Apollo Control Display Panel from KSC Firing Room 1

From the Kennedy Space Center via the Charlie Bell estate, a vintage S-1C, S-II & S-IVB Control/Display Firing Room No.1 panel with the panel face measuring 19″x 9″ and with the wiring housing behind it measuring 14″ deep. Complete with all its Saturn V stage S-1C, S-II & S-IVB lights intact. A KSC tag from GE with no date, but a modification tag that bears the year as 1968.

Jonathan Ward, an expert on mission control panels, did some research and wrote to me:

“With your panel, congratulations – you’re the first person who has a panel that I can definitely tie to a given Firing Room! (since it’s labeled Firing Room 1) That would mean that it was “decommissioned” after Apollo 17. GE was tasked with modifying the FR equipment to support Skylab (and later ASTP). The Skylab Orbital Workshop was launched using Firing Room 2, and the manned flights and ASTP were commanded from FR 3. You would think that since the Skylab manned flights used a Saturn IB rocket, which didn’t have an S-IC or S-II stage, that there would be different control panels for the S-IB stage and the launch vehicle as a whole. However, I have seen some panels that were for a Saturn V (like yours, they had sections for all three of the Saturn V stages), but they just blanked out the S-II indicators and put a piece of metal tape saying “S-IB” over top of the S-IC label.

I’m checking with a fellow who used to sit in the Firing Rooms, to see if he has any ideas as to where it might have been. It could have been in the range safety section of Area A of the Firing Room, or it might have been in a support room somewhere. As far as I can tell, it was used for monitoring the Range Safety signals, i.e., are the explosive systems on the various stages of the Saturn V showing that their redundant systems are both working, and to monitor the major range safety events (has an engine cutoff and explosive arming command been sent and received, has the propellant dispersion command been sent and received (to blow up the fuel tanks if the missile goes off course), or are the systems “safed”.

I asked a friend who is an expert on the KSC Firing Room what he thought about your panel, and this is what he had to say:

The “Control/Display” panel was a range safety panel. Note its references to “rcvr” 1 and 2. These 2 receivers were part of the “DRSCS”– the Digital Range Safety Command System. Note also the “audio select” switches. The DRSCS signal was de-modulated into a series of audio tones, and the actual vehicle receivers were acoustic-like devices.

The range safety command was sent in 2 steps. The first “armed” the explosive trains, and commanded engine shutdown. The 2nd function set off the Propellant Dispersion system ordnance trains. Note on the indicator lights that there are 3 states of the system– “Safe”, “Arm and Engine Cutoff” and “Propellant Dispersion”.

The “Control/Display” panel was part of the “Measurement/RF Networks” row. This one looks like an early version–note that the 3rd stage is referred to as “SIV” in the upper right corner.

The Launch Control Center for Launch Complex 39 is attached to the Vehicle Assembly Building (VAB). It originally was designed with four Firing Rooms, one for each High Bay in the VAB. Up to four Saturn rockets could be stacked in the VAB at the same time, and each would have a dedicated Firing Room for test, checkout, and launch. The FR’s were designed for flexibility, without interior columns, and with raised flooring, to enable reconfiguration as needs changed.

Ultimately, only three Firing Rooms were built out during the Apollo program. Firing Room 4 was used as the project management room for construction of LC-39 and the Apollo systems integration.

Post-Apollo, Firing Room 1 was refitted to support the Space Shuttle and Ares Programs. It was re-named “The Young/Crippen FIring Room” in 2008, honoring the crew of the first Space Shuttle mission.

Even though the LCC is 3 miles from the Complex 39 launch pads, it needs to be hardened from potential launch catastrophes. The exterior windows are 2 inches thick, and are protected by shutters that can be rapidly closed in the event of an explosion.”

Put on display today in our new SF office.