Apollo Flight Journal logo
Previous Index Next
Day 2, part 2: Sports News and More Journal Home Page Day 3, part 2: TV and LM Housekeeping

Apollo 14

pics/a14patch.jpg

Day 3, part 1: Ground Elapsed Time Update


Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 2020-2023 by W. David Woods, Ben Feist, Ronald Hansen and Johannes Kemppanen. All rights reserved.
Last updated 2023-09-08
It is day 3 of Apollo 14's lunar mission, and they are still in transit to the Moon. Everything has been going per the Flight Plan ever since the crew overcame their initial docking troubles. Some 38 hours remain until the Kitty Hawk and Antares will settle into lunar orbit in America's return to the Moon following Apollo 13's abortive mission. Perhaps the most prominent part of the day will be the upcoming television broadcast and the crew's initial entry into the Lunar Module to perform some scheduled checks in the still dormant spacecraft's systems.
Editor's note: All transcript times are presented according to the GET update at 054:53:36 that saw the mission timer moved forward 40 minutes, 2.90 seconds.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 44 hours, 32 minutes now into the flight. Apollo 14 is presently 149,338 nautical miles [276,574 km] out from Earth. Its velocity now reading 3,384.9 feet per second [1,031.7 m/s]. We have had no communication with the crew since our last report. The crew of Apollo 14 now well into their rest period. Our clock in Mission Control shows 6 hours and 27 minutes remaining until time of wake up. Meanwhile the Surgeon is following data on spacecraft commander Al Shepard. He reports that Shepard entered into a sound sleep at 43 hours, 43 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We're at 44 hours, 33 minutes into the flight; and this is Apollo Control, Houston.
Flight Plan page 3-046
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 45 hours, 32 minutes now into the mission. Apollo 14 is now at a distance of 151,272 nautical miles [280,156 km] away from the Earth. It's now traveling at a speed of 3,329 feet per second [1,015 m/s]. We've had no communications with the crew since our last report. The crew now well into its rest period - into their rest period. One of our countdown clocks in the Control Center shows a wake-up time of 5 hours and 27 minutes from this time. So at 45 hours, 33 minutes continuing to monitor; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 46 hours, 22 minutes into the mission. We now show Apollo 14 at 152,854 nautical miles [283,086 km] away from Earth; and its present velocity, 3,283 feet per second [1,001 m/s]. Our clock in Mission Control shows 4 hours, 37 minutes remaining on the rest period of the Apollo 14 crew. We would also like to repeat at this time an earlier announcement; the Modular Space Station News Briefing is scheduled to begin in about 5 minutes, at 1:30 pm. That's 5 minutes at 1:30 pm in the news center briefing room. At 46 hours, 23 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
Flight Plan page 3-047
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 47 hours, 32 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 14. Our displays presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 155,040 nautical miles [287,134 km] away from the Earth and traveling at a velocity of 3,221.6 feet per second [981.9 m/s]. Presently in Mission Control one of our bottom clocks is counting down to the time of the GMT lift-off update. The clock presently reads 6 hours, 57 minutes; counting down toward the GET at 54 hours, 30 minutes. One change in the Flight Plan, and that concerns the housekeeping in the Lunar Module, this will be done in the PTC or Passive Thermal Control mode to conserve on RCS propellants. This, scheduled for 61 hours, 45 minutes, comes after the clock update. However, the Ground Elapsed Time will remain exactly as that shown in the flight time and the Central Standard Time will remain essentially unchanged. It's been a very quiet day over the Flight Director's loop. The individual flight controllers monitoring their systems, talking to their backrooms; really having very little to say of widespread interest. We're at 47 hours, 34 minutes into the flight and this is Apollo Control, Houston.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston; at 48 hours, 22 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 14. We presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 156,579 nautical miles [289,984 km] away from Earth, traveling at a speed of 3,178 feet per second [969 m/s]. Meanwhile in Mission Control over the past 20 to 30 minutes Flight Director Pete Frank has been discussing with his flight control team procedures for Al Shepard and Ed Mitchell's Lunar Module housekeeping chore, scheduled for early tomorrow morning and Flight Plan changes are emerging. Since there will be no midcourse correction 3 scheduled, the current outlook is to move the LM housekeeping forward by 1 hour. Moving forward to 61 hours, 20 minutes Ground Elapsed Time from the previously scheduled 62 hours, 20 minutes. This would also move the television time forward by 1 hour; moving it to 60 hours, 40 minutes Ground Elapsed Time from the previously scheduled 61 hours, 45 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Honeysuckle will be the station for this transmission. Considered into the change - into the changes - is a revision back to the original Flight Plan, whereby we would not continue with PTC, or the Passive Thermal Control mode. The consideration given here was that a waste water dump will have to be scheduled in any case, and the procedure to be followed would be to schedule this dump as close as possible to the television and the housekeeping. The advantage to moving forward by 1 hour is to put the LM housekeeping activities all on one shift. The previous planning or scheduling would have a shift change with about 1 hour remaining into the activity. Also moments ago the Flight Dynamics Officer has passed along a new set of updates for S-IVB impact. The coordinates now read 8 degrees, 40 minutes south; 26 degrees, 19 minutes west at a Ground Elapsed Time of 82 hours, 38 minutes, 3 seconds. Uniquely the spacecraft, Apollo 14 will be passing over the front side of the Moon at the time of impact. This was not the case in Apollo 12. It should be passing over the longitude of 61 degrees east at time of impact along its flight path. This would place it about 30 minutes away from passing over the longitude of impact. We will shortly be changing shift here in the Mission Control Center with the Maroon team coming in to replace the Orange team of flight controllers. The Orange flight control team took over this morning shortly before the crew entered its rest period and we have not heard from them aside from the first 15 or 20 minutes of our shift. We're at 48 hours, 26 minutes into the flight and this is Apollo Control, Houston.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 48 hours, 39 minutes into the flight. We now show Apollo 14 at an altitude of 157,109 nautical miles [290,966 km], a velocity of 3,163 feet per second [964 m/s]. We will repeat an earlier announcement; that being, that we do have a Flight Plan change emerging. Since there will midcourse correction 3, the current plan in Mission Control is to move the Lunar Module housekeeping forward one hour. This would move that time forward to 61 hours, 20 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. By the same token this would also move the television transmission time forward one hour, moving to 60 hours, 45 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. The Honeysuckle Station would be the station having acquisition. Further, the decision has been made not to continue in the Passive Thermal Control - Control mode during the Lunar Module housekeeping period. This decision being made since there is a requirement to have a waste water dump and the present plan or outlook is to move the waste water dump to a time close to the Lunar Module housekeeping. There is an advantage to moving forward the housekeeping one hour, this advantage being that all of the activity will take place with one shift of flight controllers. We're in at 48 hours, 41 minutes into the flight and in Mission Control, we're in the process of handover from the Orange to the Maroon team of flight controllers. Since the Apollo 14 crew; Al Shepard, Stu Roosa, and Ed Mitchell, were asleep for the entire shift, there will be no change of shift briefing scheduled. This is Apollo Control, Houston.
Flight Plan page 3-048
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control at 49 hours, 32 minutes. At this time in Mission Control, the Maroon team headed by Flight Director Milton Windler has completed its briefing. Each of the flight controllers reviewed the status of the mission and the spacecraft with the Flight Director and we find everything progressing smoothly at this time. No problems with the spacecraft. The Surgeon reports that all the crewmen are healthy. And at this time in the sleep period, they have all gotten at least 6 good hours of sleep. Sleep period is scheduled to last for another hour and 27 minutes. Some of the telemetry data would indicate that there has been some stirring around in the spacecraft but at the present time all three crewmen would appear to be sleeping or at least resting. Coming up on this shift, among the activities, is the clock update and this is scheduled to occur in the Flight Plan at about 54 hours, 45 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Flight Director Milt Windler advises us that that won't be a - an event that'll occur at any precise instant but will probably require a total of about ten minutes to sync all of the clocks together at the updated time but at about 54 hours, 45 minutes we would plan to jump ahead in Ground Elapsed Time to about 55 hours, 25 minutes. The exact amount of time to be changed will depend on assessments as to the need for midcourse correction 4 but the variation would be very slight, a matter of seconds. At the present time the Flight Dynamics Officer reports that midcourse correction 4, if it is needed at all, would appear to be around 2 feet per second [1 m/s]. The additional tracking data shows the pericynthion to be coming closer to the preferred 60 nautical miles [111 km] - we're presently showing it at 65 and when initial tracking came in yesterday following a midcourse correction maneuver, the data showed that the pericynthion was about 67 nautical miles [124 km] and as expected and as we've seen on previous missions, additional tracking tends to confirm that the pericynthion is in fact lower than the initial tracking shows. At the present time, we show Apollo 14 traveling at a velocity of 3,117 feet per second [950 m/s] and the spacecraft altitude right now is 158,778 nautical miles [294,057 km]. We'll continue to stand by and come up as soon as we hear any conversation from the crew. As I said, the sleep period is scheduled to end in about 1 hour and 25 minutes from now. At 49 hours, 35 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control at 50 hours, 32 minutes; and at the present time we're awaiting the crew's awakening. The crew is scheduled to awake from this sleep period at 27 hours - or rather 27 minutes, 45 seconds. And the last check with the Surgeon, we hadn't seen any indication that the crew was stirring at this time. During part of the period of time since our last announcement, we've been on a low-bit-rate data and have not had heart rates from the crew, which of course is the primary indication as to whether or not they're sleeping or beginning to stir. At this time, Apollo 14 is 160,493 nautical miles [297,233 km] from Earth and the spacecraft velocity, 3,069 feet per second [935 m/s]. This will be a relatively quiet shift as planned in the Flight Plan. Coming up, we have the clock update which will occur at about 54 hours, 45 minutes. They'll be running some checks on the S-band communications equipment and the VHF system in preparation for the bistatic radar test to be performed later in the mission. And they'll be changing lithium hydroxide, one of the lithium hydroxide canisters in the Command Module. There's also a crew exercise period scheduled at about 57 hours. That would be using the in-flight exerciser, which is an isometric, isotonic type device. We'll be standing by for the crew to awake and as soon as we get any conversation with the spacecraft, we'll come up again and begin covering the air to ground live at that time. At 50 hours, 34 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control at 50 hours, 54 minutes. We just received a call from Al Shepard so we'll pick up and follow any conversations live from this point on.
050:53:51 Shepard: Houston, Apollo 14. [Long pause.]
050:54:27 Shepard: Houston, Apollo 14.
050:54:29 McCandless: Apollo 14, this is Houston. Go ahead.
050:54:35 Shepard: Good morning, Bruce. We're reading you loud and clear. We have completed our postsleep checklist. We have the readouts for you when you're ready to copy.
050:54:46 McCandless: Roger. Go ahead with the postsleep checklist.
050:54:52 Shepard: Okay. The checklist is complete. We have the following readings for dosimeter, Al, 16041, slept 5 hours; Stu, 01038, slept 7 hours; Ed, 05038, slept 6½ hours.
050:55:21 McCandless: Okay, 14. Understand. Al 16041 and 5 hours; Stu 01038, 7 hours; Ed 05038, 6½ hours. Over.
050:55:38 Shepard: That's correct.
Long comm break.
Flight Plan page 3-049
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
051:03:10 McCandless: Apollo 14, this is Houston. [Long pause.]
051:03:23 Mitchell: Good morning, Bruce. Go ahead.
051:03:26 McCandless: Roger. I don't want to interrupt your eat period, but when you have a convenient time, I have a [Flight] Plan update for you. It's a fairly lengthy one. Nothing in the immediate future though.
051:03:37 Mitchell: Okay. Stand by. Roger, stand by for about 5 minutes or so, and be advised we completed the LiOH canister change at 51 hours and the LM/Command Module Delta-P at 50:59, plus 0.95. [Long pause.]
Going by the schedule, this canister change involves number 4 cartridge being replaced by number 6.
The pressure differential between the CM and the LM is now just under 1 psi with the LM side of the hatch being lower. The pressure differential is measured by turning the Tunnel Vent Valve to 'LM/CM Delta-P' and reading from a gauge.
051:03:57 McCandless: Understand 0.95 for the Delta-P at 50:59.
051:04:07 Mitchell: That's affirm.
051:04:12 Roosa: Hey, Bruce, I'll take that Flight Plan update. Proceed.
051:04:15 McCandless: Okay, Stu, here we go. You may want to just get out the Flight Plan and mark out the items as we go along, or you can copy it down, either way.
051:04:27 Roosa: No, I'd rather work on the Flight Plan. You give me the right places to go.
051:04:31 McCandless: Okay. Up through 59:20, that's 59 plus 20, everything is nominal. And from there on, you take the LM/CM Delta-P vent at 59 hours and 25 minutes and move that up to 59 hours even. [Long pause.]
051:05:05 Roosa: Okay, we'll move the LM/Command Module Delta-P vent up to 59 even.
051:05:10 McCandless: Roger. Take the P52 that occurs at 59:45 and move it up 10 minutes to commence at 59:35. Over. [Pause.]
051:05:29 Roosa: Okay. We'll shoot a P52 at 59:35.
051:05:33 McCandless: Roger. At 60 hours and 20 minutes, you have a O2 fuel cell purge and a waste water dump listed. We want to move those up to 59 hours and 50 minutes. That's 59 plus 50. [Long pause.]
Comm break.
051:06:45 McCandless: You still with me, Stu?
051:06:47 Roosa: Okay, Bruce, I moved the fuel cell purge. Yeah, I was just making - getting it all in here, Bruce. Moved the fuel cell purge and the waste water dump to 59:50.
051:06:56 McCandless: Roger. Delete midcourse correction number 3. Over.
051:07:05 Roosa: Jolly good. We'll strike out midcourse 3.
The SPS burn at the MCC-2 opportunity brought their pericynthion (lunar closest approach) to an apparent 67 nautical miles. As tracking has continued, this calculated altitude has come down a little, approaching the desired value of 60 nm (111 km). With the fourth midcourse opportunity still available to them for final tweaking of the trajectory, there is little reason to perform MCC-3 at this stage.
051:07:09 McCandless: Okay. Now, everything scheduled between the times of 60 plus 55 and 64 plus 10 should be scheduled 1 hour earlier. And if you look at 64 plus 10, the breakpoint there comes after the Verb 48, and we're going to have a write-in that says establish PTC there at 63:10, and the LiOH canister change comes at the nominal 64:12. Over.
051:07:50 Roosa: Okay. Let me...
051:07:53 McCandless: Well...
051:07:54 Roosa: ...read this one again, then. Everything from 61 hours to 64:10 is moved up an hour. Is that affirmative?
051:08:03 McCandless: Roger. Starting with the prepared transfer items per LM Activation Checklist and all that stuff.
051:08:11 Roosa: Okay, we'll move that up 1 hour. [Long pause.]
051:08:44 Roosa: Okay. I've got that. Everything from 61 to 64:10, move up an hour.
051:08:50 McCandless: Roger. Stand by a second. [Long pause.]
051:09:22 McCandless: Roger, Stu. At the time of 63:10, following the LM housekeeping activities, reestablish PTC. Over. [Long pause.]
051:09:50 Roosa: Okay, we're going to PTC at 63:10.
051:09:54 McCandless: And perform the lithium hydroxide canister change at the nominal currently scheduled time of 64:12, and pick up the normal Flight Plan timing and sequence afterwards. Over. [Long pause.]
051:10:23 Roosa: Okay. We'll change the canister at 64:12 on time, and then be back on the Flight Plan.
051:10:32 McCandless: Roger. And I have a 51-hour consumables update for you, if you're ready to copy back at 51 hours.
051:10:41 Roosa: Stand by 1. [Long pause.]
051:10:58 Roosa: Okay, let her rip, Bruce. [Pause.]
051:11:07 McCandless: How do you read me, Stu? I think we're in the process of changing antennas.
051:11:12 Roosa: I read you 5 square. I'm ready to copy.
051:11:15 McCandless: Okay. GET of 51 hours even; RCS total, 84 percent; Alpha, 84; Bravo, 83; Charlie, 84; Delta, 84; H2 tank 1, 79.3, 79.7; O2 tanks, 92, 91, 45. Over. [Long pause.]
051:11:56 Roosa: Okay, got you at 51 hours; total, 84; Alpha, 84; Bravo, 83; Charlie, 84; Dog, 84; H2, 79.3, 79.7; O2, 92, 91, and 45.
051:12:15 McCandless: Roger. And you may be interested in knowing that at the present time you are only 20 pounds of RCS fuel below the nominal; so, you're really gaining on it there.
Two days ago, right after their docking difficulties, they were 62 pounds below nominal on RCS fuel.
051:12:28 Roosa: I'm sorry, Bruce. You - you busted up; would you start over again, please?
051:12:36 McCandless: Roger. With respect to total RCS fuel, you are only 20 pounds below the planned RCS budget at the present time, and you are 2...
051:12:49 Roosa: Okay. That's broken up pretty badly. I can read we are 20 pounds below nominal.
Comm break.
051:14:17 McCandless: Okay, Stu, how do you read now?
051:14:20 Roosa: Okay. I'm back with you, and I copied the 20 pounds.
051:14:24 McCandless: Roger. And that's really closing in on the nominal there. A couple of other items that came up while you were asleep is that we're going to go ahead and exit PTC for the LM housekeeping, since we want to have the TV up for it. And - we're going to go ahead and dump the waste water, anyway; or, wait a minute - wait a minute, I'll run that by again. We need to dump the waste water, which will ruin PTC; consequently, we're going to come out of PTC for the LM housekeeping and have a good TV attitude to boot. One item is that I believe you went to sleep with 16:20 showing on the DSKY, which was continuously updating during your sleep period; and unless you have strong feelings otherwise, we would rather have a blank display up on the DSKY to keep from cycling the little reed switches all the time. And another Flight Plan item, at 55 hours even or thereabouts, we intend to request another set of photographs of the S-IVB from you using the Data Acquisition Camera and the sextant. We'll have an updated Noun 88 for you later on. Over.
The seven-segment displays on the DSKY are an early example of electroluminescent technology. Each display had 154 separate switchable elements that made up each of the digits, the plus and minus signs and three flag lights. Since the light-producing elements required 250V at 800 Hertz to work, they could not be directly driven by the computer's output signals. Instead, magnetic latching reed relays were used whereby the meagre current from the computer could switch this high voltage drive to the display segments. These were tiny relays, each packed into a TO-5 can that was only 8mm in diameter and each DSKY had 160 of them. A single relay device contained two coils with a permanent magnet at the top. A rocker mechanism on the other side of the coils could be made to flip in either direction and thereby operate switch contacts on either end. Although they proved to be highly reliable, they are nevertheless mechanical devices and so the engineers want to limit the number of operations they make.
051:15:48 Roosa: Okay, and say that time again, Bruce.
051:15:51 McCandless: Roger; 55 plus 00. Over.
051:15:57 Roosa: Okay, and we'll blank the DSKY.
051:16:02 McCandless: Okay. No need to blank it now...
051:16:04 Roosa: For sleep that is.
051:16:05 McCandless: Roger.
051:16:06 Roosa: No, I understand. For sleep - for sleep we'll put it to rest.
051:16:10 McCandless: Roger, Roger. [Pause.] And when you all get your breakfast well prepared and you're feeling in a jovial mood up there, why, we'll proceed with the Bruce and Bo show on the morning news.
051:16:29 Roosa: Okay, hang on till we all get tuned in. We sure wouldn't want to miss that.
051:16:35 McCandless: It'll be a couple of minutes yet. We just got the paper here, and we're editing it right now.
051:16:43 Roosa: Okay. [Pause.] [S-]IVB, Bruce; I was thinking about that - what you - I could see through the sextant. You know, I had two - it looked like two dim stars in the - in the sextant at that pointing attitude. And, I didn't see any tumbling motion at all on either one of them. And they were separated probably by - roughly half to three-quarters of a degree; I'd say 0.5 to 0.6 of a degree separation between the two, but I really couldn't see anything that would determine whether I was looking at the S-IVB or a star, a faint star.
051:17:36 McCandless: Roger. We copy, Stu...
051:17:38 Roosa: I really expected the... [Pause.] I guess I really expected the S-IVB to be a little brighter than either one of the two objects that I looked at.
051:17:53 McCandless: Okay, stand by a second, please.
Comm break.
051:19:26 McCandless: 14, Houston, Stu.
051:19:31 Roosa: Go ahead.
051:19:32 McCandless: Yeah. We've just received the intelligence down here that your family is having lasagne for your breakfast. Over.
051:19:42 Roosa: Oh, man; that's - that's good timing.
051:19:45 McCandless: We thought you'd enjoy hearing about it. [Pause.]
051:19:55 Roosa: There's nothing better for breakfast than lasagne, unless it's a sausage-onion sandwich.
051:20:02 McCandless: (Laugh) Very good.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
051:38:26 Mitchell: Houston. Apollo 14.
051:38:30 McCandless: Go ahead, 14.
051:38:35 Mitchell: Roger, Bruce. I have a few observations about the light flash experiment that I'd like to pass on, and perhaps you can generate some information from it that might be useful to us.
051:38:49 McCandless: Would you stand by a minute, please, Ed.
051:38:53 Mitchell: Okay. Standing by. [Long pause.]
051:39:50 McCandless: Apollo 14, this is Houston. Ed, go ahead with your commentary on the cosmic ray light flashes, and we'll digest what you've got and give you our views back probably in a couple of hours. Over.
051:40:05 Mitchell: Okay, Bruce. First of all, let me say we all decided to try to dark-adapt, and run the experiment, or at least part of it, last night. I think our experience was that we probably saw one flash after dark-adapting and promptly fell asleep before we saw any more. At least that's true in my case. I think Al and Stu stayed awake a bit longer. However, I think we have seen only three types of flashes so far. What we would probably call a star, a supernova, and a flash - or rather and a streak - and I think that I have seen some - I for - don't recall a name we tagged to them, but reminiscent of the lightning flashing in - in behind the clouds. Those are the only ones that we have really identified, and it takes awhile to realize what you are seeing, because it happens so quickly that it takes a little bit of practice before you can really recognize these things. I think perhaps after watching them for another period or so, we will be a little more experienced at it and be able to do a more creditable job of dark-adapting and getting the sort of data that would be liked. My experience is that even the so-called star, the supernova, are not as clean a phenomena, or clear a picture, as I had in my mind that they would appear. There still - still seem to be at least two flashes; maybe a bright flash, followed an instant later by a more subdued flash, or perhaps a halo-like effect. It doesn't seem to be - there does not seem to be a set pattern in each case. Sometimes it's a very clear single flash. Sometimes it seems followed by a halo; sometimes it seems followed by an adjacent flash. I guess that's about all I have to say at the moment.
051:42:28 McCandless: Roger, Ed. I think we've copied all of that.
051:42:29 Roosa: I'd like to add a few - I'd like to add a few comments on that too, Bruce.
051:42:37 McCandless: Go ahead.
051:42:41 Roosa: Hey, Bruce. Do you read?
051:42:42 McCandless: Roger, 14. Go.
051:42:46 Roosa: Okay, Bruce. I'd like to make - You know, you asked yesterday about whether we saw them before we were dark-adapted. So, last night I took my flashlight and shined it in both of my eyes; and, of course, you know, that should ruin your - any dark-adaption that you would have. And in fact, you know, you got the - the residual glow in your eye for a minute and then closed them and, in one case, in less than a minute, I had started seeing the flashes. And on the second time around, I'd say it's probably around 2 minutes before I started picking them up.
051:43:30 McCandless: Okay, Stu. And were you seeing - when you started seeing them, did you see a number of flashes? Ed reported, I think he saw just about one before he fell asleep.
051:43:40 Roosa: Well, what we did was we set the timer on 20 minutes, and I heard the timer go off and by that time I had only seen four or five flashes that I could recall. However, at some other periods during the night - That isn't when I did the flashlight routine; that was later on - more toward this morning when I started playing with the flashlight - and I - in one case, I saw one and then followed not too long after that by four or five and then - haven't really picked up any pattern on that. You may see one and then three or four, and you may see one and wait awhile. I can't really - it's a little difficult to time in the dark, you know, and get a feel; and, as far as the types of them...
051:44:32 McCandless: Okay. We're switching antennas, Stu.
051:44:34 Roosa: ...three types. However, my super - supernova, there's explosions in one, and very rare; I'll see a - a - a discrete pinpoint of light for a minute, and then the streaks I've noticed are all - what I would consider over at the periphery of my - of my vision. It - it appears that almost all the streaks are right along the edge of my eye, and I get the - get the impression that the majority of these are running, say longitudinal with the axis of my body. And it seems rare that I see a streak that's right - right in the center of my vision.
051:45:29 Mitchell: This is Ed. I'm - I have had a little different experience than Stu has. I don't think that I have seen quite as many streaks as he seems to. But I have seen some that appear to be going from right to left, near the center of the field of vision. However, I have mostly been concentrating on trying to identify the types, as opposed to locating them and getting their frequency. I did observe one right after we started to dark-adapt, about 20 seconds. But nothing after that. And, as I say, I think I fell asleep sometime within a couple of minutes after that. [Pause.]
051:46:15 McCandless: Do we have any observations from the Commander?
051:46:22 Mitchell: No. He's busy cooking breakfast right now.
051:46:24 McCandless: Oh, Roger. And I guess we just went through an antenna switchover; and we've got some news here, if you all are ready. [Pause.]
051:46:39 Shepard: I have only one comment. I think the echo of the other - on the light flashes. They do seem to be random, sort of a showery-type pattern. They are visible in a darkened cabin within a very few minutes after turning the lights out - probably as small a time as 1 or 2 minutes. And I've - as far as the characteristics of the flashes are concerned, I've observed about what the other guys have.
051:47:06 McCandless: Roger. We copy, Al. [Long pause.]
051:47:37 McCandless: 14, Houston. Are you interested in some news?
051:47:42 Mitchell: Roger. Press on.
051:47:48 McCandless: Okay. From the sports world, "Marquette's streaking Warriors continued to hold forth as the Nation's top-ranked college basketball power, Monday while unbeaten Southern California displaced defending champion UCLA in a runner-up spot. Houston, 15 to 3, is a newcomer to the top 20. The Cougars, who play Long Island U in Madison Square Garden, Thursday night, move into the number 18 spot. USC and UCLA will collide Saturday at Southern Cal." Too bad we don't have a TV uplink for you.
051:48:30 Mitchell: It'd be pretty nice.
051:48:39 Bobko: 14, this is Bo Bobko. How do you read?
051:48:42 Mitchell: Good morning, Bo; loud and clear. How are you?
Astronaut Karol J. "Bo" Bobko in his 1979 official Space Shuttle portrait.
Bruce has been joined at the CapCom console by fellow astronaut Karol "Bo" Bobko. The 33-year-old pilot was initially training to fly on the US Air Force's Manned Orbital Laboratory (MOL) military space station. The cancellation of MOL led to Bobko's transfer to the ranks of NASA in 1969. He would have to wait until 1983 for his first of three Space Shuttle flights.
051:48:45 Bobko: Just fine, sir. This is Washington, Associated Press. "The Food and Drug Administration said tests on compressed fish products such as frozen dinners, fish sticks, and fish cakes show mercury content well below the danger level. The FDA said Monday, 'More than 80 samples contained an average mercury level of 0.06 parts per million. Under FDA guidelines, fish with a half part per million is withdrawn from the market.'" [Pause.]
051:49:19 Mitchell: Seems reasonable to me.
It is unknown whether the crew knows at this point that their very own mission has been affected by such a recall. According to the excellent 'Biomedical results of Apollo' , tuna salad slated for inclusion in the Apollo 14 pantry was removed due to the detection of mercury, and was consequently replaced with an alternative food product.
051:49:22 McCandless: "The chill blast of a February norther blew into Texas Monday, dropping the temperature sharply after the summer-like weather which closed out last week. January's last day saw temperatures in the 90s at several points in deep-south Texas. And it was one of the driest months ever back here in Houston - here in Texas. The Dallas weather station, for example, measured 0.16 - that's 16/100ths - of an inch of rain against the normal 2.32 inches for January." [Long pause.]
051:50:00 Bobko: "The Rarest Atom Particle Reported Found." New York, Associated Press. "Physicists from the University of California reported Monday, they have discovered the rarest and most elusive of the nuclear particles within the atom. They found the particle's track in a photograph of a nuclear interaction, an inch-long footprint it left during its brief lifetime of 15 billionths of a second. The particle is called the antiomegaminus baryon part - antiparticle, the mirror image of matter as we know it on Earth. The discovery is related to the idea that somewhere out there in space there are galaxies made up of antimatter, just as galaxies or star clusters, such as the one we live in, the Milky Way, is made up of matter." [Pause.]
051:50:50 Roosa: Hey, Bo. I think I saw one of those just go by the window.
051:50:56 Bobko: Grab it, quick.
051:51:00 McCandless: Hey, Stu...
051:51:01 Mitchell: How long did you say the track was that - Bo - how long did they say the track was that they had seen?
051:51:09 Bobko: "An inch-long footprint it left during its brief lifetime of 15 billionths of a second." They said. "We had a standing offer of a case of champagne to whoever found it, Goldhaber said. 'When I get back to the lab I have to deliver.'"
051:51:27 McCandless: Do you think Stu qualifies for one also?
051:51:34 Roosa: Aw, I let it get away, Bruce.
051:51:38 Mitchell: Hey, that's a pretty great piece of news.
The particle discovery took place at the Lawrence Radiation Laboratory, Berkeley, in an Apollo-like feat of technology and persistence requiring four years of study, a particle accelerator, and the interpretation of 500,000 photographs. Incidentally, this very Apollo crew is using one piece of equipment that was tested and proven at the same laboratory, namely their Personal Radiation Dosimeters.
A contemporary account of the discovery can be found here in Stanford Linear Accelerator Center's own newspaper.
051:51:40 McCandless: Okay. "On Wall Street, investors bought heavily on Monday giving the Dow-Jones Industrial Average its highest single-day gain of the year. The Dow-Jones average of 30 industrial stocks closed up at 877.81, up 9.31 points, for the biggest one-day jump in '71. Trading was heavy throughout the session, with the New York Stock Exchange ticker backed up a minute or more several times during the day. The tape was 3 minutes late at the close." [Long pause.]
051:52:19 Bobko: Washington, UPI. "The administration is considering a pollution tax, such as a levy on emissions of air-polluting sulphur dioxides, in an effort to give industry an incentive to clean up, President Nixon's Economic Report said Monday. The report, prepared by the President's council of economic advisors and sent to Congress under Mr. Nixon's signature, said a tax may be a more effective way to control pollution than direct Government regulation." [Pause.]
051:52:52 McCandless: "At 9:03 tonight, the Apollo 14 crew will begin operating under NASA's own version of daylight savings time. The readjustment of the mission clocks will bring the flight back to the actual real time - parentheses - Greenwich Mean Time - parentheses - for activities as scheduled in the Flight Plan. At 9:03 p.m., the flight will be 54 hours into the mission. However, under the nominal Flight Plan, the 54-hour mark should have been reached at 8:23. To correct this, the crew will move their mission elapsed time clock ahead 40 minutes to coincide with the real-time clock." [Pause.]
051:53:37 Bobko: This is by Francis Dodds, Austin. "A bill creating an upper level college at Clear Lake as a branch of the University of Houston has been approved by the Senate Education Committee. The bill, introduced by Senator Chet Brooks of Pasadena, would create the University of Houston, Clear Lake Campus primarily to serve six area junior colleges. A proposed 360-acre campus is adjacent to the Manned Spacecraft Center. The proposed college must be started immediately, Hoffman said, for two reasons. To be of service to San Jacinto Junior College, Alvin Junior College, Brazosport Junior College, Lee Junior College, College of the Mainland, and Galveston Community College and to help limit enrollment at the University of Houston's main campus to 30,000." And then on later it says that the University of Houston Clear Lake would accept students with 56 or more semester hours and would offer degrees to the master's level.
051:54:38 Mitchell: That's pretty interesting news.
051:54:39 Roosa: Yeah.
051:54:40 McCandless: Rochester, New York. "Brooks Robinson, outstanding player in the World Series with his glove and bat, was named Monday night as winner of the 21st Annual Hickok Professional Athlete of the Year Award. The 33-year-old third baseman of the baseball champion Baltimore Orioles won by a large margin over another veteran, 43-year-old George Blanda, quarterback of pro-football Oakland Raiders. Robinson, who hit 428 in the World Series and made a series of spectacular fielding plays in the five-game triumph over the Cincinnati Reds, received 62 of the 146 first-place votes by a panel of sports writers and newscasters." And that winds up the news for this evening down here, this morning up there. Goodnight or morning, Bo.
Rochester, New York, holds a special place in the space program. It is the home town of Kodak-Eastman, the manufacturer of the photographic film used during all the Apollo missions.
051:55:29 Bobko: I'm going home and have dinner.
051:55:35 Shepard: I thank you guys.
051:55:38 Mitchell: Still don't understand that bit about changing the time on the Apollo 14 crew. I can't figure what those guys are doing. [Pause.]
051:55:51 Roosa: Hey, that was a good newscast. You know you're pretty high in the ratings up here.
051:55:57 Bobko: Okay. Thank you. Appreciate it.
Long comm break.
This is Apollo Control at 51 hours, 56 minutes. Helping out CapCom Bruce McCandless on reading the news there was astronaut Karol Bobko. And at the present time Apollo 14 is traveling at a velocity of 3,002 feet per second [915 m/s] and we show the current altitude, 162,934 nautical miles [301,754 km] from Earth.
Flight Plan page 3-050
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control at 52 hours, 2 minutes. We'll be coming up in the next few minutes on the bistatic radar frequency check. This will be a check of the spacecraft communications frequencies on the Unified S-band and the VHF in preparation for an experiment.
052:02:33 McCandless: 14, this is Houston. When you're configured in a suitable VHF mode for the S-170 bistatic radar frequency check, give us a call; and then, we'll secure the S-band uplink for about 5 minutes on you. There's no great rush involved in this.
052:02:52 Roosa: Okay. We'll start configuring now and give you a call.
052:02:55 McCandless: Roger. [Long pause.]
The bistatic radar experiment, which will be performed in lunar orbit, will utilize the spacecraft Unified S-band and VHF transmitters to reflect radio signals off the surface of the Moon. And these will be received on Earth and hopefully the...
The Bistatic Radar experiment arranged for the CSM's HGA and VHF antennae to be aimed at the Moon during revolution 25. The radio signals emanating from them would be deliberately kept unmodulated so that essentially only carrier signals were being transmitted. Having bounced off the Moon, the signals were received at two large dish antennae on Earth; Goldstone for the S-band signals and Stanford for the VHF signals. The intention was that by studying how the signals had been modified after reflection off the Moon, inferences could be made as to the roughness and slope of the lunar surface and of the underlying structure to a depth of a few dozen metres.
S-band spectra from the Apollo 14 bistatic radar experiment.
S-band spectra taken over many time slices from the Apollo 14 bistatic radar experiment.
(Click image for a larger version.)
This diagram, extracted from the Apollo 14 Preliminary Science Report, shows returned spectra of the S-band carrier signal after it had been modified by the lunar surface. Each trace represents a moment in time and changes caused by surface features can be easily seen, in particular a spike caused by Lansberg Crater.
During normal operation, the frequency of the S-band signal coming from the spacecraft (the downlink) is locked to the S-band signal coming from Earth (the uplink) by having the incoming frequency be multiplied by the ratio of 240/221. For the bistatic radar, the uplink will be turned off, allowing the spacecraft's S-band transmitter to go to its natural, unlocked frequency. This test is to measure that frequency in deep-space conditions and to so the same for VHF
052:03:22 Mitchell: Roger, Houston. We're configured on the Flight Plan at 52 hours. Standing by.
052:03:29 McCandless: Roger. We're going to go ahead and secure our S-band uplink. [Long pause.]
052:03:44 McCandless: Belay that, 14. We're going to wait until your rotation in PTC brings us around to the point where we can utilize Omni Bravo for the frequency measurement. I'll give you a call just prior to our turning off the uplink.
052:03:58 Mitchell: Okay, Bruce.
Comm break.
052:05:41 Mitchell: Houston, 14. Speaking of Daylight Saving Time, our Sun comes up very regularly every 20 minutes.
052:05:48 McCandless: Roger. We copy. That's probably not unreasonable for the small-size planet you're in right now.
Very long comm break.
Ed Mitchell's last comment about the Sun coming up every 20 minutes refers to the fact that the spacecraft is currently in its Passive Thermal Control mode, or it's rotating at the rate of 3 revolutions per hour or 1 revolution every 20 minutes.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
052:19:07 McCandless: Apollo 14. This is Houston. We're going to secure the S-band uplink for approximately 4 minutes - 5 minutes at this time. If you need us for anything, just give us a call. We can still receive you. We still have TM, and we would bring the uplink back up. Over.
052:19:25 Mitchell: Roger. You're turning the S-band off now. Is that affirm?
052:19:29 McCandless: Roger. We are turning the uplink portion of the S-band off at the present time.
052:19:38 Mitchell: Okay.
052:19:39 McCandless: Roger. Out.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
052:27:42 McCandless: Apollo 14. This is Houston. On S-band, we have the uplink back up. We would like to leave the VHF configured as is, however, until we give you another call about 20 minutes from now. Over.
Comm break.
052:29:43 McCandless: Apollo 14, Apollo 14, this is Houston. How do you read?
052:29:49 Roosa: You're loud and clear, Bruce; 14.
052:29:51 McCandless: Roger. As you may gather, we have the uplink back up at this time. We'd like to remain in the existing VHF comm configuration until we give you another call, however. That'll be about 20 minutes from now. Over.
052:30:05 Roosa: Okay. We're easy to get along with. We'll stand by in this configuration.
052:30:09 McCandless: Roger. Out.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
052:36:43 McCandless: Apollo 14, this is Houston. Over.
052:36:48 Mitchell: Go ahead.
052:36:49 McCandless: Roger, Ed. Down at the Cape, there's a Thor Delta with a NATO communications satellite on it that is about 1 minute and 40 seconds from ignition. If you're in such an attitude that you can view the Cape, you might try a P22 and pick it up in the sextant. Latitude, 28.5; longitude, over 2, 45.5. I say again, 28.5 and 45.5. That's your option. Over. [Long pause.]
This military communications satellite was also known as NATO 2, and was launched from Pad 17A on a Delta M launch vehicle. Original press release can be viewed here.
052:37:26 Mitchell: Okay. I don't think we're going to be around in time. Al's looking at the Earth out the window 5 right now.
052:37:33 McCandless: Okay. Maybe you could try the monocular. But that probably doesn't hold much hope.
052:37:40 Mitchell: Okay.
052:37:41 McCandless: You want me...
The monocular is literally half of a pair of binoculars, for making visual observations.
052:37:42 Roosa: Yes, he's got the monocular out now and that's 28.5.
052:37:45 McCandless: Roger. 28.5 latitude...
052:37:46 Shepard: Say again those coordinates...
052:37:48 McCandless: Latitude, 28.5; and longitude over 2, 45.5.
052:37:55 Roosa: Okay. 28.5, 45.5. We'll try it. And Al's looking with the monocular now.
052:38:03 McCandless: Roger. Longitude over 2 is negative 40.5; negative 40.5.
052:38:12 Roosa: Okay, minus 40.5. [Long pause.]
052:38:34 McCandless: Okay, Stu; 3, 2, 1, ignition, down at the Cape. [Pause.]
052:38:46 Roosa: Okay. I - I didn't get the optics on; the Earth wasn't quite around. It just went out of the number 5 window just before you come.
052:38:59 McCandless: Roger. We just thought we'd send the info up, in case you happened to be in a handy attitude.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
052:43:42 McCandless: Apollo 14, this is Houston.
052:43:47 Shepard: Go ahead.
052:43:48 McCandless: Roger, Al. We thought you might be interested in knowing that we have a Dr. House down here at the Surgeon's console for a few minutes watching the progress of the mission.
052:44:03 Shepard: Good evening, William. Glad to have you aboard.
052:44:07 McCandless: He's waving back.
052:44:13 Shepard: Tell him everything's fine, Bruce.
052:44:17 McCandless: He Rogers that.
Very long comm break.
We understand that Dr. House is the surgeon who performed the successful operation on Al Shepard's ear which cleared up the inner ear problem and is allowing him to make this flight.
After his suborbital Mercury flight in 1962, Al was grounded due to the occurrence of Ménière's disease in his inner ear. This is a build up of pressure that affects both hearing and balance. Al had to arrange to undergo a new surgical treatment in order to return to flight status. In the meantime, he took a post under Deke Slayton as chief of the Astronaut office.
This is Apollo Control at 52 hours, 47 minutes. Flight Dynamics Officer Dave Reed has just completed briefing the flight controllers here in the Control Center on the procedures that will be followed and the rationale for the clock update, which is scheduled to occur at about 54 hours, 45 minutes; at which time the clocks and the computer complex here will be reset ahead 40 minutes, essentially placing us back on the Flight Plan, both in terms of Ground Elapsed Time and in terms of Central Standard Time. One of the finer points being considered at the moment is whether to update precisely 40 minutes, or to update 40 minutes and 3 seconds, which is in fact the exact amount of time that was made up in the maneuver. In other words the point at which the spacecraft crosses the 180 degree meridian, if we update 40 minutes and 3 seconds we will be precisely on the GET at which that event will occur, and at the present time the vote here in the control center as to whether to update 40:03 or 40:00 stands at 1 to nothing in favor of 40:03, and we'll let you know how the polling progresses. For the most part no one seems to have too much of an opinion. The reaction seems to be about the same as the reaction that came in from the postflight evaluation team which is going to have to sort out all of these numbers and make everything agree and see that nothing gets confused, and that reaction was something to the effect of, if you have to update, do it any way you see fit. One point that Dave Reed made, was that precautions will be taken to see that, in addition to keeping people from getting confused by the update, to see that the computers are also not confused by the update. In describing the rationale for the update, Reed mentioned that the booster, the Saturn 3rd stage, the S-IVB is targeted to place the spacecraft at the Moon at the proper Sun time regardless of the time that it lifts off from Earth. Recognizing then that the lift-off time was 40 minutes late, the booster guidance system targeted a trajectory which was somewhat flatter, which arrived at the Moon approximately 40 minutes earlier than it otherwise would have, and we're now in the process through this Flight Plan update, through GET update rather, of making the clock and the Flight Plan once again agree, and as I mentioned, once the update is carried out, the GET time on the clocks here in Mission Control will once again agree with the Flight Plan and the times that are in the Flight Plan reference to Central Standard Time, will also be back in sync with the current Central Standard Time.
We have a lot of sympathy for the plight of the Post Flight Evaluation team. Even today, the GET update has made documenting this flight more difficult.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
052:56:59 McCandless: 14, this is Houston. We've concluded the VHF measurements. You can turn VHF Ranging, and the VHF switches, Off.
052:57:11 Mitchell: Okay, thank you.
Very long comm break.
During the bistatic radar frequency check, which was just completed, the spacecraft VHF signal was being received by [the] 150-foot [46-metre] dish antenna at Stanford, and the spacecraft Unified S-band signal was being received by the 210-foot [64-metre] dish at Goldstone, California. Reception of this - of these signals will allow teams at these two receiving locations to get a frequency calibration which will later be used during the period of orbital science when the bistatic radar experiment is performed from the Command Module. Basically this experiment consists of reflecting the UHF and - or the VHF and S-band signals off the surface of the Moon, and when they are received back on Earth, certain conclusions can be reached about the dielectric characteristics of the lunar surface. At 52 hours, 59 minutes; Apollo 14 is 164,717 nautical miles [305,056 km] from Earth and the spacecraft velocity has now dropped below 3,000 feet per second. We're currently reading 2,954 feet per second [900 m/s].
Flight Plan page 3-051
Stu performs the sixth realignment of the guidance platform using Program 52. For this, he sights on two stars from the Apollo star list; 20 Dnoces (Iota Ursa Majoris) and 23 Denebola (Beta Leonis). The results from this are that over the 13 hours since its previous realignment, the platform had drifted by only 0.006° in X, -0.129° in Y and 0.052° in Z. Stu will inform Mission Control of the time at which he rotated or 'torqued' the platform back to perfect alignment. The program also indicated that Stu's sighting accuracy was perfect because the measured angle between the two stars matched the known angle between them.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
053:11:34 Roosa: Okay, Bruce, did you get the torquing angle?
053:11:37 McCandless: That's affirmative, Stu. [Pause.] And do you have a time for us?
053:11:46 Roosa: Hello, Houston; 14.
053:11:51 McCandless: 14, this is Houston. Loud and clear. We have your torquing angles. Do you have the time for us? [Pause.]
053:12:00 McCandless: Apollo 14, Apollo 14, this is Houston; how do you read?
053:12:06 Roosa: Okay, read you loud and clear, Bruce. Did you have lockup? Did you get the torquing angles?
053:12:12 McCandless: Roger; we've got the torquing angles. Do you have a time at which you torqued for us?
053:12:18 Roosa: Rog; that was 53 plus 11 plus 30.
053:12:23 McCandless: Roger. Out.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
053:30:39 McCandless: Apollo 14, this is Houston. We'd like to get battery Bravo on Charge now. Over.
053:30:46 Shepard: Okay. Will do. Battery Bravo.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control at 53 hours, 58 minutes. We're now just about 45 minutes away from the scheduled updating of the clocks here in Mission Control. The Flight Plan calls for the GET update to occur at about 54 hours, 45 minutes. However, the precise timing of it is not critical and it'll more than likely be done at some point when we're in communication with the crew and when the timing is right as far as making the changes in the real time computer clock complex. The Flight Dynamics Officer has come up with a new set of coordinates for the predicted S-IVB impact on the Moon. They are as follows: 8.4 degrees south and 25.9 degrees west, and the predicted Ground Elapsed Time of impact is 82 hours, 37 minutes, 42 seconds. And of course that GET time will be updated by approximately 40 minutes. You'll be able to add about 40 minutes to that time to get the post-update Ground Elapsed Time of impact. The update will be 40 minutes and 3 seconds. The straw vote that was taken in the Control Center turned out one to nothing in favor of 40 hours - 40 minutes, 3 seconds as opposed to 40 minutes, 00 seconds. The retro-fire officer was the only one voting and it was his preference that we do the update 40 minutes, 03 seconds, which puts the Flight Plan precisely in synchronization with Greenwich Mean Time at that time. The things that were considered in making that choice - updating by 40 minutes and 3 seconds as opposed to 40 minutes and 0 seconds, in the one case, it makes the Flight Plan and the Ground Elapsed Time perfectly in synchronization with no seconds left over. However, in updating 40 minutes and 3 seconds as opposed to 40 minutes and 0 seconds, it complicates computing back to get the real Ground Elapsed Time. The difference, of course, relatively minor and since the only one who really seemed to have a preference was the retro-fire officer, Flight Director Milton Windler decided to yield to that preference and we'll update by 40 minutes and 03 seconds, adding that amount of time to the current Ground Elapsed Time. Would like to repeat also an announcement that was made earlier and that is that the television scheduled for the next shift at 4:08 Central Standard Time has been moved up one hour. This was done because of the deletion of the midcourse correction of mid-course correction 3 opportunity. That maneuver is not needed and will not be performed in order to keep the LM housekeeping activities all on the same shift. The Flight Plan was in effect condensed - everything moved up an hour and the television which is associated with the LM housekeeping was also moved up, so that the current schedule for the TV is at 3:08 a.m. tomorrow morning. At the present time we show Apollo 14 traveling at velocity of 2,906 feet per second [886 m/s] and the altitude is 166,487 nautical miles [308,334 km].
Flight Plan page 3-052
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
054:34:45 McCandless: Apollo 14, this is Houston. Over.
054:34:51 Mitchell: Go ahead.
054:34:53 McCandless: 14, Houston. Got a string of PADs here for you, starting off with a Flight Plan update and then a little later, a Tephem update and two maneuver PADs. When you're ready to copy, let me know.
054:35:10 Mitchell: Roger, Bruce. Configured here - we're just finishing up on the experiments. We'll be ready in a minute.
Comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
054:37:54 Shepard: Houston, Apollo 14's ready to copy.
054:38:00 McCandless: Roger, 14. On the Flight Plan update, at 55 plus 40 PGET LOU, we'd like you to perform some more S-IVB dim-light photos while in PTC using P52 with the following Noun 88 unit vectors. Now - Stand by. [Long pause.]
054:38:45 McCandless: 14, this is Houston. How do you read? [Pause.]
054:38:53 Shepard: Okay. We're reading you loud and clear.
054:38:57 McCandless: Okay. Did you copy any of that?
054:39:03 Shepard: Just how do you read us; that's the first part we got.
054:39:06 McCandless: Any of the Flight Plan update?
054:39:12 Shepard: Negative. We haven't [garble.] [Long pause.]
054:39:41 Shepard: Houston, 14. We're not reading you.
054:39:44 McCandless: Okay. How now, 14?
054:39:48 Shepard: Okay, go ahead.
054:39:49 McCandless: Beautiful. All right, Flight Plan update at 55 plus 40 PGET LOU, perform S-IVB dim-light photos while in PTC using P52 with the following values for Noun 88. R1: minus 47607, minus 79244, minus 38131. Camera procedures and film magazine will be identical to those for the Earth dark-side photos. The S-IVB should be visible in the sextant between roll angles of 078 degrees down to 005 degrees. Over.
As McCandless will soon state, 'PGET LOU' stands for 'Post-Ground Elapsed Time Lift-Off Update'. In other words, the GET times that he is passing on assume that the update has taken place.
054:40:55 Shepard: Okay. At elapsed time of 055:40, we will again take the S-IVB photographs in the P52, Noun 88, minus 47607, minus 79244, minus 38131, using camera magazine and Earth side - Earth dark-side photographs. The sextant roll angles including 078 down to 005.
054:41:26 McCandless: Roger. Readback correct. And that 55:40 time is the post-GET lift-off update time and - we're preparing to give you a lift-off time update now.
054:41:40 Shepard: Understand. That's the new time.
054:41:42 McCandless: Roger. [Long pause.]
054:42:10 McCandless: 14, Houston. Tephem update. Over.
054:42:16 Shepard: Go ahead.
054:42:18 McCandless: Roger. Tephem: OID 03, 00006; identifier 04, 35223; identifier 05, 16020. The Delta in time is 40 minutes 02.9 seconds added to GET and subtracted for a Tephem. Over. [Pause.]
054:43:03 Shepard: Okay. The update identifier 03 is 00006; identifier 04, 35223; identifier 05, 16020, Delta-T, 40 minutes 02.9 seconds, add to GET.
054:43:24 McCandless: Houston. Roger. Out. And I have an update to your lift-off plus 60 PAD. [Long pause.]
054:43:41 Shepard: Okay, go ahead.
Once the clock update has occurred, the details of future contingency manoeuvres will change, either because the GET of events will alter, or in the case of the 'lift-off plus-60' PAD, since sixty hours will now occur at a different actual time, the Delta-V and landing time associated with the altered ignition time will change.
054:43:43 McCandless: Okay. On P37 lift-off plus 60, 060:00, 5381, minus 165, 117:00. Over. [Pause.]
054:44:07 Mitchell: Roger. GETI is 060:00, 5381, minus 165, 117:00.
054:44:19 McCandless: Readback correct. I have a change to the previously passed SPS/G&N flyby PAD P30 for you. Over.
054:44:33 Shepard: Okay. Go ahead.
054:44:34 McCandless: Roger. The time of TIG, Noun 33 should be 077:39 minutes 34.44 seconds, and down at the bottom of the PAD, GET of .05g should be 165:52:28, and both of these last PADs assume the GET update. Over.
Flight Plan page 3-053
At this point in the transcripts, the GET of utterances jumps ahead to reflect the 40:03 GET update.
055:25:10 Mitchell: Okay. Noun 33 of the LOI minus 5 is 077:39:34.44 and GET is 0 - .05g, is 165:52:28. The rest remains the same.
055:25:30 McCandless: Roger. Readback is correct. [Long pause.]
055:25:47 McCandless: 14, Houston. We observe you're in P00. If you can give us Accept, we will send you a state vector update to improve your pointing accuracy for the S-IVB photography and a lift-off time update to adjust the GET in accordance with the PADs that we've passed you. Over.
055:26:06 Mitchell: Okay. [Long pause.]
055:26:26 McCandless: And, 14, we're going to hold off a few minutes here on the uplink until we get a good antenna switchover and then we'll be coming at you.
055:26:37 Mitchell: Roger. Understand. [Long pause.]
The uplink that CapCom Bruce McCandless was referring to is the Elapsed Time update and that will be uplinked via telemetry to the spacecraft clocks and shortly after we would expect the clocks here in Mission Control also to be updated.
055:27:12 Shepard: Houston, Apollo 14. The metal composite specimen number 4 has been cooked and cooled and recorded.
055:27:21 McCandless: Thanks a lot.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
The Guidance Officer reports that he's ready now to uplink the revised elapsed time to the clocks onboard the spacecraft.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
And Guidance and Retro report that we're now updated onboard.
055:33:59 McCandless: 14, this is Houston. The uplink is completed. I expect you'll want to reset your mission timers.
Mission timer.
There are two mission timers in the Command Module. One of them is on the top part of the Main Display Console, the other is in the Lower Equipment Bay. They are set to start on the moment of lift-off - as per the famous "The clock is running!" call - and are the crew's primary measure of Ground Elapsed Time that dictates their Flight Plan. They receive their timing signal from the Central Timing Equipment (CTE) electronics and cannot be automatically updated, as they did with the computer's internal clock.
Central Timing Equipment diagram.
The Central Timing Equipment (CTE) electronics produce timing signals that are used by many onboard systems for purpose of alignment and synchronization. It sends a 6.4 Kilohertz signal to the inverters, for instance, to make sure that the alterating current maintains the correct phase.
055:34:09 Shepard: Okay. We'll do that. And we'll also call 17 06 so you can look at Tephem.
055:34:16 McCandless: Okay. Thank you.
Long comm break.
Verb 17 Noun 06 is translated as 'Monitor an option code'.
And our telemetry data now shows the spacecraft Command Module Computer clock to be reading 55:34:30.
Once the update is completed here in the Control Center, we'll have one clock which will be designated GET and will be reading the updated Ground Elapsed Time. Next to that, the clock designated TV-5 will be reading the original or actual Ground Elapsed Time and of course will lag 40 minutes, 3 seconds roughly behind the updated GET clock.
And we've just had the clocks here in the Control Center updated and we're now on Lift-off Savings Time...
055:37:44 Shepard: Houston, Apollo 14. Would you check R3 Tephem for us?
055:37:50 Mitchell: My update was 16020.
055:37:57 McCandless: Okay. Stand by. Be glad to.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control. Our revised time now reading 55 hours, 46 minutes, 22 seconds. Those Elapsed Time updates were made at following times: 54:53:30 on the spacecraft and that command was uplinked by the Guidance Officer.
055:46:38 McCandless: Apollo 14, this is Houston. Over.
055:46:41 Shepard: Go ahead.
055:46:43 McCandless: Okay. I've got a few words on the Tephem situation. Probably the most significant...
055:46:52 Shepard: Go ahead.
055:46:53 McCandless: ...Probably the most significant part of the whole discussion is that both values of Tephem are correct, and the way that they arrive at this is as follows. The left-hand-most digit of the octal representation of Tephem is coded to include a sign. If you break the left-hand-most digit down into the 3 binary bits, the first bit being zero represents positive. The first bit being a one represents negative. In the value of Tephem update on the PAD, you'll notice that in the R3 load it was 16020 which is a positive 16020. In the value that you read out of the Command Module computer, you will notice that R2 was one least significant digit larger than the PAD value, that is, 35224. And R3, having the left-hand-most digit of 5, was in reality, equal to a minus 16017, which is then subtracted from the one-digit-larger value of R2. Does that make sense to you all? Over.
055:48:29 Shepard: Affirmative. In other words, you want us to leave the loads the same.
055:48:31 McCandless: Roger. Either load is correct. The Command Module Computer does not force a positive sign or a negative sign on the octal value but accepts whatever it happens to come up with. So either load is correct. Over.
055:48:49 Shepard: Okay. Assuming we have no more updates, how would you like us to update the Tephem into the LM? Using the 1706 values? [Long pause.]
055:49:24 McCandless: 14, this is Houston. I'll catch you when signal strength comes back up.
055:49:30 Shepard: Okay.
Comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
055:52:16 McCandless: 14, this is Houston.
055:52:19 Mitchell: Go ahead.
055:52:21 McCandless: Roger. Back on the question of which set of Tephem to load. You can load either one in the LM. If you want a recommendation, we recommend the - the PAD value, but either one would be satisfactory. Over.
055:52:43 Shepard: Okay. We'll call 1706 when we make our load. Thank you.
055:52:47 McCandless: Roger.
Long comm break.
Despite Bruce's best attempts at explaining the reasoning for the update, the crew expressed some doubts post-flight.
Shepard, from 1971 Crew Technical debriefing: "We just came upon a note in the Flight Plan . At 54 hours, we had Tephem update and we loaded it like everybody told us to. When we read it out and it wasn't the same thing, we had some conversation about that with the ground. They said it was fine, but I must admit that it was a surprise to us because we never had seen that before in any of the sims. We just wanted to bring that to everybody's attention, but I think it ought to be the same."
Roosa, from 1971 Crew Technical debriefing: "It surely should. They came up with a good explanation that if you are a fast man on the octal slide rule, you can add up all those numbers and they will come out to be the same total value, but that's not the way to do business. The pad value and what's in the CMC ought to be exactly the same, and none of this Mickey Mouse even though it adds to the same amount."
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
055:57:24 Roosa: And, Houston; 14.
055:57:27 McCandless: Go ahead, 14.
055:57:31 Roosa: Okay, Bruce. We've got something in the sextant with those angles. It could be the S-IVB. It's right off to the edge in the sextant field of view and being tracked by the CMC on those angles. And I'll look at it again on the next pass, and then - take some pictures of it after that.
055:57:52 McCandless: Okay, Stu. Very good. Could you tell that the object was tumbling, or anything like that, do you think?
055:58:00 Roosa: I'll - I'm going to look at it again.
055:58:07 McCandless: Roger. [Long pause.]
055:58:51 McCandless: 14, this is Houston. For your information, the major tumble motion now has a period of 5 minutes and 46 seconds on the S-IVB. Over.
055:59:05 Roosa: Okay. Thank you.
Very long comm break.
Flight Plan page 3-054
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control at 56 hours, 9 minutes. Apollo 14 now 168,880 nautical miles [312,766 km] from Earth, and the spacecraft velocity, 2,842 feet per second [866 m/s]. In Mission Control at this time, we're in the midst of a shift handover. The Flight Director on the shift coming on is Gerry Griffin, and the Gold team of flight controllers, the capsule communicator will be astronaut, Fred Haise. We are planning a change of shift briefing in the MSC news center briefing room, and we estimate that that briefing will be ready to begin in about 15 minutes.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
056:16:39 Roosa: Houston. 14.
056:16:42 Haise: Ah, go ahead, 14.
056:16:47 Roosa: Okay. Yeah. You really got the S-IVB boresighted with those angles. Now, the other cycle around - I picked up a star that's also in the field of view, and the S-IVB is tumbling, and you can see it right at the start when it comes in on this one, and then it disappears and comes back in right toward the end. So we're definitely locked in, and with those pointing angles, it's got the S-IVB right near the center of the sextant, and what I picked up the first time around evidently is a star, and it's over toward the edge of field - of the field of view.
056:17:31 Haise: Okay. And understand you're going to try to shoot it the next time around, huh?
056:17:38 Roosa: Yes. We'll try to get some pictures - I guess I'll try to - I think I'll look at it one more time and try to get a time frame or roll angle where it's visible in the sextant and then try to take the pictures at that time.
056:17:57 Haise: Okay. It - that sounds good. It isn't going to be going anywhere.
056:18:02 Roosa: Okay. No, we'll be hanging around here for a while.
Comm break.
056:20:06 Mitchell: Houston, 14.
056:20:10 Haise: Go ahead, 14.
056:20:14 Mitchell: I just wanted to say good morning, Fred. Haven't talked to you today.
056:20:18 Haise: Well, good morning. Isn't quite good morning yet. [Long pause.]
056:21:01 Mitchell: Houston, 14.
056:21:03 Haise: Go ahead, Ed.
056:21:07 Mitchell: Hey, Freddo, remember yesterday I was talking about the oil-canning effect of the heat contracting and - the heating and cooling of these panels.
056:21:21 Haise: Roger.
056:21:25 Mitchell: And remember you said it looked like same thing that - that was happening to LM-7?
056:21:31 Haise: That's affirm.
056:21:34 Mitchell: Okay. I just wanted to let you know that I think our oil-can wrinkles are prettier than LM-7's oil-can wrinkles.
056:21:43 Haise: Okay.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control; 56 hours, 32 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Here in the control room the Gold Team Flight Director Gerry Griffin is conferring with the various console engineers, finding out what items have to be covered during the next 8 hours of the shift. Each man goes red on the Flight Director's status board and after he completes the conversation the button goes green. The offgoing Flight Director Milton Windier is now in route to the Houston News Center for Change of Shift Press Conference. He is accompanied by his Flight Dynamics Officer Dave Reed. The group should be at the News Center in about 10 minutes to begin the Change of Shift Press Conference. Apollo 14 now 169,565 nautical miles [314,034 km] from Earth; velocity, 2,823 feet per second [860 m/s]. At 56 hours, 34 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; this is Apollo Control.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control. The Change of Shift Press Conference with the off going Flight Director Milton Windler is going to start momentarily in the small briefing room in the Apollo News Center in Houston. 56 hours, 40 minutes GET; this is Apollo Control Out and accumulating tape until after the Press Conference.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
056:42:08 Roosa: Houston, 14.
056:42:12 Haise: Go ahead, 14.
056:42:16 Roosa: Hey, Fred, just for curiosity sake, how far away is the S-IVB?
056:42:21 Haise: Stand by, Stu.
Long comm break.
056:49:30 Haise: 14, Houston.
056:49:34 Shepard: Go ahead.
056:49:37 Haise: Do you have any estimate of how far the S-IVB is away there, Stu?
056:49:48 Roosa: Stand by 1.
Comm break.
056:51:37 Roosa: Hey, Fred; Apollo 14.
056:51:40 Haise: Go ahead.
056:51:44 Roosa: Okay, after looking through the optics and judging the size and its relative motion through the celestial sphere, I'd estimate it at 2,178 [nautical] miles [4,034 km] from us.
Stu is having fun. He has no means of making such a precise measurment of the distance.
056:52:03 Haise: Well! You might replace the rendezvous radar yet. The number they gave me was 2,400 nautical miles [4,450 km]. And it has an R-dot going away about 1 nautical mile a minute.
056:52:20 Roosa: Okay.
Very long comm break.
'R' represents the range or distance to the target so therefore R-dot is the rate at which that range is changing. In other words, how fast the target is moving towards or away from them.
Flight Plan page 3-055
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control; 57 hours, 3 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We have about a minute and a half of accumulated air to ground voice tapes that were recorded during the Change of Shift Press Briefing which is now finished. We'll play those tapes back. Meanwhile, Apollo 14 is now 170,374 nautical miles [315,533 km] out from Earth; velocity continuing to decrease, 2,802 feet per second [854 m/s]. Let's listen to that minute and a half of tape and then rejoin the air to ground live for any conversation perchance develop between ground and Apollo 14. Let's roll the tape.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control. That completes the brief accumulated tape of the communications between the Apollo 14 and the ground. We're back live now on the air to ground circuit, continuing to monitor as long as the crew is awake. 57 hours, 6 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; this is Apollo Control.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
057:14:58 Haise: Apollo 14, Houston.
057:15:05 Roosa: Go ahead, Houston.
057:15:07 Haise: Okay. Have you verified the Att Set switch in GDC? [Long pause.]
057:15:31 Mitchell: Okay. It's verified there, Houston.
057:15:34 Haise: Roger, Ed.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
057:29:08 Haise: Apollo 14, Houston.
057:29:13 Roosa: Go ahead, Houston.
057:29:14 Haise: Okay. If you can give us P00 and Accept, we'll pump up a CMC clock update.
057:29:23 Roosa: Okay, P00 and Accept.
Comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
057:32:07 Haise: Apollo 14, Houston. The computer's yours.
057:32:11 Roosa: Okay, thank you. [Long pause.]
057:33:07 Haise: 14, Houston. [Pause.]
057:33:17 Mitchell: Go ahead, Houston.
057:33:18 Haise: Okay, FAO would like to know about when Stu took the S-IVB pictures and how much - you got remaining on that sequence camera Mag.
057:33:33 Mitchell: Okay, just stand by 1. [Long pause.]
057:33:52 Roosa: Okay, Fred. I took them in sort of reverse order but using pretty much the same procedures as that dim light. However, I think I'm going to end up with streaks on the film because you know the way the CMC tracks the objects; but at 57 hours even, I took - I ran 2 seconds at 24 frames per second, 1/500th. Then I took one frame at 1/60th for 20 seconds, one frame at 1/60th for 5. And then at 57:20, I took one frame at a 1/60th for 50 seconds and had to cut it off there; I couldn't get a full minute. And then ran off another strip, and I'm calling it 78 percent left on the magazine. [Long pause.]
057:34:42 Haise: Okay, Stu. I copied all of that; thank you.
057:34:51 Roosa: Roger.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
057:51:44 Haise: Apollo 14, Houston.
057:51:50 Roosa: Go ahead, Houston.
057:51:54 Haise: Got a little configuration change for you on panel 226. We'd like to get O2 Tank 50-Watt Heater, number 3, Main A, Open. [Pause.]
057:52:14 Roosa: Okay. Let's run that again now. It's O2, the 50-Watt Heater on O2 Tank 2.
057:52:21 Haise: Negative. O2, 3, Main A. 3 Main A, Stu. And the reason is, they want to look at a couple of cycles - with just two elements of the heaters going rather than three. [Pause.]
057:52:41 Roosa: Okay. So on O2 Tank 3, we pull the Main A 50-Watt Heater.
057:52:51 Haise: That's affirm. And we'll stay with that configuration through the evening, so they can get at least three or four cycles on it.
057:53:05 Roosa: Okay.
Very long comm break.
Flight Plan page 3-056
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control; 58 hours, 2 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 currently 171,932 nautical miles [318,418 km] out from Earth. Velocity continuing to decelerate; now at 2,761 feet per second [842 m/s]. Current Ground Elapsed Time for midcourse correction number 4, if it should indeed be performed, is 77 hours, 38 minutes, 24 seconds. RCS burn of about 3 feet per second [1 m/s]. Current estimates on the S-IVB impact; time of 83 hours, 17 minutes, 45 seconds. Latitude, 8.4361 south; longitude, 25.9365 west. Space dis [?] still showing the calculated weight of the spacecraft, the docked weight of the CSM and Lunar Module; 97,143 pounds. Continuing to leave the air-ground circuit open at 58 hours, 3 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; this is Apollo Control.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
058:14:20 Haise: Ah, 14, Houston.
058:14:29 Mitchell: Go ahead.
058:14:31 Haise: Okay. There's a request from down here to run through a little four-step exercise in having Al check his electrode leads and see if we can find anything early here, so we got time to do something about it before you all get around to the suiting up part of it. And I guess that's at Al's convenience in the next few hours, whenever he thinks he can work it in, maybe. [Pause.]
058:15:10 Mitchell: Okey doke. We're finishing up lunch right now. Let Al think it over and see when he wants to try to do it.
058:15:15 Haise: Okay.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
058:23:28 Haise: Apollo 14, Houston. [Long pause.]
058:23:42 Mitchell: Go ahead, Houston.
058:23:44 Haise: Okay. We're ready to terminate charge on battery B.
058:23:51 Mitchell: Okay, Freddo.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
058:43:13 Shepard: Houston, 14.
058:43:20 Haise: Okay, 14, stand by 1 until I get a little better comm. I - I can hardly read you now.
Comm break.
058:44:31 Haise: 14, Houston. How do you read now?
058:44:37 Shepard: Okay, read you loud and clear. This is Al. I understand you - you're still having a problem with my sensors.
058:44:45 Haise: Negative, Al. The situation is - you did have the problem for launch, and then it mysteriously went away. And what they'd like is a visual inspection of the gear to see if we have anything that looks abnormal that we might think about fixing at this time, rather than wait until just before suit-up time, where we'd like to not fiddle with anything.
058:45:20 Shepard: I have - I've checked all the sensors, Freddo. They all seem to be firmly in place. They don't appear to have moved. I did have some garble in the gober cable at one time, and that has been changed and now you can compare gober cables. That might have made the difference. I can switch back to that and take a check on that one if you want to.
058:45:42 Haise: No, that - I don't think that's necessary. I might just tell you what they had in mind here and see if you - kind of covered all of the - the places they wanted you to check. Around each of the electrodes, they wanted to know if you had any of the paste that appeared to leak out that you could see stain under the large round pieces of tape you got over them, was the first item. Then, another inspection thing was to look at the solder joints, that's the areas that had the little plastic sleeves over them, to see if you could see anything that appeared to be cracked or coming loose in there. And I guess the last inspection item was the - in your biobelt to check that the top and bottom connectors on the blue - the little blue EKG signal conditioner was all tight. [Pause.]
058:46:51 Shepard: Okay. We have one that appears to have leaked a little bit. It's the bottom one on the sternum.
058:47:00 Haise: Okay, the bottom one on the sternum. Okay, and I guess the only other square, which should be pretty easy to fill here, Al - he's looking at your data now - is to sequentially put some firm pressure on each of the three sensors for about 10 seconds, giving a call down when you're applying the pressure.
058:47:34 Shepard: Okay. Understand you're ready now?
058:47:38 Haise: That's affirm. They're looking at your data now.
058:47:44 Shepard: Okay, in the top section of the sternum, I am pressing down the one closest to the right shoulder, now.
058:47:50 Haise: Okay.
058:47:53 Shepard: And I'm releasing on that one, now.
058:47:57 Haise: Okay.
058:47:58 Shepard: On the top of the sternum, I'm pressing down the center one, now.
058:48:02 Haise: Roger, Al.
058:48:05 Shepard: And releasing now.
058:48:06 Haise: Okay.
058:48:07 Shepard: Okay. And the bottom - on the bottom of the sternum, the one who appears to have leaked a little bit, I'm pressing down, now.
058:48:18 Haise: Okay.
058:48:20 Shepard: And releasing, now.
058:48:23 Haise: Roger.
058:48:25 Shepard: [Garble.]
058:48:32 Haise: Okay. I think that fills all the items I got here, Al. [Long pause.]
Comm break.
058:49:37 Shepard: Okay. This is Al, Houston. Understand that we're cleared to continue with the present harness and cable configuration. [Pause.]
058:49:52 Haise: Yeah, for the time being that - that's the word, Al. But they're going to look at the data. I guess the bottom one you pushed on showed more change than the others, and they're going to look at it awhile and decide if they want to do anything about that bottom one, I guess.
058:50:13 Shepard: Okay.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
058:53:41 Mitchell: Houston, 14. [Long pause.]
058:53:52 Haise: 14, Houston. [Long pause.]
058:54:06 Mitchell: Houston, Apollo 14.
058:54:07 Haise: 14, Houston. I can barely make you out there. Go ahead. [Long pause.]
058:54:34 Haise: Okay, 14. Houston. You should be all right now. Go ahead.
058:54:41 Mitchell: Okay, Freddo. Inquiring about the LM/Command Module Delta-P test at 59 hours, is that number, 2.7, still good since we have already been in the LM and had a problem with our probe?
058:55:01 Haise: Stand by 1. [Long pause.]
058:55:35 Haise: 14, Houston. The answer is the 2.7 number is a good one.
058:55:43 Mitchell: Roger. Roger.
Very long comm break.
Flight Plan page 3-057
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
059:05:50 Shepard: Apollo 14. We have the null bias check, if you're ready to copy.
059:05:56 Haise: Okay. Go ahead, Al.
059:06:00 Shepard: Okay, at the end of the 100 seconds, it was reading minus 98.9.
059:06:11 Haise: Okay.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control; 59 hours, 10 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Most recent conversation, very brief exchange some moments ago about some spurious signals or at any rate some problems with one of the sensors on spacecraft commander Shephard's biomedical harness. And they wanted to get the problem sorted out prior to the time the crew suited up for the lunar landing. But apparently it's just some looseness in the sensor and the Surgeon is toying with the idea of perhaps having him put some additional paste underneath the sensor and another piece of tape. This will be resolved at some later time. Here in the control room, the spacecraft communicators are having a separate handover from the rest of the flight control team. Apollo 14 backup Lunar Module Pilot Joe Engle is replacing Fred Haise at the CapCom's console. Apollo 14 now 173,754 nautical miles [321,792 km] out from Earth; velocity, 2,712 feet per second [827 m/s]. 59 hours, 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; still up live on air-to-ground and looking at a TV pass to begin later in the morning as the crew begins the housekeeping chores in the Lunar Module. This is Apollo Control.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
059:30:04 Shepard: Houston, 14. O2 heaters configured per Flight Plan?
059:30:09 Haise: Roger, Al.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
059:38:45 Engle: Apollo 14, Houston.
059:38:51 Shepard: Go ahead, Houston.
059:38:52 Engle: Okay, Al. First, we got some words for you on the - replacing this lower ECG sensor, and it'll be just taking it off and cleaning it and replacing the same one. [Pause.]
059:39:11 Shepard: Okay.
059:39:12 Engle: Okay. The materials that you're going to be needing are all in the medical kit over in R-8, and what you'll need is one of those large pieces of tape and one of the ring - rings that fit on the sensor. And the paste that's in the plastic bottle. And all these are in the kit.
059:39:35 Shepard: Okay.
059:39:38 Engle: Okay. And you can do this at your convenience, Al. There are just a couple of things that we want to make sure you get cautioned on. I'll go ahead and go through the procedures here and if there's anything that you want gone over again, why, just holler. First, remove the tape and the sensor, and clean your skin with one of the wet wipes. And then wipe the paste from the inside of the sensor. Wipe the sensor itself out first, and then pull off the old piece of tape. That's a double stickyback. It looks like that round, double stickyback Scotch tape. Pull that off after you've cleaned the sensor out. Then take the new ring, and pull off one of the - one of the pieces of cardboard on the ring, and put it on and leave the other side covered. Then put the - then put the paste in the sensor. And after you've got the paste in there level, pull the other side off so that its stickyback is showing and put it back on your - put it back on your skin then. [Pause.]
059:40:54 Shepard: Okay. I understand. I'll give you a call if I have any questions. That sounds pretty good.
059:40:59 Engle: Okay. [Long pause.]
059:41:17 Haise: 14, Houston.
059:41:22 Mitchell: Go ahead.
059:41:23 Haise: Okay. We'd like you to put off doing the water dump. In a little bit here, I'll have a Flight Plan update with some instructions to shoot some pictures when we have you do that.
059:41:41 Mitchell: Okay. You caught me just in time. I was on my way to the dump valve now.
059:41:45 Haise: Read your mind, Ed. Which dump was that?...
059:41:50 Roosa: Okay. Did you get the torquing angles, Houston?
059:41:54 Haise: We got them.
059:41:58 Mitchell: Okay. I trust you're going to put if off until after we've finished with the LM and the TV show, et cetera. Is that right, Freddo?
059:42:05 Haise: Yes. I think the pictures they're wanting are from the LM side.
059:42:12 Mitchell: Okay.
059:42:17 Roosa: And Fred, the time on that torquing was 59:41:10.
059:42:24 Haise: Okay. 59:41:10.
059:42:28 Roosa: Rog.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
059:49:54 Haise: 14, Houston.
059:49:58 Mitchell: Go ahead.
059:50:00 Haise: Hey, I got a Flight Plan update for you here and a whole bunch of words on shooting the water from the LM.
059:50:13 Roosa: Okay, go ahead. I'm ready for the Flight Plan update.
059:50:16 Haise: Okay. At 60 hours and 40 minutes where you've maneuvered a TV attitude, we need to change the roll angle to 069; and as a result of that, we also change the High Gain angles to minus 66, Pitch; and Yaw, 105. [Long pause.]
059:50:53 Roosa: Okay, Fred. I got the High Gain angles of a minus 66 and 105; and say the new attitude for TV.
059:51:03 Haise: Okay, it's - the only thing changed is the roll angle to 069, so it'll be 069, 090, 000.
059:51:15 Roosa: 069, 090, 000; minus 66, 105.
059:51:22 Haise: Okay. Now - now some words on the water dump. Like to delay the waste water dump to 62 hours and 30 minutes rather than the 59:50 that it had previously been set at. [Long pause.]
059:51:47 Roosa: Okay, I got it. Waste water dump at 62:30, and say after that.
059:51:52 Haise: Okay, the after that was just to scratch out the 59:50 you had before. Now some words on the...
059:52:01 Roosa: Okay.
059:52:02 Haise: ...on the camera operation. Al and Ed should take over to the LM with them magazine F out of the B-8 cushion and borrow your 18-millimeter lens out of the Command Module. [Long pause.]
059:52:32 Roosa: Okay, and they'll take magazine F out of B-8 and I guess I'll let them borrow my 18 millimeter to take in the LM.
059:52:41 Haise: Okay, just might make sure they give it back to you. But when they get it over there they can stick it on the LM deck and...
059:52:50 Roosa: They'll have to sign a receipt.
059:52:53 Haise: ...Yeah. And put - the following settings required on the LM deck. f/8, 1/250th, 11 feet, and 24 frames a second. [Pause.]
059:53:16 Roosa: Okay, put the 18 millimeter on the LM deck and set her up f/8, 1/250th, 11 feet, and 24 frames per second.
059:53:25 Haise: Okay. And to run the camera, of course, they're going to need the Sequence Camera circuit breaker closed, and that actually fits in pretty well if they just do all this business right where that's called out on page 116, step 9, of the Activation List. [Long pause.]
059:53:57 Roosa: Okay. They'll need the Sequence Camera circuit breaker in and we're talking about page 116, step 9.
059:54:06 Haise: Roger. And if that doesn't quite align with the Flight Plan time I give you, that 62:30, it isn't going to matter that much anyway.
059:54:17 Roosa: Okay.
059:54:18 Haise: Okay. Now they need a cue from you, Stu, to let them know when you're going to start the dump. And what they'd like them to do is have the camera pointing through the docking window of the LM, the upper window, right at the vent and run it 20 seconds' worth at 24 frames [per second]. [Long pause.]
059:54:51 Roosa: Okay. They'll boresight on the vent and run her 20 seconds at 24 frames.
059:54:57 Haise: Okay, then they'd like to change the frame rate to one [frame per second] and run the camera for another 20 seconds. [Long pause.]
059:55:18 Roosa: Okay. Change to one frame per second and run 20 seconds.
059:55:24 Haise: Okay. After that chore, they can rest a while and wait until you get down to the end of the water dump, Stu, and you can kind of give them the word when you're ready to shut her off. And then they'd like them to shoot the vent again at 24 frames a second for 10 seconds. [Long pause.]
059:56:06 Roosa: [Garble] the vent [garble].
059:56:13 Haise: Stand by 1, Stu, we got pretty bad comm now.
Comm break.
059:57:40 Haise: And, Stu, how do you read me now?
059:57:45 Roosa: Loud and clear, Fred.
059:57:49 Haise: Okay. We left off with them shooting 24 frames [per second] for 10 seconds when you turn the valve off.
059:57:59 Roosa: That's affirmative.
059:58:00 Haise: Okay. Then they're to change the frame rate to one frame per second and run the camera for at least 60 seconds or until cloud particles are no longer visible. But I guess if neither of those two events happen in that time, they're not to run it longer than about 180 seconds' worth. [Pause.]
059:58:36 Haise: In other words, they're trying - they'd like to get a picture of the last drop there, Stu. [Long pause.]
059:58:54 Roosa: Okay. They'll change to one frame per second for at least 60 seconds or until no vent, and max time will be 180 seconds.
059:59:02 Haise: Yeah, that's it. Then the only thing else is, you can frisk them when they get back and make sure they got your 18-millimeter lens and the Mag F back across, and they should put the 10 millimeter back on the LM camera.
059:59:21 Roosa: Roger. I'm having Al sign a receipt for the Command Module property in here before it leaves.
059:59:27 Haise: Okay. [Long pause.]
059:59:48 Haise: And, 14, we're going to have a site changeover here directly. We may lose you for a minute or so.
059:59:56 Roosa: Okay.
Very long comm break.
Flight Plan page 3-059
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
060:12:01 Haise: And, 14; Houston. Radio check.
060:12:07 Shepard: Loud and clear. How me?
060:12:11 Haise: Okay. I guess we've successfully did the switchover.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
060:15:27 Roosa: Houston, 14.
060:15:32 Haise: Go ahead, Stu.
060:15:36 Roosa: Okay, Fred. I'd like to question you here, since we've had this change in the Flight Plan, about going to the Wide Deadband here. If I do that, then it'll be another maneuver back to start the PTC, where if I stay Narrow Deadband, I could be damping the rates when I got ready to start the PTC. Would you smoke that over there and see what you think about that?
060:16:02 Haise: Okay. Stand by, Stu.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file. PAO loop. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
060:26:08 Roosa: Houston, 14.
060:26:12 Haise: Stand by, 14, until we get a little better comm.
Comm break.
060:27:36 Haise: 14, Houston.
060:27:41 Roosa: Go ahead, Houston.
060:27:43 Haise: Okay, I thought I heard you call a while ago.
060:27:49 Roosa: Houston, do you read 14?
060:27:50 Haise: Okay. I'm reading you about 3 by 3. Go ahead with your message. [Pause.]
060:28:00 Roosa: Hello, Houston. Do you read 14? [Pause.]
060:28:15 Roosa: Houston, do you read 14?
060:28:18 Haise: 14, Houston.
060:28:26 Mitchell: Okay, Freddo. We're reading you loud and clear.
060:28:27 Haise: Okay. We got good signal strength again here.
060:28:34 Mitchell: Okay. You're coming in now.
060:28:38 Roosa: Okay, Fred. I didn't hear back from you and I wanted to get to the roll on this time around because it'll be too late the next one. So I'm going to go ahead and go in the narrow deadband. It looks to me like it would be - we'd save gas that way. [Pause.]
060:28:56 Haise: Okay. He was still trying to crank out some numbers to compare there, Stu. [Pause.]
060:29:13 Mitchell: Freddo. You've faded out again. We've lost you. [Long pause.]
060:29:18 Haise: How do you read now? [Long pause.]
060:29:34 Haise: 14, Houston. How do you read? [Long pause.]
060:29:56 Haise: 14, Houston. We'd like Omni Alpha. [Long pause.]
060:30:24 Haise: And - Houston, 14. How do you read now?
060:30:31 Roosa: Houston, this is 14. You're loud and clear.
060:30:34 Haise: Okay. The narrow deadband looks like it'll save you a little gas there, Stu.
060:30:42 Roosa: Okay. I didn't hear back from you so I wanted to catch the roll this time around. So I went ahead and went Narrow.
060:30:50 Haise: Okay.
060:30:56 Mitchell: Houston. I'm on the High Gain right now. How do you read?
060:30:59 Haise: Loud and clear, Ed.
060:31:04 Mitchell: How's your PCM? [Pause.]
060:31:15 Haise: Okay. They say it looks good.
060:31:20 Mitchell: Okay. [Long pause.]
060:32:17 Mitchell: Houston, 14.
060:32:20 Haise: Go ahead, Ed.
060:32:24 Mitchell: At this High Gain Antenna setting - I can - it will not switch over to Narrow Deadband [means beamwidth]; apparently. I have as much signal strength at Medium as I do in Narrow.
060:32:38 Haise: Okay. We'll think about that. [Long pause.]
060:32:59 Haise: Okay, 14; Houston. They'd like for you to stay in Narrow.
060:33:08 Mitchell: Roger. That's where I am.
Long comm break.
Previous Index Next
Day 2, part 2: Sports News and More Journal Home Page Day 3, part 2: TV and LM Housekeeping