Rocket Engine, Liquid Fuel, Apollo Lunar Module Descent Engine
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Object Details
- Manufacturer
- Space Technology Laboratories (STL)
- Summary
- This is a Descent Engine designed by Space Technology Laboratories as used on the Project Apollo Lunar Excursion Module (LM) to land on the Moon. The engine could be throttled between 1,000 and 10,000 pounds of thrust and was also the first gimballed and throttable rocket engine used on a spacecraft.
- The engine shown here is an early developmental model dating to 1966. During the Apollo lunar missions from 1969-1972, there were no problems with the Descent Engine, although on the Apollo 13 mission, no Moon landing was made and the Descent Engine served another purpose, that of taking the craft out of lunar orbit and back home. The engine was donated to the Smithsonian in 1972 by the NASA Marshall Space Flight Center.
- Credit Line
- Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Inventory Number
- A19720824000
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Type
- PROPULSION-Rocket Engines
- Materials
- Nozzle, phenolic ablative liner; propellant lines, stainless steel; valves, stainless steel; injector, aluminum.
- Dimensions
- 3-D: 147.3 × 236.2cm, 204.6kg (4 ft. 10 in. × 7 ft. 9 in., 451lb.)
- Country of Origin
- United States of America
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- National Air and Space Museum
- Record ID
- nasm_A19720824000
- Metadata Usage (text)
- CC0
- GUID (Link to Original Record)
- http://n2t.net/ark:/65665/nv9b15f9c60-7e83-43c3-9888-1d29def6fcf8
Related Content
This image is in the public domain (free of copyright restrictions). You can copy, modify, and distribute this work without contacting the Smithsonian. For more information, visit the Smithsonian's Open Access page.
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