Apollo 13

This is Apollo Control at 128 hours.

This is Apollo Control at 129 hours, 43 minutes. Recounting events since the change of shift about 3 hours ago. We've completed passing up to the crew checklists for both the Command and Service Module and the Lunar Module - entry checklist. At about 128 hours, 30 minutes we had the crew switch over from the descent water tanks which were down to about 5 per cent to the LM ascent stage water tank for cooling. We instructed the crew that they could drink all the water from the descent tank. At about 127 hours, 59 minutes, the battery charging was terminated. This had been accomplished by using power from the LM batteries and using that to charge the Command Module entry batteries, two of the three CM entry batteries. At the present time, Fred Haise is on watch, and Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert are scheduled for about 5 hours rest. We're also planning to place a minimum of calls to the spacecraft to allow Fred Haise to get a bit of rest also, at this time. Flight Dynamics Officer, and the Retro Officer - the Return to Earth Officer have currently predicted that our Entry Interface angle will be minus 6.03 degrees without a mid-course correction. We're presently planning for a mid-course correction - Mid-course correction 7 which would be 5 hours prior to Entry Interface. And as it looks right now, this mid-course correction would be quite small to put us on the desired flight path angle of about 6½ degrees - negative 6½ degrees interface angle. To accomplish this, it looks as if we'll have about a 2.8 second - 2.8 foot per second burn with the Lunar Module Reaction Control System thrusters. This would require about about 21 seconds of thrusting. During the course of the evening, both Deke Slayton and Tom Stafford have been standing by the CapCom console. Occasionally interjecting a comment. At one point, while Fred Haise was receiving a Lunar Module entry checklist, with a hot mike, with his mike open, we heard a comment from Lovell which prompted a remark from Deke Slayton to the effect that he would play up some guitar music if they thought that would soothe Lovell into getting a bit of rest. Ken Mattingly has also been here a good part of the evening. We don't see him at the console at this time. Our Capsule Communicator up until just a few minutes ago was Astronaut Vance Brand and he has since turned over those duties to Astronaut Jack Lousma. At 129 hours, 46 minutes; Apollo 13 is 87,684 nautical miles - correction 74,900 nautical miles from the Earth, and travelling at a speed of 6,999 feet per second. All of the consumables aboard the LM remain in good shape at this time. We had Fred Haise remove the LM power amplifier and in effect reduce the effective power output - radio frequency power output from the LM from about 20 watts to about 1 watt, which is the normal powered down configuration we've been in with the LM for communications. We expect it will, as it has in the past, give us periods of noisy communications as the LM antennas rotate through the so-called null areas, where the signal to noise ratio drops off. We get a high noise level and this will persist until the spacecraft rotates through to where we have good lockup on the LM antenna. And again at 129 hours, 47 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 130 hours, 36 minutes. The Flight Dynamics Officer just reported that continued tracking data shows the spacecraft to be within the entry corridor still at about the same Entry Interface angle as previously reported. The tracking at this time shows that our Entry Interface angle remains at about minus 6.03 degrees. The midcourse correction plan for 5 hours prior to reentry which will be about 7 hours, 3 minutes from now. It is planned at this time to be 2.81 feet per second. That would be about a 21 second burn with the spacecraft, the LM Reaction Control System thrusters. In about an hour, Flight Director Milton Windler plans to go over once again with the flight controllers all of the step by step procedures which the crew will be following tomorrow prior to entry while with the Command and Service Module. At the present time, Apollo 13 is 71,483 nautical miles from the Earth; traveling at a speed of 7,192 feet per second. All of our consumables on the LM remain unchanged. We're in good shape on water, battery power, and lithium hydroxide. The present level of carbon dioxide as measured in the spacecraft telemetered back to the ground is about 4 tenth of a millimeter of mercury which is very good. We're showing a total average current on the LM, at this time, of between 10 and 12 amps, which has been the normal amount we've been running in the powered down mode with the Lunar Module. At the present time, all 3 of the astronauts are apparently resting. Astronauts Lovell and Swigert were to have begun a rest period at about 128 hours, 17 minutes. We did hear once or twice Jim Lovell after that period. At the 129 hours, 39 minutes or about 1 hours ago, we completed passing the Lunar Module a preentry checklist up to Fred Haise and advised him that we would keep communications to a minimum, and hoped he would be able to get a little rest also. At 130 hours, 39 minutes; this is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 131 hours, 14 minutes. Our last conversation with the spacecraft came at about 129 hours, 39 minutes; a little more than an hour and a half ago. Since that time it's been relatively quiet here in Mission Control. Within the next hour, Flight Director Milton Windler plans for review again the procedures to be followed during the reentry with each of the flight controllers. These entry procedures were passed up to the crew, prior to the time they began their rest period. At this time we presume that all three crewmen aboard the spacecraft are resting. At the present time we show Apollo 13 to be 68,857 nautical miles from the Earth. The velocity increase now up to 7,346 feet per second and increasing ever more rapidly as the spacecraft nears Earth. We're now 6 hours, 25 minutes from the scheduled midcourse correction which will put Apollo 13 in the center of the entry corridor. And we're 11 hours, 25 minutes from the beginning of reentry. At 131 hours, 16 minutes; this is Mission Control, Houston.