Apollo 14

This is Apollo Control; 201 hours, 21 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. No word from the spacecraft in the last hour. They've shut down their transmitter switch and are settled down in Passive Thermal Control or barbeque roll for the night. Here in the control room, workmen are respacing the plaques from previous missions along the upper right wall in the control room in preparation for tomorrow's splashdown, when it's a tradition for the Flight Director to climb up a tall step ladder and hang the plaque from the mission just completed. And right now Apollo 14 is 82,236 nautical miles [152,301 km] out from Earth, approaching at a velocity of 6,387 feet per second [1,947 m/s]. And at 201 hours 22 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 202 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. According to the Flight surgeon the crew of Apollo 14 is soundly asleep at this time. Anticipating a shift handover in about an hour here in the Control Center to the Orange Team of flight controllers headed up by Pete Frank. Apollo 14 79,109 nautical miles [146,510 km] out from Earth. Velocity increasing, now 6,545 feet per second [1,995 m/s]. 202 hours, 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; this is Apollo Control, out.

This is Apollo Control Houston at 203 hours, 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our displays at Mission Control presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 75,308 nautical miles away from the Earth and now traveling at a velocity of 6,749 feet per second. The crew of Apollo 14 of course, in their rest period as they have been for some time. Meanwhile in Mission Control, the orange team of flight controllers are now manning their positions. Flight director Pete Frank, presently going around the room at this time checking on status with each member of his flight control team. The atmosphere at this time in the control center is quiet, subdued and planning ahead for the entry activities, now some 13 hours 14 minutes away. We're at 203 hours and 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control Houston at 204 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 is presently 71,370 nautical miles away from the Earth and traveling at a speed of 6974.6 feet per second. The crew of Apollo 14 continuing with their rest period. Our clock shows 3 hours 47 minutes remaining. Meanwhile, the report from weather on what may be expected in the primary recovery area is particularly comforting. We show cloud cover of 2000 feet scattered to broken, 10 miles visibility, winds from an easterly direction 100 degrees at a velocity of 17 knots, sea state of 4 feet - 4 foot waves, On our entry plots we show a range from entry to splash of 1,220 nautical miles and witb a predicted point of splash at 172 degrees 39 minutes west, 27 degrees 1 minute south. We're at 2 hours - 204 hours 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston, at 205 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our display in mission control presently shows the spacecraft, Apollo 14, at a distance of 67,278 nautical miles out from Earth, and now traveling at a speed of 7,225 feet per second. Very. little activity in the mission control center during the past hour. In addition to monitoring Apollo 14 spacecraft systems, members of the orange flight control team also had the opportunity to watch a rerun of last night's televised crew news conference from space. We're at 205 minutes 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, and our clock shows 2 hours 47 minutes from time of crew wakeup. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control Houston at 206 hours 12 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 now at a distance of 63,068 nautical miles away from the Earth, now traveling at a velocity of 7508 feet per second. We show 1 hours 47 minutes until time of crew wakeup. Ten hours 15 minutes until time of reentry into the Earths' atmosphere. We're presently logging an entry interface time of 216 hours 27 minutes 47 seconds. From entry on in in terms of retro elapse time of preliminary numbers now showing on one of our displays at the console, we show reaching 05g at plus 29 seconds. Blackout should begin shortly before that at plus 18 seconds. Blackout ending at 3 minutes 36 seconds. Droque deployment, drogue shoot deployment at 8 hours - or 8 minutes 3 seconds. Main shoot deployment 8 minutes 51 seconds. And, this would give a landing for Apollo 14 at 13 minutes 48 seconds. These numbers, of course, will be refined and updated as Apollo 14 continues on its path toward the Earth. We're at 206 hours 14 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, and this is Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston, at 207 hours 14 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We're some 45 minutes away now according to our clock from that time at which the crew of Apollo 14 will be wakened - awakened. Meanwhile, in the Mission Control Center, a decision has not yet been made as to whether or not midcourse correction number 7 will be performed. Flight director Pete Frank expects this decision to be made at about 210 hours Ground Elapsed Time. About 7 hours ago the science staff support room in the Mission Control Center observed and recorded some activity on the passive seismic instruments for the Apollo 12 and 14 experiments. We presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 58 444 nautical miles away from Earth and traveling at a velocity of 7,845 feet per second. We're at 207 hours 15 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control Houston at 207 hours and 59 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 55,100 nautical miles away from the Earth and traveling now at a speed of 8 113 feet per second. The crew of Apollo 14 should be receiving their wake up call shortly. Our CapCom for today or for this shift is Astronaut Fred Haise. Haise will be the individual in the Control Center making that call. At 208 hours Ground Elapsed Time, standing by continuing to monitor, this is Apollo Control Houston.

Apollo Control Houston 208 hours and 9 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our readout on the onboard computer shows that Apollo 14 is now having a platform, computer platform alignment underway per the Flight Plan. We presently show 14 at a distance of 64,247 nautical miles away from the Earth traveling...

Apollo Control, Houston, 208 hours, 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 now traveling 8,202 feet per second, now at a distance of 54,028 nautical miles away from the Earth. We'll stand by continuing to monitor.

That's Ed Mitchell reporting that Al Shepard, Stu Roosa both have a 4-hour sleep while he got 6 hours sleep.

Apollo Control, Houston, at 208 hours and 28 minutes. A read out of Apollo 14's computer shows it in program 23. Stu Roosa...

Stu Roosa apparently performing the cislunar navigation program, that's his midcourse navigation. 208 hours and 29 minutes Apollo 14 52,756 nautical miles away from Earth, velocity 8,314 feet per second.

208 hours 33 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, taking a look at the onboard display keyboard, Apollo 14 continuing in program 23, doing midcourse navigation by incorporation of the star/Earth and star/Moon optical measurements. 208 hours 34 minutes, 52,375 nautical miles away from Earth, Apollo 14 traveling at 8,347 feet per second. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

Apollo Control, Houston, 209 hours - 03 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show Apollo 14 50,014 nautical miles away from the Earth, traveling at a speed of 8,564 feet per second. We've had no conversation with the crew of Apollo 14 recently. However, our ground displays of the onboard computer show that program 23, the midcourse navigation program is still in progress.

That's our CapCom, Fred Haise, critiquing the...

...critiquing the midcourse navigation program. The Dave referred to is Dave Reed here in Mission Control. Dave is a Flight Dynamics Officer.

Stu Roosa aboard Apollo 14 as Command Module Pilot. He has been performing the P23 into the computer. We're at 209 hours 09 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 49,541 nautical miles away from the Earth, traveling now at a speed of 8,611 feet per second. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

Apollo - Apollo Control Houston. 209 hours 34 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show 14 at a distance of 47,493 nautical miles away from the Earth. Velocity now reading 8,813 feet per second. At present we are looking for a decision or Go/NO Go for the midcourse correction number seven. At 209 hours - 210 hours 30 minutes, Ground Elapsed Time. This is Apollo Control Houston.

Apollo Control Houston. 210 hours 5 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 14 now 44,832 nautical miles away from the Earth. Now traveling at a speed of 9,000 - 9,100 feet per second. In his last conversation with Apollo 14, Fred Haise advised Ed Mitchell the Lunar Module pilot that Apollo 14 could proceed with their manuever to a passive thermal control latitude. We are at 210 hours 6 minutes Ground Elapsed Time continuing to monitor. This is Apollo Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 210 hours, 24 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. At present we show Apollo 14 43,200 nautical miles away from Earth, velocity now reads 9,276 feet per second.

Apollo Control, Houston. That was CapCom Fred Haise advising Apollo 14 that Midcourse Correction 7 will not be required. We're presently looking at entry angle of 6.38 degrees. The present coordinants for splash 27. - 27 degrees .02 minutes South, 172 degrees, 40 minutes West. Velocity at time of entry interface is presently seen as 36,170 feet per second and range to go from entry interface, 1225 nautical miles. The max g expected, 6-1/4. We're at 210 hours, 36 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We now show Apollo 14 at 42,302 nautical miles from Earth and traveling at a velocity of 9,391 feet per second. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 210 hours 47 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We presently show Apollo 14 at a distance of 41,209 nautical miles away from Earth and traveling at a velocity of 9,512 feet per second. At 1402 Greenwich mean time, it was the first observation of the Mission Control Center was made of what later turned out to be the effects of the Los Angeles Earthquake. Stations at Honeysuckle, Hawaii, Guam, and Carnarvon had communications affected. We lost various combinations of voice and data circuit for periods ranging from 1 minute to as much as 5 minutes. However, by using data from alternate stations, and the alternate stations in this case, Honeysuckle and Carnarvon, the Mission Control Center was never without full capability. These circuits have been either cleared or rerouted by the telephone company and Mission Control Center, Houston is now in normal capability. We are at 210 hours 48 minutes and this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 210 hours 58 minutes. In Mission Control at this time we're completing the shift handover. Flight Director Milton Windler and his Maroon Team of Flight Controllers is replacing the Orange Team headed by Flight Director, Pete Frank. At the present time Flight Director is reviewing the mission status with each of his flight controllers, that's before coming on shift this morning. The Maroon Team met in one of the staff support rooms here to review all of the procedures which will be followed during entry both for a normal entry into a number of contingency situations which could conceivably arise, and at the present time Apollo 14 is 40,126 nautical miles from Earth. The velocity of the spacecraft up now to 9,647 feet per second. There will be no change of shift briefing this morning.

This is Apollo Control at 211 hours 10 minutes. Our Flight Director, Milton Windler has completed his status review with flight controllers here in the control center, and everything appears to be in good shape. for today's entry. The network controller reports that the - all of our ground length circuits around Los Angeles have been by-passed, we are - we do have alternates circuits around Los Angeles and at the present time I have full primary capabilities and the network controller reports that we do have some loss of back-up circuits but that all of our prime circuits are functioning at this time. A midcourse correction seven has been dropped there will be no midcourse correction at - at midcourse opportunity which was to have occurred about 213 hours 27 minutes. This will give the crew a bit of added time will also allow us to get some of the update to them a bit earlier. Normally, until the last updates such as landing coordinate, and so on, are not passed up until after we've obtained some tracking following that midcourse correction. Without performing the mid course, of course the Flight Dynamics Officer, Return-to-Earth Officers, tracking data does not have to be updated, and they'll be able to get such things as the entry pass up to the crew a bit earlier than normal. We're currently showing Apollo 14 at an altitude of 38,936 nautical miles The velocity up now to 9,800 feet per second.

This is Apollo Control at 211 hours, 54 minutes. At present time aboard Apollo 14 Command Module Pilot, Stu Roosa, is involved in midcourse navigation activity. Roosa is basically sighting the fixed line of sight of the spacecraft sextant on the Earth's horizon and centering the selected star in the movable line of sight of the sextant over the Earth's horizon and then taking a mark on this. The computer automatically reads the time and the angle between the star and the horizon, using this information to update the onboard knowledge of the spacecraft position and velocity. And, as you heard, in that last exchange between CapCom Bruce Mc Candless and Roosa prior to beginning this last set of navigation marks, the onboard readings were agreeing very closely with the ground computed values for such things as the angle of entry interface and the time of altitude of vacuum perigee. We've also passed up a preliminary set of numbers for entry to the crew. This will be updated probably about 1 hour prior to entry. We've seen very small changes in these numbers. A time of entry interface has remained unchanged, 216 hours, 27 minutes, 47 seconds. There have been some minor changes of a few seconds in some of the postentry events beginning a blackout and now occurs at the same time 216 hours, 28 minutes, 5 seconds. The end of blackout is 3 seconds earlier than the previous number, it's now 216 hours, 31 minutes, 20 seconds. Prior to the end of blackout, the spacecraft will enter the region of maximum G forces; this will be a maximum G of about 6.2. It will occur at about 216 hours, 29 minutes.

Some of our additional times in the entry sequence continuing on for drogue deploy at 216 hours 35 minutes 54 seconds, and deployment of the main parachute at 216 hours 34 - 36 minutes, 216 hours, 36 minutes 41 seconds, and flight change also on the splash down time. We're now showing 216 hours 41 minutes 39 seconds. And that splashdown time is showing a change of only about 4 seconds. We've now got splashdown occurring about 4 seconds later than on the previous set of numbers passed up to the crew. And we expect that these numbers will continue to change by small amounts in the information passed up to the crew one hour prior to entry which will be more than likely be the last update, we'll probably see some few seconds of change in these numbers. The angular entry interface is also showing a small change with added tracking, and it seems to be shifting more toward the center of the entry corridor. Since our last reading, that angle has changed by only one, one hundredth of a degree, by now reading negative six point three nine degrees of entry interface. The exact sum of the entry corridor would be 6.5 and the return-to-Earth officer feels that the 6.39 is more than adequate. At 212 hours the Apollo 14 is traveling at a speed now of 10,454 feet per second. Nearly two miles per second. And the spacecraft altitude 34 323 nautical miles from Earth. And at this time our large ten by twenty display board in the front of the control center is beginning to show the effects of the everincreasing gravity on the spacecraft trajectory ground track. Beginning to curve southward now, it will eventually loop back on itself, sweeping up beneath Australia to the mid Pacific landing point south of Samoa. The recovery people report that the prime recovery ship, New Orleans is on station steaming around the recovery area, and then in a little more than one hour the first of two ARIA, Apollo Range Instrumented Aircraft, will leave from Samoa to be on station in the recovery area about one hundred miles north of the ground track. The weather in the recovery area is good, we have a wind of about 18 knots, out of the southeast, and wave heights of about five feet.

This is Apollo Control at 212 hours, 48 minutes and we're now about 3 hours, 53 minutes from splashdown, Apollo 14 traveling at a velocity now of 11,298 feet per second, 29,422 nautical miles from Earth. Stu Roosa, aboard Apollo 14, is still involved in midcourse navigation using the onboard sextant and computer. At one point you heard a conversation between Roosa and Spacecraft Communicator Bruce McCandless referring to the fact that Roosa's marks taken at the time of the sighting appeared to be bringing the onboard readings into closer agreement with those we' have here on the ground. At one point the difference between the onboard and the ground readings was extremely close. In taking the last set of marks, using, in this particular set of readings, a series of stars and the lunar far horizon, Roosa reported that he apparently on one star sighted along the near horizon of the Moon rather than the far horizon, giving him an unusually large difference on that particular star. In his update the process now is to go back and remark on the same star a number of times to get the readings in agreement. The onboard navigation is used as a backup and would be available to the crew in the event we lost communications at some point in the return leg of the journey from the Moon and were unable to pass to them the ground computed values which will be used as the prime source for entry. And among the readings that we're watching, as Roosa continues to take marks and bring his onboard state vector in closer agreement with the ground computed one, is the onboard measurement of the height of vacuum perigee. This is the computed altitude at which the spacecraft would pass Earth if Earth had no atmosphere, and of course what actually happens is that the Earth's atmosphere captures the vehicle and slows it down for entry and parachute deployment. Without an atmosphere the computed value would show that the spacecraft would pass about 20 nautical miles from the surface of the Earth and this is one of the figures that when the wrong lunar horizon was used onboard that we saw a change. It jumped up to about 80 nautical miles and it's coming down now with additional marks on the proper horizon to about 35 and we presume eventually will drop back down to a very close agreement with the 20 that we are computing here on the ground. Again repeating, this procedure is used as a backup in the event that communications did not permit us to give the ground computed numbers to the crew, and of course we've already gotten a preliminary set of numbers in for the entry and these would be adequate in the event that we were not able to give them the final PAD, which will come probably about one hour prior to entry. At 212 hours 52 minutes, this is Apollo Control Houston standing by.

This is Apollo Control at 213 hours 42 minutes. It's been relatively quiet here in mission control with everything progressing smoothly towards splashdown in about 3 hours. At the present time Apollo 14 is up to a velocity of 12 587 feet per second. And Apollo 14 now has 23 530 nautical miles to go. During the last hour before entry, we'll see a dramatic increase in the spacecraft velocity as the number Jumps from about 18,000 feet per second to about 36,000 feet per second and at entry interface, we will expect the velocity to be reading about 36,170 feet per second. The guidance officer reported a short while ago that the crew now has the spacecraft in the proper attitude for the final set of star sightings, midcourse navigation, and we expect they'll probably be doing this a little bit ahead of the Flight Plan due to the fact that the final midcourse correction, midcourse correction 7 has been deleted. Apollo 15 crewmen, Commander Dave Scott, Command Module Pilot Al Worden, and Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin, in pressure suit assemblies will show news men and photographers equipment and experiments that will be flown on their flight later this year. The showing is scheduled to be held tomorrow, February 10, from 10 to 11 am in the Manned Spacecraft Center building number 5. Equipment on display will include a full size Apollo 15 Lunar Module mock-up, the 1 G lunar roving vehicle, and all the equipment associated with it. Also all the lunar surface gear, including the Apollo lunar surface experiment package, or ALSEP, the sample return containers, crew tools and associated equipment. They will also have the Apollo Service Module SIM bay mock-up, along with the experiments which are in that bay. The gamma ray spectrometer, mass spectrometer, Alpha X-ray spectrometer, the sub satellite, the pan-camera, and the maping camera. During the deminstration the crew will be wearing their space suits minus the portable life support system, or backpacks, and minus the helmets, but these items will be displayed in the area. That's the Apollo 15 crew, and again the showing will be tomorrow, February 10, at 10 to 10 to 11 am in building number 5 at the Manned Spacecraft Center.

This is Apollo Control at 214 hours 11 minutes. We're now 2 hours 31 minutes away from splashdown. Everything is progressing smoothly at this time. Apollo 14 traveling at a velocity of 13,529 feet per second, and the spacecraft now 20,127 nautical miles from Earth. Again, to go over the events during and Just before the entry sequence, entry interface occurs at 216 hours 27 minutes 47 seconds. We expect that number could possibly change by a matter of a few seconds. The Flight Dynamics and return-to-Earth officers have completed their final computations on entry, however, we would expect the change would be quite small. Again, the entry time 216 hours 27 minutes 47 seconds. Fifteen minutes prior to ghat the crew will Jettison the Service Module, and they will do this by yawing the spacecraft 45 degrees and then Jettisoning. This is to minimize any change of recontact of the two modules of the spacecraft during entry, we'll then return to the entry attitude and at 216 hours 28 minutes 05 seconds, or about 18 seconds after entry, they'll enter blackout. Blackout will last until 3 minutes 33 seconds after entry, and in the period of blackout at about 1 minute 25 seconds following entry, they'll experience maximum g forces, the max g load about 6.2. The drogue parachutes are scheduled to deploy at 216 hours 35 minutes 54 seconds, and about 47 seconds later, the three main chutes will come out. That will be at 216 hours 36 minutes 41 seconds, with splashdown scheduled to occur at 216 hours 41 minutes 39 seconds. And the latest splash coordinants. And again, no change in these since yesterday, _ill be 27 degrees 2 minutes south 172 degrees 40 minutes west, which will put the splashdown point some 10 miles west of the international date line. The recovery ship New Orleans is on station at this time and will be supplemented by five recovery helicopters, two rescue aircraftC-130's, and also two Apollo range instrumented aircraft standing by about 100 nautical miles north of the ground track. Again, repeating an earlier announcement, Apollo 15 crewmen, Commander Dave Scott, Command Module Pilot Al Worden, and Lunar Module Pilot Jim Irwin, and pressure garment assemblies will show newsmen and photographers equipment and experiments that will flown on their flight later this year. The showing will be held tomorrow, February 10, from 10 to 11 am at building 5 at the Manned Spacecraft Center. Equipment on display will include a fullsize Apollo 15 Lunar Module mockup, the 1-g lunar loading vehicle, and all the equipment associated with it, and also will be all of the lunar service gear, including the Apollo lunar surface experiment package, the sample return containers, crew tools and associated equipment, and the equipment in the Apollo Service Module send bay mockup which includes the gamma ray spectrometer, mass spectrometer, alpha ray spectrometer, a subsattelite, the pan camera, and the mapping camera. The crew will be suited, they will be minus the portable life support systems for backpacks and helmets. These items will be displayed in the area. Again that is at 10 am in building 5 at the Manned Spacecraft Center tomorrow, February 10. At 214 hours 15 minutes, Apollo 14 is 19,608 nautical miles from Earth, velocity 13,698 feet per second.

This is Apollo Control at 214 hours 37 minutes. At the present time the crew on Apollo 14 is making the final alignment of their guidance platform. The stable number of the platform that will be used to attitude references on board the spacecraft during entry, and in the next hour and 50 minutes before they begin entry, the crew will be running an entry check, configuring their Reaction Control System, and running some checks on that system. They'll also be checking the entry monitoring system, and will then maneuver to a horizon check attitude prior to Jettisoning the Service Module. The Service Module Jettison will come about 15 minutes prior to entry. They will then maneuver back to entry attitude and a final position for Earth entry. Entry to occur at Ground Elapsed Time of 216 hours 27 minutes 47 seconds splashdown at 216 hours 41 minutes 39 seconds. At this time Apollo 14 is 16,671 nautical miles from Earth. The velocity increasing evermore rapidly up now to 14,731 feet per second.

This is Apollo Control at 215 hours, 11 minutes. A Flight Dynamics Officer reported a short while ago that he had completed his final computations on spacecraft position and velocity. These are the numbers used by the return to Earth officer and his final computations of the entry and post entry event and we'll be passing those numbers up to the crew here in a matter of minutes. At the present Apollo 14 is 16,924 - rather traveling at a velocity of 16,924 feet per second and now 11,985 nautical miles from Earth. Weather in the recovery area remains good and we're moving steadily and smoothly towards entry in 1 hour, 15 minutes, 40 seconds with splashdown in approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes.