Apollo Flight Journal: Ejectable Camera Pods

[neil_w]

Undoubtedly old news to some folks, but new news to me, and fascinating.

Did you ever wonder how that really cool onboard movie film of Saturn vehicles staging, or their LOX tanks draining got back to to Earth? Well, here's how it was done...
https://www.history.nasa.gov/afj/camerapods/camerapodessay.html
Article by the one and only Dr. Zooch.

 

[rockladen]

Very interesting! That is certainly new news to me.

I always wondered why the footage of staging was so clear versus the first live footage from the moon which was very grainy and "ghostly". Now I know.

 

[mbeels]

Yes, interesting. It reminded me of Corona, a satellite that dropped film to get caught in mid air by airplanes.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corona_(satellite)

 

[SpaceManMat]

Very interesting! That is certainly new news to me.

I always wondered why the footage of staging was so clear versus the first live footage from the moon which was very grainy and "ghostly". Now I know.

The full version of the footage of staging actually includes the cameras being ejected, they wind down due to have no electricity to power them.