Apollo 12 - on the Ocean of Storms

539 Pages·2011·110.81 MB·English

by  David M. Harland (auth.)

Apollo 12 - On the Ocean of Storms

David M. Harland
Apollo 12 - On the
Ocean of Storms
David M. Harland
Space Historian
Kelvinbridge
Glasgow
UK
SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION
SUBJECT ADVISORY EDITOR: John Mason, M.B.E., B.Sc, M.Sc, Ph.D.
ISBN 978-1-4419-7606-2 -ISBN 978-1-4419-7607-9
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-7607-9
Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011922753
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 2011
All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the
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Cover design: Jim Wilkie
Typesetting: BookEns, Royston, Herts., UK
Printed on acid-free paper
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Contents
Illustrations vii
Acknowledgements xv
Acronyms xvii
The Apollo program 5
How Pete missed being 'First Man' 10
Call signs and patch 12
Lunar surface experiments 15
Landing site selection 17
Preparing the space vehicle 30
Crew training 77
2. Moonbound 79
Countdown 79
Launch day 80
An electrifying ascent 103
Parking orbit 119
Translunar injection 127
Retrieving Intrepid 130
Checking Intrepid 144
Hybrid manoeuvre 155
Intrepid again 161
Into lunar orbit 166
Pinpoint landing 186
vi Contents
3. A visit to the Snowman 227
Where are we? 227
EVA preparations 233
First moonwalk 237
Sleeping over 316
Second moonwalk 332
Idle time 397
4. The voyage home 403
Rendezvous 403
Discarding Intrepid 421
Orbital photography 428
Leaving orbit 437
Science questions 443
Press conference 453
The final leg 463
After splashdown 476
The first 'rock fest' 497
Future prospects 510
Glossary 513
Index 517
Illustrations
Chapter 1
George Low, Sam Phillips, Joseph Shea and Chris Kraft 9
Pete Conrad and Al Bean 13
Mission patch 14
Clifton C. Williams 14
Surveyors and the 'Apollo zone' of the Moon 19
Target in the Ocean of Storms 20
Detail of previous illustration 21
Detail of previous illustration 22
The crater in which Surveyor 3 landed 23
ALS-7 target ellipse 24
Crescent and Snowman 25
Simulator views of approaching the target 26
Contour map of Surveyor crater 27
ALS-5 target ellipse 28
Moonwalk planning 29
S-IC stage arrives 36
Hoisting the S-IC 37
S-II stage arrives 38
Hoisting the S-II 39
S-IVB stage arrives 40
Stacked S-IC and S-II stages 41
Details of the command and service modules 43
Command module in Downey 44
Preparing the CSM at the Kennedy Space Center 45
CSM complete 46
Details of the lunar module 47
LM stages arrive at the Kennedy Space Center 48
Checking the LM ascent stage 49
viii Illustrations
The descent stage 50
Preparing the LM 51
Details of the launch vehicle adapter 52
Installing the LM in the adapter 53
Spacecraft ready for stacking 54
Completing the space vehicle stack 55
Rollout seen from the roof of the VAB 56
Rollout seen from beside the crawler 57
Apollo 12 on the pad 58
Launch Control Center 59
KSC 'train wreck' 60
Apollo 12 crew 61
Simulator training 62
One-sixth gravity training 63
Field training with the hand-tool carrier 64
MESA training 65
ALSEP extraction training 66
Hand-tool carrier training 67
Lunar equipment conveyor training 68
Rock sampling training 69
Surveyor activities training 70
Post-splashdown training 71
Science planning 72
October press conference 73
Al Bean shows off the ALSEP 74
Pete Conrad flying the LLTV 75
Chapter 2
Rolling away the mobile service structure 81
Breakfast on launch day 83
Suiting up 84
Walking out to the transfer van 87
Arriving at the pad 88
Al Worden, Guenter Wendt, Jack King and Walter Kapryan 89
Spacecraft ingress 90
Richard Nixon arrives at the Kennedy Space Center 93
Frank Borman and Thomas Paine 94
Skip Chauvin and Paul Donnelly 95
Jim McDivitt 96
Firing Room during the countdown 97
Spiro Agnew in the Launch Control Center 98
Liftoff in the rain 100
Liftoff (continued) 101
Apollo 12 is launched into a dark sky 102
Illustrations ix
Gerry Griffin and Gerry Carr 104
SCE switch 108
Firing Room during the ascent Ill
Acceleration loading during the ascent to orbit 114
Ground track to orbital insertion 115
How the vehicle generated lightning 117
Lightning striking the pad after liftoff 118
George Mueller after launch 121
Chris Kraft confers with Gerry Griffin 126
Acceleration loading during translunar injection 129
Flight plan for immediately after injection 131
Post-injection S-IVB sequencing 132
Overview of the Apollo 12 trajectory 133
A view of the S-IVB in space 135
Apollo probe and drogue docking mechanism 137
Earth shortly after translunar injection 139
Ground track for the early translunar coast 143
Pete Frank 146
Clifford Charlesworth 153
Don Lind and Paul Weitz 154
Hybrid manoeuvre 158
Glynn Lunney 167
Window contamination 168
Rules for a failed lunar orbit insertion 171
Flight plan for revolution 1 in lunar orbit 174
How the S-IVB missed its slingshot 177
Flight plan for revolution 2 179
Flight plan for revolution 3 181
Ground track in lunar orbit 183
Optical tracking of lunar landmark H-l 185
Details of the liquid-cooled garment 188
Tracking of landmark 193 195
Yankee Clipper after undocking 199
Flight plan for undocking and separation 201
Intrepid after undocking 202
Landing point designator scale 204
Descent orbit insertion to lunar landing 207
Earthrise 209
Target redesignation sequence 217
Propellant sloshing 219
Lunar module velocity plot 222
Chapter 3
Ed Gibson and Jack Schmitt 228