Apollo 16

This is Apollo Control; 94 hours, 21 minutes into the flight of Apollo 16. Less then a minute away now from acquisition of data and voice from the spacecraft. Coming around now part way through the eleventh lunar revolution. The communications with the two spacecraft have been split at this time, that is a separate CapCom or spacecraft communicator will be talking to Ken Mattingly aboard Casper. Ed Mitchell is the Command Module CapCom. Jim Irwin remains as CapCom to communicate with Young and Duke aboard Orion. During this eleventh revolution, the - We have Acquisition Of Signal. Let's stand by for communications with Orion.

This is Apollo Control. We've had Loss of Signal toward the end of the eleventh lunar revolution of Apollo 16. Still docked at this time, however, by the time the two spacecraft come around the front side of the Moon again at the start of the 12th revolution they will have undocked. That is scheduled for Ground Elapsed Time of 96:13, about four minutes, correction six minutes prior to first acquisition on orbit number 12. As the spacecraft went around the corner, Duke and Young were conducting the Reaction Control System hot-fire checks aboard Lunar Module Orion. There has been some difficulty in getting the steerable S-Band antenna on Orion to perform - particularly to yaw to the proper settings for providing good communications to Earth. However, for Revolution 13, which is the landing revolution, we will have the 202 foot - 210 foot [64-metre] large communications dish at Goldstone, California in acquisition of the spacecraft and all the high bit rate data, voice and all of the forms of communication with Orion can be handled through the omni-antennas, provided we do have the 210-foot antenna. There was some imbalance between Reaction Control System regulator pressures between Systems A and B. That was the reason why the crew was instructed to open the crossfeed to allow some of the propellant from System A to go into the Ascent [Stage] propellant storage tanks. The propellant is not lost in this operation. It merely is transferred to another tank. Also the crew is instructed to use System A only for the RCS hot fire, also to take some of the load off of the RCS System A. Some 45 minutes away from acquisition in revolution Number 12. At LOS, Apollo 16 at [sic] an orbit measuring 10.3 by 58.9 nautical miles [19.1 by 109.1 kilometres]. And at 95:32 Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 95 hours, 45 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Some 31 minutes away from acquisition of Apollo 16 as it starts around the front side of the Moon on orbit number 12. To summarize the apparent problem with the Lunar Module steerable antenna, if by the time of powered descent and landing the problem has not sorted itself out and the antenna is, indeed, out of commission (right now it appears that the crew cannot get the antenna to rotate in the yaw movement), it will be possible for all data and voice, high bit rate data, to be relayed to Earth through the omniantennas starting with revolution number 13 which is the landing revolution. The 210-foot [64-metre] antenna in Goldstone, California will be the prime site. There's no apparent concern here in Mission Control with the potential loss of the steerable antenna. Some mention as been made of the fact that the meters that indicate antenna position sometimes fail or hang in the one indication, when actually, the antenna is properly rotating, but over the next two revolutions, this situation should sort itself out. At any rate, loss of the antenna does not mean that the landing will be aborted. We're still in a Go situation. And at next acquisition, the two spacecraft, Casper and Orion, will have been separated by some six minutes prior to acquisition. 28 minutes now until Acquisition of Signal from Casper and Orion. At 95:48, this Apollo Control.