I photographed this Launch Escape System (LES) Rocket at the Florida Air Museum in Lakeland, Florida. These were used for the Mercury and Apollo Missions. In the case of catastrophic emergency, the LES Rocket would fire the crew capsule to a safe distance from the launch vehicle and then the capsule would deploy the parachute system and descend as it normally would.
A great example of a LES in place can be seen atop the Mercury Atlas and Mercury Redstone rockets at the Kennedy Space Center.
LES on Mercury Atlas rocket
Kennedy Space Center 2024
LES on Mercury Redstone rocket
Kennedy Space Center 2024
