a+/SESL_v_bw_o_n (S-64-38283)
A rare & excellent view of Chamber A during construction of the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory (SESL)/Building 32, at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), sometime during 1964. The massive door had yet to be installed at the time of this photograph, allowing a relatively unobstructed view into the chamber. The catwalk that rings the interior chamber wall can be seen near the top of the opening.
Additionally - and hopefully - at least some of it being correct:
“The SESL was designed to support spacecraft testing and astronaut training for the Gemini and Apollo programs using human-rated thermal vacuum chambers with solar simulation capabilities. By reproducing the thermal and vacuum conditions of space, NASA engineers could better understand the effects of those environments on spacecraft and the crews they protected. Construction of MSC’s Building 32 that housed the SESL began in late 1963 and was mainly complete by late 1964, with the facility’s two vacuum chambers installed and ready for acceptance testing.
The larger of the two chambers, called Chamber A, measured 90 feet in height and 55 feet in diameter, more than adequate to accommodate the full Apollo spacecraft it was designed to test. Inside the cavernous chamber, a 45-foot “lunar plane” platform could handle a 150,000-pound test vehicle and was capable of rotating 180 degrees to simulate a spacecraft flying to the Moon. The chamber’s vacuum pumps could simulate an altitude of 130 miles. To simulate the temperature extremes of space, the chamber’s interior walls cooled to -230 degrees Fahrenheit while two banks of carbon arc modules simulated the unfiltered heat and light of the Sun. Test articles could be placed in the chamber either through a removable top head or a 40-foot-wide side mounted access door. The smaller Chamber B, 26 feet high and 25 feet in diameter, had similar capabilities to the larger chamber with regard to environmental parameters and accommodated smaller test articles more economically.”
Above from/at, with numerous other excellent images:
www.nasa.gov/feature/building-on-a-mission-spacecraft-env...
Well deserved:
npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/85002810
Credit: National Park Service (NPS) website
a+/SESL_v_bw_o_n (S-64-38283)
A rare & excellent view of Chamber A during construction of the Space Environment Simulation Laboratory (SESL)/Building 32, at the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), sometime during 1964. The massive door had yet to be installed at the time of this photograph, allowing a relatively unobstructed view into the chamber. The catwalk that rings the interior chamber wall can be seen near the top of the opening.
Additionally - and hopefully - at least some of it being correct:
“The SESL was designed to support spacecraft testing and astronaut training for the Gemini and Apollo programs using human-rated thermal vacuum chambers with solar simulation capabilities. By reproducing the thermal and vacuum conditions of space, NASA engineers could better understand the effects of those environments on spacecraft and the crews they protected. Construction of MSC’s Building 32 that housed the SESL began in late 1963 and was mainly complete by late 1964, with the facility’s two vacuum chambers installed and ready for acceptance testing.
The larger of the two chambers, called Chamber A, measured 90 feet in height and 55 feet in diameter, more than adequate to accommodate the full Apollo spacecraft it was designed to test. Inside the cavernous chamber, a 45-foot “lunar plane” platform could handle a 150,000-pound test vehicle and was capable of rotating 180 degrees to simulate a spacecraft flying to the Moon. The chamber’s vacuum pumps could simulate an altitude of 130 miles. To simulate the temperature extremes of space, the chamber’s interior walls cooled to -230 degrees Fahrenheit while two banks of carbon arc modules simulated the unfiltered heat and light of the Sun. Test articles could be placed in the chamber either through a removable top head or a 40-foot-wide side mounted access door. The smaller Chamber B, 26 feet high and 25 feet in diameter, had similar capabilities to the larger chamber with regard to environmental parameters and accommodated smaller test articles more economically.”
Above from/at, with numerous other excellent images:
www.nasa.gov/feature/building-on-a-mission-spacecraft-env...
Well deserved:
npgallery.nps.gov/AssetDetail/NRIS/85002810
Credit: National Park Service (NPS) website