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Author
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Topic: Apollo capsule sold to Chriet Titulear for $1
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mark plas
Member Posts: 385
From: the Netherlands
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 09-07-2006 05:03 PM
   
For Dutch and Belgium readers does anybody know what kind of Apollo capsule it was that Chriet Titulear (a Dutch space journalist) bought for $1? Was it really an unfinished capsule or a boilerplate model? |
heng44
Member Posts: 3413
From: Netherlands
Registered: Nov 2001
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posted 09-08-2006 12:21 AM
I believe it was a boilerplate and only the outer shell of it. And they put it upside-down on the display! |
mark plas
Member Posts: 385
From: the Netherlands
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 09-09-2006 11:02 AM
I thought it was a real one, at least that was what it sounded like reading his story. He paid one dollar but he had to arrange the shipping and stuff like that. He sold it not too long ago for $30,000. |
Bram
Member Posts: 28
From: Tremelo, Belgium
Registered: Nov 2005
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posted 09-20-2006 02:06 PM
I also saw that capsule. It was at the exhibition SPACE 86 in Utrecht, The Netherlands. A couple of months ago, I found an old picture of that capsule I took in that year.  From the outside, it looked like a real capsule. No idea if it was a real one or a boilerplate. Recently, I send an email to Mrs. Titulaer, but she did not reply. |
katabatic
Member Posts: 72
From: Oak Hill, VA, USA
Registered: Jun 2005
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posted 09-20-2006 04:06 PM
Hmm, stable 2... Time to pop the airbags! |
dtemple
Member Posts: 730
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 09-20-2006 04:51 PM
The Apollo shell looks like a block 2 type. I wonder if this is CM 102, which according to the National Air and Space Museum was scrapped. |
mark plas
Member Posts: 385
From: the Netherlands
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 09-21-2006 02:36 AM
It sure is great to see a picture of that event back in 1986.I was there as a 11 year old with my father May 10th 1986 but strangely I don't have a single picture of that day. This day would also remain in my mind as the last thing I ever did with my father because May 12th 1986 he died of a heart attack. About the capsule it sure looks like a block 2 and this capsule stood in Chriet Titulaer's backyard for years. |
Bram
Member Posts: 28
From: Tremelo, Belgium
Registered: Nov 2005
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posted 09-22-2006 12:40 PM
It would be nice if we could somehow find out what capsule we see in the previous picture. Is it really the scraped CM 102? Anybody any ideas? |
mark plas
Member Posts: 385
From: the Netherlands
Registered: Aug 2000
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posted 09-23-2006 06:03 AM
In an interview, Titulaer said that he first spotted the unfinished capsule sitting in a corner of the Rockwell plant. For fun he remarked that he would give $1 for it. Well he could have the capsule for a dollar, but he had to arrange everything to get it to Holland.It was too big for a 747 so it was shipped and placed in his garden where it stood for years until a Japanese man bought it.
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Dirk
Member Posts: 943
From: Belgium
Registered: Jul 2003
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posted 10-13-2006 02:57 PM
Just received an answer from Chriet Titulaer. The capsule he had was the unfinished Apollo 21 CM, 22 and 23 should still be at the Rockwell Factory.He sold his CM to a Japanese company. He isn't doing very well at the moment. |
dtemple
Member Posts: 730
From: Longview, Texas, USA
Registered: Apr 2000
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posted 10-13-2006 06:03 PM
To my knowledge, there were never any Apollo spacecraft designated for Apollo 21, 22, and 23. In fact, I think only Apollo 21 got any discussion at NASA (as perhaps a lunar polar orbit mission or some other lunar mission under the Apollo Applications Program). Maybe he meant CM 121 instead. According to the website, "A Field Guide to American Spacecraft," block 2 Apollo spacecraft were designated from 101 to 119. My volumes of The Apollo Spacecraft - A Chronology make no mention of any Apollo spacecraft beyond CSM 119. Maybe fabrication began for 120-123 before they were cancelled. |
moorouge
Member Posts: 2458
From: U.K.
Registered: Jul 2009
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posted 11-08-2011 04:14 AM
This is the comment I received from a NASA 'old timer' when he was shown the photo. The photo of the upside down CM could be the Apollo 20 CM. I found a reference that "Apollo 20's CSM was never completed and was scrapped", and all other production CM's are basically accounted for. And I see enough evidence that the CM in the photo could be a production-line vehicle - RCS panels, Sea-anchor loop, holes in the heat shield in right pattern to attach aft heat shield, color of ablation material is correct, etc. (It's odd to see it sitting upside down without the forward tunnel!) So, there you have it! Not a boilerplate but a production article. |
space1
Member Posts: 861
From: Danville, Ohio
Registered: Dec 2002
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posted 11-08-2011 04:58 AM
I don't think the ablative material has been installed on this CM. This is how the flight vehicle shell would look before heat shield installation (although it looks as though it has some corrosion or discoloration in the photo). |
tfrielin
Member Posts: 162
From: Athens, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 11-08-2011 10:40 AM
CSM 115-A was partially completed and later, reportedly scrapped. Maybe this is it? |
Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 43576
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 11-08-2011 10:47 AM
115A "tops" the Saturn V on display here at Johnson Space Center. |
tfrielin
Member Posts: 162
From: Athens, GA
Registered: Feb 2007
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posted 11-08-2011 11:01 AM
Okay, where is 115 then? Is that one accounted for? 119 is at the Saturn V Museum at KSC. Haven't researched this since the late '90s (Google "Frieling" and "Skylab B" to get a Googledocs copy of my article on this with a Saturn/CSM surplus hardware list as known at the time).
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Robert Pearlman
Editor Posts: 43576
From: Houston, TX
Registered: Nov 1999
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posted 11-08-2011 11:12 AM
According to A Field Guide to American Spacecraft, 115 was only the service module and 115A was only the command module. |
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