Apollo Heat Shield Manufacturing Model

This is probably my favorite artifact in the entire exhibit (well, OK, there is that recovered F-1 injector ...). It shows how the Apollo Command Module heat shield was manufactured, starting with the bare metal and ending with the final product.

The "final product" was painted white, leading me to believe that this dates to the Skylab program; part of the Command Module was painted white for thermal reasons, as it was not able to perform the passive thermal control ("barbeque mode") which took place during the Apollo program because the Command Module was docked at the Orbital Workshop (although the ablator was also painted for the Block I Command Modules, albeit usually grey).

For additional information on the construction of the Apollo heat shield, see the 1000 Seconds to Home: Apollo Heat Shield and Returning from the Moon YouTube videos.

This artifact is Smithsonian catalog #A19751420000.