 When we think about going to the moon it all sounds so glamorous and exciting, but really not all of it was, like the Apollo seaworthiness test. That's what we're looking at today on Vintage Space. There were a lot of long duration tests designed to make sure that the Apollo spacecraft could support three astronauts on a two week long mission to the moon. But going to the moon and coming back from the moon wasn't the only part of the mission where the astronauts relied on the Apollo spacecraft to keep them alive. There was also that pesky part of the mission between Splashdown and Recovery where the Apollo command module, a spacecraft, had to double as a boat. Between Splashdown and Recovery Apollo astronauts would rely on the spacecraft's communication system, its location system, power and ventilation systems to keep them alive while they floated in the ocean waiting for a crew to recover them and take them onto the deck of an aircraft carrier. Now NASA wasn't leaving this whole thing up to chance. It wasn't like the astronauts were left to just re-enter the atmosphere at any point, hopefully Splashdown the ocean and then be found by Recovery crews. NASA calculated everything. Re-entry into the Earth's atmosphere was done at a specific point such that the landing area could be calculated to a very small region. That meant that Recovery crews were on hand and ready to go as soon as the spacecraft landed. But if something went wrong and a crew had to land in a secondary landing zone or even a contingency zone, NASA had to be sure that the Apollo spacecraft could keep them alive not only while the Recovery crews located them, but also traveled the distance from where they were stationed for the primary landing to those secondary contingency or even other areas in the oceans. And remember, the world's oceans are pretty big. And Q, the 48-hour seaworthiness test done in spacecraft 7 in the Gulf of Mexico in 1967. There were two of these 48-hour seaworthiness tests done, and they both followed roughly the same format. After being lowered into the water, the spacecraft was flipped apex down into what is called the Stable 2 position. NASA had to make sure that the straps holding the astronauts in their seats were strong enough to hold them upside down, but it was also really a test to make sure that the airbags could inflate underwater to write the spacecraft to its Stable 1 position. And from there, it was basically a waiting game, and not exactly a fun one. Because it was a test of the spacecraft's integrity at sea, the test stipulated that waves in the area had to be between 3 and 4 feet high. Even though the spacecraft was within sight and easy reach of the Recovery carrier in case anything went wrong, the crew couldn't exactly stop the test because they got bored. They had to wait it out, just like they would if they splashed down in the wrong area after a mission. Jim Lovell, who flew to the moon on Apollo 8 and Apollo 13, did one of these seaworthiness tests, and I asked him about it the first time I met him. He leaned in and, in more colorful language, said, you know, I was a sailor, and that thing is no boat. If you're curious for more information about these tests, I've got more in the blog post linked below. So what do you guys think of the seaworthiness test, and also this totally unglamorous part of being an astronaut? Would that kill the dream of going to the moon for you, or would you put up with two days of sea sickness if you knew it meant maybe getting a flight to the moon? Let me know your thoughts and, of course, any questions you have in the comments below, and things you would like to see covered in future episodes. Be sure to follow me on Twitter and Instagram for daily-ish, vintage-space-ish content. And with new videos going up right here every single week, be sure to subscribe so you never miss an episode.