The launch escape system

When the spacecraft was sitting on top of the Saturn V, it included one extra element of the Apollo system that everyone hoped would never be used. If it had, it would have been a particularly bad day for all involved. Attached to the tip of the CM was a truss structure upon which was mounted a thin, pencil-like tower which included a powerful solid-fuelled rocket motor. This was the launch escape system (LES). Its lower section was a fibreglass and cork shroud that covered the shiny surface of the command module, called the boost protective cover (BPC). It shielded the CM from the heat of friction with the air during the first three minutes after launch, and from the blast of exhaust from the rocket mounted just above, should this be used.

If the Saturn V were to suffer a mishap, this motor would have burned for just eight seconds, but it would have produced a force equivalent to 66 tonnes weight and an acceleration in excess of 7 g that would whip the CM and its crew to safety. The motor’s exhaust exited through four nozzles that were canted to direct its blast away from the spacecraft. If the launch was normal, then after the first 3 lA minutes another smaller rocket motor near the top of the tower would pull the launch escape system, including the boost protective cover, away to fall into the Atlantic Ocean.