Path: utzoo!mnetor!uunet!husc6!mit-eddie!ll-xn!ames!mike
From: mike@ames.arpa (Mike Smithwick)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: SATURN V BOOSTERS *other test vehicles*
Message-ID: <5973@ames.arpa>
Date: 14 Mar 88 16:50:56 GMT
References: <21644@bbn.COM> <5129@uwmcsd1.UUCP> <8371@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU>
Reply-To: mike@ames.arc.nasa.gov.UUCP (Mike Smithwick)
Organization: NASA Ames Research Center, Moffett Field, Calif.
Lines: 28
Keywords: Saturn,Joe

In article <8371@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU> seldon@eleazar.Dartmouth.EDU (Joe Walker) writes:
>
>     When visiting Johnson space center I saw a test vehicle for the Apollo
>command and service modules called "Lillte Joe". Does anyone have any data
>on the Little Joes and how they were used. What kind of engine did it have?
>How many test flights were there?
>                                          Thanx
>-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Joe Walker                          |        The dream is still alive!!

The Little Joe series of rockets were built to test the launch-escape
system (LES) of both the Apollo and Mercury. Little Joe 1 was for the
Mercury, and the II for Apollo. They were single stage units, powered
by a cluster of several solid rockets. It had enough power to get the
spacecraft to an altitude of 40K or 50K feet, which would be followed by
the LES firing. 

I have a number of videotapes at home of notable LJ II launches. On one
the vehicle started into an uncontrollable spin, which ripped it apart.
The LES functioned automatically as it should and the test was declared
a success even though the rocket was destroyed.



-- 
			   *** mike (Cyberpunk in training) smithwick ***
"live long and multi-task"
[discalimer : nope, I don't work for NASA, I take full blame for my ideas]