On July 3, 1968, NASA and contractor technicians successfully concluded the final parachute drop test to qualify the Apollo Command Module (CM) Earth Landing System (ELS) for crewed flight, clearing another hurdle for Apollo 7, the first crewed Apollo mission scheduled to fly just 3 months later. To test and qualify the Apollo ELS for human space flight, contractor Northrop Ventura conducted drop tests at the Joint Parachute Test Facility, Naval Air Research Facility, in El Centro, California. Following test drops using low-fidelity mockups, the first parachute test of an Apollo boilerplate CM from a modified Air Force C-133 Cargomaster took place on May 3, 1963. Over the next five years, the contractor completed 34 drop tests using boilerplate capsules, in addition to multiple drop tests using lower fidelity mockups and wind tunnel and laboratory tests. The drops included nominal entry and a range of off-nominal scenarios including high-altitude abort simulations and single-canopy failures. The July 3 final drop test simulated a high-altitude launch abort deploying one of two drogue and two of three main parachutes, subjecting the ELS to design limit worst-case conditions. In terms of design, testing and qualification, the Apollo ELS successfully met the requirements for safely returning humans from space. The first space flight test came just 3 months later, when the Apollo 7 astronauts flew the first crewed Apollo mission and returned safely to Earth.
The 13,000-pound Apollo boilerplate CM 19A, used in many of the drop tests, has been restored and is now on display at the Columbia Memorial Science Center in Downey, CA, at the site where it and all other Apollo spacecraft were built.
For more information on the Apollo ELS, read the Apollo Experience Report – Earth Landing System, by Robert B. West.