Apollo 17

000:13:47 - This is Apollo Control; coming up on 14 minutes after lift-off, that lift-off coming about 2 hours, 40 minutes late and we'll be assessing the effects of that late lift-off on subsequent events in the mission timeline, passing those along. One of the effects will be a change in the Acquisition Of Signal/Loss Of Signal time as we move - move along on the ground track.

000:16:42 - This is Apollo Control at 16 minutes, 45 seconds after lift-off. We've confirmed Apollo 17 is in a near nominal orbit. The crew reported an orbit of about 93.5 by 89.5 [nautical miles, 173.2 by 165.8 km] based on their onboard calculations, and computations on the ground show that we're very close to the nominal 90-mile - nautical mile [166.7 km] orbit. As a result of the late lift-off, the Translunar Injection will be a little bit earlier than the Flight Plan Ground Elapsed Time. We don't have an update on this time yet. We expect that it will be on the order of 8 to 10 minutes early. We'll update that time as we get a later update.

000:17:39 - We would expect - expect that the time of arrival at the Moon will be approximately the same as the Flight Plan time in terms of Greenwich Mean Time. The Ground Elapsed Time will be somewhat earlier, and we expect that there will be clock update - a so called clock update - at some point where we make the clocks in Mission Control and aboard the spacecraft agree with the Ground Elapsed Time that they would be showing in the Flight Plan. The net effect will be that we'll arrive at the Moon in a shorter Ground Elapsed Time - in effect about 2 hours, 40 minutes earlier than the Flight Plan would show, but at the same Greenwich Mean Time or local time here on Earth, that we would have had, had we lifted off on time. We're in effect making up the time by speeding up the arrival at the Moon. The spacecraft at Translunar Injection will be going somewhat faster than a nominal lift-off Translunar Injection. Consequently, it will arrive at the Moon going slightly faster, and also somewhat earlier, about 2 hours, 40 minutes earlier in terms of Ground Elapsed Time. This will also mean that the Lunar Orbit Insertion will require a bit more energy to slow the spacecraft down and get it into lunar orbit. These details of course, will all be worked out in the time that we have before our Lunar Orbit Insertion. And, when we get an updated Translunar Injection time, we'll pass that along.

000:23:56 - This is Apollo Control at 24 minutes. Apollo 17 now in an orbit about 90 [nautical] miles by 93 [nautical] miles [167 by 172 km], and everything appears to be nominal aboard the spacecraft and aboard the launch vehicle, Saturn third stage. One additional impact of our late lift-off will be the loss of television coverage for the transposition and docking maneuver. The television coverage will not be possible because the ground track has shifted and we don't have the site coverage that had been expected for television. The Translunar Injection burn, reigniting the Saturn third stage to put the spacecraft on its trajectory to the Moon, is now scheduled to occur at a Ground Elapsed Time of 3 hours, 12 minutes, 35 seconds; or roughly 9 minutes earlier than the Flight Plan time. This again the effect of the late lift-off.

000:25:11 - And we'll be reacquiring Apollo 17 through the Carnarvon Tracking Station at a Ground Elapsed Time of about 52 minutes, 20 seconds; roughly 27 minutes from now.

000:32:02 - This is Apollo Control. Now 32 minutes after the lift-off of Apollo 17. We have Loss Of Signal with the spacecraft. We'll be reacquiring through the Carnarvon Tracking Station in about 20 minutes. And from the President of the United States we have the following message to the crew of Apollo 17. The message reads: "As you set forth on the final Apollo expedition to the Moon, I want to have my personal best wishes for a successful mission and safe return. I am sure your voyage of scientific exploration will be the crowning achievement in a program which has expanded Man's horizons, brought great credit to your country and lifted the spirits of people all over the world. Godspeed to you all." Signed Richard Nixon. The Flight Dynamics Officer, continuing to process tracking data following orbital insertion, reports that there is a small amount of out of plane error showing up in the orbit. This it is believed is due to a small error in the Instrument Unit of the Saturn third stage. However, the orbit is very close to nominal; about 90 nautical miles by 93 nautical miles [167 by 172 km]. And we look very good, both with respect to the spacecraft and with respect to the Saturn third stage which must perform that burn, putting Apollo 17 on its trajectory toward the Moon. At 34 minutes, this is Apollo Control Houston.

000:35:33 - This is Apollo Control. The postlaunch press conference at Cape Kennedy is scheduled to begin at 12:33 Central Standard Time, 1:33 am Eastern Standard Time. Again, that time 12:33 Central Standard Time, 1:33 Eastern Standard for the post-launch press conference at Cape Kennedy.

000:51:00 - ...Control at 51 minutes into the flight of Apollo 17 and we're standing by to reacquire the spacecraft through the Carnarvon, Australian tracking station. One of the things the Booster engineer will be looking for when we reacquire and get good lock on the data will be the Saturn third stage Instrument Unit. Looking at one brief bit of data before we lost signal, it appeared that one of the four batteries in the Instrument Unit had a very high current drain on it. We will be looking closely at that to see if it was simply a telemetry problem or if, in fact, that battery does have some problem. And we should be about 15 seconds now from reacquiring.

000:59:03 - This is Apollo Control. We're coming up now one 1 hour after lift-off for Apollo 17. And as you heard, CapCom Robert Overmyer reporting to the crew that everything looks good, including the Saturn third stage. Apparently the indication we had of a possible battery problem in the Instrument Unit, nothing more than a bad bit of telemetry there. When the booster engineer got a good hard look at the telemetry on this pass, reported everything looked good. We're ready at this point to begin the post-launch press conference at Cape Kennedy and we'll switch to Cape Kennedy now, and stand by for that press conference.

001:25:00 - This is Apollo Control; 1 hour, 25 minutes after lift-off. During the post-launch press conference at Cape Kennedy, we had a short acquisition with the crew through the Hawaiian tracking station. During that period of conversation, and during that period of monitoring the systems on the spacecraft and the launch vehicle, we found that the situation was essentially unchanged. That is, both vehicles looking good; the spacecraft and the launch vehicle. And we're progressing toward a normal Translunar Injection 1 hour, 46 minutes, 50 seconds from now. The crew has discussed one unexplained series of events. It appears that when certain switches are cycled or moved on panel 2, which is the main panel in front of them, the center panel of the spacecraft, they're getting a master caution and warning signal. A light comes on - a tone comes on. This is to attract the crews attention that something may be wrong and the normal procedure is then to look at another matrix of lights which would zero them in on the problem. The light - the system or the subsystem or particular area being monitored, which had the problem would light an individual light. However, when they go to this other matrix of lights, they find that none of them are lighted. This is leading the crew and flight controllers here in Mission Control to believe that they're getting an spurious signal to the master caution and warning, when in fact nothing is wrong. We don't have any further explanation for the problem at this point. We will continue to look at the data and particularly during the translunar coast, we think we'll get a good long time to look at things in detail and try to find out precisely what is happening. At this point however, the problem presents no concern and one of the more likely explanations, or possible explanations that's been advanced is perhaps some contamination in some switches. We did accumulate some taped conversation during the press conference with the crew. We'll replay that for you now and then stand by for Acquisition Of Signal over the United States.

001:50:33 - This is Apollo Control at 1 hour, 51 minutes. We're getting good telemetry data from Apollo 17 through one of the Apollo Range Instrumented Aircraft out over the Atlantic Ocean. Apollo 17 moving across the Atlantic now towards Africa. And on the next revolution, at about this point, the spacecraft will be on its way to the Moon during the Translunar Injection maneuver. Ignition for that burn is scheduled to occur 1 hour, 21 minutes from now. During launch the Flight Surgeon monitoring heart rates on the three crewmen recorded peak heart rates of 130 for the commander, Gene Cernan, also 130 for Command Module Pilot Ron Evans, and 115 for Lunar Module Pilot Jack Schmitt. We should be reacquiring the Command Service Module and reestablishing voice communications with the astronauts in about 2 minutes from now through Ascension.

001:53:47 - This is Apollo Control. We should be acquiring the spacecraft through Ascension in about 5 seconds and reestablishing voice communications with the crew.

002:00:41 - This is Apollo Control. Apollo 17 now over the horizon from the Ascension site. Will be reacquiring in about 25 minutes through Carnarvon. And as you heard, CapCom Robert Overmyer advising the crew, we've been getting a good look at all the data, and spacecraft, launch vehicles, look fine. No discernable problems. Gene Cernan did mention one anomaly and that was the mission timer. One of the - one of the numerous clocks aboard the spacecraft which was running about 15 minutes [means seconds] slow - and Cernan said it appeared that it happened either during the launch phase or shortly before they got down to take a look at it in the Lower Equipment Bay. No explanation for that one at this point. And we show now 1 minute - 1 hour rather, 11 minutes until ignition for the Translunar Injection maneuver, the burn with the Saturn third stage which will place Apollo 17 on its trajectory toward the Moon. Ignition time, still holding at about 3 hours, 12 minutes, 35 seconds Ground Elapsed Time, and that burn will be about 5 minutes, 45 seconds in duration but we don't have the final calculated time from the Flight Dynamics Officer which will undoubtedly vary somewhat from the premission Flight Plan time. At 2 hours, 2 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.

002:25:10 - This is Apollo Control at 2 hours, 25 minutes. Apollo 17 now approaching the west coast of Australia. And we'll be reacquiring the spacecraft in about 35 seconds. During this pass over Carnarvon, we expect to pass up the first set of numbers to the crew that they'll use in the Translunar Injection burn to put them on their trajectory towards the Moon. That maneuver is scheduled to begin at 47 minutes from now. And we have Acquisition Of Signal a little bit early.

002:32:32 - This is Apollo Control. We'll be reacqui - reacquiring the spacecraft in about 18 minutes. And during that pass over at Carnarvon, and we've passed up the numbers to the crew they'll use in the Translunar Injection maneuver. The burn is targeted to last 5 minutes, 51 seconds with a change in velocity of some 10,359 feet per second [3,157 m/s], accelerating Apollo 17 to the required speed to get it into an orbit that'll intercept the Moon. And the time of ignition, 300 - 3 hours, 12 minutes, 35 seconds; and we're showing an ejection time of 4 hours, 39 minutes. The Transposition and Docking maneuver which precedes ejection is somewhat fluid in that it's done when the crew and Mission Control are ready, following Translunar Injection. However, from the projected time for ejection, it would appear that Transposition and Docking will occur about 25 to 30 minutes ahead of the nominal Flight Plan time. And we're now 39 minutes away from the scheduled ignition for Translunar Injection. At 2 hours, 34 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.

002:49:00 - This is Apollo Control at 2 hours, 49 minutes. We're standing by now to acquire radio contact with Apollo 17 through Hawaii. During this Hawaiian pass we're getting another good look at spacecraft and launch vehicle systems. The last look we had through Carnarvon everything looked very good. Flight Director Gene Kranz, going over the status for his flight controllers, observed that there appeared to be no problems that would interfere with TLI and we'd expect to have a normal Translunar Injection about 23 minutes from now as Apollo 17 completes its state-side pass and moves out over the Atlantic Ocean at the start of its third revolution.

003:04:21 - This is Apollo Control at 3 hours, 4 minutes. We are now some 8 minutes away from ignition. Everything looking good for the Translunar Injection maneuver. The combined S-IVB, the Saturn third stage and the spacecraft with an orbital weight of 308,298 pounds [139,842 kg] at the start of this maneuver.

003:10:38 - And we're coming up now on 2 minutes until ignition. This burn, again, will be a 5 minute, 51 second maneuver. The S-IVB engine delivering about 225,000 pounds [1 MN] of thrust, and it will be increasing the spacecraft velocity in the current state of about 25,000 feet per second up to about 35,585 feet per second.

003:11:37 - And booster reports the ullage engines are on. This is to settle the propellants in the S-IVB prior to ignition. We're at 53 seconds now from ignition.

003:12:17 - 20 seconds now to ignition and we're maintaining communications with the spacecraft through one of the ARIA, Apollo Range Instrumented Aircraft.

003:12:29 - 10 seconds.

003:12:46 - And, very faintly we copy the crew reporting S-IVB ignition and that's confirmed by the telemetry and booster reports the thrust looks good on the S-IVB.

003:13:11 - And telemetry data from the Saturn Instrument Unit shows the velocity increasing up now to 26,000 feet per second [7,900 m/s], beginning to climb ever more rapidly.

003:13:24 - This burn was initiated at an altitude of about 97 nautical miles [180 km] above Earth, and when finished, the spacecraft will be at about 150 [nautical] miles [280 km] above Earth, and on its way to the Moon, some 213,000 miles - nautical miles [394,500 km] away.

003:14:10 - Very weak voice communications and Booster says the data is now static but at last look, everything looked normal.

003:14:55 - And that was CapCom Robert Overmyer confirming to the crew that our data showed the Saturn shifting its propellant utilization for a most efficient utilization of the propellant.

003:15:31 - Coming up now 3 minutes into the burn and velocity approaching 30,000 feet per second [9,100 m/s].

003:16:01 - Gene Cernan reporting the TLI burn has taken them out of darkness and into sunrise now.

003:16:10 - And, we're showing a velocity of 30,463 feet per second [9285 m/s].

003:16:31 - Apollo 17 now about 107 nautical miles [198 km] above Earth and continuing to climb ever more rapidly.

003:17:05 - 4 minutes and 30 seconds now and everything continuing to look good. Apollo 17 at a velocity of 32,000 feet per second [9,754 m/s].

003:17:41 - 5 minutes now, less than 1 minute to go, and Booster engineer reports we're very close to the nominal predicted shutdown time.

003:18:11 - Shutdown time now in about 21 seconds. Showing a velocity of 33,000 feet per second [10,058 m/s]. Altitude now approaching 150 [nautical] miles [278 km].