Definition of "command module" [command module]

• The portion of a spacecraft in which the astronauts live, communicate with a ground station, and operate controls during a flight. (noun)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "EST, a fire flashed through the Apollo Block I command module as it sat atop its uprated Saturn IB rocket on Pad 34."
• "None of the astronauts liked the Block I spacecraft that North American Aviation had built for NASA, the early version of the Apollo command module that was to be test-flown in Earth orbit prior to any lunar mission."
• "Both Neil and Buzz remember the down-up-up-down trip into Eagle as one of the oddest sensations of their entire Moon trip, crawling from the floor to the ceiling of the command module only to find themselves descending headfirst from the ceiling of the docked LM."