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Home > Apollo Command/Service Module


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North American Apollo CSM
Description
Role: Earth and Lunar Orbit
Crew: 3; CDR, CM pilot, LM pilot
Dimensions
Height:36.2 ft 11.03 m
Diameter: 12.8 ft 3.9 m
Volume: 218 ft3 6.17 m3
Weights
Command module: 12,807 lb 5,809 kg
Service module: 54,064 lb 24,523 kg
Total: 66,871 lb 30,332 kg
Rocket engines
CM RCS (N2O4/UDMH) x 12: 92 lbf ea 412 N
SM RCS (N2O4/UDMH) x 16: 100 lbf ea 441 N
Service Propulsion System
(N2O4/UDMH) x 1:
22,000 lbf ea 97.86 kN
Performance
Endurance: 14 days 200 orbits
Apogee: 240,000 miles 386,242 km
Perigee: 100 miles 160 km
Spacecraft delta v: 9,200 ft/s 2,804 m/s
Apollo CSM diagram
North American Apollo CSM


The Command/Service Module ( CSM) was a spacecraft built for NASA by North American Aviation. It was one of the two spacecraft that were utilized for the Apollo program along with the Lunar Module to land astronauts on the Moon. Together they were called the Apollo spacecraft. After the conclusion of the Apollo program, the CSM saw service as a ferry for the Skylab program and for the Apollo-Soyuz Test Project where a CSM rendezvoused in orbit with a Soviet Soyuz spacecraft.

The spacecraft, as its name suggests, consisted of 2 segments, the command module which housed the crew and the equipment needed for re-entry and splashdown, and a service module that provided propulsion, electrical power and storage for various consumables required during a mission. The service module would be cast off and allowed to burn up in the atmosphere before the command module re-entered and brought the crew home.



1 Command Module (CM)

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The Command Module was a truncated cone measuring 10 feet 7 inches (3.2 m) tall and having a diameter of 12 feet 10 inches (3.9 m) across the base. The forward compartmentIn heraldry, a compartment is a design placed under the shield, usually rocks, a grassy mount, or some sort of other landscape upon which the supporters are depicted as standing (a compartment without supporters is possible but practically unknown, with t contained two reaction control enginesA thruster is a small propulsive device used by spacecraft for station keeping, attitude control, or long duration low thrust acceleration. See also: spacecraft propulsion monopropellant rockets hall effect thruster ion thruster magnetoplasmadynamic thrus, the docking tunnel, and the components of the Earth Landing System. The inner pressure vessel housed the crew accommodations, equipment bays, controls and displays, and many spacecraft systems. The last section, the aft compartment, contained 10 reaction control engines and their related propellantA propellant is a gas, liquid or plasma used to move an object by applying a motive force. Common propellants are gasoline, jet fuel and rocket fuel. Aerosol sprays In aerosol cans, the propellant is simply a pressurized gas. If the can was simply filled tanks, fresh water tanks, and the CSM umbilical cables.



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