IBM FACILITIES

Three IBM-owned buildings at Huntsville comprise the Space Systems Center where component test­ing, fabrication, assembly, and systems checkout of the instrument unit are completed. Assembly and the majority of the testing activity take place in a 130,000-square-foot building located in Hunts­ville’s Research Park.

As units are received, they are inspected and then moved to one of the testing laboratories where they are subjected to detailed quality and reliability testing. From component testing, the parts move

Ш Assembly and Test—All instrument unit assembly work and the majority of testing are done in this IBM-owned building in Huntsville’s Research Park. The rear of the building is the high – bay area where assembly operations take place.

Following assembly operations, the IU is moved to one of two systems checkout stands—one for uprated Saturn I vehicles, the other for Saturn V.

Automatic Checkout-IBM technicians monitor systems checkout tests as another technician optically adjusts the inertial guidance platform, prior to a simulated mission.

A complete systems checkout is performed auto­matically. Hooked by underground cables, two digital checkout computer systems examine the IU. Each of the IU’s six subsystems is tested before the IU is tested as an integrated unit. With indepen­dent computers, systems tests for two instrument units can be conducted simultaneously.

Simulation Laboratory Saturn V flight guidance and navigation programs as well as launch computer programs are tested in IBM’s Engineering Building at Huntsville. Here a technician checks a computer readout of a simulated mission.