Apollo 10

152:08:40 Stafford: Houston, Apollo 10. Over.

152:13:29 Cernan: Hello, Houston. This is 10.

152:13:39 Cernan: OK. I just hit Command Reset so I can get my High Gain back, and you're locked on Auto Track, Narrow.

152:15:57 Stafford: Hello, Houston. Apollo 10.

152:16:09 Stafford: Roger. At 52:30, could you give us - At 52:30 when we start this pass, could you give us our distance from the Earth, and also our distance from the Moon, and our relative velocity? Over.

152:20:35 Young: Go ahead. Over.

152:20:47 Young: Go ahead. Over.

152:21:24 Young: Roger. So we're pulling away from it, huh?

152:21:40 Young: That doesn't mean we won't do it, because he left it out of the Flight Plan.

152:21:45 Stafford: If we get hungry, we're going to eat. Over.

152:21:48 Young: Listen, there's no place in the Flight Plan to put snacks, either, but that's what we've been doing.

152:22:05 Stafford: Deke must have been using that Exer-Genie. Over.

152:22:08 Young: Tell him to see if he can find a good candy bar out there in the...

152:22:13 Stafford: OK. Well, we've consumed most of it up through, starting on day 6. We're about on meal B of day 6, and we have about two meals that are not consumed out of that total. Over.

152:22:33 Stafford: Also - Also, tell Deke he's really missing something if he doesn't combine that water - that food with water that's filled full of gas, because that's really a thrill. Over.

152:23:00 Young: Hey, Bruce. That star landmark, we never did any of that in the simulator and we never had any way to practice it, and all we've ever done is star horizon. But, my opinion of that, as a task, is that it's far easier than star horizon, and it would probably be just the way to go for a no-comm nav case. You could pick a couple of good sites on the world which, like out there in Arabia and Baja California, usually always open; why, it would be a good way to go.

152:23:38 Young: Roger. I would think it would be more, at least as accurate as star horizons. The stars at this point - the brighter stars like Arcturus and Spica - filled up the entire crater, so it was really no problem. The smaller stars: Denebola, Gienah and - and Gienah, they didn't quite fill up the whole crater, but it was so easy to put those things in there and make a Mark that it's just no task.

152:24:26 Young: Sure was.

152:26:36 Young: Hello, Houston. We're configured and waiting and standing by for your Go on the TV. Over.

152:27:02 Young: OK. We'll be coming your way in about 30 seconds.

152:28:57 Cernan: Hello, Houston, this is 10. Are you seeing the TV?

152:29:08 Cernan: OK. It should be on the way.

152:32:59 Cernan: Hello, Houston. How do you read now?

152:33:10 Cernan: OK. The Moon and the Earth are the same relative size to us now. The planet Jupiter is easily visible about 5 diameters from the Moon. We can see stars within 6 diameters of the Moon. Anything within that is washed out. The maria areas are very easily visible. The Sea of Fertility, the Sea of Tranquility, where the basic landing sites are, the Sea of Serenity, are the large maria areas to the center part of the height of your screen as you approach the terminator. I don't know whether you heard me the first time, but the Moon is technically - to us it's upside down. The north pole is at the bottom, the south pole at the top. The east is the most prominent area to the left, and the west goes toward the terminator. We're actually pointing in the heavens towards the southern stars.

152:34:15 Cernan: The Moon with the naked eye and through our monocular, we can still see very vividly some of the most important landmarks. We can see Apollo Ridge, which we crossed over and used as a basic IP [initial point] for our approach for landing Site 2; we can see some of the smaller craters that surround our landing site area, are clearly visible to us yet at this time and, I might add, that the Moon from this position is pointing off to the side. I hope that this picture is giving you the detail, the resolution that we see with the naked eye here.

152:34:59 Cernan: Well, Jack, you and the folks that are seeing us - watching us leave the Moon, and we're moving away as you see this picture, Bruce, about 3,500 miles per hour [6,500 kph]. So, if the picture looks like it is getting smaller slowly, it really is.

152:35:19 Cernan: Let me take you over, Bruce, to show you the Earth from Tom's window.

152:35:54 Stafford: At this time, you should have the Earth coming through on your set down in Houston. Over.

152:36:04 Stafford: OK. Houston, Apollo 10. We're looking at the Earth out of our left window. We now are approximately 168,000 miles [311,000 km] on our return journey to the Earth, and again relative to the Earth, we're traveling approximately 3,500 miles per hour [6,500 kph]. At this distance, as Gene has described, the Earth and the Moon look approximately of the same diameter. And, as we look at it here, the Earth is growing from, say slightly smaller than a tennis ball, where it looks about the size of an orange. As you can see the Earth there, actually it's upside-down with the white cap as the North Pole. And, since most of you watching your TV sets can't turn upside-down very easily, what I am going to do is turn this camera over upside-down, since it's no trouble for us. See if that will work... OK. There we go. It's pretty easy for us to go upside-down and right-side-up as far as attitude. It makes very little difference except for a maneuver. And so, instead of requiring all you people to stand on your heads to recognize the great state of California out there, I'll just turn this upside-down in my head. As we look out there, we can see the terminator, and it has definitely crossed over to the Arizona area, and at Baja California is barely discernible. You may not be able to see it through the cloud cover. Also, it looks like we have some clouds all the way up to Los Angeles. It may even be smoggy out there today. Toward Seattle, Washington, it looks like some cloud cover, and the North Pole still has that same complete coverage as Northern Canada, over into Russia; the same cloud coverage that we have observed all the way on our trip out from Cape Kennedy starting last Sunday. It's a very beautiful, beautiful view as we start our return visit - journey - there to the Earth, and we do have a great attitude for seeing it all the time. As we slowly rotate going back home to the Earth, we'll have the Earth out one window and then the Moon out the other, and later on the Sun. At this time, again you can see that the majority of the features are strictly clouds. The blue you see down near the bottom of your screen there is the lower South Pacific Ocean, down toward the Galapagos Islands. Now, how is your picture, Houston? Over.

152:38:49 Stafford: Roger.

152:38:51 Cernan: A good relative size for both the Earth and the Moon. Tom mentioned one and another one might be: if you took a nickel and held it about 18 inches from your eyeball, that's what the size of the Earth the diameter of the Earth and the diameter of the Moon, appear to us at the present time.

152:39:20 Cernan: It's more like a nickel at arm's length, for the average eyeball.

152:39:31 Stafford: A tennis ball is a good size just looking at it at a distance, but in a correlation, it would be to that. And, Houston, how is the color coming through? Mostly whitish browns to the right of the set and darkish brown in there towards the California coast, and the blue down in the South Pacific. Over.

152:40:00 Stafford: Sounds great. OK, Houston, we're going to take you inside the cockpit for just a couple of minutes here. 0ver.

152:41:03 Stafford: Roger.

152:41:16 Cernan: OK. John is using the optics in a rather unorthodox fashion right at the moment. He appears to be upside down. Just, just a second. I'll see if I can turn him right-side-up for you.

152:41:35 Cernan: OK. Now we have John right-side-up, but the spacecraft is upside-down. We've got - still got a problem here. Stand by.

152:41:50 Cernan: I guess we'll just have to accept the spacecraft right-side-up, and John upside-down. Here he comes.

152:42:21 Stafford: That's what the average space navigator looks like, after 543 marks.

152:42:27 Stafford: You can observe the patch over one eye to help him adapt.

152:42:51 Stafford: You might think he was some ancient pirate, but actually this is what the modern day space navigator looks like after all the marks that he has been taking. He's done a fantastic job on determining the altitude of the Moon's surface, and shooting all the star sightings. Over.

152:43:05 Cernan: You can see John's star chart above his optics right there, and above that are some of the codes that are used to operate the computer - the guidance computer on board.

152:43:55 Young: OK. This is what happens to the optics in zero gravity.

152:44:06 Young: Once you start a screw or bolt turning up here, it just keeps right on going forever. There is just absolutely no friction associated with operation of moving parts. That's why we have to stick everything together with glue. And since they have been rotating like this, I have lost both of them at least once.

152:44:31 Young: If you don't think it's hard for a one-eyed guy to find something like this when it's running around in the cockpit, you're not with it.

152:44:44 Cernan: I'll back off and show TP here.

152:45:18 Stafford: As you can see, all of us have grown a little bit of a beard in the 6 days since we left Cape Kennedy. It's been a fantastic voyage out here, and it's certainly been a sight, and we hope we've been able to share a part of it with you by sending back some pictures.

152:45:53 Stafford: Again, just like we showed you one time before, once you're in zero gravity and you're adapted to it, it makes no difference whether you're right-side-up or upside-down. And we have been floating all over the cockpit doing chores, making attitude maneuvers, shooting stars, as you can see John there. And we'll say we feel in really great health. In fact, we've felt great ever since we climbed aboard the Saturn V rocket on Sunday, and we're certainly looking forward to a return to the Earth, and I think we'll be about as healthy when we return as when we left. Over.

152:46:37 Stafford: Here you see a pair of our scissors that we open the food with, just slowly floating.

152:47:37 Stafford: OK. We'll go over to the right side of the cockpit, and here's Gene Cernan. Right now, Gene and John are vying for the basic contest of who's growing the best moustache.

152:47:54 Cernan: For Jack Schmitt's sake, this is how we take targets of opportunity.

152:48:08 Cernan: This has been a, it's been a great trip, so far. We've worked hard, but it's been very challenging and very, very rewarding to us as a team here, and, I hope, to our team down there; because we couldn't be where we are if it wasn't for all you guys down there, and we really appreciate it.

152:48:43 Stafford: Thank you, Bruce. It's really been great. That pass down to the lunar surface at 50,000 feet [15,240 metres], and the rendezvous, and then shooting the top part of Snoopy around the Sun, and all the landmark tracking, and viewing the Moon as we saw it. And also, that climb out this morning as we left the Moon. Now, that's something you just won't ever forget; and it was so fantastic, that we just wanted to share it there with you. Over.

152:49:11 Stafford: Here you see Gene turning around the flashlight that's turned on. Now, one thing we use in the spacecraft because we do have the problem of zero-g is some material called Velcro, and here you'll see Gene putting a light on one of the knobs, and John is also putting a pencil there. In fact, with just one small piece, he can hold this whole camera that we have. It's only less than 1 inch square, but yet it has the cohesive force to hold the desired object to the surface.

152:50:03 Stafford: Well, we're going to end our TV cast, now, by again just showing you the Earth and the Moon for one quick glance, and Gene will take the camera and point it out to the Moon.

152:50:21 Stafford: Yes. We'll take you up in our tunnel there. We've got a lot of gear stored in it.

152:51:01 Stafford: [Laughing.] You better believe, that may be a part of Snoopy.

152:51:13 Young: OK. You're looking at the edge of the hatch. There's the hatch handle right there; the basic mechanism of the hatch handle mechanism that opens. If you can see it, there's condensation all over there. It's all wet, and right up there under the tunnel vent lights around the seal is drops of water condensing out.

152:51:45 Young: Can you see that water on the tube? Does it show up on the monitor? And, there's condensation on the walls of the tunnel, as far down as the top of the hatch surface.

152:51:50 Young: But there's very little electrical wiring in the tunnel, so we're not really worried about that.

152:52:17 Young: That's it, that's it. Well, there's a thin, there's a thin film of drops all over the hatch, and...

152:52:33 Young: Can you see that?

152:52:44 Young: That's the same type of film that's all over the hatch and the tunnel walls. Saw a lot on the hatch - on the pressure equalization valve. Look at it, right there.

152:53:03 Young: Bright, shiny spots of water.

152:53:10 Young: And like I said before, this morning, it's 20 degrees cooler in the tunnel; very nice up there. The pressure equalization valve is covered with water well every piece of equipment in there, particularly the steel pieces around the rim of the seal and pressure equalization valve, are covered with a thin film of water drops. I think you can see some, even on the hatch mechanism. Can you see the alignment arrows...

152:53:51 Young: ...that we use to align the hatch with?

152:54:05 Young: Roger. This hatch weighs about 80 pounds [36 kg] or a little better, and in one g with - a man has very great difficulty to position this thing and install it, and locking it by himself. In zero gravity it's extremely easy to manipulate and operate, and it was even easy to wrestle it by these hoses the other day, which we had to take it out and put it in two or three times while we're checking out the lunar module, which was attached just above this hatch. But it was a piece of cake to haul it in and out.

152:54:57 Young: I didn't say it would be easy for AAP, Bruce.

152:55:07 Cernan: I don't believe you can see it, but there's some big drops of water about the size of a quarter right where John is putting his hand up there, right now. Right opposite that tunnel light, and opposite the end of the hatch handle. It's on the vertical portion of the hatch.

152:55:56 Stafford: Right now, John has one of our absorbent towels and is mopping up the water around in that area on the hatch handle.

152:56:33 Young: Roger. As a matter of fact, I was just up in the tunnel feeling of that. That stuff on the outer hatch seal is not water. It's ice.

152:57:59 Stafford: OK. Gene is going to focus it on the Moon. There, I think he's got it. Over.

152:58:10 Cernan: OK. Like Tom did with the Earth, I've turned the Moon over for you and you're looking at the North Pole at the top; the east is to the right; and the south is to the bottom of your screen. You're looking at the main area that we were interested in as far as landing site operation is concerned, the dark area in the middle: the maria, Sea of Tranquility, Sea of Fertility area. As I say, with the naked eye this is still very plain and very visible, and this is full zoom on the lens. The relative size again at - some - about 40,000 miles [74,000 km] away from the Moon about 45,000 miles [83,000 km] away. It looks like about a - fills up the size of about a nickel at about 15 inches [38 cm]. So, with that we'll leave you. Apollo 10 from Tom, John, and Gene saying, we're proud to be here, we're loved to represent so many people back there. It's been a pleasure; it's been hard work, but it's been a tremendous challenge, and we're looking forward to a complete and successful landing; and thank you all again.

152:58:30 Stafford: Roger, Bruce.

153:00:08 Stafford: Hello, Houston, Apollo 10.

153:00:14 Stafford: Roger. You've heard our report, how we feel healthy and very hardy up here. Just want a report on how our boss is doing, going through the same simulation with the food on the ground. Over.

153:00:33 Stafford: What did you say, Houston?

153:01:02 Cernan: He had some other conveniences to go with that food that we don't have that might make it taste better.

153:03:28 Stafford: Hello, Houston. Apollo 10. Over.

153:03:36 Stafford: Roger. For the G&N water Delta-V, want to reconfirm that the yaw angle is 060 degrees. Over.

153:03:51 Young: You know, Houston, if it's 060 degrees according to the book on one of these burns, you got to realign the platform. That's too close to the middle gimbal. Over.

153:04:39 Young: I was afraid you were going to say that.

153:04:57 Stafford: Go ahead, Houston.

153:05:07 Stafford: Roger. We're doing real good up here, Deke, and feel real healthy. Wondering how you were surviving down there on it. Over.

153:05:21 Stafford: [Laughing.] It is, and I guess that's the only factor that you're missing there, boss, because this water really seems to fill you up. Over.

153:05:36 Stafford: Right. Good reducing diet also. I guess our total BTU's per day is probably a little bit less, particularly after that rendezvous day here, as far as our movements and everything; and you start to use the Exer-Genie right away, you build up a heat load that 5 psi can't circulate out very well. Over.

153:06:25 Stafford: Houston, Apollo 10. Again, I mentioned earlier today, and I guess it got relayed on to you, that we're still itching quite a bit from all the insulation that we got in here from the tunnel hatch; and at least after that microbiology, the next thing we want to do after we get aboard the carrier is going to be to take a shower. Over.

153:06:57 Stafford: OK. Real good. I wish we'd had a camera going inside. It looked like three people scrambling around in a snowstorm here when that vent valve was opened up there. And the same way over in Snoopy. Snoopy was completely covered with the snowstorm but we got it fairly well policed-up, but it still is settling around all over. And so, we're taking care of it the best we can, but I think that's the best way to get rid of the rashes we have. Over. There's no problem, but we just want a shower as soon as we get out.

153:07:28 Young: We keep cleaning the inflow valve out at regular intervals.

153:07:40 Stafford: Oh, yes. We've taken about the best type of shower we can, and all skin treatment - everything else, and we keep cleaning the inflow valve to the ECS system - oh, at least three or four times a day, and still just finding fibers - lint from the fiberglass in there. But we've got everything under hand, but in the meanwhile, we just itch a little bit. Over.

153:08:08 Stafford: OK. Thank you, now.

153:12:24 Stafford: Houston, Apollo 10. You can relay on to Deke that we aren't going to eat another meal before we go to bed. Over.

153:12:34 Stafford: Tell him not to get hungry, now, down there.

153:12:37 Stafford: [Laughing.] OK. Real good, Deke.

153:20:10 Young: Houston, this is Apollo 10. Over.

153:20:14 Young: Roger. Should we be in Narrow Deadband for this water dump? Over.

153:20:31 Young: What quads do you want enabled and disabled today?

153:20:50 Young: Thank you, sir.

153:20:54 Stafford: And would you give us a Mark at 9 minutes to the maneuver? Over.

153:20:59 Young: So we can get our clocks Synced.

153:21:05 Stafford: Roger. Our clocks are Synced, and we're counting down to the maneuver. Thank you.

153:21:47 Stafford: Go ahead, Houston. 10.

153:22:01 Stafford: Well, thank you very much. Certainly appreciate the effort, there.

153:22:05 Young: Are you sure they're hot on water?

153:22:11 Stafford: Is that salt water? Over.

153:22:19 Stafford: OK. Tell them thanks a lot. Over.

153:23:03 Stafford: Go ahead, Houston, 10.

153:23:08 Young: I see. Thank you.

153:26:50 Stafford: Houston, Apollo 10. We're in the maneuver altitude and counting down, coming up on 3 minutes to maneuver. Over.

153:27:05 Stafford: Roger.

153:29:02 Stafford: Mark.

153:29:03 Stafford: One minute to the maneuver.

153:30:11 Stafford: Roger. Would you count us down to the last 5 seconds, please, Houston? Make sure we're accurate there when we start it. Over.

153:31:06 Stafford: Roger. And we're on the way.

153:31:08 Cernan: We've got a good ignition. The valves are open; the pressure's good.

153:31:36 Young: Man, it's raining out there.

153:32:04 Stafford: Houston, at 1 minute, the maneuver looks good. Over.

153:32:18 Young: Steering is straight and true.

153:32:22 Cernan: We've got a pull 0.0000015 g, at the moment.

153:32:38 Stafford: Houston, if Deke's still there, ask him what he thought of that rate of climb this morning after we lit the big afterburner. Over.

153:32:52 Stafford: Yes. Neither have I, Deke. All three of us just sat there in amazement. We just went vertically right out from it. It was really amazing ... like you really pulled back on the pole after the burner was lit and you're up to V_MAX.

153:33:12 Stafford: Sure love to have you.

153:33:13 Young: Boy, that engine really runs. I tell you that three-quarters of a g were getting felt like about 7 g's. It's hard to get your head off the headrest.

153:33:40 Young: I think the real impressive thing about it, though, is the accuracy with which it controls and ends up. Once you get done with a burn, by golly, it doesn't look like we got any work to do much now.

153:34:02 Stafford: Yes. The guidance systems have really performed for us on this whole mission, in fact, even including the Saturn there. Over.

153:35:33 Cernan: Say, Deke, I'm trading John one shrimp cocktail for two chicken soups, but you don't have that advantage down there. So you just have to stay with what you've got.

153:35:50 Stafford: Sorry about that.

153:36:25 Stafford: Right, Deke. Yes. The food itself tastes real good and those wet packs are good. Man, they've made a real great effort. And the only thing is I'm sure just the water has filled us up so much and the lack of total activity in here, we just - We're staying completely filled up. There's no doubt about that, but we're just lagging a little bit behind in the total number of meals consumed. Over.

153:40:28 Cernan: Roger. I'm reading about 15. I'll bias it and cut if off at 10.

153:40:38 Cernan: Say again.

153:40:40 McCandless: Roger. We show 9½ percent now. You're overburning.

153:40:44 Cernan: Roger. Manuals cut off - shut off. We got it. Residuals look like about 0.05 percent plus.

153:41:02 Stafford: Houston, this is 10. It looks as if the I_sp might have been a little bit low as far as the total burn time was concerned. Over.

153:41:20 Stafford: Roger.

153:41:23 Cernan: Oh, EECOM is doing the trench work now, huh?

153:42:07 Stafford: OK. Stand by. It will be a little while yet. We are right in the middle of this meal. Over.

153:42:19 Stafford: OK.

153:44:47 Young: Houston, this is 10. We're going to PTC attitude, heads down tonight, and look at the southern constellations for morning realign. OK?

153:46:54 Young: Houston, this is 10. Over.

153:47:01 Young: Roger. It is kind of - mighty cold in this tunnel area. If it really starts to freeze things up, we might want to orient this thing - hatch toward the Sun for a little bit one of these days. We'll keep an eye on it. That be all right?

153:53:04 Cernan: Hello Houston, this is 10.

153:53:11 Cernan: I got some RAD readings for you in this order: 26044, 05044, and 15045. I got Battery C 36.8; PYRO BATT's are both 37; RCS 54, 66, 67, and 64.

153:53:42 Cernan: That's all right, Bruce. I've got them written down. I'm sure you got them right. I'm cycling the fans, and I'm going into an O₂ purge at this time.

153:54:06 Cernan: That's it. You got them.

153:58:12 Stafford: Go ahead. Over.

153:58:38 Stafford: OK. I'll leave that - whatever John wants to do - Roger. Whatever John wants to do on that. Over.

153:58:59 Young: OK. It doesn't make any difference to me. Whatever is convenient with you all.

153:59:10 Young: Well, I figured you wouldn't turn loose the MOCR. How about we play it if we wake up we do it; if we sleep, we don't. Would that be fair?

153:59:25 Young: In other words, we do it when we wake up, if that'll be all right.

153:59:31 Cernan: Hey, Bruce. The purge is complete; the canister has been changed. What comm mode do you want me in tonight, Omni or High Gain? Omni again?

154:00:01 Cernan: OK. Fine. I'll stay High Gain here for a little bit.

154:00:17 Cernan: OK. We got that. Thank you.

154:00:26 Cernan: Stand by one. ... OK, Jack. Why don't you take them one at a time, and I'll just go through them - Bruce, I'm sorry.

154:01:16 Cernan: OK, Bruce. Here's what I got. I got hydrogen 1, Auto; 2, Off; oxygen 1, Off; 2, Auto.

154:01:42 Stafford: Roger. We've been using it after TEI, and it's working out real good. Would you pass the word on to Joe. We have been - All three of us have been using it and it's working out fine. And we were rather busy there all the time before TEI up on the whole mission, and now we're using it on the way back. Over. It works good.

154:02:07 Stafford: Negative. It works as prescribed. It's real good. Over.

154:06:24 Cernan: Houston, this is 10. I'm going Omni's now. I'll power down the S-band.

154:09:06 Stafford: Go ahead, Houston. Over.

154:09:18 Cernan: OK, Bruce.

154:11:10 Young: No. We haven't done it yet. Over.

154:11:41 Young: We're P00 and ACCEPT. Over.

154:18:14 Young: Houston, we're in a 20-minute wait period with our C and D [SM RCS] jets disabled, prior to setting up a three-tenths of a degree roll rate.

154:18:31 Young: Houston, Apollo 10. Over.

154:18:50 Cernan: Houston, this is Apollo 10. Over. How do you read?

154:19:42 Young: Roger. We're not reading you, Bruce. We know you're trying, but we can't make it out.

154:20:01 Young: OK. Read you loud and clear now.

154:20:15 Young: Thank you. I was just saying we're in our 20-minute hold period prior to setting up a three tenths degree rate and going to a wide deadband.

154:34:46 Young: Houston, this is 10. Over.

154:34:52 Young: Roger. The EMS test was completed, worked just like it's supposed to.

154:35:22 Young: Roger. We'll be talking to you.

154:35:29 Young: Good night.