The Apollo 14 crew of Commander Alan B. Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart A. Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar D. Mitchell spent the last week before their Jan. 31, 1971 launch at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center (KSC) receiving their final mission briefings, reviewing hardware being stowed aboard their spacecraft, and conducting final runs in the spacecraft simulators. In the last days before the launch, the astronauts got in some flying aboard T-38 Talon aircraft. The preliminary countdown for Apollo 14 began as scheduled on Jan. 25, including initial filling of the Saturn V rocket with propellant. Two separate aircraft accidents, one involving backup Commander Eugene A. Cernan, and another a NASA pilot, occurred the same week. Neither pilot suffered major injuries and neither incident had an impact on the Apollo 14 launch. NASA established investigation boards for both accidents.
Left: Apollo 14 astronauts Stuart A. Roosa, left, Alan B. Shepard, and Edgar D. Mitchell review documents during the final week before their launch to the Moon. Middle: Roosa, left, Shepard, and Mitchell during the Command Module stowage review. Right: Behind glass during their preflight medical isolation, Roosa, left, Mitchell, and Shepard receive a mission briefing.
Left: Mitchell, left, Shepard, and Roosa outside the mission simulators at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center. Middle: Shepard climbing the stairs to enter the Lunar Module (LM) simulator. Right: Inside the LM simulator, the view of the approach to the Fra Mauro landing site.
Apollo 14 astronauts Alan B. Shepard, left, Stuart A. Roosa, and Edgar D. Mitchell get some flying time in aboard T-38 Talons in the final days before launch.
Left: Charles F. “Chuck” Henschel, Chief Space Vehicle Test Supervisor, pushes the button to start the countdown clock for Apollo 14. Right: The Apollo 14 Saturn V on Launch Pad 39A the night before launch.
Apollo astronauts practiced skills required to land on the Moon by flying helicopters. On Jan. 23, 1971, during a training mission from Patrick Air Force Base south of KSC, Apollo 14 backup Commander Cernan’s Bell 47G helicopter crashed into the Indian River. Cernan escaped the crash with minor abrasions and contusions and slight singing of his eyebrows and eyelids. Robert R. Gilruth, director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), now NASA’s Johnson Space Center, in Houston, named a five-member board to investigate the accident, with astronaut James A. Lovell as the chair. The board’s findings, released on Oct. 18, 1971, cited Cernan’s inability to judge altitude over the water, adding that his experience piloting high-performance aircraft contributed to this as he was used to terrain passing by much faster than in the slow helicopter. The board cited Cernan’s water survival training as a pilot and astronaut with his ability to exit safely from the submerged helicopter after the crash and avoid the burning fuel on the water. The crash notwithstanding, on Aug. 13, 1971, NASA named Cernan as the commander of Apollo 17, the final Moon landing mission in the program.
Left: Apollo 14 backup commander Eugene A. Cernan flying a Bell 47G helicopter, similar to the one in which he crashed on Jan. 23, 1971. Right: Cernan relaxes after his helicopter crash, during which he suffered only minor injuries.
On Jan. 29, 1971, during a routine checkout flight at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston of Lunar Landing Training Vehicle-2 (LLTV-2), NASA aircraft number 951, MSC pilot Stuart M. “Stu” Present ejected from the vehicle after losing control. Present was making his 29th flight aboard the LLTV, and he parachuted to safety, suffering only minor injuries. MSC Director Gilruth established a five-member board, chaired by astronaut John W. Young, to investigate the cause of the accident. The board released its report on Oct. 18, citing a malfunction in the LLTV’s electrical system as the principal cause of the crash. The craft’s electrical flight control system lost its primary power source, the generator, and a switching malfunction prevented the backup battery from providing emergency power. The board recommended modifications to the power system to prevent a recurrence before flights of the LLTV could resume. Apollo commanders practiced the final few hundred feet of the lunar descent and landing using the LLTV, so NASA ensured that training flights could resume in time to support the Apollo 15 mission, scheduled for late July 1971. David R. Scott, Apollo 15 commander, resumed flights with the sole remaining LLTV on May 8 and his backup, Richard F. Gordon, one week later.
Left: NASA pilot Stuart M. “Stu” Present ejects from the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV) moments before it crashed at Ellington Air Force Base in Houston. Middle: Wreckage of the LLTV after the Jan. 29, 1971, crash at Ellington. Right: Portrait of NASA pilot Present. Image credit: J.L. Pickering.
To be continued…
John Uri
NASA Johnson Space Center