SM-1 [SEP] end time
1957 visit shows military officers from Cuba, Costa Rica and Portugal, amongst the group invited inside the reactor control room.
Reactor closed in 1973, building reopens as museum.
Plans to decommission the SM-1 reactor were announced in June 1972, and the reactor was shut down for the last time on 16 March 1973: four members of the first group of operators trained in 1957 participated in the shutdown ceremony. According to a 1998 US Army report on the Army Reactor Program, during its 16 years of operations the facility
if the detonator on that charge failed to function.
Once in space, the astronauts pressed the 'CSM/LV Sep' button on the control panel to separate the CSM from the launch vehicle. Detonating cord was ignited around the flange between the SM and SLA, and along the joints between the four SLA panels, releasing the SM and blowing apart the connections between the panels. Dual-redundant pyrotechnic thrusters at the lower end of the SLA panels then fired to rotate them around the hinges at 30-60 degrees