We’ve all seen the footage of the Gemini and Apollo launches. There’s a sequence that shows a “ring” that joins stages together dropping off and falling to Earth. Obviously, the camera is in the adjoining stage.
But… This stage is jettisoned at some point. How did we get the footage? Was the camera jettisoned from the stage to parachute down and then recovered? This is how early spy photos were retrieved from satelites. It seems unlikely that the stage would survive re-entry, then that salvage crews would find it in the ocean.
“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry
I don’t think it’s obvious that the camera is on the next stage. A zoom lens on the capsule would produce the same image, would it not? Especially if it were cropped afterwards to show only the parts that were interesting.
Is it my imagination, or does anyone else remember the words, “artists depiction” or some such being displayed on the screen during the stage separation?
As I recall, you can see the inside of the stage, so the camera has to be inside of it. It can’t be inside the cockpit because there’s no window on the bottom of it (there’s a heat shield there).
“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry
my WAG… maybe it was just a lens mounted inside the stage, with a small transmitter, and the image was beamed to the ‘videotape’ in the cabin… so the lens section can be lost, and the film is saved for posterity
I don’t suffer from insanity…
I enjoy every minute of it!
The exposed film was stored in a compartment on the exterior of the command module. At some point during the trip, an astronaut would perform an EVA and retrieve the exposed film.
Not all flights had an EVA. Also, I’m fairly certain that the footage came from a stage that was not connected to the Command or Service Modules. Also (re: a previous post), the footage looks like film, not video, so I don’t think there was a remote lens (actually, it would have to be a remote camera) with a feed to a deck aboard the capsule. I’ll have to dig out the footage again and take another look. (I hope I don’t sound to contrary. I’m not looking for a fight! :eek
“I must leave this planet, if only for an hour.” – Antoine de St. Exupéry
Although not all flights had an EVA the footage I recall seeing always looks the same so they probably only had to do the recovery once. Why do you think the camera was not on the service module? Unless I am overlooking some detail (always a possibility) the footage could be the separation of the third stage form the sevice module.
John
Then he got up on top
With a tip of his hat.
“I call this game FUN-IN- A-BOX”
Said the cat.
Although not all flights had an EVA the footage I recall seeing always looks the same so they probably only had to do the recovery once. Why do you think the camera was not on the service module? Unless I am overlooking some detail (always a possibility) the footage could be the separation of the third stage form the sevice module.
John
Then he got up on top
With a tip of his hat.
“I call this game FUN-IN- A-BOX”
Said the cat.
Although not all flights had EVA, the footage I remember seeing always looks the same so they probably only needed to recover it once. Why are you sure the footage was not recorded from the bottom of the service module? Unless I am unclear on some of the details (always a possibility) the footage looks to me like it could have been taken from the service module as the third stage separated.
John
Then he got up on top
With a tip of his hat.
“I call this game FUN-IN- A-BOX”
Said the cat.
May I direct your attention to the excellent book, “A Man on the Moon”, by Andrew Chaikan. It’s a history of the Apollo moon project. One of the photographs shows an astronaut performing an EVA to retrieve film shot by the exterior cameras.
Johnny–yes, not all missions had EVAs. I think it would safe to say that the shots of the 1st stage falling off are not from those missions.
As noted, the footage is film, not video, so an actual camera with film had to be mounted in/on/near the stage in question. And it is most definitely real footage and not animation.
Also, the footage in question was taken from a camera mounted inside the structure of the rocket. A long (telephoto) lens on a camera mounted on either the Service Module or the Command Module could not have produced that image. In fact, from my past examinations of this footage, I remember deciding that the camera must have been mounted inside the ring that connects the stages. Also, judging from the apparent altitude (and some other factors I no longer recall) I’m pretty sure it’s the second/third stage seperation we’re seeing. Can’t be the third stage/LM-CSM separation, because it doesn’t happen that way.
I’m still at a loss as to how the footage was recovered (separation from the stage and then a small payload parachute?), but I’m almost positive it didn’t come back with the astronauts themselves (i.e., recovered from the CSM during an EVA).
That particular footage, the one of the stage ring falling away-
A. Had to be taken by a remote camera in the next stage. It is clearly being filmed from inside the upper stage.
B. Had to have been jettisonned and retrieved from the sea. No astronaut ever did an EVA into the bottom of an Apollo stage. It would have been impossible (not to mention incredibly dangerous).
My guess is that the first launches of the Saturn V (which were unmanned) contained numerous remote cameras as part of the flight testing phase of the rocket.
I for one welcome our new insect overlords… - K. Brockman
In this you can see that the remaining stage has 2 visible rocket nozzels. This indicates that the footage is of the first stage being separated from the second stage since the third stage had only one rocket motor. Therefore I agree with Hail Ants. The camera/film must have been recovered from the second stage after returning to earth or in a jettisoned recovery capsule.
John
Then he got up on top
With a tip of his hat.
“I call this game FUN-IN- A-BOX”
Said the cat.
Allow me to preface this with the fact that I don’t know what I’m talking about.
Do these stages ever leave the atmosphere? I don’t think they do. They burn to give enough kinetic energy to the CSM for it to leave the atmosphere. If that is correct, and it may not be, then the stage wouldn’t burn up on re-entry because it would never have left the atmosphere. I think it would splash down in the ocean at a fairly predictably location and bob up and down until recovered.
Am I supposed to believe that all this rain was suspended in mid-air until moments ago?
I remember this being completely explained when I first saw the footage on TV, some thirty years ago. I don’t remember what the explanation was, however.
