Lunar Module Testing & Training


LM-5 IN THE INTEGRATED TEST STAND. While the LM is in the clean room, lengthy tests are conducted on every system in the vehicle. Each LM had its own managers and supervisors, whose names and photographs were hanging on the side of the work fixture (lower right). Thus, everyone knew who they were and who was ultimately responsible.

 
 
 
LTA-8 IN THE TEST STAND. This is a top view of the test stand, showing the hose pressurizing the ascent stage through the top hatch. LTA-8 was shipped to Houston, where it was the first and only LM tested in the vacuum chamber at the Manned Spacecraft Center.

 
 
A SIDE VIEW OF LTA-8 IN THE TEST STAND. LTA-8 is undergoing an electrical test prior to shipping. Seen here are the technicians. The engineers monitoring the test are about 300 feet away in the ACE room.

 
 
 
 
ONE OF THE ACE ROOMS IN PLANT 5. The LM-5 Test Team monitors the vehicle during a test. In the ACE room, every subsystem is tested and integrated to ensure smooth operation in flight. The chief test conductor (lower right) is speaking to a technician or astronauts in the vehicle cabin, who is configuring  the LM for testing. Entire missions were run through in simulation here.

 
 
THE THREE-AXIS FLIGHT SIMULATOR IN THE FLIGHT CONTROL INTEGRATION LAB. The guidance system of the LM is being tested here. The primary guidance system was placed in the simulator and was rotated to see how the system responded and how long it would take the gyroscopes to stabilize the vehicle in the event that it went out of control.

 
 
 
THE LUNAR MODULE IN THE COLD FLOW TEST SITE, PLANT 5. Here, the propulsion and cooling systems of the LM were pressurized and checked for leaks.

 
 
 
 
THE COLD FLOW TEST WORK STATIONS; if a leak was found during a test, and they usually were, it was fixed here. 

 
 
 
 
STRUCTUAL LM TEST ARTICLE, READY FOR A DROP TEST. This LM will be dropped from varying heights to see how the landing gear and shock absorbers are functioning. As these tests were very stressful to the vehicle, only test articles, not flight vehicles, were used.

 
 
 
Landing  Gear Deployment Test. This was one of many tests that every LM went through upon its arrival at Cape Kennedy. The vehicle was mounted in an elevated fixture, and the spring-activated landing gear was deployed.

 
 
 
 
ASTRONAUT TRAINING AT GRUMMAN. The astronauts were an integral part of LM design and testing. Here, an astronaut checks out access to one of the equipment bays of the LM descent stage in the event that the vehicle landed at a severe angle.

 
 
 
 
NEIL ARMSTRONG IN THE LUNAR MODULE SIMULATOR. Along with LM flight and test articles, Grumman produced two LM simulators in conjunction with the Link company. The LM simulator was identical to the LM crew cabin on the inside, with the addition of projectors and screens in front of the windows to simulate lunar landings. Some crews even practiced sleeping in it. This LM simulator is at the Kennedy Space Center.

 
 
 
LUNAR LANDING TEST VEHICLE. As it was impossible to fly an LM on earth, NASA developed this device to simulate the final phase of a lunar landing in actual flight. It was powered by a large jet engine in the center with small gas reaction-control rockets on the sides. The astronauts found it very difficult and unstable to fly, and it was ultimately not used by the later crews.

 
 
 
 
GRUMMAN'S WHITE SANDS TEST FACILITY, 1966. In order to test the LM's propulsion systems prior to actual flight, Grumman established a test site with 340 people at the government's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. Test firings using flight-weight test articles duplicated every phase of the lunar mission, Problems discovered here allowed the incorporation of improvements prior to the actual launches. Here, ascent stage test article PA-i is being lowered into the firing chamber.

 
 
 
 
LTA-8 BEING LOWERED iNTO THE VACUUM CHAMBER, MAY 1968. LM test article LTA-8 was subjected to three 12-hour tests in Chamber B at NASA's Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston. The tests exposed the LM's systems to the extreme temperatures of space and also simulated the vacuum conditions in Earth orbit. These tests were very successful and cleared the LM for manned flight in Earth orbit.