Mercury boilerplates Boilerplate (spaceflight)
1 mercury boilerplates 1.1 etymology 1.2 notable events 1.3 photos mercury boilerplates mercury boilerplates manufactured in-house nasa langley research center technicians prior mcdonnell aircraft company building mercury spacecraft. boilerplate capsules designed , used test spacecraft recovery systems, , escape tower , rocket motors. formal tests done on test pad @ langley , @ wallops island using little joe rockets. a summary of mercury boilerplates can found @ field guide american spacecraft. etymology the term boilerplate originated use of boilerplate steel construction of test articles/mock-ups. historically, during development of little joe series of 7 launch vehicles, there 1 actual boilerplate capsule , called such since conical section made of steel @ norfolk naval shipyard. capsule used in beach abort test, , subsequently used in lj1a flight. however, term subsequently came used prototype capsules (which in own right complicated orbital capsules). usage technically incorrec...