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| title | chunk | source | category | tags | date_saved | instance |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Boilerplate (spaceflight) | 2/3 | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boilerplate_(spaceflight) | reference | science, encyclopedia | 2026-05-05T13:06:07.682064+00:00 | kb-cron |
=== Boilerplate tests === BP-1 – Water impact tests BP-2 – Flotation tests storage BP-3 – Parachute tests BP-6,-6B, – PA-1, later parachute drop test vehicle, and LES pad abort flight test to demonstrate launch escape system's pad-abort performance at White Sands Missile Range. BP-9 with mission AS-105 (SA-10) test flight, Micro Meteoroid Dynamic Test; not recovered. BP-12 with mission A-001 test flight, now at former NASA Facility, Downey, California to test the LES transonic abort flight performance at White Sands Missile Range. BP-13 with mission AS-101 (SA-6) test flight, not recovered. BP-14 with environmental control system tests, Oct. 22–29, 1964, consisted of command module 14, service module 3, launch escape system 14, and Saturn launch adapters. BP-15 with mission AS-102 (SA-7) test flight, not recovered. BP-16 with mission AS-103 (SA-9) test flight, another Micro Meteoroid test, not recovered. BP-19A – VHF antenna, parachute drop tests; now at the Columbia Memorial Space Center (former NASA Facility, Downey, CA) BP-22 with mission A-003 test flight; boilerplate on display at Johnson Space Center, Houston, TX BP-23 – LES high-dynamic-pressure abort flight performance tests at White Sands Missile Range. BP-23A – LES pad-abort flight performance tests with Canard, BPC, and major sequencing changes at White Sands Missile Range, now displayed with SA-500D at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama. BP-25 Command Module (CM) – Water recovery test, at Fort Worth Museum of Transportation(See BP-25 photo) BP-26 with mission AS-104 (SA-8) test flight – another micro meterioid test. BP-27 command and service module with LES-16 – stack and engine gimbal test. Now on display atop the vertical Saturn V at the U.S. Space & Rocket Center, Huntsville, Alabama. BP-28A – Impact tests BP-29 – Uprighting drop tests at Downey, CA, Oct. 30, 1964, on display at Barringer Crater, Arizona. BP-30 – Swing arm tests; currently on display at Kennedy Space Center's Apollo/Saturn V Center.
=== Specific Apollo BP units ===
==== 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 uprighting procedure when the Apollo lands upside down in the water. The sequence of the bags inflating caused the capsule to roll and upright itself. This McDonnell boilerplate is now on loan to the Wings Over the Rockies Air and Space Museum, 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. After further research, a new paint scheme was applied in June 2007.
==== BP-1102A ==== BP-1102 was used for water egress trainer for all Apollo flights, including by the crew of Apollo 11, the first lunar landing mission. It was also adapted for mock-up interior components and used by astronauts to practice routine and emergency exits from the spacecraft. It was then modified again where the interior was set up to be configured either as Apollo/Soyuz or a proposed five-person Skylab Rescue vehicle. With these two conversions, astronauts could train for those special missions. It was finally transferred from NASA to the Smithsonian in 1977, and is displayed now at the Udvar-Hazy Center with the flotation collar and bags that were attached to Columbia (the Apollo 11 Command Module) at the end of its historic mission.
==== BP-1210 ====
BP-1210 was used in landing and recovery training and to test flotation devices. It is on display outside the Stafford Air & Space Museum.
==== BP-1220/1228 Series ==== The purpose of this series design was to simulate the weight and other external physical characteristics of the Apollo command module. These prototypes were in the 9,000 lb (4,000 kg) range for both laboratory water tanks and ocean tests. The experiments tested flotation collars, collar installations, and buoyancy characteristics. The Navy trained their recovery personnel for ocean collar installation and shipboard retrieval procedures. These boilerplates rarely had internal equipment. See BP-1220 photo.
===== BP-1224 ===== BP-1224 was a component-level flammability-test program to test for design decisions on selection and application of non-metallic materials. Boilerplate configuration comparisons with command and 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 a reasonable "worst case" configuration, after more than 1,000 tests were performed. See BP-1224 photo set.
===== BP-1227 ===== Details regarding this test capsule are not clear, but most likely it was lost at sea somewhere between the Azores and the Bay of Biscay in early 1969, and recovered in June 1969 off Gibraltar by the Soviet fishing trawler Apatit (possibly a Soviet spy ship disguised as such, which was commonplace during the Cold War), transferred to the port of Murmansk in the Soviet Union, and returned to the US in September 1970 by the USCGC Southwind. It is now located in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a time capsule. See BP-1227 photo. The only certainties about this capsule are that it was returned to the United States at Murmansk early in September 1970 during a visit by the USCG Southwind who returned it to the Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia. There it remained until title was passed to the Smithsonian in April 1976 when it was passed on to Grand Rapids, Michigan to serve as a time capsule. Two official sources – the US Navy and the US Coast Guard – both say that it was lost by an ARRS (Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron) unit training in recovery procedures. A contemporary account of its return quotes a NASA spokesman as saying, " ... as far as NASA can determine the object... the Navy lost two years ago."
==== Apollo Lunar Module ==== A Lunar Module (LM) boilerplate, the LM test article, was launched with Apollo 8 to simulate the correct weight and balance of the LM which was not ready for the flight.
== Space Shuttle boilerplates ==