launch escape system query

[pberrett]

Hi all<br /><br />Recently Apollo 11: the untold story was shown on tv here in Australia. One thing that was mentioned intrigued me.<br /><br />According to the show the launch escape system simply wouldn't work because if the Saturn 5 blew a motor there was not enough time to get away.<br /><br />I note that in the early 80s when a Soyuz rocket had to test its LES it managed to get away but the Americans never had to use theirs.<br /><br />The Orion LES will be based on the Apollo system but if the Apollo system never worked won't astronauts be a risk of a launch explosion with no means of escape in the same manner as the Apollo astronauts? If the Americans couldn't make a working LES with Apollo why will this new system work? <br /><br />cheers Peter<br />

 

[vogon13]

Titan/Gemini was deemed 'safe' with only ejection seats (not sure I would have called it that way). Don't recall any concerns about Apollo escape rocket.<br /><br />We know Mercury/Redstone had a good one, it was inadvertantly tested once.<br /><br /> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><font color="#ff0000"><strong>TPTB went to Dallas and all I got was Plucked !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#339966"><strong>So many people, so few recipes !!</strong></font></p><p><font color="#0000ff"><strong>Let's clean up this stinkhole !!</strong></font> </p> </div>

 

[Swampcat]

<font color="yellow">"According to the show the launch escape system simply wouldn't work because if the Saturn 5 blew a motor there was not enough time to get away."</font><br /><br />This sounds like misinformation.<br /><br />The Apollo LES was indeed tested, but never used on an actual mission because there was never a need.<br /><br />The Soyuz example was not simply a test. It was an actual mission where the LES saved the lives of the cosmonauts onboard as their rocket exploded on the pad. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <font size="3" color="#ff9900"><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>------------------------------------------------------------------- </em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong><em>"I hold it that a little rebellion now and then is a good thing, and as necessary in the political world as storms in the physical. Unsuccessful rebellions, indeed, generally establish the encroachments on the rights of the people which have produced them. An observation of this truth should render honest republican governors so mild in their punishment of rebellions as not to discourage them too much. It is a medicine necessary for the sound health of government."</em></strong></font></p><p><font size="1" color="#993300"><strong>Thomas Jefferson</strong></font></p></font> </div>

 

[strandedonearth]

This layman thinks (of course I could be wrong) that the heat shield, SM, LEM, interstages and upper stage(s) would protect the crew long enough for the LES to pull the CM out of the fireball. After all, at least some of the Challenger crew survived the initial explosion.

 

[qso1]

That sounds like one of those claims some shows throw in to make it sound more dramatic. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <p><strong>My borrowed quote for the time being:</strong></p><p><em>There are three kinds of people in life. Those who make it happen, those who watch it happen...and those who do not know what happened.</em></p> </div>