Boilerplate (spaceflight) - Apollo Boilerplates - Specific Apollo BP Units - BP-1220/1228 Series

BP-1220/1228 Series

The purpose of this series design was to simulate the weight and other external physical characteristics of the Apollo command module. These prototypes were in the 9000 lb range for both laboratory water tanks and ocean tests. The experiments tested floatation collars, collar installations, and buoyancy characteristics. The Navy trained their recovery personnel for ocean collar installation and shipboard retrieval procedures. These boilerplates rarely had internal equipment. See BP-1220 photo.

BP-1224

BP-1224 was a Component level Flammability Test Program to test for design decisions on selection and application of nonmetallic materials. Boilerplate configuration comparisons with Command Service Module 2TV-1 and 101 were performed by North American. The NASA Review Board decided on February 5, 1967, that the boilerplate configuration had determined a reasonable "worst case" configuration, after more than 1,000 tests were performed. See BP-1224 photo set.

BP-1227

This was lost in the North Sea in early 1970, recovered by a Hungarian vessel, transferred to the Soviet Union, and returned to the US in September 1970 by the USCGC Southwind (WAGB-280). It is now located in Grand Rapids, Michigan as a time capsule. See BP-1227 photo. The only certainties about this capsule are that it was returned to the United States at Murmansk early in September 1970 during a visit by the USCG Southwind who returned it to the Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia. There it remained until title was passed to the Smithsonian in April 1976 when it was passed on to Grand Rapids, Michigan to serve as a time capsule. Two official sources – the US Navy and the US Coastguard – both say that it was lost by an ARRS unit training in recovery procedures. Where it was lost is not certain, but the most likely location is the Bay of Biscay where it was recovered by a Russian trawler. A contemporary account of its return quotes a NASA spokesman as saying, “ … as far as NASA can determine the object… the Navy lost two years ago.”. When BP-1227 was lost ranges from 1968 to 1970 depending on which account one reads. This uncertainty may be due to a Russian account that claims there is an agreement between the Russians and the US to keep details secret until 2021.