Apollo 9

Apparently we have had loss of signal at the tracking station at Guam. As Ron Evans mentioned just before his LOS call, he did say that there will be flight plan update during the pass at Mercury. This pass is some 5 minutes long and it is likely that only the first portion or the beginning of the flight plan update will be likely during this brief 5 minute pass. However, later on in Ascension at the beginning of the next revolution there appears to be something like 7 minutes of tracking and communication and then back to Guam again but during this period the crew of course will be eating breakfast. At 85 hours 42 minutes ground elapsed time this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 85 hours 53 minutes GET. Apollo 9 is within a few seconds of being picked up at the tracking ship Mercury. We'll wait until spacecraft communicator, Ron Evans, begins talking to the crew. During the Guam pass, Dave Scott was apparently awake at the time Evans made the call. He mentioned that there might would be the beginning at least of the flight plan update during this pass over Mercury. We're some 30 seconds into acquisition here. Generally, the CAPCOM waits for a good solid lockon before making his call. As mentioned earlier, the commander and lunar module pilot will not be fully suited for the transfer into the lunar module. They will have on their pressure garments, but without the helmets and gloves or the long umbilicals. There goes the call now.

And this is Apollo Control. Apparently we have had LOS at the Mercury, however, the conversation did continue past the advertised time of LOS. During that pass the command module pilot, Dave Scott, discussed with spacecraft communicator, Ron Evans, here in Mission Control some of the procedures to be followed in preparations for the rendezvous. Some troubleshooting on the malfunction sequence camera involving retrieving camera fuse in the LM and on taking it back to the CSM, and also the crew optional go for transferring to the lunar module without helmet and gloves or umbilical was passed up and accepted rather enthusiastically by command module pilot, Dave Scott. At 86 hours GET, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 86 hours 27 minutes ground elapse time. Coming up on the Ascension Island tracking station in the South Atlantic, during this pas is anticipated that the crew of Apollo 9 will give a food and medical report and perhaps a continuation of the flight plan update will be passed to the crew by the mission control center here. We're standing by for the first call. Here we go.

And this is Apollo Control. We've had loss of signal at the Ascension Island tracking station. During that pass we had apparently minor communications problem aboard the spacecraft where McDivitt could not get through in talking to the ground until the last few seconds before LOS and he crammed into those few seconds the medical and sleep reports on himself and Schweickart. Scott reported that he had 5 hours sleep last night, 7 hours the night before, is eating well and is taking no medication. McDivitt when he did come on the line reported that he had taken 1 actifed, and 2 APC's and had 7 hours sleep last night, 5 hours the night before. Schweickart took 1 Seconal and had 7 hours sleep last night, 5 hours the night before. Apollo 9 will next be acquired by the tracking station at Guam. At 8 minutes past the hour for an 8 minute pass actually 7 minutes 46 seconds according to the table fairly high elevation I hope. Following that it'll go almost directly over head actually within 3/10ths of a degree of directly over head of Mercury in the South Pacific. At 86 hours 37 minutes ground elapsed time this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control 87 hours 8 minutes GET. A few seconds away from acqusition at the Guam tracking station in the West Pacific. We'll have almost continuous coverage here over the Guam, Huntsville, the tracking ship Huntsville, and tracking ship Mercury, with a few seconds drop-out between each station. Standing by here for acquisition and the subsequent conversation between Ron Evans here at Mission Control, and the crew of Apollo 9. There goes the call now.

This is Apollo Control. We've had loss of signal at Guam, we have a 32 second gap between Guam loss of signal and Huntsville acquisition of signal. During that pass, the crew was passed up some different numbers for the check out of the rendezvous radar, after the separation burn of the command module for the start of the mini football, and the first of several maneuvers in the rendezvous sequence. Also block data for the several planned landing areas, so that the crew would have on board the necessary information for contingency landing in the next several revolutions if necessary. These are routinely passed to the crew from time to time. It appears that we've have had acquisition again with the Apollo 9 spacecraft through the tracking ship Huntsville. We'll stand by for continuation of the conversation. Spacecraft communicator Ron Evans is leaning over flight director Pete Frank's console discussing a point prior to resuming conversation. Flight director and the spacecraft communicator are still discussing some point that they plan to pass up to the crew over Huntsville. Although we have had acquisition, the discussion has not resumed. Standing by to come up with the conversation when it does begin. Spacecraft communicator is jotting down notes from his discussion with the flight director prior to continuing the conversation with Apollo 9 through Huntsville, anticipating momentarily the familiar beep-beep as the spacecraft communicator keys his microphone.

And we have had loss of signal at the tracking ship Huntsville with a dropout of some 36 seconds here before picking up at Mercury again. The pass over Mercury will be then 3 degrees of directly overhead or our zenith pass and because of the mechanical considerations of the antenna onboard the Mercury as it reaches the zenith, it'll be a few seconds dropout as they swivel the antenna around and relock with Apollo 9. On a lower elevation angle this would not be necessary, but apparently the antenna's gimballing system is built in such a manner that the antenna must be rotated around on our zenith pass. We show Mercury acquisition at - should take place at about now. We are standing by for resumption of the conversation.

This is Apollo Control. We've had LOS at the tracking ship, Mercury. The next station to acquire spacecraft Apollo 9 will be the Ascension tracking station, at 2 minutes 55 seconds past the hour, Apollo 9 is over the South Central Pacific nearing the end of the 55th revolution. At 87 hours 34 minutes, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control. 88 hours 2 minutes ground-elapse time. Coming into acquisition at the tracking station at Ascension Island in the South Atlantic. This will be a very low elevation angle pass. 1.9 degrees on a total time of 3 minutes 45 seconds. It's unlikely that a whole lot of conversation will take place over this tracking station however we will monitor and break in live for any possible conversation. The crew at this time are probably suiting up for a transfer to the lunar module. As mentioned earlier they will not wear the gloves and helmets nor use the long umbilicals for transfering to the lunar module.

This is Apollo Control. Not a very informative pass. Mostly line noise. One brief exchange between spacecraft communicator Ron Evans and the crew of Apollo 9. We'll continue to monitor for the less than 1 minute remaining in this pass.

This is Apollo Control. Although we have not yet had loss of signal, some 20 seconds of remaining doesn't seem very feasible to remain with the circuit open with all of that background noise. Apollo 9 will be picked up next over the tracking station at Guam at 43 minutes past the hour. At 88 hours 6 minutes ground elapse time this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control 88 hours 43 GET. Apollo 9 approaching a sequence of passes over tracking stations Guam, Huntsville, tracking ship Huntsville and the ship Mercury. This will be the last pass of the evening over Guam and Huntsville, however we have about 3 more over Mercury before the orbital track moves out away from the Mercury. There will be some 3 minutes laps between Guam and Huntsville, and some 2 minutes between Huntsville and Mercury. We'll stand by for communications over Guam. It's a fairly low elevation angle pass, some 3 degrees, or a total time of 4 minutes 59 seconds. Standing by for that first call from spacecraft communicator Ron Evans to Apollo 9. Flight director Pete Frank has been advised that data is coming in, here goes the call.

This is Apollo Control. Apparently we have had loss of signal at the tracking station Guam. During the brief exchange over that station, spacecraft commander Jim McDivitt reported that he and Schweickart were approximately an hour ahead in the lunar module rendezvous check list. We're less than 3 minutes away from acqusition at the tracking station, tracking ship Huntsville. We'll keep the circuit up until we do have acquisition and rejoin the conversation over that station, and the subsequent pass over tracking ship Mercury. During the earlier shift, prior to this one here in Mission Control, a large box of sandwiches was brought in, courtesy of the Nassau Bay Baptist Church. The mission commentator exercised a certain amount of manners by eating the last of the sandwiches. We're expecting acquisition at Huntsville at 51 minutes 50 seconds past the hour, about a minute away. The flight dynamics people here at Mission Control are busy generating maneuver tables for the series of maneuvers in the rendezvous sequence. It is not expected, at least from the displays here that the rendezvous will differ to greatly from the pre-mission flight plans, however the times and thrust values will be changed somewhat. About 20 seconds out of Huntsville now, standing by for the first call. We hear some conversation down in the mud so to speak. Sounds like Gumdrop and Spider are talking. Let's listen in although Ron Evans has not called the spacecraft.

This is Apollo Control. We're in a gap between the tracking ship Huntsville and the ship Mercury. Approximately 2 minutes gap. We'll stand by until the conversation resumes over the Mercury. During the Huntsville pass it was reported that by the crew that the lunar module pilot was having some difficulty with his intercom buttons. The push to talk buttons on the hand controller and he could only speak with the so called VOX mode that is voice actuated microphone. They're doing some trouble shooting here to, in the mission control to see how best to help out the crew. Here goes air to ground again.

And this is Apollo Control. Apparently, we have had LOS at Mercury. During that pass over tracking ship Mercury, it was reported by spacecraft commander, Jim McDivitt, that the transfer power from the CSM umbilical to the lunar module power source was approximately 1 hour earlier than called for in the flight plan. Apollo 9 is nearing the end of 56th revolution. The next station to acquire Apollo 9 will be Canary Islands station, at 39 minutes past the hour, some thirty-one minutes from this point. At 89 hours 08 minutes GET, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 89 hours 39 minutes GET. Apollo 9 is now over the mid-Atlantic approaching the Canary Islands tracking station in a few seconds. This pass over Canary overlaps the lower edge of the Madrid station the first time today, for a total pass of the two stations of some 9 minutes duration. We'll stand by for a call by spacecraft communicator, Stu Roosa, apparently who's sitting at the console with Ron Evans. We should have had Canary's acquisition at this time. We have data coming in. Here goes Roosa's call. At least he has his button punched for air-to ground. There he goes.

This is Apollo Control. Apparently we've had loss of signal at Madrid without any response from the crew over Madrid station. They may not have turned up their S-band volume. This particular station is one of several with the S-band capability and requires that the receiver for that particular mode of communication be turned up. Likewise at Honeysuckle Creek in Australia. The next station to acquire Apollo 9 will be the tracking ship Mercury at 35 minutes past the hour which will be approximately 45 minutes from now. About half a revolution without any contact with the spacecraft. At the present time the crew in the lunar module are conducting a pressure integrity checks of the pressure garments, or spacesuits. At 89 hours 50 minutes ground elapsed time, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control. 90 hours 35 minutes ground elapse time. We're within seconds of acquisition at the tracking ship Mercury in the South Pacific. It will be a pass of about 5 minutes duration. Standing by for the initial call by spacecraft communicator Stu Roosa.

This is Apollo Control. Apparently Apollo 9 went over the hill at the tracking ship Mercury without being able to acknowledge the last transmission from spacecraft communicator Stu Roosa. We will be coming up on the tracking station Antigua overlapping tracking ship Vanguard, Canary Island tracking station and Madrid with first acquisition at Antigua. At 2 minutes 40 seconds past the hour with continuous coverage across the before mentioned stations leaving Madrid at 23 minutes past the hour. We're approximately 21 minutes total pass over these 4 stations. At 90 hours 41 minutes ground elapsed time this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control 91 hours 02 minutes GET. Some 40 seconds away from acquisition at the Antigua tracking station. For the beginning of about a 20 minute pass, Antigua, tracking ship Vanguard, Canary Islands, and Madrid. We'll stand by here until the spacecraft communicator Stu Roosa makes the initial call. There likely will be a great deal of exchange during this 20 minute pass and getting all of the details sorted out. Information exchange between ground and the crew in preparation for the undocking, and the subsequent rendezvous sequence. We've had an indication of acquisition of signal at Antigua. There goes.

This is Apollo Control. We're within a few seconds of LOS time here on the displays at the Madrid stations. The next station to acquire Apollo 9 will be Carnarvon, Australia. Tracking station for the first pass of the morning. At 50 minutes 14 seconds past the hour for slightly over 5 minutes tracking time, there will be no doubt additional conversation there, as the crew continues to go through the various systems checks in preparation for the undocking, and rendezvous sequence of the day. At 91 hours 24 minutes GET, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control. Let's join the conversation in progress over Carnarvon.

We have passed the scheduled time for LOS of signal at Carnarvon tracking station. We have a dropout here - some two minutes between Carnarvon and the Honeysuckle station in the eastern part of Australia. Some of the initial times that are being generated here for the rendezvous sequence are beginning to show up on displays as the Lunar Module, alias Spider, will begin to spin a web around Gumdrop for the next several hours and come back to redock to complete the rendezvous sequence. The display shows the separation burn, which will be done by the Command Module - just a very small burn at 5 feet per second radially downward. That's taking place at 93 hours, 2 minutes, 53 seconds Ground Elapsed Time. This small burn will put the Command Module in an equal period orbit where the maximum seperation from the Lunar Module of some 2.8 miles. We've got Honeysuckle now, Let's listen in.

This is Apollo Control. We've apparently had LOS at the tracking station at Honeysuckle, Australia. During that pass, the maneuver updates were read to the crew for the separation of the lunar module from the command module. That time is 93 hours 02 minutes 53 seconds GET. The time for the phasing maneuver, which will take place half way through what would be called the mini football, where they're out about 3 nautical miles away and checking the rendezvous radar, they go into the second larger football rendezvous portion. The time of that maneuver is 93 hours 47 minutes 34 seconds, and the Delta V, or velocity, will be 90.7 feet per second. This is a radially upward burn which places the lunar module in an orbit that can be described as an equal period. The separation during this particular maneuver will not exceed - stand by one. During the maneuver after the phasing burn, the separation will be some 45 nautical miles in trailing distance, as the command module being in a lower orbit, proceeds out ahead of the lunar module. The tracking ship, Mercury, is upcoming next, at 9 minutes 36 seconds past the hour, some 3 minutes away. At 92 hours 6 minutes GET, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 92 hours 09 minutes ground elapsed time. Should be coming up on the tracking ship Mercury within about 30 seconds, however, if the Carnarvon pass was any indication, we may be a few seconds earlier than that in eavesdropping on the conversation between Gumdrop and Spider as they continue in their pre-rendezvous checklist and systems test. We're standing by for any traffic on the air-ground circuit.

And this is Apollo Control. We've now had loss of signal at the tracking ship Mercury. During that pass the crew of Apollo 9 were given the GO for undocking which will take place shortly after they begin this next pass over the Eastern Test Range; Grand Bahama, Antigua and the tracking ship Vanguard and on over to Canary Islands and Madrid. Some 27 minutes altogether overlapping passes over those stations. They were also given a routine GO for revolution 78 and landing area 1. The maneuver pad for phasing was read up to them. The undocking will take place, as mentioned earlier, just after acquisition at the Antigua tracking station and that will begin many hours of very complicated maneuvers by both the spacecraft and an Earth orbit simulation of the type of job that will have to be done in lunar orbit on the subsequent lunar orbital and lunar landing missions. Acquisition time at Grand Bahamas is 35 minutes 27 seconds past the hour to begin the aforementioned 27 minute continuous pass. At 92 hours 17 minutes ground elapsed time, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 92 hours 34 minutes GET. We're some 1 minute 20 seconds away from acquisition at Grand Bahama Islands on continuous pass across the lower part of the eastern test range on over to the tracking ship Vanguard, Canary Islands, and Madrid. One of the first items to take place during this pass will be the undocking of the command module from the lunar module. This is done when the command module pilot Dave Scott will trip a switch in the cockpit to extend the docking probe and this in turn deactivates the 12 latches that hold the two docking collars together, and provides a general nudge to the lunar module, to move it away at probably a foot per second away from the command module. Before there are any further separation, the command module pilot will take a sequence of still and motion pictures of the lunar module. First a fairly closeup range of about 10 feet of some of the RCS quads on the lunar module, then they'll move out to 45 to 50 feet while the lunar module does a sort of pirouette for inspection photograhs at all angles, including a pitch over where the pictures can be made of the descent stage. Here comes the transmition now through the Grand Bahamas.

Apollo Control here some 3 minutes away from loss of signal at Madrid. While Spider does some maneuvers out some 50 feet away from the command module, the command module pilot Dave Scott is making sequence and still photographs of the lunar module at the various attitudes including looking directly down the nozzle of the large engine bell of the descent stage. We'll continue to monitor the circuit as the two spacecraft drift on toward the time for the separation burn which will begin the mini-football.

This is Apollo Control. Apparently both spacecraft and their crews are busy with their cameras at this time taking pictures of each other. We've had no communications lately between the two spacecraft or with the ground. We'll leave the circuit up until Madrid loss of signal, which is about a minute away.

This is Apollo Control. Apparently we have had loss of signal at the Madrid, Spain tracking station. As the two spacecraft came across Grand Bahamas and on into Antigua tracking station tracking range, they were docked but the time I copied of actual undocking was 92:39:30 ground elapsed time. There was some difficulty in getting the capture latches of the docking collar to release properly and it took two attempts by command module pilot Dave Scott to get the probe fully extended to where the latches would release the lunar module. McDivitt and Schweikart in the lunar module proceeded to maneuver out; first at a short distance of about 10 feet for photographs of the RCS thruster quads on the LM, then moved further out to 45 to 50 feet for a turn around while facing the command module for a photography sequence, pitch over for a photograph of the descent stage and the descent engine bell. Some of the comments during that period of photography in inspection included one by Scott saying, you have a nice looking machine there. McDivitt responded so's yours. The command module rendezvous radar transponder was scheduled to be turned on shortly after the undocking. The lunar module rendezvous radar will be turned on after the separation burn, which is coming up at 2 minutes past the hour. This will be a radially down burn using the command module RCS thrusters to place the command module in a equal period orbit which will produce a separation distance for a mini-football of less than 3 nautical miles. The phasing burn which is a burn by the descent propulsion system of the lunar module of some 90.7 feet-per second will be radially up. This again is scheduled at 93 hours 47 minutes 34 seconds and it will take place over the tracking ship Mercury. Just at acquistion, there will be a Mission Control Center GO-NO GO for this phasing burn. The earlier separation burn for the mini-football will take place at 93 hours 02 minutes 53 seconds and will be out of contact with any ground tracking stations. Probably as the large wall map shows, over the Red Sea and the Arabian peninsula. At 93 hours ground elapsed time, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control 93 hours 14 minutes ground elapsed time. Apollo 9 is now over the Indian Ocean, coming on the time for the separation maneuver. There not be a change of shift briefing this morning for the Orange Team because of the intense amount of activity in this rendezvous sequence. Flight Director Pete Frank prefers to stay here in the Control Center to follow through on the activities begun during his shift, when the crew was awakened about an hour earlier than had been scheduled before, so that they could continue - or pick up the LM manning and power up. This took place about 85 hours 40 minutes ground elapsed time when the crew awakened. Actually, Scott was awake when they came over the hill at the Guam tracking station. During the subsequent pass over Ascension Island, the crew made a medical information report on how they felt, how many pills they had taken, and so on, and also, how well they were eating, and their sleep report.

They began the transfer to the lunar module at approximately 87 hours 40 minutes. The decision had been made earlier not to donn helmets and gloves or use the CSM umbilicals to transfer to the lunar module. During their subsequent pass over Ascension, the next revolution, there was considerably worse communications than had been encountered over that station earlier and most of it was pretty much unreadable. At just before 89 hours ground elapsed time over the tracking ship Huntsville, the lunar module pilot had some trouble with his intercom microphone. The push to talk control had failed, apparently, and he had to talk in the voice actuated or VOX mode. Later, this was cleared up. The transfer of power to from the CSM umbilical power to the lunar module power took place about an hour earlier than scheduled, which would have made that at about 88:20 ground elapsed time.

The crew continued the extensive checklists of powering up the lunar module, aligning the IMU, the RCS cold fire, and at 91 hours 5 minutes, as they came across the lower end of the eastern test range, the gimbal drive for the descent propulsion engine was checked out and also the throttle checks were run. The reaction control thrusters were fired hot, brief blips of the engine. During the pass over the tracking station at Honeysuckle, Australia, they were given the maneuver information for the phasing maneuver and over Mercury, just after that, they were given a GO for undocking over the States. The undocking took place at 92 hours 39 minutes 30 seconds. The lunar module maneuvered out in front of the command module for a sequence of photographs, both still and motion picture. It's rotating around in sort of a pirouette for the photography sequence.

The separation burn by the command module had been scheduled for 93 hours 2 minutes 53 seconds, which would have been out of acquisition. This was approximately 16 minutes ago. We will learn how it went as we come up on the Carnarvon station with acquisition at 22 minutes past the hour. That in effect, summarizes the past 8 hours of the activity here in the Mission Control Center. The handover is taking place between the Orange Team and the White Team of flight controllers, headed up by Gene F. Kranz. At 93 hours 19 minutes ground elapsed time, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 93 hours 22 minutes. We're standing by for acquisition at Carnarvon where we will await confirmation of the separation burn, this burn taking place in the band between Canaries and Carnarvon. Pete Frank and the Orange team have handed over to Flight Director Gene Kranz and the White team. We should be acquiring at Carnarvon very shortly. We'll stand by.

That's 5 zeros that Rusty Schweickart had reference -

He's referring to the readout on his platform alignment, all zeros.

This is Apollo Control. We have had LOS at Honeysuckle. Mercury will acquire in about 4 minutes. During this Australian pass Dave Scott confirmed a good, ontime separation maneuver by Gumdrop. The relative motion of the two vehicles, Gumdrop and Spider, is now in the equal period, small equal peiod orbit known as the mini football. About midway through the Mercury pass, Spider will perform the phasing maneuver, which puts them into the football proper. The Descent Propulsion System burn, under the AGS, or Abort Guidance System Control, this is the backup guidance system to the primary, and this is the only burn during this series of maneuvers in which AGS is the prime control mode during the burn. We're now about 2 minutes away from Mercury, we'll come back up at acquisition there.

This is Apollo Control at 93 hours 42 minutes. Coming up on the Mercury now end the phasing maneuver is 4 minutes 33 seconds away.

DPS is armed. The descent propulsion system is armed and Control says he is at the low throttle point. Two minutes 20 seconds away from the burn.

45 seconds.

Burning at 40 percent. It looks good.

Engine off.