Apollo 9

This is Apollo Control at 202 hours, 55 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 9 at the present time is over China on the 128 revolution. The tracking station at Guam will acquire the spacecraft in about 7 minutes. Previously the tracking sighted Ascension Island - had the spacecraft, and on that particular track there was biomedical information transmitted down from the spacecraft to the ground on the Commander who is now asleep in the left couch, and the Command Module Pilot who is now sleeping in the right couch. According to the Flight Surgeon here at MCC, the data indicated that both astronauts were in the early stages of sleep. The systems on the spacecraft were performing normally, with some 6 hours and 2 minutes still remaining in the sleep period, or the rest period. At 202 hours, 57 minutes; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 204 hours, 3 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 9, at the present time is just moving out of range of the Ascension tracking station. During its pass over the Ascension station, the Surgeon here reported that the two astronauts on which we have biomedical information, namely Dave Scott and Jim McDivitt, appear to be sleeping rather soundly, and the indications are that they have been asleep now or at least resting well and asleep lightly for the last couple of hours. The spacecraft systems all seem to be functioning normally. On this the 129 revolution, the spacecraft will be moving over the west coast of Africa shortly. There are about 5 hours left in the rest cycle, Guam will be the next to acquire and that should be something on the order of 33 minutes from now. All systems are apparently functioning normally. At 204 hours, 4 minutes GET; this is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 204 hours, 53 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Spacecraft at this time is just moving out of range of the tracking ship Huntsville, on this the 129 revolution. There is an increasing level of activity here in Mission Control as the Orange Team moves in to replace the Gold Team. Flight Director for the oncoming shift is Pete Frank. The doctor reported that the astronauts are still sleeping soundly on this last pass, and the information that was downlinked from the spacecraft indicated the systems were functioning normally and well.

This is Apollo Control; 205 hours, 50 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 9, just at the beginning of the 130th revolution, about one-quarter through that revolution, is presently ever the Nile Delta in Egypt. The crew is still asleep. All systems are functioning normally on the spacecraft according to the telemetry read-outs on the ground. The spacecraft next will be acquired by the tracking station at Guam at 14 minutes past the hour; and at 205 hours, 51 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 206 hours, 50 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 9 presently is over the South Pacific, nearing the end of the 130th revolution. The crew is still asleep at this time. The spacecraft analysis report is coming out of the back room of the Mission Control Center here on systems performance. The reports are getting shorter each issue. The general run of the comments are "All Systems nominal." The next station to acquire Apollo 9 will be the Canary Islands station at 10 minutes past the hour. And at 206 hours, 51 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 207 hours, 50 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 9 presently is midway through the 131st revolution and is just clearing the east coast of the island of Borneo, will come up on the tracking ship Hunts - as you were, on the tracking station at Honeysuckle, Australia at 7 - in 7 minutes from this point followed by a pass over Mercury of about 9 minutes duration. The crew is still asleep at this time; it is anticipated they will be awakened at about 4 am Central Standard Time. The spacecraft continues to perform exceptionally well with no even minor problems at this time. And at 207 hours, 51 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control. Let's join the conversation in progress.

This is Apollo Control. The crew was awakened during the middle of the Canary Island pass. And was furnished with the consumables update and given instructions for a photography assignment on the upcoming pass over Australia when, for the first time in the mission, that it will see parts of Australia in daylight. The Carnarvon- Honeysuckle pass will come at 23 minutes past the hour, followed shortly thereafter with about a 2-minute break to the tracking ship Mercury. At 208 hours, 58 minutes GET; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 209 hours, 23 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 9 is now midway through the 132nd revolution and is just south of the island of Java in the republic of Indonesia. Coming up on Carnarvon, Australia tracking station, within a few seconds. We'll stand by for any conversation between Mission Control and the crew of Apollo 9. Flight Director is down in the trench discussing some aspect of the mission with the Flight Dynamics Officer. Here goes the call from Roosa.

Spacecraft communicator Stu Roosa is conferring with Flight Activities Officer on some last minute additions and Flight Plan notes prior to beginning communications here at Carnarvon. We'll continue to stand by until Roosa does call the crew

This is Apollo Control. Standing by over Carnarvon as the crew proceeds to take the assigned pictures in that area. Conversation is being held to a minimum till they do complete that picture taking assignment. We'll leave the circuit open for continuation of the conversation between spacecraft communicator Stu Roosa and the crew of Apollo 9.

This is Apollo Control. Not quite out of acquisition yet at Honeysuckle. Conversation will likely pick up again over Mercury in about 2 minutes. During the Carnarvon - Honeysuckle pass, the crew reported that the Commander, James McDivitt, had a total of 7½ hours sleep, Dave Scott, had 7½ hours, LMP, Rusty Schweickart, 6½ hours, and each took one vitamin pill last night. Several cities in the southern portion of the United States, weather permitting, may have an opportunity to view Apollo 9. Starting at 5:42:31, 5 hours, 5:42 and 31 seconds am Central Standard Time in Houston, the spacecraft will rise in the southwest, reach a maximum elevation of 8 degrees, and at 5:46, set in the east at 5:49:31. Slant range at maximum elevation will be 692 nautical miles [1,282 km]. New Orleans, a few seconds later, at 5:42:54 am Central Standard Time, spacecraft will rise from the south-southwest, from maximum elevation of 11.9 degrees, will set at 5:50:56 Central in the east. Slant range at maximum elevation will be 559 nautical miles [1,035 km]. Atlanta, 6:44:50 Eastern Standard Time, the spacecraft will rise out of the south-southwest, reach a maximum elevation of 9.3 degrees, at 6:48:31, will set in the east southeast at 6:52:14. Maximum slant range at maximum elevation will be 618 nautical miles [1,145 km]. On the following revolution, Phoenix, 6:14:50 Mountain Standard Time, spacecraft will rise out of the southwest, reach a maximum elevation of 7 degrees, at 6:18:31 will set in the east-southeast at 6:21:45. Slant range, maximum elevation 711.5 nautical miles [1,318 km]. Less than a minute later, El Paso, 7:15:07, Central Standard Time, the spacecraft will rise out of the south-southwest, reach a maximum elevation of 14.3 degrees at 7:19:31, will set in the east at 7:23:16. Slant range, maximum elevation will be 481.1 nautical miles [891 km]. We should have had acquisition at tracking ship Mercury at this time. The pass over Mercury will be some 10 minutes long, even though its not dead center over the ship. The passes in the southern hemisphere, particularly over the Australian stations and Mercury are fairly lengthy because the spacecraft is at apogee at this point and being higher provides a longer tracking time.

Spacecraft communicator Stu Roosa is in a confab with other flight controllers here in Mission Control Center. We'll stand by until he keys his transmitter to resume conversation with the crew. Still standing by. In acquisition of tracking ship Mercury. Next station following Mercury will be the MILA, Merritt Island, launch area tracking station at 9 minutes past the hour. Here goes Roosa's call, we hope.

This is Apollo Control, some 2 minutes remaining in the Mercury tracking ship pass. The crew likely is breaking out their breakfast meals for this morning prior to settling down for the day's Flight Plan activities. Been a real sparse amount of conversation over Mercury. Starting with MILA tracking station at 9 minutes past the hour, there'll be a continuous tracking and communications pass all the way through Madrid 32 minutes past the hour; about 21 minutes duration altogether.

This is Apollo Control. Apparently that does terminate the conversation over tracking ship Mercury. MILA at 9:48 past the hour. At 209 hours 51...

This is Apollo Control; 210 hours, 09 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Apollo 9 is just ending the 132nd revolution. We'll begin revolution 133 within a few moments as it crosses the longitude of Cape Kennedy. We've just had acquisition at the Merritt Island launch area tracking station in Florida overlapping, of course, with Antigua, Bermuda, Vanguard on through to Canary and Madrid. A pass ending at 32 minutes past the hour. We'll stand by here as we await Stu Roosa's call to the crew.

This is Apollo Control. Communications have been terminated during this pass over the tracking ship Vanguard because of static. Pick up again in about 3 minutes as the spacecraft crosses into the Canary Island tracking station range. We'll continue to monitor the air-ground circuit for any possible conversation.

This is Apollo Control, continuing to monitor the spacecraft pass over Vanguard and on into the Canarys at which time it is anticipated that conversation will resume. Have a considerable amount of static in cmnmunications through the Vanguard. Yesterday the Vanguard had some problems with its COMSAT relay antenna and had to use an HF link. That problem may still exist and account for the static.

This is Apollo Control at about a minute to LOS at Canary Islands, but apparently the conversation between Stu Roosa and the crew of Apollo 9 has been concluded. Carnarvon at 57 minutes past the hour. At 210 hours, 31 minutes GET; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 210 hours, 57 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We're coming up over the Carnarvon, Australia tracking station overlapping Honeysuckle for a 19-minute total duration pass of Apollo 9. We anticipate further conversation over these two stations. After Honeysuckle Loss of Signal, there will be approximately a 2-minute dropout until - actually more like 1-minute dropout between Honeysuckle and tracking ship Mercury. The Mercury pass looks like about 12 minutes duration. Will stand by now for spacecraft communicator Stu Roosa's call to the crew over Carnarvon. He's now studying the acquisition time tables to determine when best to call the crew.

This is Apollo Control. About 3 minutes remaining in the Honeysuckle pass, with about a minute drop out after Honeysuckle LOS until Mercury acquisition. Will continue to monitor the air-to-ground circuit. Likely won't be too much additional conversation during these passes, but we'll leave the circuit up just in case.

This is Apollo Control. Apollo 9 presently is crossing just to the north of the island of New Zealand, and is midway through the 133rd revolution. About 10 seconds to LOS at Honeysuckle, acquisition at tracking ship Mercury will be at 17 minutes, 44 seconds; just over a minute away, LOS Honeysuckle. We're going to leave the air-to-ground circuits open for acquisition Mercury, and any conversation that might take place over that ship

This is Apollo Control, approximately 2 minutes remaining of the Mercury tracking ship pass.

This is Apollo Control, we've had LOS at tracking ship Mercury. Next station to acquire will be the tracking station at Texas overlapping MILA, Bermuda, Antigua, Vanguard, Canary Islands, and Madrid for a total 26 minutes tracking. Texas coming up at 40 minutes past the hour, about 10 minutes from now. At 211 hours, 30 minutes GET; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 211 hours, 40 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Should have acquisition at this time with - through the tracking station at Corpus Christi. We're standing by for resumption of the conversation begun over tracking ship Mercury with additional Flight Plan updates, targets of opportunity for photography tasks and other assignments to the crew of Apollo 9 for the days activities.This particular stateside pass has a duration of some 26 minutes. The next stateside pass on revolution 134 will take in the tracking ship Redstone, the tracking station at Guaymas, Mexico and add perhaps another 15 minutes to the total time across the States and the Atlantic tracking ship Vanguard, Canary Islands and Madrid. Still awaiting the resumption of conversation between Stu Roosa here in Mission Control and the crew of Apollo 9

This is Apollo Control, some 16 minutes remaining in this stateside and Atlantic station Canary Island pass. Continuing to monitor the air to ground. Spacecraft communicator Stu Roosa is in a huddle, leaning over the console of the Flight Director Pete Frank. We'll leave the air to ground circuit open for any further conversation during the remaining 15 minutes.

This is Apollo Control, some 6 minutes remaining now in the pass over Canary Islands tracking station - station in Madrid. We'll continue to monitor air-to-ground circuit.

This is Apollo Control. Some 3 minutes until Loss of Signal out of Madrid. Continuing to monitor air-to-ground for any further conversation.

This is Apollo Control. We've passed the time for Loss of Signal at tracking station Madrid. Carnarvon at 33 minutes past the hour. Continuous coverage from Carnarvon through Honeysuckle, tracking ship Huntsville, on over to the Mercury for a total time of about 31 minutes. At 212 hours, 07 minutes GET; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 212 hours, 33 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Coming up on tracking ship, or as you were - tracking station Carnarvon, Australia. Will have a rather lengthy pass because the spacecraft is in apogee and at the higher altitudes, the passes naturally last longer. Carnarvon overlaps Honeysuckle which in turn overlaps Huntsville on across to Mercury. Or it looks like approximately 31 minutes total time on this pass, it is almost as long as some of the longer stateside passes. We'll stand by now for the conversation here between Stu Roosa spacecraft communicator and the crew of Apollo 9. We've had acquisition at Carnarvon. We'll leave the circuit open now to await the initial call.

This is Apollo Control. Spacecraft is now crossing the Eastern Australia coast between Sidney and Brisbane about midway through rev 134. We're standing by to monitor any further conversation. We still have another 15 minutes in this pass over the Honeysuckle station, the Huntsville and Mercury tracking ships. Continuing to stand by.

This is Apollo Control. Some 10 minutes remaining in the pass over Huntsville and Mercury tracking ships. We'll continue to monitor the air-to-ground circuit for any further conversation.

This is Apollo Control. 8 minutes remaining in the coverage at tracking ship Mercury. Continuing to stand by.

This is Apollo Control. Some 5 minutes remaining now in coverage at tracking ship Mercury. It's unlikely that the conversation will continue until we get into the stateside pass starting at tracking ship Redstone at 8 minutes past the hour, but we'll leave the line open for any further conversation.

This is Apollo Control, we've had LOS at tracking ship Mercury. Coming up on Redstone at 8 minutes past the hour, for a very lengthy stateside pass. Redstone, Guaymas, Texas, Grand Bahamas, Antigua, Vanguard tracking ship, Canary, and Madrid. And at 213 hours, 5 minutes GET; this is Apollo Control

This is Apollo Control at 213 hours, 8 minutes. Apollo 9 coming within range of the tracking ship Redstone. Gene Kranz and the White Team have relieved Pete Frank and his Orange Team.

Redstone has acquired. We will stand by.

This is Apollo Control. A final decision has not yet been made, but it's beginning to shape up at 152 dash 1, one revolution later then the original prime recovery zone and south of that zone. The weather is very good in that area. We expect a final decision shortly, but they say it's beginning to look more and more like we will go to 152 dash 1. If that decision is made, we will send the Guadalcanal toward that area very shortly. The recovery carrier is now halfway between 151 and 152 and we will be able to make either area by splash time tomorrow. Flight Director Frank has left his console. He has gone into a huddle with recovery, weathers and flight dynamics people. Flight Director Frank and his Orange Team will handle the re-entry tomorrow. That will...

This is Apollo Control. The P22 that Stu Roosa has been discussing with the crew is the computer program used during the landmark tracking exercises.

This is Apollo Control; the decision has been made to go to 152-1, recovery area 152-1.

This is Apollo Control; preliminary coordinates for 152-1; 23 degrees, 14 minutes north, 68 degrees west. And the preliminary deorbit time; 240 hours, 30 minutes, 8 seconds. That is the time for ignition of the deorbit burn for 152-1. That would be 10:30 Central Standard Time. About 30 minutes and 8 seconds past 10 days even in this mission. These numbers will be refined later; Retro is working on them now. As soon as we have the refined numbers, 400 K feet, and the chute times, we'll be back and give you those. Apollo 9's present orbit, 245 and one half nautical miles [454.6 km] apogee; 98 nautical miles perigee [181.5 km]. We'll continue to stand by during the stateside pass. This is Apollo Control; the bottom clock on the monitor identified as now counting to the new deorbit time. It's 27 hours, 4 minutes away.

This is Apollo Control. Apollo 9 is in acquisition with the Canary station. We will continue to stand by for any air-to-ground.

This is Apollo Control at 213 hours, 42 minutes. Canaries has Loss of Signal. Tananarive will acquire at 213 hours, 54 minutes. During this pass over the United States, a decision was made to extend this flight one revolution. The prime recovery now 152 dash 1, Apollo 9 landing early in the 157th revolution. Deorbit time for this new landing zone, 240 hours, 30 minutes, 8 seconds. The coordinates, we're showing right now - these will be refined through the day after continued tracking - preliminary coordinates: 20 degrees, 14 minutes north latitude; 68 degrees west longitude. The weather in this area is good and the recovery carrier U.S.S. Guadalcanal has started speeding toward this area and will be in the area. That deorbit time again is 240 hours, 30 minutes, 8 seconds. That's the time for ignition for Service Propulsion burn number 8, the deorbit burn. We do not yet have an estimated splash time. Get that to you as soon as we do. Also during this last pass over the United States, Apollo 9 continued with the photography, getting some weather pictures on the Georgia coast and some oceanography photographs of the Bermuda area. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 213 hours, 54 minutes; and Tananarive is acquiring Apollo 9.

This is Apollo Control at 214 hours, 03 minutes. Tananarive has Loss of Signal. Next station to acquire will be Carnarvon at 214 hours, 09 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 214 hours, 09 minutes. Apollo 9 is coming within range of Carnarvon now.

This is Apollo Control. The Wilmington referred to in the S065 photography experiment update is Wilmington, North Carolina.

And to review the photographic targets of opportunity for the day - Mexico, geology; Rocky Mountains, geology; College Station, Texas, weather; Gulf of Guinea, weather; the high plains around Lubbock, Texas, geology and the area referred to as BOMEX - that stands for Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological Experiment. This is a joint experiment of NASA DOD and the Environmental Science Services Administration. It's in the Barbados Island area, and Cape Fria, southwest Africa, weather. We have overlapping coverage here between Honeysuckle and the tracking ship Huntsville. We'll continue to stand by.

This is Apollo Control at 214 hours, 36 minutes. Huntsville has Loss of Signal; Apollo 9 will be within range of the Hawaii station in about 3 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo at 214 hours and 39 minutes, and Hawaii has acquisiton of Apollo 9.

This is Apollo Control at 214 hours, 59 minutes. Apollo 9 over the United States now within range of both the Texas and the Merritt Island, Florida, stations. The crew busy getting set up for the multispectral terrain photography. There has been no air to ground yet, during this pass over the United States. We will continue to stand by and monitor.

This is Apollo Control. Apollo 9's cabin pressure is holding at 4.9 pounds per square inch and we are showing a cabin temperature of 68 degrees Farenheit.

This is Apollo Control at 215 hours, 11 minutes. The tracking ship Vanguard in the Atlantic reports Loss of Signal. The Canary Island station will acquire within about a minute and a half. At the crew's request, we passed up some general information on the last S065 run, the multi spectral terrain photography which will be performed during the next revolution. We are now in the 136th revolution, the last part of this experiment will be performed during the last part of this revolution and the beginning of the 137th. We will pass up the detailed information to the crew probably over the Carnarvon station on this revolution. Generally, we're looking for 12 exposures of the southwestern United States, 7 over the state of Georgia, 40 over the Barbados area, referred to as BOMEX, standing for Barbados Oceanographic and Meteorological and Experiment. We expect one of the cameras to run out of film during the BOMEX photography and then we'll ask Apollo 9 to pitch to the horizon and complete the film in the other cameras with photographs of the horizon. The Canaries station has acquired now. We will continue to stand by.

This is Apollo Control at 215 hours, 16 minutes. We've had Loss of Signal at the Canaries. The next station to acquire will be Tananarive at 215 hours, 30 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 215 hours, 30 minutes. Tananarive has acquired Apollo 9. This is Apollo Control at 215 hours, 39 minutes. Apollo 9 has gone through this Tananarive pass without voice communication. The next station to acquire will be Carnarvon at 215 hours, 45 minutes. Apollo 9 entered the nightside of this 136th revolution during the Tananarive pass. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 215 hours, 45 minutes. Apollo 9 coming up on the station at Carnarvon now.

This is Apollo Control at 216 hours, 7 minutes. It doesn't appear likely that we are going to have much success in establishing communications through Huntsville. Hawaii will acquire at 216 hours, 12 minutes. We'll take the circuit down now. If we do have air-to-ground in the remaining couple of minutes at the Huntsville we will come back up. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 216 hours, 12 minutes. Hawaii has acquired Apollo 9. There was some brief conversation just before LOS at Huntsville between Apollo 9 crew and the Huntsville. We could not read it here; we could tell that they were talking to the ship. We'll turn that tape over to the transcript; we'll stand by for any conversation at Hawaii

This is Apollo Control at 216 hours, 29 minutes. The crew of Apollo 9 busy with photographic tasks during this pass over the United States, performing both the S-065 experiment and several photographic targets of opportunity.

This is Apollo Control at 216 hours, 44 minutes and Antigua has LOS. Apollo 9 will be within range of the Ascension Island station at 216 hours, 51 minutes. This is Mission Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 216 hours, 53 minutes and Apollo 9 is within range of Ascension.

This is Apollo Control at 216 hours, 59 minutes. Apollo 9 is out of range at Ascension. Ron Evans advising the crew, during this pass, that we'd like to try to attempt to optically track the ascent stage of the Lunar Module - roughly six hours from now. Elapsed time of 222 hours, 41 minutes. At that time, the ascent stage of the LM will be at a range of 690 miles from the Command Service Module. We'd like to track it through the optics, take marks, and then compare the onboard vectors with the vectors that we are getting here on the ground through C-band radar skin tracking the ascent stage. We'll have good lighting for this tracking attempt. It will come on the Gold Team of flight controllers shift. Gene Kranz and his White Team will be on an hour later tonight. They are due to break shift at 4 pm Central Standard Time. The Gold Team will come on for a nine hour shift and then the Orange Team will come on and handle re-entry of Apollo 9 tomorrow morning. PTC reference in this conversation over Ascension is Passive Thermal Control. During the next several sights we will be passing up additional information to the crew for this attempt to track the Lunar Module ascent stage. Tananarive will acquire Apollo 9 at 217 hours, 7 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 217 hours, 07 minutes and Tananarive has acquired Apollo 9.

This is Apollo Control at 217 hours, 15 minutes. Tananarive has Loss of Signal. Carnarvon will be the next station to acquire at 217 hours, 21 minutes. This is Mission Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 217 hours, 23 minutes. Carnarvon has acquired Apollo 9.

This is Apollo Control. The identification on those landmark tracking areas, number 5 is Santa Catalina Island

This is Apollo Control at 217 hours, 33 minutes. Carnarvon has Loss of Signal. Guam will acquire at 217 hours, 35 minutes. The identification of those landmark tracking areas: 005 is Santa Catalina Island off the coast of California, 065 is the north tip of Point Quest, q - u - e - s - t, Tortue Island, Haiti - that's T - o - r - t - u - e. We have an updated deorbit time from the Retrofire Officer of 240 hours, 31 minutes, 30 seconds. Projected time for reaching 400,000 feet, 240 hours, 44 minutes, 22 seconds. 05 g, 240 hours, 46 minutes, 50 seconds. Begin blackout at 240 hours, 47 minutes, 21 seconds. End blackout, 240 hours, 50 minutes, 45 seconds. Drogue chute deploy, 240 hours, 55 minutes, 5 seconds. Main chute deploy, 240 hours, 55 minutes, 53 seconds. Projected splash time, 241 hours, 0 minutes, 48 seconds. The coordinates of the aim point have not changed. They are 23 degrees, 14 minutes north; 68 degrees west. The coordinates for the 400,000-foot mark are 32 degrees, 25 minutes north, 98 degrees, 21 minutes west. That's in the Fort Worth/Dallas area, a little west of that area. This is Mission Control, Houston.

Guam has acquisition. This is Apollo Control at 217 hours, 44 minutes. Apollo 9 out of range at Guam. Hawaii will acquire at 217 hours, 49 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 217 hours, 49 minutes. Apollo 9 is within range of the Hawaii station.

This is Apollo Control. That was Dave Scott explaining they could not do the landmark tracking exercise over Catalina Island because of clouds. The next opportunity comes down over Haiti.

This is Apollo Control. The Antigua station has acquisition of Apollo 9. Apollo 9 flying over the Caribbean area. Perhaps shortly we will get a report on this second attempt of landmark tracking today.

This is Apollo Control at 218 hours, 20 minutes. Antigua has Loss of Signal. Ascension will acquire Apollo 9 at 218 hours, 27 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 218 hours, 27 minutes. Apollo 9 being acquired at Ascension.

This is Apollo Control at 218 hours, 34 minutes. Apollo 9 out of range at Ascension. Acquisition time at Tananarive: 218 hours, 43 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 218 hours, 43 minutes. Tananarive has acquired Apollo 9.

This is Apollo Control at 218 hours, 51 minutes and Tananarive has Loss of Signal. The Carnarvon station will pick up Apollo 9 at 218 hours, 58 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 218 hours, 58 minutes; Carnarvon is acquiring Apollo 9.

This is Apollo Control at 219 hours, 5 minutes; Carnarvon has LOS. Guam will acquire Apollo 9 at 219 hours, 10 minutes. This is Mission Control Houston.

This Apollo Control at 219 hours 10 minutes, Apollo 9 coming up on Guam

This is Apollo Control at 219 hours, 20 minutes. Apollo 9 is out of range at Guam moving over the Pacific toward Hawaii. That station will acquire at 219 hours, 26 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 219 hours, 26 minutes. Apollo 9 is within range of Hawaii.

This is Apollo Control at 219 hours, 33 minutes. Hawaii has Loss of Signal, however, Redstone will pick up here in about 30 seconds. The Flight Dynamics people are still working with these numbers in an attempt to track the ascent stage of the Lunar Module using the optics of the Command Service Module at about 222 hours, 40 minutes - roughly. As soon as all the information is assembled we'll pass that up to the crew.

This is Apollo Control at 219 hours, 46 minutes. And the tracking station at Corpus Christi has LOS. Apollo 9 now in the orbits that sweep down across South America, missing all the tracking stations in the Eastern Test Range and in the Atlantic. The next station to acquire will be Tananarive at 220 hours, 19 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control. Dave Scott's wife and children are in the viewing room here at the Control Center listening to this conversation between Dave and CapCom Ron Evans.

This is Apollo Control at 220 hours, 19 minutes. Apollo 9 coming within range of Tananarive.

This is Apollo Control at 220 hours, 31 minutes. Apollo 9 is out of range at Tananarive. We had a Flight Plan update during this pass. Ask the crew to maneuver to the ascent stage tracking attitude at 222 hours, 25 minutes. We are still looking for the tracking of that LM ascent stage around 222 hours, 40 or 41 minutes. And Apollo 9 crew will power down the spacecraft at 222 hours, 50 minutes and begin their rest period. Get-up time in the morning - 233 hours, 35 minutes. The next station to acquire Apollo 9 will be Guam at 220 hours, 47 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 220 hours, 47 minutes. Apollo 9 in acquisition at Guam.

This is Apollo Control at 220 hours, 55 minutes, and Guam has Loss of Signal. During this pass, Ron Evans updated the crew on computer procedures to be used during the tracking of the Lunar Module ascent stage. Advised the crew that 222 hours, 35 minutes, 30 seconds the range would be 1,000 miles between the two vehicles. The point of closest approach, GET of 222 hours, 41 minutes, 46 seconds. The range at that time 652 nautical miles. The range rate, 32 feet per second. At that time, the time of closest approach, the Command Module trailing the LM 603 nautical miles. Command Module below the LM 272 nautical miles, and the Command Module 117 miles to the right of the ascent stage. Hawaii acquires at 222 hours, 38 minutes, 46 seconds, during this pass on which the tracking will be attempted. Redstone acquisition 222 hours, 45 minutes, 19 seconds. If the crew acquires early they should have 10 to 15 minutes of tracking on the ascent stage. And the marks into the computer during the tracking at 1 minute intervals. The orbital parameters for these two vehicles at the present time: the Command and Service Module is in an orbit 245 by 98 nautical miles. The LM ascent stage: apogee is 3,741.7 nautical miles, perigee 127.8 nautical miles. Hawaii will acquire Apollo 9 next in this revolution at 221 hours, 3 minutes, approximately 4 minutes from now. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 221 hours, 03 minutes. Apollo 9 approaching acquisition at Hawaii.

This is Apollo Control. Hawaii has Loss of Signal but Redstone will acquire in about 45 seconds. Over Hawaii Ron Evans informed the crew that the ascent stage should look about like a fourth magnitude star. He also told them that the ascent stage will be moving from Apollo 9 to right to their left.

This is Apollo Control at 221 hours, 54 minutes and Tananarive has acquisition of Apollo 9.

Here in the Mission Control Center, the White Team is in the process of ending its last shift of this mission and handing over to the Gold Team. We're estimating the Change of Shift News Conference for 5:15 Central Standard Time.

This is Apollo Control at 222 hours, 6 minutes. Tananarive has Loss of Signal. The only conversation during this pass, Ron Evans telling the crew that the White Team would see them back here at the Manned Spacecraft Center. Jim McDivttt thanking the White Team and informing Gene Kranz, the Flight Director of the White Team, that he wanted to have a debriefing after the crew got back. And that's spelled p - a - r - t - y. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 222 hours, 27 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. The Gold Team has replaced the White Team at this time. The White [SIC] Director is Gerry Griffin and the voice of CapCom, that is the astronaut who will be talking to the Apollo 9 crew, will be that of Al Worden. We are about some 11 minutes from acquisition at the Hawaii tracking station and it could very well be that prior to Hawaii acquisition, the crew of Apollo 9 will have begun to track the unmanned LM ascent stage. This is planned for this rev and the crew could pick up the LM as early as 222 plus 35, or two or three minutes before Hawaii acquisition. So, when they come into voice range, they may have acquired that unmanned LM and will have been in the process of tracking for some time. The tracking actually will consist of using onboard optics in an automatic mode which they will call Auto Optics. The point of closest approach will be at 222 plus 41 at which time the spacecraft, the Apollo 9 spacecraft, and the LM could be about 650 or so nautical miles apart. This entire track can take place between - over the Hawaii station as well as over the tracking ship Redstone. We also have our present tentative plans covering the return of the Apollo 9 crew to Houston after recovery sometime tomorrow. The plan, at the present time, reads something like this. Astronaut recovery, of course, will take place tomorrow and then the primary recovery ship, Guadalcanal, will steam toward Eleuthera Island in the Bahamas. The crew will remain on board the primary recovery ship overnight and after dawn, sometime after dawn, time to be determined, Friday morning which would make that March 14th, the Apollo 9 crew will leave the Guadalcanal and will fly via helo to Eleuthera Auxiliary Air Force Base. There a NASA Gulfstream aircraft will be standing by and after some 10 minutes or so, which is about all that is required to trans to helos to the Gulfstream, they will depart for a flight of about one hour and one-half duration to the skidstrip at Cape Kennedy. There, the Gulfstream will be refueled and following the refueling, then the aircraft will take off and head for Ellington Air Force Base for what we presently project as a Friday arrival here in Houston. At 222 hours, plus 31 minutes, with the spacecraft approaching the tracking station at Hawaii, this is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 222 hours, 38 minutes into the flight. In a matter of some 25, 26 seconds or so we should have acquisition at the Hawaii tracking station. The - on the scribing plotter board, that 10 foot by 20 foot board in front of us, we have both the images of the LM - although in this particular case it looks like the ascent stage, or sorry about that, the descent stage - and the image of the Command Service Module, which incidentally just turned green indicating that we have acquisition. Let's stand by to monitor the conversation.

When Astronaut McDivitt reported that the crew was tracking the upper stage of the Lunar Module there was a momentary cry here in Mission Control of somewhat exaltation with Gene Kranz, who is the White Team Flight Director, crying out "Three out of three" with some degree of joy, some element of joy and happiness. Meaning, of course, that this was the third successful attempt at tracking a piece of space debris out of three tries. Yesterday we attempted twice to track Pegasus and were successful, and of course, today we attempted once to track the LM upper stage and had some success. We did not, however, have much success on our third attempt to track Pegasus toward the latter part of the day yesterday. The astronauts attempted to sight the Pegasus satellite on their third attempt as they went past the Ascension tracking site yesterday in the evening, that is, the evening of Central Standard Time, but had very little luck. We're standing by to monitor any additional conversation between the ground and the crew.

Apollo 3 [?] has moved out of range of the tracking ship Redstone at the present time heading toward the west coast of South America on this the 140th revolution on the flight of Apollo 9. At 222 hours, 51 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 223 hours, 55 minutes. During the change of shift press conference, the spacecraft passed over the tracking site of Tananarive and we recorded about two and one-half to three minutes of conversation between the Apollo 9 crew and astronaut Al Worden, who is CapCom here on the ground. We will play that tape for you, so roll the tape, please.

With the spacecraft presently over China on this the 141st revolution, we expect to be back up at 14 after the hour or approximately 224 hours plus 14 when the spacecraft will be acquired by the tracking station at Hawaii. At 223 hours, 59 minutes GET this is Mission Control.

This is Apollo Control at 224 hours, 14 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We expect to acquire the Apollo 9 spacecraft at the Hawaii site in a matter of 10 or less seconds. And during that pass we will transmit a considerable amount of data to the crew, so we'll stand by for the air-to-ground. SC Houston.

We believe that the spacecraft has gone beyond range of the tracking station at Hawaii. The astronauts of course will be doing some light housekeeping work now in preparation to settling down in their couches for the rest cycle. At 224 hours, 22 minutes GET; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 225 hours, 5 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We just passed out of range of the Ascension Island tracking station, and during the 3 or 4 minutes that we were within range at Ascension, the CapCom here in Houston, that would be Al Worden, tried to call the Apollo 9 crew. He placed a half dozen or so calls up to the crew, but there was no response. About this time the crew is in its - probably in its eat, eating cycle, and the belief here of course is that they have their head sets off and were either eating their meal or perhaps eating and stowing some of their food - eating their meal and stowing their food. At any rate, we did not have any air-to-ground with them although we did query them on a half a dozen or so occasions. The spacecraft systems look like they're okay according to the downlinked information. So at 225 hours, 6 minutes GET; this is Mission Control.

This is Apollo Control at 226 hours, 9 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. At the present time, the spacecraft is over the Pacific Ocean, approaching the west coast of South America. It will take another 20 or so minutes before we are in range of a tracking station. In that case, it would be the station at Ascension. The spacecraft on this, the 142 revolution, is flying at an apogee, or reaches an apogee of 244.3 nautical miles [452.4 km], and its low point is 98.1 nautical miles [181.7 km]. It makes one rev around Earth every 90 minutes, about 91 minutes. A little earlier, the Flight Dynamics Officer passed the following information on to the people at Mission Control here. He estimates now, that the descent stage will reenter the Earth's atmosphere on March 16, around 8:00 pm Central Standard Time. At 226 hours, 11 minutes, this is Apollo Control.