Apollo Test Capsule CM-011

On loan from the Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum.

NASA’s Command Modules (CM) were built by Rockwell of North American, based in Downey, California. This module, CM-011, was built in the Bock I design and was a testing capsule. The Command Module design was under construction before the plan to orbit the Moon was chosen, so the first CMs were only designed for Earth orbit and lacked docking capability and a pressurized crew-transfer tunnel. These features were added to the next Command Module design, Block II, which connected to the Lunar Excursion Module (LEM) to allow two astronauts to travel to the lunar surface and return to the Command Module which would remain in lunar orbit.

USS Hornet served as the recovery ship for CM-011 for its AS-202 mission. The Command Module was recovered off of Wake Island on August 25, 1966, 1 hour and 33 minutes after liftoff. Following the mission, engineers from NASA Rockwell/North American conducted a land impact test, dropping the capsule from a platform. This tested the structural integrity of the spacecraft and heat shield after it had gone through the cold vacuum of space and the heat of reentry. On this test, the capsule was dropped at a 23-degree angle, resulting in a crack at its base that can still be seen today.