With managers, moonwalkers and the media watching, NASA's Johnson Space Center opened Friday a facility designed to protect and display the last remaining 363-foot Saturn V rocket to be assembled from parts once capable of launching astronauts to the Moon.
grakenverb - 26/7/2007 1:10 AMIn the article it is stated that the building that houses the Saturn V at JSC was designed to last only 10 years. Is that right? Why go to all the trouble to design and build something to preserve a priceless national treasure that itself must be replaced after only 10 years?
grakenverb - 25/7/2007 6:10 PMIn the article it is stated that the building that houses the Saturn V at JSC was designed to last only 10 years. Is that right?
How temporary the building will be is yet to be seen."Its a temporary building for 10 years," replied [Conservation Solutions' Project Manager Jee] Skavdahl to an AIAA member's question. "But I have been told, from various sources, that NASA has temporary buildings that have been here for 30 years, so I really don't know how long this building will remain. There are rumors of a convention center being built. There are rumors of an expansion to the [temporary] building. There was a rumor that they were going to paint a mural of the Saturn V rocket going down a whole side of the building, but that was going to cost half of a million dollars, so I don't think that is going to happen."
AstroRJY - 25/7/2007 9:03 PMDoes anyone have a photo of the restored Saturn V to show on the site?
JMS - 25/7/2007 12:12 AMThe CM just looks wrong to me without the silver mylar strips. Why did they leave it with the bare resin?
"The command module will not be painted when its put back on its display stand. I think this will be the biggest shock to everybody that the command module will not be white. The white paint did not hold up well, the phenolic resin also expands and contracts, holding moisture in. There is a possibility that the Smithsonian will get a boost protective skirt made for it and then it will appear white," explained [Conservation Solutions' Project Manager Jee] Skavdahl.
collectSPACE - 26/7/2007 12:19 AMThe command module is CM-115, believed to be the last (or at least one of the last) CM that was in construction at the time production was halted. It doesn't have the kapton outer covering because it never reached that point of its assembly.
JMS - 26/7/2007 3:26 PMThanks for the reply Robert. I guess, more than anything I'm wondering why a semi-authentic representation of the kapton couldn't have been achieved.
collectSPACE - 26/7/2007 3:43 PM...perhaps it would be better to replace CM-115 with a replica made to look like a flight capsule and then display the real artifact as it was made with an exhibit explaining why it appears the way it does.
dwmzmm - 26/7/2007 7:55 PMYou'll probably recall the Command Module's surface, during the Apollo missions, had a very reflective gold covering on the surface.
JMS - 26/7/2007 8:09 PMQuotedwmzmm - 26/7/2007 7:55 PMYou'll probably recall the Command Module's surface, during the Apollo missions, had a very reflective gold covering on the surface. That is incorrect. The surface was never gold, it was silver.That is a misconception perpetuated even down to the Revell 1/32 Apollo CSM plastic model.The CM on display at KSC is accurate.http://www.nasa.gov/images/content/176728main_modules.jpgAs is the ASTP CM on display as NASM.http://www.nasm.si.edu/exhibitions/gal114/SpaceRace/images/astpview.jpgFlown CM's on display are the major cause of the confusion.Reentry burned away the silver kapton and left the underlying resin with a gold appearance.http://aesp.nasa.okstate.edu/fieldguide/pages/apollo/ASTP.htmlLook closely at the Hi-Res versions of the images here and you can see some remnants of the kapton remain.