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Day 6, part 2: From the Snowman to Docking Journal Home Page Day 7, part 1: Revolutions 36 to 43

Apollo 12

Day 6, part 3: LM Jettison, Rev 33 to 35

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 2004 - 2020 by W. David Woods and Lennox J. Waugh. All rights reserved.
Last updated 2020-04-07
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 147 hours, 12 minutes now into the mission. We're less than a minute away now from reacquiring Apollo 12, and when we pick up the spacecraft we expect that Pete Conrad and Al Bean will be in the final phases of making good their transfer back to Yankee Clipper. We'll stand by and monitor at this time. This is Apollo Control, Houston. We're now receiving data. This is Apollo Control, Houston at 147 hours and 15 minutes. We've not yet attempted to contact the Apollo 12 crew assuming that they are quite busy now in the final phases of their transfer.
Flight Plan, page 3-127.
AOS Rev 33 147:12.
147:16:08 Carr: Intrepid, Houston. How do you read?
147:16:14 Bean: Read you loud and clear.
147:16:15 Carr: Roger. Yankee Clipper, how do you read?
147:16:19 Gordon: Houston, loud and clear.
147:16:21 Carr: Roger; read you both the same. [Pause.]
147:16:54 Carr: Yankee Clipper, Houston. Pete, are you in the Clipper now?
147:17:01 Gordon: Pete's - Pete's reading the checklist to Al. Hey, Jerry, I got a question.
147:17:08 Carr: Go.
147:17:09 Gordon: Pete wants to know if he can leave his LCG in the LM.
147:17:17 Carr: Okay, Dick. Stand by. We'll get an answer on that. I got a couple of questions for them - would you relay them?
147:17:27 Gordon: Yes, I can, Jerry. They're going through their checklists, so they can get out of it.
147:17:32 Carr: Okay. Here's our - here's our questions...
147:17:35 Gordon: [Garble] ask the questions.
147:17:36 Carr: ...You know that hanging metal they were talking about on the Service Module? We're wondering if that's in a position such that it might possibly be the cause of our S-band antenna problem, causing it to dither.
147:17:59 Conrad: It's further up than that - it's right around the SEP plane of the service module, and it's right on the top of Dick Gordon, whereas his S-band antenna's on his bottom left, if you go relative to the upper windows.
147:18:18 Carr: Okay. We copy that, and the other one is, don't forget to bring the LM TV camera across.
147:18:26 Conrad: We've already got it, and it's stowed on the Command Module, and we put it in one of those special bags because it had a lot of dust on it.
147:18:34 Carr: Roger. Good.
147:18:40 Conrad: Hey, and also, Houston, we need to know if we can just go ahead and leave our LCG's here, or do you want them brought back?
147:18:47 Carr: We're checking on that now, Pete.
Comm break.
The LCG referenced there is the Liquid Cooled Garment. We are at 147 hours, 20 minutes now in the flight.
147:21:11 Carr: Clipper, Houston.
147:21:16 Gordon: Go ahead, Houston.
147:21:17 Carr: Roger. High Gain antenna's not doing too well. We'd like you to go Manual, and your angles are pitch, minus 4l; yaw, 4. Over.
147:21:52 Carr: Intrepid. Houston.
147:21:58 Conrad: Go ahead, Houston.
147:21:59 Carr: Roger. On your LCG question, the only problem we have right now is in the area of contamination. We're giving it a quick checkout on that and we'll have an answer for you in just a few minutes.
147:22:22 Conrad: Say again, Houston.
147:22:26 Carr: Intrepid, Houston. The only problem that - the question mark we have with the LCG being left in the LM is the contamination thing. We're getting an okay on it, and we will get back with you in just a couple minutes.
147:22:39 Conrad: Understand. [Long pause.]
147:22:57 Carr: P30 looked good, Al.
147:23:16 Carr: Clipper, Houston. I have a CSM DAP load for you and a map update for Rev 34. [Pause.]
147:23:33 Gordon: Go ahead, Jerry.
147:23:35 Carr: Okay, Dick. Your CSM weight is 35,634. I've got your trim angles anytime you need them. Your map update is Rev 34; LOS is 148:24:47, 148:2 - correction, 49:43, 149:11:01.
147:24:10 Gordon: Roger. I copy that, and the CSM weight is 35,634.
147:24:15 Carr: Affirmative, Dick.
Comm break.
147:26:44 Carr: Intrepid, Houston.
147:26:50 Conrad: Go ahead, Houston.
147:26:52 Carr: Roger. You can leave those LCG's in the LM if you want to, and let us know where you stowed them, would you?
147:27:00 Conrad: Will do.
147:27:07 Conrad: We're going to leave them in the CSM ditty bag which will be on the floor.
147:27:13 Carr: Okay, fine.
Comm break.
This is Apollo Control Houston. We're still looking for LM jettison time of 147:54:30, a bit more than 20 minutes from this time. We're now at 147 hours, 29 minutes into the flight.
147:31:43 Carr: Intrepid, Houston.
147:31:52 Gordon: Hello.
147:31:53 Carr: Roger. Have you got your master alarm circuit breaker closed?
147:32:02 Gordon: It's open.
147:32:09 Carr: Okay, Dick.
147:32:10 Gordon: What would you like, Houston?
147:32:12 Carr: No, that's fine the way it is.
147:32:14 Gordon: Is it okay? Okay.
Long comm break.
Flight director Glynn Lunney just quickly advised his flight control team we've completed all of the work in the Lunar Module as far as we know and we're standing by at this time for the crew to secure the hatch. We're at 147 hours and 35 minutes into the flight of Apollo 12."
This is Apollo Control Houston while we're standing by, why don't we quickly go over some of our upcoming Ground Elapsed Times for events. Looking at Ground Elapsed Time for the jettison of the Lunar Module of 147 hours, 59 minutes 30 seconds. A Ground Elapsed Time for Command and Service Module separation maneuver of 148 hours, 4 minutes 30 seconds and a G.E.T. for ignition of the...
147:36:41 Gordon: Hello, Houston; Clipper.
147:36:44 Carr: Roger, Clipper. Go.
147:36:48 Gordon: Do you want to send something to the LM to see if the uplink is okay? How about a Verb 47?
147:36:58 Carr: Stand by just a second, Dick. [Long pause.]
We're looking at a GET for the ignition - the deorbit burn of 149 hours, 28 minutes and 14 seconds. With a GET for impact of 149 hours, 59 minutes and 51 seconds.
147:37:26 Carr: Clipper, Houston. We're going to send an Error Reset.
147:37:49 Carr: Yankee Clipper; this is Houston. Intrepid is Go; you can clear it out any time.
147:37:56 Conrad: Roger. We've been trying to.
147:42:10 Gordon: Houston, Clipper. How about a Pyro Arm? Here comes, the Logic, On, for you.
147:42:16 Carr: Roger, Clipper.
147:42:29 Carr: Yankee Clipper, Houston. Go for Pyro Arm.
147:42:34 Gordon: Roger. Go for Pyro Arm.
Very long comm break.
This is Apollo Control, Houston, at 147 hours and 43 minutes. We presently show Apollo 12 with an apolune of 62.6 nautical miles, perilune of 57 nautical miles.
This is Apollo Control, Houston, at 147 hours, 50 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. We've not yet received verbal confirmation from Commander Pete Conrad and Al Bean that they are both now back in Yankee Clipper, but we feel reasonably assured that they have effected their return. We are standing by at 147 hours, 51 minutes into the flight.
This is Apollo Control, Houston, at 147 hours, 53 minutes into the flight. Our two clocks in Mission Control, the bottom clock identified as ET is counting down to jettison. We're at 5 minutes, 45 seconds away. The top clock counting down to Command and Service Module separation, the separation by Yankee Clipper. We are now 10 minutes and 30 seconds away from that event.
147:57:31 Gordon: Houston, Clipper. Two minutes to Jettison.
147:57:34 Carr: Roger, Clipper.
Comm break.
Flight Plan, page 3-128.
Flight Plan, page 3-128A.
That was Dick Gordon reporting from the Yankee Clipper that they're now less than 2 minutes from jettison of Intrepid. All 3 crew members now back in the Yankee Clipper.
About 20 seconds away from Jettison now.
Guidance and Control Officer reports that the two spacecraft's have separated. We've received no acknowledgment yet from the crew but on ground base displays we did readout the Jettison of the Lunar Module.
148:01:00 Carr: Yankee Clipper, Houston. Go to Reacq on the High Gain. Over.
148:01:07 Conrad: Roger.
Long comm break.
We have a report that the Command Service Module has now completed the separation maneuver at 5.5 second burn of the reaction control system engines.
148:06:42 Carr: Yankee Clipper, Houston.
148:06:48 Conrad: Houston, Clipper. Go.
148:06:49 Carr: Roger. Your High Gain's beginning to jitter again. Better go Manual, and your angles in the Flight Plan are good. That's minus 36 on the pitch and 352 on the yaw.
Long comm break.
This is Apollo Control at 148 hours,10 minutes. LM systems engineers report all systems on Intrepid looks good after the jettison and subsequent CSM separation. The times we have for those two maneuvers are as follows: 147 hours, 59 minutes, 30 seconds for the Jettison of the Lunar Module, and 148 hours, 4 minutes, 30 seconds for the separation maneuver performed by the CSM. We show 13 minutes, 50 seconds now until Loss of Signal from Yankee Clipper. Our Flight Director on this shift is Glynn Lunney and the Capsule Communicator coming on is Astronaut Don Lind. There will be a Change of Shift Briefing shortly in the News Center, Houston News Center. The participants are leaving at this time.
148:12:23 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston.
148:12:28 Conrad: Hello.
148:12:30 Lind: Pete, the surgeon has some words for you about your sensors - sensor irritation, if you want to listen to that.
148:13:00 Gordon: Why don't you stand by until they get some coffee?
148:13:03 Lind: Roger.
Long comm break.
This is Apollo Control at 148 hours, 15 minutes. Our Flight Dynamics Officer has just reported that the LM Jettison produced negligible effect on the Lunar Module trajectory, and should have no effect on the Time Of Ignition or the Delta-V required for the LM deorbit scheduled to occur on the next revolution. That maneuver is now planned to occur at 149 hours, 28 minutes, 14 seconds with a Delta-V retrograde 191.3 per second. That will be a Reaction Control System maneuver. Total duration of 1 minute, 21.4 seconds.
148:19:03 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. [Long pause.]
148:19:16 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Omni Bravo, please. [Long pause.]
148:19:47 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston in the blind. Omni Bravo, please. [Long pause.]
We're continuing to have signal strength variation through the spacecraft High Gain antenna. CapCom, Don Lind requesting that the crew switch to one of their Omni antennas. Our ground station, at the present time is Madrid, where we have an 85 foot Dish, and we should be able to get fairly good communications through the Omni antenna without ground receiving antenna.
148:20:29 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. [Pause.]
148:20:36 Conrad: Hello, Houston; 12. Go ahead.
148:20:37 Lind: Roger. We recommend that you shut off the High Gain. First, put the Track switch on Manual; next, put the High Gain Power switch to Off, and talk to us through Omni - we assume you're on Omni Bravo. We think that should be a good one.
148:20:57 Conrad: Your assumption is correct. [Long pause.]
Flight Director, Glynn Lunney now taking a status from all of his flight controllers. Now 3 minutes before Loss Of Signal on the Command and Service Module. The report all around the room is that we look good.
148:21:43 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Everything looks in good shape down here. Also, the LM looks in good status for the deorbit burn.
148:23:58 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. We show about 45 seconds to LOS. You'll be coming around the corner at 149:11.
148:24:10 Conrad: Roger, Don. Thank you.
LOS Rev 33.
This is Apollo Control. We've had Loss Of Signal now. We'll reacquire the spacecraft on its 34 revolution at 149 hours, 11 minutes or about 46 minutes from now. At this time, we'll switch to the Houston News Center for the Change of Shift Press Conference which is scheduled to begin at this time.
This is Apollo Control at 149 hours, 10 minutes. We are now about 1 minute from reacquiring the spacecraft on its 34th revolution of the Moon. During this Rev the major activity will be the LM deorbit maneuver. That's to be performed at 149 hours, 28 minutes, 14 seconds causing the LM to - LM ascent stage - to impact the lunar surface at 149 hours, 55 minutes, 53.2 seconds. The maneuver, which deorbits the LM will be performed with the Lunar Module reaction control system thrusters. The burn time - burn duration will be 1 minute, 21.4 seconds producing a retrograde Delta-V of 191.3 feet per second. The maneuver will be performed at 14.22 degrees South latitude and 62.5 East longitude, which will be just about over the Sea of Fertility. The impact point is predicted to be about 4.8 miles South of the Lunar Module decent stage. The impact co ordinances are 3.31 degrees South and 23.43 degrees west. The predicted velocity of impact is 5508 feet per second and we predict that We will have.
AOS Rev 34 149:11.
Flight Plan, page 3-129.
149:12:23 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston.
Comm break.
We have Acquisition Of Signal now and CapCom Don Lind has put in a call to the crew.
Picking up we expect the propellant remaining in the lunar module descent stage to be about 350 pounds at impact and the propellant remaining in terms of Delta-V will be about 394 feet per second. Our communications engineer has just reported that we are having a bit of a problem locking up on the Command Module at this time and we will continue to stand by.
149:13:28 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Apollo 12, Houston.
Comm break.
And we have a good solid lockup now. The control systems engineer reports that the LM looks good at this time. We now show 12 minutes, 53 seconds, till ignition for this Lunar Module ascent stage deorbit. One of the primary purposes for the maneuver is to give us a calibrated signal on a given level of energy is transmitted through the lunar surface to the passive seismic experiment. We had indications from the previous seismic experiment left on the Moon as to what sort of signals we get from the instrument. We don't, however, have a good handle on how a given level of energy is transmitted the lunar surface. It is hoped by impacting the LM ascent stage, which has a known mass and a known velocity, it will help us in interpreting previous and subsequent seismic signals from the passive seismometer.
149:15:31 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston.
Comm break.
Network controller reports that we still do not have good two-way lock with the Command Module and we will be trying to transmit in the blind to Dick Gordon.
149:18:04 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. [Long pause.]
149:18:23 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston in the blind. For your information, for P20 tracking of the LM with the sextant, you'll get a program alarm 20430 when the LM vector intersects the surface. With a Verb 66 Enter and reset the alarm, you'll clear that. Impact time at the surface should be 149 plus 55 plus 59. That's when you should get the alarm 20430, and it's only the LM vector passing through the surface.
Comm break.
CapCom Don Lind just passed up a new impact time for the LM ascent stage, updated about 5.8 seconds from the previous time we had. The current prediction for impact is 149 hours, 55 minutes, 59 seconds. The altitude of the Lunar Module ascent stage at the beginning of the deorbit burn Will be about 57.8 nautical miles. The predicted flight path angle at impact will be about 3.68 degrees. We also have a predicted crater size for the LM impact. The prediction for that crater is it will be elongate about 6 meters wide and about 12 meters long with a depth of about 4/10's of a meter to 6/10's of a meter and at this time we still do not have good two-way lock with the Command Module. We are getting good data from the LM.
149:21:41 Gordon: Hello, Houston; Yankee Clipper.
149:21:44 Lind: Loud and clear. How are you doing, Dick?
149:21:52 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston.
149:21:55 Gordon: Doing pretty good. I've got the LM in the sextant. And I've been tracking him, and I've got the camera [garble] right now watching the LM. What time is that burn scheduled for?
149:22:07 Lind: Okay. The burn ignition time is 149 plus 28 plus 14. Did you get a transmission from us in the blind about 2 minutes ago about a program alarm?
149:22:22 Gordon: Negative.
149:22:24 Lind: Roger. If you're going to track in P20, which we see you're setting up for, when the LM vector intersects the lunar surface, you will get a program alarm 20430. When you go Verb 66 and Enter and put your vector in that slot deal and Reset, the alarm should go away. Now, the impact time is expected to be 149 plus 55 plus 59.
149:23:05 Gordon: Okay, fine. Thank you.
149:23:07 Lind: Roger. We've got some other goodies for you. We've got a P40 maneuvering PAD, when you're ready to copy; we've got some words for Pete about his skin irritation; we've got consumables PADs and a few other things when you want them.
149:23:26 Gordon: [Garble], Don. I'm trying to track this LM while these guys are still packing the spacecraft.
149:24:18 Lind: Apollo 12, we're not reading you very well on that last transmission. Could you give that again?
149:24:26 Gordon: Give what again, Don?
149:24:28 Lind: Your last transmission. You were breaking up.
149:24:34 Gordon: I said you'd better hold all that stuff awhile. Pete and Al are trying to pack this spacecraft, yet, with all the stuff they brought back from the LM; and I'm trying to track the LM itself. So we won't have time for anything else right now.
149:24:48 Lind: Very good. We'll hold it.
Comm break.
We're coming up now on 2 minutes, 20 seconds until ignition of the LM ascent stage. That ignition signal will be transmitted via radio signal from Mission Control. The scheduled landing impact time is now 29 minutes, 44 seconds away.
Coming up now on 1 minute to ignition. Our LM guidance engineer says we are clearing out to command the LM. Guidance. [Apollo Control] Houston, 1 minute to LM ignition.
149:27:13 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. One minute to LM ignition.
149:27:22 Gordon: Roger.
Comm break.
Public Affairs Office - Coming up now on 20 seconds to ignition. 10 seconds, 9, 8, 7, 6, 5, 4, 3, 2, 1, and we have retrofire. Guidance confirms we are burning all four jets.
149:28:28 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. The LM is on its way down.
149:28:35 Gordon: Roger [garble]. [Long pause.]
Thirty seconds into the burn. Guidance reports accelerations look good, up to 36 feet per second, total Delta-V to be gained 191.2 feet per second.
149:29:07 Gordon: Houston, 12.
149:29:09 Lind: Go, 12.
149:29:13 Gordon: Is the LM still burning?
149:29:16 Lind: That's affirmative.
149:29:20 Gordon: Okay.
Long comm break.
Thirty seconds into the burn. Guidance reports accelerations look good, up to 36 feet per second, total Delta-V to be gained 191.2 feet per second.
Our Flight Dynamics engineer estimates, based on preliminary tracking, that we're going to be about 20 miles short the predicted or planned impact point had been about 5 miles, 4.8 miles South of the Lunar Module descent stage. The prediction now is that it will be about 20 miles short. We're standing by for the Flight Dynamics Officer to come up with a predicted set of coordinates for impact.
149:32:26 Gordon: Houston; this is 12. Let me know when he finishes burning. [Long pause.]
149:32:48 Gordon: Houston, Apollo 12.
149:32:50 Lind: Houston, go ahead.
149:32:59 Gordon: Roger. Will you let me know when he's through with the burn, please?
149:33:05 Lind: Say again, 12.
149:33:12 Gordon: Will you call and let me know when the LM finishes its burn?
149:33:17 Lind: Okay, it has finished its burn now. It's been over about a minute and a half.
149:33:24 Gordon: Thank you.
149:35:58 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. We show just under 20 minutes until; LM impact.
Long comm break.
We're now 19 minutes from predicted impact. The predicted weight of the LM ascent stage at impact is 5,254 pounds.
149:39:56 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. We've computed a new impact time for the LM impacting the surface at l49 plus 55 plus 17.
149:40:11 Gordon: Roger.
Long comm break.
We're now a little less than 15 minutes from the scheduled time of LM impact. The new impact time passed up to the crew by CapCom Don Lind was 149 hours, 55 minutes, 17 seconds. We also have some new impact coordinates. The latest estimate from the Flight Dynamics Officer is the impact will occur at 3 point 95 degrees South latitude. Twenty-one point seventeen, 21 point 17 degrees West longitude and we should have that broken out in actual miles from the LM descent stage shortly.
We're now coming up on 10 minutes until the LM impact. The Flight Dynamic Officer advises that the impact point should be about 39 miles East-Southeast of the targeted point. The targeted point was about 4.8 miles south of the LM landing site.
149:49:04 Gordon: Hello, Houston; Apollo 12.
149:49:07 Lind: Go ahead, 12.
149:49:10 Gordon: Roger, Don. Let's get caught up on some of those PADs. Let me know when that thing impacts, so I can shut off this camera, because I can't see it through the telescope?
149:49:18 Lind: Roger. We've got 6 minutes to impact, and I've got a P40 TEI PAD for you.
149:49:54 Gordon: Okay. Go with the TEI PAD.
149:49:57 Lind: Roger. TEI-39, SPS/G&N: Noun 47 is 35629; Noun 48 is minus 0.67, plus 0.44; GET 160:42:19.26; Noun 81, plus 3463.6, plus 0671.1, minus 0128.2; roll, NA; pitch, 109; yaw, NA; all the rest is NA; ullage, four jets, 11 seconds; and this assumes no plane change 2.
149:51:09 Gordon: Okay. Copy TEI PAD 39. SPS/G&N is 35629; minus 0.67, plus 0.44; 160:42:19.26; plus 3463.6, plus 0671.1, minus 0128.2; pitch is 109; four jet, 11 seconds; no plane change 2.
149:51:33 Lind: That's affirmative.
149:51:40 Lind: Does Pete want to hear some recommendations from the Flight Surgeon on his skin irritation?
149:51:53 Gordon: No, he doesn't need any information on that.
149:51:56 Lind: Okay. I've got a consumable PAD for you, if you want it.
149:52:08 Gordon: You've got some what? [Pause.]
149:52:19 Gordon: Don, say again. You were cut out.
149:52:22 Lind: Roger. We've got a consumable update for you. RCS total is 47.6, Alfa is 46.4, Bravo is 48.7, Charlie is 46.4, Delta is 48.7, and we show 2 minutes and 38 seconds to LM impact.
149:52:47 Gordon: Okay. Understand. And would you tell me when I should start on the secondary pro - propellants? On the secondary fuel.
149:53:00 Lind: Roger. [Long pause.]
149:53:15 Lind: 12, we'll get an estimate on that for you.
Comm break.
This is Apollo Control. We're now one minute 50 seconds from scheduled impact. One of our displays in Mission Control will be showing the seismic trace. Hopefully, we see a very clear indication of the LM impact on that trace. We would expect that to show on the 4th trace from the left, which is the short period data from the passive seismic experiment. Now 1 minute, 25 seconds from LM impact.
We're coming up on 30 seconds to impact. Guidance Officer reports the LM is going to attitude. Now we're getting good data from the Lunar Module at this time and of course we'd expect that - all that data to go blank at impact.
10 seconds to impact."
149:55:13 Lind: Countdown for LM impact. 3, 2, 1...
149:55:18 Lind: Mark.
149:55:21 Lind: LM impact.
149:55:28 Conrad: Okay, thank you. [Long pause.]
And we've lost data from the LM indicating we impacted on time."
149:56:02 Bean: Houston, Apollo 12.
149:56:04 Lind: Go.
149:56:07 Conrad: Would you like to take the E-memory dump?
149:56:10 Lind: That is affirmative.
149:56:16 Conrad: It's on its way.
149:56:18 Lind: Roger.
149:56:33 Conrad: And, Don, we want to report the crew status report. Everybody is feeling fine. No medication today. There's been enough excitement.
149:56:44 Lind: Very good. Copy that.
149:56:46 Conrad: And the onboard readouts, Houston - the onboard readouts - those three batteries are still at 37.1. And the rest of our transmission has been taken care of.
149:57:10 Lind: We got 37.1. Will you give us the end of that?
149:57:18 Conrad: That's all three of my batteries. Battery C, Pyro A, and Pyro B.
149:57:22 Lind: Roger. Understand fox all batteries. Also would you give us a word about the CO2 cartridge, secondary? We were wondering why you'd gone to Secondary, if you had any other trouble on that? Apollo 12, that was the LM cartridge we were talking about. If you'd had another glitch on the CO2 sensor. [Long pause.]
149:58:42 Gordon: And, Don, since our High Gain is acting up like it is, do you want us to go Omni - Omni Bravo tonight?
149:58:50 Lind: This is affirmative. Omni Bravo. That's Omni Bravo when you configure for sleep, and we'd like you to put the normal S-band voice to Off at that time."
149:59:10 Lind: Roger.
149:59:13 Lind: One question. We were wondering if the sequence camera had been wrapped when you stowed it for - to prevent damage. Your choice as to where you want to stow it.
150:00:10 Lind: Apollo 12, would you hold what you have on attitude until we finish this E-Mod dump? [Long pause.]
150:00:51 Lind: Dick, for the RCS, we're 25 pounds on each quad above the level at which we'd open the secondary. So, things are okay there.
150:01:05 Gordon: Okay. I won't worry about it tonight.
150:01:07 Lind: Roger. [Long pause.]
150:01:19 Lind: Apollo 12, for your information, all the surface experiments for ALSEP are in great shape. They're all operating very well. There is apparently no temperature degradation at all because of any dust. So, that looks like that came out real fine. The passive seismic is working fine. It - noticed Pete walk past. Also got a very nice trace for your Lift-Off. On the LM impact, we were probably about 40 nautical miles away. So, the short period didn't get anything, but it looks like the long period got a couple of signals. Also, the cold cathode gage could see the sublimator walking past, Pete, when you went over to check the SIDE experiment, and all the other experiments are working fine. So everybody is absolutely delighted with the way you deployed the ALSEP. The passive did record the impact on long period.
Comm break.
150:03:04 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Before you close out the LEB, we'd like to just remind you to zero the optics, and we'd like you to leave the power on so that we can watch the CDU's [Coupling Data Unit] tonight. We've seen just a couple of glitches, and we just want to follow through on that and see how they're doing.
150:03:30 Gordon: They're doing fine.
150:03:32 Lind: Very good.
Long comm break.
This is Apollo Control. We are now 10 minutes from Loss Of Signal with Apollo 12. The spacecraft is currently in an orbit with a high point of 62.4 nautical miles and a low point of 57.2. Current altitude 61.3. A science briefing is scheduled to begin about 4:45 PM, Central Standard Time, in the News Center briefing room. The briefing will be conducted by the Principal Investigators.
150:08:38 Lind: Roger.
Long comm break.
150:12:38 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12. If you read, would you give us Omni Bravo. Omni Bravo.
Comm break.
150:14:29 Lind: Apollo 12. If you read, give us Omni Bravo. Omni Bravo.
Comm break.
150:16:56 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12, Omni Bravo, Omni Bravo.
Comm break.
150:18:43 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Apollo 12, Houston. Could you give us Omni Bravo? Omni Bravo.
Comm break.
150:19:57 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. We show about 3 minutes to, LOS; if you could give us Omni Bravo, we would appreciate it. Omni Bravo.
150:21:05 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12, Houston. We show 2 minutes from LOS. We would like Omni Bravo, if you could. Omni Bravo. [Long pause.]
150:22:10 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. We show 1 minute from LOS. If you read us, would you give us - Omni Bravo. Omni Bravo.
LOS Rev 34.
This is Apollo Control. The spacecraft is now gone behind the Moon. We will be reacquiring in about 45 minutes. The Apollo 12 Science Briefing is scheduled to begin shortly in the News Center auditorium in the small briefing room in building 1. The briefing will be conducted by principal investigators, Apollo 12 principal investigators. At 150 hours, 24 minutes this is Apollo Control Houston.
This is Apollo Control at 151 hours, 23 minutes. We passed the point of acquisition about 13 minutes ago. We have not established communications with the spacecraft on this revolution. The crew is scheduled to be sleeping at this time. CapCom, Don Lind has been putting in periodic calls to the crew. We do not believe that they are asleep at the present time, and we're in the process now of attempting to reestablish a usable Omni antenna, and its signal long with the spacecraft. The Flight Dynamics Officer has recomputed the landing point of the LM ascent stage. The recomputed impact point differs very little from the previous estimate. The latest estimate of the landing point is 3.95 degrees south, 21.17 degrees west. This would be about 36 nautical miles East of the planned impact point, and about 14 nautical miles South for a total of about 39 nautical miles East, Southeast of the planned impact point.
This is Apollo Control. We, as you heard, have not had any success making contact with the crew and getting the proper Omni antenna selected, so that we can reestablish communications. The next step will be to send a radio signal to the spacecraft which will trigger the master alarm in the cabin giving the audio tone also to the headsets. The rationale in reaching this decision at this time was to, if necessary, to awake them as early in the sleep period as possible, to reestablish corn rather than continuing to try to get through to them and get the proper Omni antenna selected and perhaps interrupt their sleep, after they're more soundly asleep later.
This is Apollo Control at 151 hours, 32 minutes. We are sending the radio signal at this time, which would trigger the flashing alarm light on the display console and also send a tone to the headsets. The best guess that we have at this point is that the crew was, after a long day quite tired as they went behind the Moon. Perhaps beginning the sleep period on the back side of the Moon. We want to of course, reestablish communications and do that as early in the sleep period as possible so that decision was made to attempt to arouse them at this time. Get communications reestablished on the Omni antennas, and then allow them to go back to sleep.
Flight Plan, page 3-130.
AOS Rev 35.
151:14:11 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Apollo 12, Houston. Apollo 12. Mode Brav - Omni Bravo, please. [Long pause.]
151:15:08 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston in the blind. Would you give us Omni Bravo, Please? Omni Bravo. [Long pause.]
151:15:23 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Would you give us Omni Bravo, please? [Long pause.]
151:16:09 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12. This is Houston. Do you read?
151:16:17 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12. This is Houston. Do you read? [Long pause.]
151:17:08 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12, Houston. Do you read? [Pause.]
151:17:20 Lind: Dick, if you can read us, would you give us Omni Bravo, please? Omni Bravo. [Long pause.]
151:18:09 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12. This is Houston. Do you read? [Long pause.]
151:19:06 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12. This is Houston on guard. If you read, rock your wings. Give us Omni Bravo, please.
Comm break.
151:23:07 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12. This is Houston. Do you read us? [Pause.]
151:23:18 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Try Omni Bravo, if you read us, please. [Long pause.]
151:24:07 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Apollo 12, Houston. Do you read us? Omni Bravo, if you read, please.
Comm break.
151:26:15 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12, Houston. This - this is Houston. Do you read us? If you read us, please give us Omni Bravo. Omni Bravo.
Very long comm break.
This is Apollo Control at 151 hours, 35 minutes. The network controller just reported we started Madrid.
Our network controller reports we are now getting a weak signal from the spacecraft through the 210 foot dish at Goldstone, California. Still no solid lock on.
151:40:21 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Apollo 12, Houston. Do you read? [Pause.]
151:40:45 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston; Apollo 12, Houston. Would you give us Omni Bravo, turn up your S-band voice? [Long pause.]
151:41:15 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Do you read us? [Long pause.]
151:41:52 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. Apollo 12, Houston. Do you read? [Long pause.]
151:42:23 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12, this is Houston. Do you read? [Pause.]
151:42:39 Lind: Apollo 12, Apollo 12. In the blind. Give us Omni Bravo, please.
Very long comm break.
This is Apollo Control at 151 hours, 43 minutes and we are going to hand over now to the Goldstone site where we have a 210 foot dish antenna for reception and Capcom, Don Lind, will continue to try to make contact with the crew and to reestablish the proper Omni antenna for communications lock on.
This is Apollo Control at 151 hours, 54 minutes. We're continuing at this time to attempt to reestablish communications with the spacecraft and presumably to awaken the crew. The last look we had, at the CSM prior to LOS on the previous revolution, everything looked good. The crew was, we expect, quite busy at that time. We should be on Omni B at the present time, we suspect that the spacecraft is configured for Omni D, which is not oriented in the proper direction for us to get sufficient signal both uplink and downlink for a lockon. The 210-foot Dish at Goldstone, California is receiving the signal from the spacecraft. However, it is not sufficient signal strength to allow us to establish lock. We have about 27 minutes now before the spacecraft again goes behind the Moon and we will continue through radio signals which would activate the flashing light and tone in the headset and also by calls from the CapCom to reestablish communication. There is no concern in Mission Control at the present time. However, the situation, principal concern is to awaken the crew, if that is what is necessary as early in the sleep period as possible to avoid disturbing their sleep any more than necessary. At 151 hours, 56 minutes, this is Apollo Control continuing to standby.
152:01:40 Lind: Apollo 12, this is Houston. Do you read us? [Long pause.]
Our Network Controller reports that we have Acquisition Of Signal.
152:02:13 Lind: Apollo 12, Houston. [Pause.]
And we have data.
152:02:20 Lind: Apollo 12, this is Houston. Do you read us? [Pause.]
Our Guidance and Control Officer reports the spacecraft is in the proper attitude for the sleep configuration. At a stable attitude and we are continuing to try to get some reaction out of the crew.
152:03:38 Conrad: Hello, Houston; hello, Houston; Apollo 12.
152:03:45 Lind: Hello, Apollo 12.
152:03:50 Conrad: What do you want?
152:03:51 Lind: We were just a little concerned about letting you go for 8 hours without any Comm. We're sorry to interrupt your sleep, but now we've got you back in Comm, so we're just going to wish you a good night and sorry for the interruption.
152:04:05 Conrad: Okay. We're not sleeping. We're all just trying to get clean in here; so, we had the Comm off. We'll be back with you after a while. Don't panic.
152:04:14 Lind: Roger. No problem. It's just that we had no TM or anything. We didn't want you to go to sleep before we got a hold of you.
Our Guidance and Control Officer reports the spacecraft is in the proper attitude for the sleep configuration. At a stable attitude and we are continuing to try to get some reaction out of the crew stowed away and getting ready for their sleep period and had the communications circuit off. We now have good solid lock on. Continuing to get data, and we expect that the crew will be beginning their sleep period shortly.
This is Apollo Control at 152 hours, 12 minutes. Our communications engineer has just reported that the crew has begun configuring their communications for the sleep period, and we expect that they will be getting to sleep before too much longer. The Flight Plan called for the sleep period to begin at 150 hours, about 2 hours ago. Pete Conrad reported that they were getting things cleaned up. Apparently the crew was a bit dirty after their Extra Vehicular Activities and getting the spacecraft - their equipment cleaned and stowed. We had reacquired or had the spacecraft come around in front of the Moon in position for a reacquisition at 151 hours, 9 minutes. At that time, the spacecraft communications system was apparently configured so that the Omni antenna - the active Omni antenna was not pointed in the proper direction for us to receive or to transmit to them. The original thinking was that the crew had probably configured for sleep on the back side of the Moon, and come around in front with the - improper Omni antenna. At 151 hours, 29 minutes, after several attempts to establish communications via the Capsule Communicator, Flight Director, Glynn Lunney, gave the order to transmit a signal to the spacecraft which would activate the alarm system on their display panel, flashing a light and feeding a tone into the headset. Apparently the weak signal strength which we had both down from the spacecraft and up to it, did not allow us to get that alarm in, and we apparently never triggered the alarm. At 152 hours, 2 minutes, we again established a lock on through the Omni antennas with the 210-foot antenna at Goldstone, California, and about one minute later, Pete Conrad responded with a hello and wondered what we were calling about. In reconstructing the situation, apparently the crew had the communications configured on in the spacecraft. We were not able to get to them to get the proper Omni for data, and had neither data nor voice communications. At this time, we are getting good data a high bit rate data through the Omni's and the High Gain - the large 210-foot antenna at Goldstone, and it appears that the crew is at this time getting prepared for their sleep period.
And the large 210-foot antenna at Goldstone and it appears that the crew is, at this time, getting prepared for their sleep period. We have some 7 minutes left before Loss Of Signal again, as Apollo 12 goes behind the moon on its 35th revolution. At 152 hours, 15 minutes, this is Apollo Control, Houston.
This is Apollo Control at 152 hours, 22 minutes. We have just had Loss Of Signal now. The spacecraft at the time of LOS looked good. The crew was configuring at that time for their sleep period and we expect they will be getting to sleep on the back side of the moon. Prior to reacquisition - we will next hear from the spacecraft after next acquire, in about 45 minutes. At 152 hours, 23 minutes, this is Apollo Control, Houston.
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