Atabeg

Presentation

The module of order is the vital organs of the missions Apollo.

It is a space Capsule of conical form, provided with port-holes, located in top of a rocket, of type Saturn V in the case of the voyages in direction of the the Moon (Saturn IB if not), in which take seat three Astronaute S.

Situation

Actually, the module is not all in top of the rocket, it is surmounted by a small rocket of help, supposed to move away the capsule from the rocket in the event of incident on takeoff.

The module of order is located just above the Module of service, in which are largest of the tanks and the engines allowing the voyage towards the Moon.

Course of a mission

Once orbits about it, the module of order gets rid of the rocket of help, it is detached from the lanceuse rocket accompanied by its module of service, and swivels to go to fasten with the Lunar module, and to extract it from the rocket.

The unit, composed of the module of order, the module of service and the LEM leaves, then, towards the Moon. Arrived close to the Moon, two astronauts pass in the LEM, which is detached, while an astronaut remains in lunar orbit. When the lunar mission is finished, part of the LEM takes off, and joined the module of order. The astronauts pass by again in the module of order, which separates from the LEM, and the return voyage towards the ground can start.

Arrived near to the Earth, the module of order is detached from the module of service, and it penetrates in the atmosphere, protected by a Heatshield.

Once sufficiently low, triple Parachute is spread, which makes it possible the module of order to carefully land on sea.

Space missions

The module of order made manned flights of Apollo 7 with Apollo 17 included.

It was the first space engine to take along 3 men in orbit.

It remained in terrestrial orbit at the time of the missions Apollo 7 (simple test) and Apollo 9 (lunar simulation of approach in terrestrial orbit).

At the time of the mission Apollo 8, it was the first space engine to take along men towards another celestial body that the Earth.

At the time of the mission Apollo 17, it was the last, no other space engine not having never taken along men far from the Earth.

It made, in all, 9 lunar missions, of which 6 made it possible men to go on the Moon (the mission Apollo 10 being a repetition of landing in the lunar suburbs, and the mission Apollo 13 being a failure.

Owing to the fact that 3 men made two voyages, the module of order took along 24 people, in all, towards the Moon.

In 1975, the module of order took part in the American-Soviet flight Apollo-Soyouz.

In 1973, three additional flights are accomplished in direction of the space station Skylab.

The whole of the Apollo program proceeded over one very short period, since the tragedy of Apollo 1 goes back to 1967, and that the last flight Apollo goes back to 1973.

Incidents and accidents

At the time of the mission Apollo 1 of drive on the ground, the module of order was the theater of a catastrophe, since the three astronauts perished burned alives, following a series of defects and use of an atmosphere in pure Oxygène under pressure.

At the time of the mission Apollo 13, the explosion of oxygen a tank of the Module of service and a series of breakdowns reflect in danger the life of the crew, which had to take refuge in the LEM, because the module of order did not have enough resources to him all alone to ensure survival during a sufficient time the return.

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