Boilerplate (spaceflight)
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A boilerplate spacecraft, also known as a mass simulator, is a nonfunctional craft or payload that is used to test various configurations and basic size, load, and handling characteristics of rocket l
Boilerplate version of Gemini spacecraft on display at Air Force Space and Missile Museum, Cape Canaveral, Florida, October 15, 2004
The prototype Space Shuttle orbiter Enterprise in full boilerplate stack configuration with External Tank and SRBs ready to undergo vibration testing at the Marshall Space Flight Center, October 4, 1978
Mercury Beach Abort test
Mercury parachute test
Big Joe 1
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Big Joe 1 launched an uncrewed boilerplate Mercury capsule from Cape Canaveral, Florida on 9 September 1959. The purposes of the Big Joe 1 were to test the Mercury spacecraft ablative heat shield, aft
Boilerplate (spaceflight)
…early 1960s, NASA performed many tests using boilerplate Apollo spacecraft atop Saturn I rockets, and Mercury spacecraft atop Atlas rockets (for example Big Joe 1). The engine-less Space Shuttle Enterprise was used as a boilerplate to test launch stack assembly and transport to the launch pad. NASA's now-canceled…
Big Joe 1 at LC-14 in September 1959.
The Big Joe Mercury capsule on display at the Steven F. Udvar-Hazy Center