought about the LES before now.

  • @captainsinclair7954
    @captainsinclair7954 Před 3 lety

    The best worst case scenario for a real emergency like that

  • @RalphReagan
    @RalphReagan Před 4 lety

    So cool!

  • @vinak963
    @vinak963 Před 4 lety

    This was dubbed the best possible abort test. The conditions for triggering the abort were far more realistic than could ever be planned.
    An unanticipated spin leading to booster breakup which in turn triggered an automatic abort. Everything completely unplanned yet everything worked as it was intended.

  • @alfonsrasmus4710
    @alfonsrasmus4710 Před 3 lety

    I learned everything I wanted to know in the first 40 seconds of the video

  • @gateway8833
    @gateway8833 Před 3 lety +1

    Sometimes it’s better to be lucky than good.

  • @hitekkaifighter1825
    @hitekkaifighter1825 Před 9 měsíci

    Giving a whole new meaning to, “failing successfully” (or successfully failing?)

  • @rickythegreat1
    @rickythegreat1 Před 4 lety

    More detail on the actual abort mechanism would be awesome.

    • @samsignorelli
      @samsignorelli Před 4 lety +3

      There were three wires running the length of the launch vehicle. If power was lost to 2 of the 3 wires, that indicated that the booster was coming apart and would trigger the abort system.
      Look up the episode of "Moon Machines" that dealt with the command module....it's in there.
      This abort was not commanded from the ground...the onboard systems did the job.
      A very successful failure!

  • @ChicagoMel23
    @ChicagoMel23 Před 3 lety

    Many unmanned tests actually used block one spacecraft after the Apollo 1 fire stopped any manned use of them. This was a way earlier test though

  • @FireAngelZero
    @FireAngelZero Před 4 lety +1

    If the F1 rocket was the beast that pushed the Saturn V this system was the safety net that made sure nothing could go wrong. While it was never actually used, this system to me is one of the most impressive and complex escape system...

    • @qzg7857
      @qzg7857 Před 4 lety +3

      For me it is Soyuz escape system. That was actually used twice.

  • @brianp2780
    @brianp2780 Před 4 lety +1

    SpaceX... hold my beer.....

  • @kranson8514
    @kranson8514 Před 4 lety

    Interesting but how else did we progress but for this testing we forget where & how sometimes.

  • @kentershackle1329
    @kentershackle1329 Před 4 lety +1

    Too bad they opted out, the safety/rescue module in the Space Shuttle..

  • @spacenout_6946
    @spacenout_6946 Před 4 lety +3

    It had to lose signal from 2 out of the 3 wires. Not 1

  • @2150dalek
    @2150dalek Před 2 lety

    Looks safer flying to the Moon than the space shuttle going into orbit.

  • @rodsprague369
    @rodsprague369 Před 3 lety

    I saw that clip out of context and thought it was intentional.

  • @timferguson1593
    @timferguson1593 Před rokem

    We went to the moon. Brought all our astronauts back safely. Even had an explosion that put the crew in hig mortal risk. WOW!! All this accomplished with a piece of paper, #2 pencil and a slide rule. Those engineers, scientists and the.people who actually put it together were very brilliant. Nice!

  • @zuhra911
    @zuhra911 Před 2 lety

    Hi,
    Can you please suggest the origin of the piece in this video from 1.44 to 2.08?
    Thank you very much in advance!

  • @scivirus3563
    @scivirus3563 Před rokem

    what happened the previous narrator his voice was iconic and DARK

  • @blockvfive1196
    @blockvfive1196 Před 3 lety +2

    3:34 lol
    "mercury number 7"

  • @timothyfoleyjr2796
    @timothyfoleyjr2796 Před 4 lety +1

    The whole experiment (test) seemed a 100% successful. In “rocket speak” of the day; “Everything was A-Okay”.

  • @johnprice5784
    @johnprice5784 Před 4 lety

    Eerily reminiscent of the space shuttle disaster.

  • @aramirez8427
    @aramirez8427 Před 4 lety +2

    Damn...that nasa building is still standing at White Sands......

  • @bobblum5973
    @bobblum5973 Před 4 lety +4

    Check out at 5:06, that looks to me like a Mercury Redstone, not the Apollo being discussed at the time. Note the overall shape of the capsule and the "collar" shape at the top, the launch escape system itself as well matches Mercury's. The lettering vertically on the rocket, too, shows it's a Redstone, too tall for a Little Joe.
    Other than that (and "canard" being mispronounced 😉) it's a fairly decent video.

    • @jzero90921
      @jzero90921 Před 4 lety

      Picky ass criticism going after the way he says canard after ripping him a new one on redstone

    • @bobblum5973
      @bobblum5973 Před 4 lety +2

      @@jzero90921 I'm not sure if you're complaining about my review of the video or not. I pointed out the Mercury-Redstone so that the content creator and other viewers could see it and learn the difference. As for the pronunciation of "canard", I had seen at least two or three other comments about it prior to my posting, so I added a "wink" emoji and used parentheses to try and say I caught it too, but wasn't too worried about it. I then closed my comment saying it was a pretty good video on the subject. I gave the video a Like!
      So how did I "rip him a new one" or do any kind of "picky ass criticism"? If anything I was complementing the overall production and encouraging being aware of small details like using the right footage at the right time. I've caught I don't know how many documentaries on the space program on television that use the wrong footage. So it isn't an amateur versus professional thing, I just want it to be right.

    • @jzero90921
      @jzero90921 Před 4 lety

      @@bobblum5973 bruh I didn't ask for a book lol

    • @bobblum5973
      @bobblum5973 Před 4 lety +1

      @@jzero90921 Hey, no worries, I just wanted to make sure to clarify things. If you had misunderstood me, others might have too. :D

  • @Backyardmech1
    @Backyardmech1 Před 3 lety +1

    I believe they may have a Little Joe 2 rocket sitting on display at JSC.

    • @dougball328
      @dougball328 Před 3 lety +1

      They do, right next to a Mercury Redstone. They both sit outside the building housing the Saturn V (on its side)

  • @hovaten3428
    @hovaten3428 Před 3 lety

    i love ur voice !

  • @foobarbecue
    @foobarbecue Před 4 lety +3

    You can tell by cadence and pronounciation errors that the narrator didn't write the text. Is the text taken from somewhere?

    • @andie_pants
      @andie_pants Před 4 lety

      *pronunciation

    • @foobarbecue
      @foobarbecue Před 4 lety

      @@andie_pants Thanks for catching! I guess pronounciation would be how you say your pronouns...

  • @averywellsand888
    @averywellsand888 Před 4 lety +1

    This music sounds familiar... Greek stage of body harvest maybe

  • @vger9084
    @vger9084 Před 3 měsíci

    The Little Joe II!

  • @kman2747
    @kman2747 Před 4 lety +3

    This was meant to be an abort test anyway. It wasn’t an “accidental” abort test

    • @howardbaxter2514
      @howardbaxter2514 Před 4 lety +4

      But it wasn't their intended abort test, nor were they ever considering testing this type of abort situation.

  • @Chris-hu5eq
    @Chris-hu5eq Před 4 lety +1

    I still wonder why they didnt use a explosive device for the crew dragon abort test

    • @user2C47
      @user2C47 Před 4 lety

      No need. They can just use the FTS.

  • @jamesdewey3259
    @jamesdewey3259 Před 4 lety

    When a oops proves everything works right

  • @PhillipLandmeier
    @PhillipLandmeier Před 4 lety

    This was a cool step in the program. The LES was hoped to protect the astronauts if the booster "blew up", but nobody thought, "Well, let's actually blow up the booster and see if it works." Hahaha.

  • @adub1300
    @adub1300 Před 4 lety

    One minor correction needs to be made: you did not need to demonstrate an abort capability to obtain a human rating for a spacecraft for approximately 30 years as we saw with the shuttle. But prior to 1981 and post 2011 that is a requirement.

  • @SkyraHope
    @SkyraHope Před 3 lety

    Wow!😮

  • @JimmyJamesJ
    @JimmyJamesJ Před 4 lety +1

    "Canard" "ca-nar-d" not "Can-Err-de", it's the french word for a duck. A term for front mounted control surfaces first coined from the the Santos-Dumont 14-bis (1906) because it looked like a duck.

  • @jasonparis5635
    @jasonparis5635 Před 4 lety

    It's a good thing that the Saturn 5 never exploded on the launch pad or during launch.

  • @sharonciron4441
    @sharonciron4441 Před 3 lety

    Wait did i see the blink on the starting?

  • @whatsup89100
    @whatsup89100 Před 4 lety

    So challenger next week?

  • @moboutmen
    @moboutmen Před 3 lety

    Little Joe never had the makings of a varsity rocket.

  • @woooweee
    @woooweee Před 4 lety

    wow they really slapped a big brother "context" bar on this video.

  • @TheCymbalProject
    @TheCymbalProject Před 4 lety +10

    " TEST "..... sorry, but this ain't no Curious Droid production.

  • @dougball328
    @dougball328 Před 3 lety +1

    What actually happened was that the fin control surfaces deployed in error. At 4:03 you can see the unswept hinge line and actuator faring. This is the cause of the high roll rate that destroyed the vehicle. Question for Dark Footage: why did you use animations for launch escape systems that were not Apollo? (See 3:55 in the video) I'm sure there were plenty of animations available for the actual system. Also, you said staging in the video. It was a single stage vehicle. The abort process is not 'staging'.