Apollo 14

This is Apollo Control 178 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. The crew apparently asleep at this time. The spacecraft distance from the Earth 149,950 nautical miles, velocity 4,138 feet per second. Spacecraft weight 24,559 pounds. First indication here on the present trajectory for a time of entry interface are 400,000 feet. This time will fluctuate in the next two days as we get nearer to entry but the initial time shown here in the space digitals computation display shows that time to be 216 hours 27 minutes 31 seconds. Entry velocity 36,170 feet per second, at an entry angle of minus 6.63 degrees. But as mentioned before these numbers will all shift back and forth especially after any further midcourse corrections. Rather quiet here in the control room. Members of Pete Frank's Orange Team of flight controllers are beginning to drift in, takeover console for a shift handover less than an hour from now. And at 178 hours 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 179 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. The crew of Apollo 14 are presently in a rest period. Meanwhile, in Mission Control we've had a hand over of flight control teams. The Orange Team headed by Flight Director Pete Frank now on board. Our Capsule Communicator for this shift is Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise. Realistically, we do not expect Haise to have verbal contact with the crew, but he will be in a stand by mode throughout the morning. And, momentarily Flight Director Pete Frank will be going around the room posting each of his consoles as to our status. And at 179 hours 13 minutes,this is Apollo Control Houston.

Apollo Control, Houston. Ground elapsed time 179 hours 14 minutes. Apollo 14 is presently 147,447 nautical miles away from Earth, and traveling at a velocity of 4,197 feet per second. This is Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control Houston at 180 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our displays in Mission Control presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 145,076 nautical miles away from the Earth and traveling at a velocity of 4 253 feet per second. Meanwhile in the Mission Control Center, relative quiet, it could be described as a quiet business-like atmosphere, very little conversation going on over the Flight Director's loop. However, over the past hour Flight Director Pete Frank has been talking to his recovery support room, receiving an update on our end of mission status. The prime recovery vessel, the New Orleans, is presently at a position of 22 degrees 40 minutes south, 171 degrees 20 minutes west. This places the vessel approximately 5 degrees north, at the present time, of the prime landing area. The present end of mission coordinates that we're reading out are 27 degrees 2 minutes south, 172 degrees 37 minutes west. The end of mission weather forecast at this time appears quite favorable, showing a cloud coverage of 2 000 feet scattered, broken. Visibility 10 miles, winds 12 knots from 100 degrees, wave heights 4 feet. We're at l80 hours 14 minutes, continuing to monitor, this is Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control Houston at 181 hours and 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 142,587 nautical miles away from the Earth. And traveling at a speed of 4,314 feet per second. The crew of Apollo 14 continues in their rest - in it's rest period. We've had no contact with the crew during the past hour. Our capsule communicator, Fred Haise, has been engaged in quiet discussions with Flight Director, Pete Frank, on various aspects of the mission, the more active parts of the mission. Meanwhile, we do show that we will reach that point in time where the velocities relative to the Earth and Moon will match. This should occur at Ground Elapsed Time of 182 hours 3 minutes. And that matching velocity should read 4370 feet per second. We're at 181 hours 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control Houston.

At 182 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We now show Apollo 14 at a distance of 140,059 nautical miles away from the Earth travelling at a velocity of 4,377 feet per second. Meanwhile, in the Mission Control Center our wakeup clock has started to countdown. We show 3 hours 47 minutes from time of waking up the crew of Apollo 14. Other activity is quite subdued. Members of our flight control team are presently watching a replay of last night's television transmission now being displayed on one of the large screens in the Mission Control Center. We're at 182 hours 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 183 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 now at a distance of 137,506 nautical miles away from Earth, traveling at a velocity of now of 442 feet per second. Apollo 14 passed its' half way point in time 2 minutes ago. This being the time from Trans-Earth Injection burn shutdown to entry. Our clock at this reference point showed Apollo 14 at a Ground Elapsed Time of 133 hours 10 minutes, a distance away from Earth at 137 591 nautical miles, and a velocity relative to Earth 4440 feet per second. Our wakeup clock in Mission Control shows that we have 2 hours 46 minutes before the crew of Apollo 14, Al Shepard, Stu Roosa, and Ed Mitchell are awakened. At 183 hours 14 minutes, this is Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston, at 183 hours 23 minutes now Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 presently 137,033 nautical miles away from Earth. And traveling at a speed of 4,454 feet per second. We have a correction to make to our previous announcement that halfway point in time at time from TEI shutdown to entry was reached at 183 hours 10 minutes Ground Elapsed Time rather than 133 hours 10 minutes as previously reported. We're at 183 hours 24 minutes and this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control Houston at 184 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 is now 134,907 nautical miles away from Earth, velocity now reading 4,510 feet per second. The crew continuing in their rest period. Our clock at Mission Control showing now 1 hour 47 minutes until time of wakeup. At present the requirement for a midcourse correction six appears to be not a strong one, and the possibility of this maneuver at this time appears unlikely. We would presently show midcourse correction six is performed at a ground elapse time of a 194 hours 23 minutes, and with a Delta-V of .9 feet per second. We're at 184 hours 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, and this is Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control Houston at 185 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our digital displays presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 132,261 nautical miles away from the Earth. And they're traveling at a speed of 4580 feet per second. It's 47 minutes until the scheduled time for crew wake up. Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise is our Capsule Communicator. We presently show the spacecraft weight of 24,559 pounds, all systems aboard Apollo 14 have been performing as advertised. All aspects of the return flight thus far look very good. We're at 185 hours 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control Houston. 185 hours 59 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 130,166 nautical miles away from Earth, traveling at a speed of 4,637 feet per second. In the mission control center CapCom Fred Haise should be placing a wake-up call to the Apollo 14 crew shortly. We'll keep our line open and continue to await that call. At 185 hours 59 minutes, this is Apollo Control Houston, standing by.

Apollo Control Houston. 186 hours, 3 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 now 129,959 nautical miles out from Earth. The present velocity shows 46411 feet per second. Standing by this is Apollo Control, Houston.

That's Fred Haise placing that call.

And Ed Mitchell responding.

We're standing by for further communications with the crew of Apollo 14. Ed Mitchell responded apparently Al Shepard, Stu Roosa still asleep but they should be awake very shortly. We're at 186 hours, 10 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and Apollo 14 at a distance of 129,669 nautical miles away from the Earth, velocity 4,651 feet per second. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

Apollo Control Houston 186 hours 28 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Looking at our displays, we see that Apollo 14 has started computer program number 52. This is a platform alignment. Apparently the crew already started some of the early aspects of today's Flight Plan. We're at 186 hours 29 minutes and we show Apollo 14 at a distance of 128,821 nautical miles at a velocity of 4,675 feet per second. Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control Houston. 186 hours 59 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We've had no conversation with the crew of Apollo 14 for awhile, very possibly the crew having their morning meal. We're now showing Apollo 14 at a distance of 127,459 nautical miles, and traveling at a speed of 4,713 feet per second. Standing by, continuing to monitor, this is Apollo Control Houston.

Mitchell's comment. Fred Haise has served as the CapCom on the orange shift team of flight controllers. We're in the process of having a handover at Mission Control. With the maroon team headed by Flight Director Milt Windler, coming aboard. We're at 187 hours Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 187 hours 34 minutes. Our shift change has been completed in Mission Control. Flight director on this shift is Milton Windler, and the capsule communicator is astronaut Bruce McCandless. Apollo 14 at this time is 125,865 nautical miles from Earth. The spacecraft velocity, 4,760 feet per second.

This is Apollo Control at 188 hours 5 minutes. Apollo 14 at this time 124,404 nautical miles from Earth, and spacecraft velocity up to 4,800 feet per second. Primary activities for the crew today will be, a series of star sighting navigation checks that they'll be running with their onboard guidance system, using the onboard sextant to sight and mark on selective stars. This information is integrated by the computer to update the guidance system's knowledge of the spacecraft's position and velocity, and is used as a back-up to the ground computed numbers for midcourse corrections and for entry. Also today, the crew will be stowing the probe assembly which was brought back for engineering analysis. They'll begin stowing the probe at about one hundred and ninety hours and the flight activities officer estimate that this will require about an hours time. The crew is also scheduled to hold a televised press conference from the spacecraft at 195 hours 7 minutes, which is 5:30 p.m. Central Standard time. They also reported that they have virtually finished the in-flight demonstrations, I believe Stu Roosa said they had finished with all but the metal composites.

This is Apollo Control at 189 hours 04 minutes, Apollo 14 now 121,665 nautical miles from Earth, a spacecraft velocity 4,882 feet per second. Aboard the spacecraft at the present time Stu Roosa is in the midst of performing a series of star sightings as part of the midcourse navigation, that activity scheduled to continue for another 15 to 20 minutes. At the present time, we do not expect midcourse correction 6 to be performed. The retro fire return to Earth officer reported that he considers the chances of doing that maneuver just about zero. However, the final decision won't be made probably for another hour or two anyway, and at the present time our tracking data shows that the entry interface angle, which these midcourse corrections are primarily designed to control, is negative 6.63 degrees. Nominal is 6.5, so we are very close to the normal preferred entry interface angle and it's also normal to expect these numbers to change somewhat with additional tracking as the spacecraft moves closer to Earth. We have also seen no change in the time of entry interface, 216 hours 27 minutes 31 seconds, and that is essentially the same number we have been reading since yesterday after midcourse correction 5 was performed. Splashdown occurs approximately 14 minutes after entry interface or about 216 hours 41 minutes.

This is Apollo Control at 189 hours 43 minutes. The crew has completed the midcourse navigation down in program 23 at this time and they'll be setting the spacecraft up in the passive thermal control mode, rotating the spacecraft slowly about its longitudinal axis at the rate of about three revolutions per hour, to maintain the proper thermal control, in drifting flight. At this time we show Apollo 14 119,775 nautical miles from Earth and the velocity moving up now closer to the 5,000 foot per second mark, now reading 4,940 feet per second.

That sounded like a smattering of "Camelot" coming to us from the spacecraft. The small portable tape recorders carried by the crew. And at the present time we show Apollo 14 118 703 nautical miles from Earth, traveling at a speed of 4973 feet per second.

This is Apollo Control at 190 hours 59 minutes. It's been very quiet, both in the control center and aboard the spacecraft, for the past hour or so. Our crew will be coming up shortly on an eat period. Now this will be their noon meal, or lunch, and following that they will be scheduled to do a fuel cell purge and will be maintaining passive thermal control aboard the spacecraft, rotating the vehicle at the rate of about 3 revolutions per hour to maintain the proper temperature control. The return-to-Earth officer is in the process of computing what's called another vector - computing another - taking another look at the data and computing another trajectory vector to determine whether or not midcourse correction 6 will be required, however, his last report to the Flight Director was that it was - that the possibilities or the chances of doing that midcourse correction were virtually zero, and we expect that we will have a firm decision to that effect before too much longer. At the present time, Apollo 14 is 116,100 nautical miles and the velocity has gone over the 5,000 foot per second mark now - 5,054 feet per second. Coming up at about 192 hours 40 minutes - 192:39:45, to be more precise - Apollo 14 will have completed half of its trans-Earth leg of the journey and at that time will be about 110,931 nautical miles from both the Earth and the Moon.