Saturn V CSM & SLA

I am uncertain as to when the Command/Service Module (CSM) and Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter (SLA) on the USSRC's Saturn V was installed in the Rocket Park. While the stages for the Saturn V and Saturn I were moved from Marshall Space Flight Center to the USSRC (or ASRC, as it was known at the time: the Alabama Space and Rocket Center) on June 28, 1969, the CSM/SLA was added at an unknown later date.

Unlike the stages of the rocket, which were ground-test stages used in dynamic testing, the CSM/SLA appears to have been fabricated specifically for display. Conservation Solutions, Inc. (the company which performed the Saturn V restoration) noted that

The spacecraft portion of the Saturn V display (Lunar Adapter, Service Module, Command Module and Launch Escape System) were full scale 1970s era mock-ups constructed of sheet aluminum and fiberglass. The Command Module, constructed almost completely out of plywood and fiberglass, was in very poor condition.

The SM and SLA are a single, integral article. They are hollow and the SM's interior contains structural ribs. The aft end of the SLA appears to be constructed of individually-numbered panels installed in a support grid (the numbers are just barely visible in the photos I took of the SM/SLA during Rocket Roll, and are spray painted on the interior of the panels). The launch escape tower, however, was at least a fairly high-fidelity mockup.

It's hard to believe, but I only saw the Saturn V in the Rocket Park over the course of three summers (2002-2004) before restoration work began and the rocket was subsequently relocated. These photos were taken before I really planned out the photos I took, leaving me to impose method on the madness after the fact and try to arrange the photos in a logical presentation.

I have so many pictures of the Saturn V in the Rocket Park that I divided them by stages: the S-IC (first) stage, the S-II (second) stage, the S-IVB (third) stage, and the Command/Service Module (CSM) and Spacecraft Lunar Module Adapter (SLA). I also have some overall shots of the Saturn V in the Rocket Park as well.

I additionally have photos of this stage in its current home in the Davidson Center, as well as photos from 2005 through 2007 as the rocket was undergoing restoration and relocation.