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NASA's Lost Boilerplate - The Story of BP-1227

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NASA's Lost Boilerplate - The Story of BP-1227
Part of Apollo Lunar Landing Family
Apollo BP
Apollo BP
In 2002 the Encyclopedia Astronautica uncovered the forgotten story of the recovery of an Apollo capsule by the Soviet Union and it's return to the United States. The original March 2002 article provoked an early example of international group-research on the Internet, with a June 2002 update and with new information from the crewmembers of the USS Southwind in 2008. Now, 13 years later, Eddie Pugh's exhaustive research provides the definitive account of the event.
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by Eddie Pugh � 2015

What follows is, to my best knowledge and belief, an accurate description of a bizarre event from 1970 that saw an Apollo boilerplate capsule fall into the hands of the Russians. In preparing this account I must thank two ‘old timers’ from the former Landing and Recovery Division (LRD) of NASA whose patience with my repeated queries is gratefully acknowledged; former crew members of the USCG Southwind; crew members of various vessels involved with Apollo recoveries and serving members of the US military; and a Russian space enthusiast who eventually uncovered an interesting report of capsule 1227’s recovery. All have been unstinting in their help. A failure to resolve exactly what happened over forty years ago is entirely due to my shortcomings, not theirs.

Apollo boilerplate capsule designated BP-1227 was one of a series of about thirty capsules that were designed to simulate the weight and external characteristics of the Apollo Command Module. They were used primarily to train recovery crews of both Navy and ARRS (Aerospace Rescue and Recovery Squadron) units in flotation collar installation and recovery procedures in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans. There were some exceptions to this though. In addition to these roles, boilerplate BP-1202 was used at the Kennedy Space Centre (KSC) by an ARRS unit and KSC fire-fighters to train for launch site recovery, while BP-1224 was used in a Component Level Flammability Test Program to test for design decisions on selection and application of non-metallic materials following the Apollo 1 accident.

The 1200 series of boilerplates were designed ‘in house’ and probably started life on the drawing board of Hardie Barr. He was responsible for the early examples, then known as LRD BPs. His particular pride was BP-1102/1102A, a capsule used by the astronauts for water egress training. The 1200 series were manufactured by a firm called Ace Fabrications in Clute, Texas, each costing some $10 – 15K. This a very good deal according to Hardie Barr. They were made of low-carbon steel, sand blasted and coated with ‘Dimetcote’, an inorganic zinc primer used for corrosion control, before they were painted. A few were made in the Block 1 configuration, these being converted to Block 2 at a later date. BP-1227 was most likely made sometime about 1967.

Ace Fabrications no longer exists as it went out of business in the early 1990’s. It was owned and run by the Self family. Regrettably, when it closed the company records were destroyed. It has to be pointed out that there is not, nor was, any connection with a firm of a similar name that currently operates in the Houston area.

Upon completion, BP-1227 was handed over to the Atlantic Recovery Force CTF-140 at the Naval Air Station, Norfolk, Virginia. Once allocated to this unit the boilerplate came completely under their control and it was CTF-140 that would organise and collaborate with other units needing a boilerplate to practice recovery techniques for a returning Apollo spacecraft. Despite several searches, where and to whom the capsule was sent remain buried deep within the records of the Port Services Department at the Naval Air Station. It has to be recorded also that though the chief of the design section kept a Rolodex file on the BP-1200 series to track their configuration status, this was lost when the LRD was disbanded in 1972.

Apollo boilerplate capsule BP-1227 hit the news media when it was handed back by the Soviets in the early days of September 1970 during a visit by the Coast Guard cutter Southwind to the port of Murmansk. The usual dates for this are given as either 7th or 8th of the month though the private log of one of the Southwinds’ helicopter pilots, a Stephen Goldhammer, says it was a day earlier. His entry, timed at 18:00 on Sunday 6th September, reads, “We took on board a practice NASA capsule that the Russians had found somewhere. It looked like a dummy Gemini capsule. The Russian TV news said that one of the reasons for coming here was to pick up the capsule.�