"Greg (Strider) Moore" writes:

"JF Mezei" wrote in message ...

[...]

In Apollo era, there appeared to be a "launch abort" red button. Was
this a full fledged launch escape system that could bring capsule out of
harm's way and land peacefully in water next to the beach? Or was it a
limited system usable only during certain phases of flight?

Apollo had complete abort capability all the way to orbit.
It could be initiated by the onboard flight computer OR by the CMP.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_abort_modes has some details.

On the pad and at lower altitudes, basically the LES which was the structure on
top of the CSM which was basically a tower attached to the boost protective
cover would fire and and pull the CM away from the rest of the stack. There was
a SRM to make sure it was pulled to one side and not just straight up (where an
accelerating Saturn could then run into it).

Above a certain altitude the LES and boost protective cover would be
jettisoned.
In this case the CSM would use its engine to abort, or if high enough, the
S-IVB would attempt an abort to orbit.

FYI, the only two launch aborts (I'm not counting Challenger, which was
a launcher failure with no abort attempt) were performed by Soviet Soyuz
flights at the opposite ends of the launch envelope. The first had a
stage separation failure which led to the spacecraft having to separate
and make a brutal ballistic reentry (reportedly more than 20 Gs). As
small consolation, it is the longest suborbital flight. The second was
an on-pad abort when the launcher caught fire and the LES successfully
pulled the Soyuz and crew away very shortly before the launcher was
destroyed. They landed under parachute within a few km of the pad.