Apollo Capsule Command Module by TMC Pacific Modelworks
Item Number: KYNACApollo Capsule Command Module
Built for NASA by North American Aviation in the 1960s, the Apollo Command/Service Module (CSM) was the agency's standard spacecraft for earth and lunar orbit missions. Along with the Lunar Module, it was one of the two spacecraft utilized to land astronauts on the moon. As its name suggests, the spacecraft consisted of two segments, the Command Module and the Service Module. The Command Module housed the crew and the equipment needed for re-entry and splashdown, while the Service Module provided propulsion, electrical power and storage for various consumables required during a mission. The Service Module would be cast off and left to burn up in the atmosphere before the Command Module re-entered and brought the crew home.
The Command Module was a truncated cone that could carry three crew members. Its forward compartment contained two reaction control engines, the docking tunnel, and the components of the Earth Landing System. The inner pressure vessel carried the crew accommodations, equipment bays, controls and displays, and many spacecraft systems. The last section, the aft compartment, contained ten reaction control engines and their related propellant tanks, fresh water tanks, and the CSM umbilical cables.
The Service Module was an unpressurized cylindrical structure that was connected to the Command Module using three tension ties and six compression pads. It housed the the fuel cell power system, service propulsion system and its propellants, four maneuvering thruster quads, the S-band antenna for communication with Mission Control, and storage tanks for water and air. The Service Module remained attached to the Command Module throughout the mission and was jettisoned just prior to re-entry into the earth's atmosphere.
In July 1969, the Apollo 11 Command Module _Columbia_ made history by carrying astronauts Neil Armstrong, Edwin _Buzz_ Aldrin and Michael Collins on their voyage to the moon and back. It is now on display at the National Air and Space Museum of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, DC.