Apollo 14

This is Apollo Control Houston at 69 hours, 47 minutes now in the flight of Apollo 14. We presently show the Apollo 14 spacecraft at a distance of 27,999 nautical miles [51,854 km] away from the Moon. And travelling at a speed of 3,353 feet per second [1,022 m/s]. We've had no contact with the crew now well into their rest period since our last report. However, in Mission Control, Flight Director, Pete Frank, has been holding discussions with Mr. Sig Sjoberg, Director of Flight Operations and Mission Director, Chet Lee and other , about the LM battery test being considered. This - a test on LM battery number five which had shown a low readout during the LM house-keeping activities early this morning. Battery number five voltage reading, both on the ground and through - crew readout read 36.7 volts, the normal reading is 37 volts. The proposed test would aid in determining if this in fact is a fault of the battery or an instrumentation or sensor problem. It has not yet been decided when the test may be held either at LM activation or before. We're at 69 hours 49 minutes GET, and we will shortly be undergoing a shift hand over in Mission Control, and a change of shift news conference will be held between the hours of 12:30 and one o'clock. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 70 hours 22 minutes. The crew still has a little over 4 and a half hours remaining in this rest period. At the present time we are in the process of completing the shift hand over. Flight director Milton Windler getting briefed by the off going flight director Pete Frank. Windler will shortly be going around the room and checking on the mission status with each of his flight controllers reviewing the status of the mission. At this point, a change of shift news briefing is scheduled to occur in the main auditorium of building 1. As soon as the shift handover is completed, our best estimate on that at the present time would be about 15 minutes. At 1:30 a Skylab Briefing is scheduled. That briefing if the news conference runs long will follow immediately after the change of shift news conference. And it will also be held in the main auditorium of building 1. At the present time we show Apollo 14 traveling at a velocity of 3,366 feet per second [1,026 m/s] and 26,819 nautical miles [49,669 km] from the Moon. At 70 hours, 23 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 73 hours 12 minutes. We're still considering the possibility of having the crew reenter the Lunar Module, following their sleep period to run a test on the ascent battery, which is showing, at last check a slightly below normal open circuit voltage. No decision has been made at this time as to whether or not that will be done ahead of the Flight Plan. If it is decided to run the check, it would most likely be performed following the midcourse correction 4 and before the lunar orbit insertion. The midcourse correction 4 is currently scheduled at 77 hours 38 minutes. The maneuver will be performed at this time, anyway, with the SPS, the Service Propulsion System engine. The current velocity change required appears to be about 3.6 feet per second [1.1 m/s]. That could be performed with the service propulsion system using a minimum impulse burn of about .6 of a second. The crew has a little bit more then 1 hour 45 minutes remaining in their rest period. We plan to let them sleep the full time if they so desire. Flight Director Milton Windler checked with the Flight Activities Officer a short while ago to see if it would be possible to extend the sleep period if the crew is still sleeping at the end of the period, and the Flight Activities Officer replied that it would be possible to extend it by as much as about 30 minutes and still not run into any problems getting the midcourse correction performed on time. We have a video tape of last nights television of the Lunar Module housekeeping, which we prepared to replay at this time. The video replay will be in black and white, in order to minimize wear on the tapeheads of the color converter, and we'll play that video tape back at this time.

This is Apollo Control at 74 hours 12 minutes. We now have about 47 minutes remaining in the crew rest period. Around the Flight Director's console, for the past 45 minutes or so, there have been a series of group discussions on the procedures that are being worked out for checking out the LM ascent battery. Flight Director Milton Windler advised the Flight Controllers of the progress of the discussions a short while ago. He said at this time, we still do not have a decision as to whether or not we'll attempt to get into the LM and check out the battery, although he said, we do appear to be moving in that direction. If the crew is advised to enter the LM and run the test on the LM battery, it would be done after midcourse correction 4 which is scheduled to occur at about 77 hours 38 minutes. We would like to have the crew completed with activities in the Lunar Module and back in the Command Module by about 80 hours to allow adequate time for the lunar orbit insertion maneuver, which is scheduled to occur at about 82 hours 38 minutes. At the present time we show Apollo 14 traveling at a velocity of 3,487 feet per second [1,063 m/s]. Now 19,068 nautical miles [35,314 km] from the Moon. At 74 hours 14 minutes, this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 74 hours, 52 minutes. The Apollo 14 crew is scheduled to end its rest period in about 10 - about 8 minutes from this time. We are prepared to let the crew sleep an additional 30 minutes if they so desire. When the crew is awake we plan to discuss with them procedures for checking out battery 5 in the LM ascent stage and if the crew concurs we will have them re-enter the Lunar Module at about 78 hours to run the test on battery 5. Essentially the way the test is planned is to have the battery 5, which is hooked to the Lunar Module Pilot's bus in the LM, remove from that bus and attach to the Commander's bus where the open circuit voltage can be measured with another sensor. If the sensor on that bus again measures the slight decrease in voltage that was shown on the Lunar Module Pilot bus, that is about 36.7 volts as opposed to 37 volts, the battery will be - the reading will be verified by putting the battery 6 back on the Commander's bus and comparing the reading on that battery and if in fact a difference does exist between the two batteries and battery 5 continues to show a lower reading, it will be tested under load and by putting some equipment on line and we'll be watching to see if the batteries share the load equally and if battery 5 is able to maintain full output or able to hold up to 2 amps of load - under load. This procedure will be discussed with the crew and others and if the crew concurs, the IVT into the LM, the intravehicular transfer to the LM will occur at about 78 hours. At the present time we show Apollo 14 17,671 nautical miles [32,727 km] from the Moon. The spacecraft velocity is 3,518 feet per second [1,072 m/s]. We'll continue to stand by live from this point on for word from the crew that they are up or in the event that we don't hear from them in 5 minutes or so when they are scheduled to awake in about 30 minutes when the Capcom would put in a call. At 74 hours, 56 minutes - 55 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston standing by.

This is Apollo Control at 75 hours, 30 minutes. We're nearing the end now of the 30 minute extension to the crew's sleep period and we expect that Capcom, Bruce McCandless will be putting in a call shortly to the crew. At the present time Apollo 14 is 16,433 nautical miles [30,434 km] from the Moon. The spacecraft velocity has increased now to 3,549 feet per second [1,082 m/s].

Our communications engineer reports that we're getting carrier downlink from the spacecraft indicating that the crew is up and about and preparing to give us a call. So we'll continue to stand by for that.

Joe Engle is the Lunar Module Pilot on the backup crew.

Astronauts Dick Gordon, Pete Conrad, Joe Engle and Phil Chapman are currently on the CapCom console with CapCom Bruce McCandless. And we're continuing to get quite a bit of noise on the downlink as we - as the spacecraft rotates from one OMNI antenna to the next.

The pericynthion plus 2 abort PAD, which McCandless is preparing to read up to the crew is an abort maneuver which would be available to the crew to perform if for some reason they were unable to go into lunar orbit.