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MUSIC: NARRATOR: At the White Sands
Missile Range in Las Cruces, New Mexico,

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engineers and technicians are
preparing for a very special test.

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The Launch Abort System is a sophisticated new
rocket tower designed to pull a spacecraft away

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from danger on the pad and
during initial ascent.

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For the first time, all the components
of the system will work together.

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The test not only develops core
technology needed for future spacecraft,

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but also directly improves the chances
of crew survival in an emergency.

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The name of the test is Pad Abort 1.

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Music full.

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Music: 60's Surf music.

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NARRATOR: It's the mid 1960's, and the Apollo
Program is testing its Launch Escape System.

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At the White Sands Missile Range a squatty
rocket nicknamed Little Joe 2 launches an Apollo

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capsule for a high altitude test.

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Engineers want to see if the escape
system can pull the capsule away

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from danger in the event of an emergency.

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The unmanned test shows the escape system works!

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Sound Effect: Explosion Sound Years
later, an escape system was used

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for real on a Russian Soyuz rocket.

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When spilt fuel caught fire on the launch
pad, an escape rocket pulled the capsule away

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from the hazard, savingthe crew member's lives.

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For the Pad Abort 1 test, engineers
will utilize the Launch Abort System

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to lift a mock Orion crew module.

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The test simulates an emergency
situation not unlike the Soyuz incident,

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where the spacecraft is still
sitting on the launchpad.

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The Launch Abort System builds upon knowledge
of the past and applies modern technology

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and new innovations to make a more
capable means of escape for the crew.

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This technology can be utilized to make any
spacecraft safer for human space exploration.

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Mark Geyer: "Actually if you look
at Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo,

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they all had a launch abort
capability, different ways.

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For these capsule-like designs, there's a way to
pull it away from the booster and save the crew.

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So it takes that fundamental idea

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but our current Launch Abort System is actually
much better than those systems with the thrust,

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with the attitude control system that we
have on it we can actually get the crew away

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from the vast, vast majority of even very
unlikely contingencies we can imagine."

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NARRATOR: Three newly developed motors will
work together on the Launch Abort System

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to create a new level of control
and stability during flight.

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The Abort Motor is the most powerful,
and begins the escape process...

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Jay Estes: " Well, it's pretty amazing.

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The Abort Motor is the biggest
motor that lifts everything up.

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It's got about 500,000 lbs of thrust and it's
going to get the whole vehicle up off the ground

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to achieving about a Mach .6 in three seconds."

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NARRATOR: Tested in Utah, the Abort
Motor utilizes a new style of propulsion

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that saves space and weight, while
still achieving remarkable power...

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Mark Geyer : "Our, our booster is, is bigger so
what we decided to do rather than sit it on top

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of the lattice structure was actually turn
it upside down so that the thrust goes up

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and then turns out on the nozzles,
so we have a/ reverse thrust nozzle,

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so that's a new technology
that we've developed for this.

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Makes it shorter than it might otherwise need it
to be, which is good for mass and other things."

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NARRATOR: While the Abort Motor initially
pulls the spacecraft from danger,

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an Attitude Control Motor provides a new level

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of steering capability to
orient the spacecraft...

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Don Reed: "We have an Attitude Control Motor,
which has eight thrusters or pintle valves.

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So it's a solid rocket motor, single
solid rocket motor with eight valves.

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These valves can individually be varied to vary
the thrust at the eight different locations

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around the, circumference of
the top of the abort motor.

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It's more stable.

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It gets you in a better attitude when
it's time to deploy the parachutes.

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So it can get the crew module in
a much better and stable position.

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It also allows us to reduce the weight...the
overall weight of the Launch Abort System."

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NARRATOR: With the spacecraft safely away
from the danger and properly positioned

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to deploy parachutes...a third
motor...the Jettison Motor...

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ejects the entire Launch Abort System tower,
leaving the crew module to fly by itself.

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A forward bay cover is ejected and
parachutes deploy for a touchdown.

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Pad Abort 1 gives engineers a chance see how
the fully integrated Launch Abort System works

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under flight conditions.

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The build up to this test has utilized
the diverse talents of NASA centers,

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commercial industry and even the military...

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Mark Geyer: "We have a lot of
different things to integrate,

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so what we did on the NASA side is
we went to several different centers

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that had expertise in those areas.

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So Langley has great expertise with structures

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so they actually built the
crew module for this test.

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They also have great expertise in loads analysis

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so they're actually doing the
loads analysis for us on this test.

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Dryden, of course, has huge experience
in flight tests, mostly aircraft,

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and so we've been using them to help
us with the overall integration as well

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as actually putting the vehicle together.

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We shipped the capsule from Langley and
then the avionics came from Lockheed and,

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and it's been the Dryden guys
who have been integrating that

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and putting the capsule together
there at Dryden."

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NARRATOR: The crew module was then
shipped to the White Sands Missile Range,

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where a new 92 acre launch complex was built
for both the Pad Abort 1 and other flight tests.

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Here all the pieces came
together for the first time.

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Jay Estes: "So out here we're cooperating with
the Army here at White Sands Missile Range

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and there's a NASA center here,
the White Sands Test Facility."

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NARRATOR: The Orion project office at the
NASA Johnson Space Center is leading the team

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to test the Launch Abort
System, while the expertise

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of the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center
has been called upon for propulsion,

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assembly integration and production.

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The Pad Abort 1 test not only demonstrates
the new technologies and methods