
North American Aviation Apollo Command Module 007A
This Apollo Command Module was the first production-line capsule delivered to NASA for testing and training. It was designated as a ground test vehicle for water impact, acoustic and vibration, and postlanding tests. CM-007 was in the Block I configuration and initially used in impact and acoustic testing at the North American plant in Downey, California. It was the first Apollo Command Module delivered to the NASA-Manned Spacecraft Center and was assigned to be used in manned postlanding tests to be conducted by the Landing and Recovery Division. These tests included systems operational and crew compatibility tests for uprighting, postlanding ECS, postlanding communications systems and recovery. After delivery to Houston in April, 1966, CM-007 was prepared for open water tests in the Gulf of Mexico to operationally qualify the Block I CM postlanding systems. The manned Block I 48-hour open water tests in the Gulf of Mexico were successfully conducted on September 30-October 2, 1966.
Following completion of the Block I tests, CM-007 was shipped back to North American in 1967 for modification to Block II configuration. After modification, CM-007 was designated CM-007A and returned to NSAS for testing. After the modifications, the manned Block II 48-hour open water tests in the Gulf of Mexico were successfully conducted on April 5-7, 19688. Additional static water testing of the uprighting system bag failure modes continued in 1968 in NASA-MSC Building-260 water tank.
To support Skylab, CM-007A was used in extreme postlanding environment by simulating equatorial summer heat/humidity and higher latitude cold conditions to test the performance of the Skylab command module postlanding and recovery systems. Skylab flights were launched on a 50-degree inclination with the spacecraft passing over regions of the Earth considerably warmer/colder than experienced before. The equatorial conditions were achieved in the Building-260 water tank with an enclosure. The cold conditions were achieved in Eglin Air Force base’s Climatic Laboratory in September, 1971 in Florida. Following the cold environment tests, CM-007A was returned to MSC and stored until being restored by SpaceWorks at the Kansas Cosmosphere and Space Center in 1988 for museum static display purposes. CM-007A is currently displayed at The Museum of Flight.