Apollo 12
Day 9: Navigate to Question Time
Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 2004 - 2020 by W. David Woods and Lennox J. Waugh. All rights reserved.
Last updated 2020-04-10
This is Apollo Control at 198 hours, 18 minutes. We've had no further conversation with the crew since saying good night to them at 197 hours, 45 minutes. At present, Apollo 12 is 161,607 nautical miles from Earth. Spacecraft velocity 3,438 feet per second. The entry clock has been started here in the Mission Control Center, it shows we're 46 hours 2 minutes away from entry interface, that's from the time the spacecraft reaches 400,000 feet. At 198 hours, 18 minutes this is Mission Control Houston.
This is Apollo Control at 199 hours, 18 minutes. We've had no conversation with the crew, since the rest period started at 197 hours, 45 minutes. We're monitoring spacecraft systems by telemetry. All systems functioning normally. Apollo 12 continues to get closer to the Earth. It's now 159,689 nautical miles. Velocity is 3,485 feet per second. This is Mission Control, Houston at 199 hours, 18 minutes.
This is Apollo Control at 200 hours, 22 minutes. All's still quiet aboard the Apollo 12. The crew is some 3 hours into its rest period. Apollo 12 is 157,422 nautical miles from Earth. Velocity 3,539 feet per second. At 200 hours, 22 minutes this is Mission Control Houston.
This is Apollo Control at 201 hours, 18 minutes. All's still going well with Apollo 12 as it is now 155,515 nautical miles from Earth approaching a velocity of 3,585 feet per second. And at 201 hours, 18 minutes, this is Mission Control Houston.
This is Apollo Control 203 hours, 15 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Forty-one hours five minutes until entry. The crew of Apollo 12 still asleep at this time. Scheduled sleep period still runs to a Ground Elapsed Time of 208 hours, about another 5 hours from now. Current velocity 3,689 feet per second, relative to the Earth. Distance from Earth, 151,377 nautical miles. Spacecraft weight 25,056 pounds. Things rather quiet here in the Mission Control Operations room. The Green team headed by Flight Director Cliff Charlesworth settled in for the night. At 203 hours, 16 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.
This is Apollo Control 204 hours, 36 minutes Ground Elapsed Time with a position and velocity report on Apollo 12, 39 hours, 44 minutes away from entry to earth's atmosphere. Distance from earth 148,469 nautical velocity in reference to the earth 3,764 feet per second. At 204 hours, 37 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.
This is Apollo Control 206 hours, 22 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. 37 hours, 59 minutes into entry interface. Position and velocity reported on Apollo 12, distance from Earth 144,597 nautical miles. Velocity now 3,866 feet per second. Crew is still asleep at this time. At 206 hours, 22 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.
207:38:21 SC: Music - "The Yankee Clipper, Apollo 12" [chorus].
207:38:29 Conrad: Good morning, guys.
207:38:37 Weitz: Good morning. [Long pause.]
This is Apollo Control 207 hours, 39 minutes. We've had an initial call from Apollo 12..."
207:39:22 Weitz: Hello, 12; Houston. [No answer.]
207:39:40 Weitz: Hello, Apollo 12; Houston. Over. [Long pause.]
207:40:04 SC: Music - "Apollo 12" [chorus].
207:40:24 Gordon: The weather is clear up here.
207:40:27 Bean: It's sunny in Bombay.
207:40:29 Conrad: Rainy in London.
207:40:33 Bean: Smoggy in L.A.
207:40:39 Gordon: Snowing in Washington, D.C.
207:40:41 SC: Music - "The Yankee Clipper, Apollo 12" [chorus].
207:40:46 Conrad: Raining in Chicago. Good morning.
207:40:52 Weitz: Good morning 12.
207:40:58 Conrad: Don't tell me we've got Paul on the horn.
207:41:02 Weitz: Hey, what are you guys doing? You were supposed to let us sleep as long as we wanted this morning.
207:41:08 Conrad: We were supposed to let you sleep as long as you wanted to sleep this morning [garble] - Well, we woke up a up a little bit early.
207:43:23 Bean: Houston, 12.
207:43:25 Weitz: Go ahead, 12.
207:43:29 Bean: We'll go ahead and eat now and pick up the O
2 fuel cell purge, the waste water, and all that stuff on time.
207:43:37 Weitz: Okay. That's the first update to your Flight Plan is to scratch the O
2 fuel cell purge and the waste water dump.
207:43:49 Conrad: Scratch them, huh? Okay. Very well. We will.
208:01:42 Conrad: Houston, 12.
208:01:48 Weitz: Go ahead, 12.
208:01:52 Conrad: We got a message we'd like you to send for us.
208:01:56 Weitz: All right. Go ahead.
208:02:01 Conrad: All right. It's to Rear Admiral Davis, Recovery Forces, U.S.S. Hornet. "Dear Red Dog, Apollo 12 with three tail hookers expect recovery ship to make its PIM as we have energy for only one pass. Signed Pete, Dick, and Al."
208:02:26 Weitz: Okay, Pete. You're - you're breaking up a little bit. I'll ask you to repeat in a couple of minutes. So, we'll tape it here and then I'll get it off of that.
208:02:48 Weitz: 12, Houston. Read your message again.
208:02:56 Conrad: Okay. It's to Rear Admiral Davis, Recovery Forces, U.S.S. Hornet. "Dear Red Dog, Apollo 12 with three tail hookers expect recovery ship to make its PIM as we have energy for only one pass. Signed, Dick, Pete, and Al."
208:03:29 Weitz: 12, Houston. You're fading in and out. Say again all after PIM.
208:03:35 Conrad: "As we have energy for only one pass."
208:03:43 Conrad: "Signed Pete, Dick, and Al."
208:03:46 Weitz: Copy, Pete.
208:03:50 Conrad: Very good. Thank you.
208:03:53 Weitz: How's - How's the chow in the wardroom this morning?
208:03:59 Conrad: Very good. We're still eating it.
208:04:05 Weitz: Who's mess cooking this morning?
208:04:10 Conrad: Oh, we're all taking a little turn at it. This is one of the few of them, though, that you can all float above the table instead of setting the chairs beside it. That makes it pretty nice. You can just move up and down and make your selection.
208:04:50 Conrad: We - Houston, we just got our first glimpse of you this morning, and there's not very much of you out there.
208:05:00 Weitz: Roger. Understand. Yes, I'm looking at it in the Flight Plan. There sure isn't, is there?
208:10:21 Weitz: Apollo 12, Houston. Your message is on the way and I got some ball scores if Dick's listening.
208:10:34 Conrad: Yes. He's listening. Go ahead.
208:10:37 Weitz: Okay. We're still trying to run down the Washington - Washington State results, Dick. In the top ten, Purdue beat Indiana, 44 to 21. As you got the score last night, I see in the log, Michigan beat Ohio State, 24 to 12. And last night USC beat UCLA, 14 to 12, so it will be Michigan and USC in the Rose Bowl. Penn State beat Syracuse - Penn State beat Pittsburgh, 27 to 7; Stanford beat CAL, 29 to 28; Tennessee over Kentucky, 31 to 26; Missouri laid it on Kansas, 69 to 21; TCU beat Rice, 21 to 17; and Houston beat Wyoming, 44 to 21.
208:11:49 Gordon: It sounds like they had some wild ballgames down there yesterday.
208:11:50 Weitz: Yes. They sure did. Hey, for information, how is - how's the gas in your water? Is it all right?
208:12:01 Gordon: Well, the cold water is really quite good. it's been like that all along. And we're still getting a little bit of - still getting a little gas out of our hot water at the crew preparation station. Other than that, it's pretty good. We really can't complain about it. It's just - seems to us to be just as good with or without the gas cartridge separators on.
208:12:28 Weitz: Okay. Thank you, Dick. That's the data point we were looking for. And how's your cabin Temp working using the manual mixing?
208:12:37 Gordon: We didn't touch it last night. The glycol evap temp was holding about 55, 56 and we were fairly comfortable last night.
208:12:47 Weitz: Roger. Very good.
208:12:52 Gordon: We want those Saints and Oilers to win today now.
208:12:57 Conrad: Paul, we are beginning to pick up quite a bit of moisture inside the spacecraft on the hatch structure, both the tunnel hatch and the main hatch, and on the coves at the rendezvous window and down on the bottom bulkhead below the LC bag, but that was to be expected when we're down light.
208:13:21 Weitz: Roger. Understand, Pete. Is the water all staying in place or is it drifting around at all?
208:13:32 Conrad: Oh, no. It all stays in place and we're just getting ready. We wiped her down last night and we'll wipe her down again this morning. It's not that bad.
208:13:48 Conrad: I guess all that fuel aboard and the LM acts as a reflector and heat sink and we didn't have any going out, of course, and now that we're so light and empty; why, I think we've got - fuelled down pretty good.
This is Apollo Control. Apollo 12 now at exactly 14,000 nautical miles out from Earth. Velocity steadily building up 3,991 feet per second. To recap the message that Pete Conrad passed down earlier after they began talking to Mission Control, it was to Rear Admiral Davis aboard the USS Hornet, which is the prime recovery vessel for Apollo 12, in the South Pacific. Dear Red Dog, Apollo 12 with three tail hookers aboard expect to make PIM, or PIM, point of intented movement as we have energy for only one pass. Signed Pete, Dick, and Al. Continuing to monitor as the crew finishes their breakfast and pick up any further conversation.
208:14:04 Weitz: Roger, Pete.
208:32:06 Gordon: Houston, 12.
208:32:09 Weitz: Go ahead, 12.
208:32:13 Gordon: What's the look at - MCC-6 or 7 right now?
208:32:21 Weitz: Stand by. [Long pause.]
208:33:53 Weitz: Hello, 12; Houston. At a little less than 140,000 miles out on the glide slope, you're looking pretty good. You're on speed - Midcourse 6. Right now, we're looking on the order of 0.2 of a foot a second. If 6 is not performed, 7 looks like about 0.7 of a foot per second.
208:34:14 Gordon: Okay. So what you're telling me is that we probably won't do 6 and we might tweak up on 7, huh?
208:34:24 Weitz: That's the way it looks.
208:34:28 Gordon: Okay. Very good. [Long pause.]
208:34:57 Gordon: Houston, Apollo 12.
208:35:00 Weitz: Go ahead,12.
208:35:04 Gordon: Okay, Our crew status report: all three of us got 9 hours sleep last night. PRD readings, across the board, 11029, 11028, 04030.
208:35:20 Weitz: Roger. Copy, Dick. Pete, how's that patch on your skin where that sensor was bothering you doing?
208:35:30 Conrad: I have - a rash where every sensor was and they're all doing okay. I was doing what the guys said in Houston, that skin cream, but they're not bothering me or anything, but every one of them -and, and I don't understand that because I've worn them for this length of time before and never had any trouble. But apparently something reacted this time; maybe they changed the type of paste they use or something.
208:36:03 Weitz: Roger. Thank you, Pete. And, when you've finished eating there and have the opportunity, I've got some updates - got your consumables update and some Flight Plan items for you.
208:36:17 Conrad: Okay. We're ready to copy.
208:36:19 Weitz: Okay. Your consumables are 208 hours; your total RCS is 29.2; reading Alpha through Delta; 30.8, 28.9, 26.9, 30.1; your hydrogen stands at 29 percent in each tank; your oxygen is 33 and 35.
208:36:56 Conrad: Okay. Copying all that.
208:36:58 Weitz: Okay. Now in your Flight Plan, at 210 hours and 30 minutes. Okay. Commence a charge on battery Alpha. When you terminate battery Alpha, we'll start a charge on battery Bravo and we'll give you a call on that.
208:37:28 Weitz: Okay. Now at 213 hours.
208:37:37 Weitz: All right. As requested yesterday, we've got new attitudes for your optics cal and your P23. At 213 hours, your optics cal attitude will be 089, 334 and 0. The star will be number 24. Your P23 attitude, 090, 329 and 327. Over.
208:38:19 Conrad: Roger. Copied the optics calibration on star 24. The new angles are 089, 334, and 0; and the Verb 49 maneuver for P23 attitude, initially, is 090, 329, 327.
208:38:39 Weitz: That's affirmative; and now, at 214 hours, we're going to slip another High Gain antenna test at you.
208:38:56 Conrad: Go ahead.
208:38:57 Weitz: Okay. So, we'll delete in your Flight Plan, start PTC; we'll go the antenna test attitude which is 050, pitch is 0, yaw is 069. The High Gain angles are pitch, minus 19; yaw, 193; use half a degree deadband. The test will last approximately 4 hours.
208:39:44 Conrad: Okay. 214, scratch the PTC, High Gain antenna test. In a half a degree deadband, angles are 050, 0, 069; High Gain antenna angles, minus 19, 193; the test lasts for 4 hours and you'll probably correct us through that in real time, I suspect. Is that correct?
208:40:04 Weitz: That's affirmative.
208:40:32 Weitz: Okay, 12. And depending on when this High Gain antenna test is complete, which I say is estimated somewhere in the order of 4 hours - When it's complete, you'll then pick up your P23 which is presently scheduled at 217 hours in the Flight Plan. And I got the angles when you're ready.
208:40:58 Gordon: Go ahead.
208:41:03 Weitz: Okay. I'll shoot it right ahead, here. Those angles and the stars are all the same as the one I read you for 214 hours, Dick. [Pause.]
208:41:41 Gordon: Okay. I suspected as much. Thank you.
208:41:17 Weitz: Roger. And the same thing at 220 hours.
208:41:26 Weitz: And if you're unable to use any of the stars during your P23's, just give us a growl and we've got some alternate stars picked out for you to use.
208:41:39 Gordon: Okay. Thank you. How did those P23's go yesterday? Doing you any good in the back row?
208:41:48 Weitz: Stand by, and I'll find out for you. [Pause.]
208:41:57 Weitz: 12, Houston. It was excellent data, Dick; best we've had yet.
208:43:58 Weitz: Hello, 12; Houston. If you'll give us Accept, we'll send up your state vector.
208:44:06 Gordon: Okay. Paul, I got a question on that.
208:44:14 Weitz: Go ahead.
208:44:15 Gordon: The other state vectors in there now from the - We have the state vectors in there now from the P23's yesterday, and the old descent state vector in the LM slot. Are they going to try and preserve the P23 stuff or just go right over it? Can you answer that for me?
208:44:33 Weitz: Okay. I'll get an answer for you, Dick.
208:45:46 Gordon: Houston, 12.
208:45:48 Weitz: Go ahead, 12.
208:45:51 Gordon: You ought to get started to working down there so we can schedule the water pumps to take care of midcourse's.
208:46:02 Weitz: Okay. We'll turn them to.
208:47:07 Weitz: Hello, 12; Houston. We can do it to preserve your P23 state vectors, Dick; and we can keep it in either slot you want.
208:47:20 Gordon: Well, it doesn't make any difference - however you like. You handle it from the ground; let me put it that way.
208:47:31 Weitz: Yes. Okay, we'll do that. They're working the procedures now; it's going to take a little longer for this uplink - about 5, 6 minutes.
208:47:42 Gordon: Okay. Well, call us when you're ready.
208:54:43 Weitz: Apollo 12, Houston. We're ready to uplink into the LM slot, Dick, and you can keep your P23 vector in the CSM slot.
208:54:54 Gordon: Very good. Go ahead.
208:54:58 Weitz: It's on the way. [Pause.]
208:55:07 Weitz: Oh, it's not on the way, it'll be a minute while we're switching antennas.
208:56:12 Weitz: 12, Houston. Now it's on its way.
208:56:17 Gordon: Okay. Thank you.
208:58:31 Weitz: 12, Houston. The computer's yours.
208:58:38 Gordon: Thank you.
209:29:57 Weitz: Apollo 12, Houston. You guys want some morning news?
209:30:03 Conrad: Yes, sir. Send up the morning news.
209:30:06 Weitz: Okay. First off, among the hundreds of suggestions received by NASA on how to apair - how to repair the Apollo 12 lunar camera was one calling for the use of a woman's hairpin. I don't know why you guys didn't think of that. From Washington, the...
209:30:26 Conrad: [Laughter] We didn't have the woman.
209:30:33 Weitz: [Laughter] I'll go on [laughter]. From Washington, the Senate...
209:30:36 Conrad: That stopped you cold, didn't it?
209:30:44 Conrad: We were looking, but we couldn't find one.
209:30:51 Weitz: Okay. From Washington, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee under Senator Fulbright has decided to go ahead with a series of hearings next month to help the administration determine just what is the wisest future procedure for ending the Vietnam war. Hearings will be confined to testimony on nine bills and resolutions introduced by both hawks and doves. In Saigon, guerrilla troops, I guess they're VC's, ambushed American troops for the fourth time this week, killing two GI's and wounding seven. Deputy Defence Secretary David Packard said that he's very concerned about our casualties and acknowledges U.S. Commanders are sending out smaller units on sweeps. In Los Angeles at the regional headquarters of the Alcoholism Council, a telephone installer exchanging phones answered a routine call from a council staff member. He pleaded with the guy, "You'd better get over here quickly, I've taken two calls and one sounded pretty desperate. I can't talk to you any longer, there's another call coming in." Out of Washington comes word that the new 400-passenger Jumbo jetliner will not bring immediate fare cuts until 1974 and beyond, according to a CAB staff study. The report cited two factors, the high cost of introducing the new airplane and the initial gap between the great number of seats and the amount of passenger traffic available. And from London comes word that a 21-year-old man crippled by polio when he was two, will walk across the United States next summer to raise money for charity. He did this in Great Britain last year and raised $4,800 by walking the length of Britain on crutches. Al, your ALSEP news - Not a whole lot to report this morning. The performance of the Central Station continues to be normal. The Passive Seismic is - They're trying to stop some long-period Z-axis oscillation. LSM is operating satisfactorily, as is the Solar Wind. The SIDE is still - got the high voltages off continuing to operate in the out-gas mode. And that's about it from here this morning.
209:33:41 Conrad: Roger. Thank you.
209:33:xx Gordon:Hey, we can entertain you with a little saucy [garble] fandango.
209:33:51 Weitz: Okay. Go ahead. We got your commercial this morning. [Pause.]
209:34:11 Conrad: Speedy Al's gone into the sleep mode to pass time; that's all he does these days is sleep. He's over in the corner sleeping now.
209:34:21 Weitz: Well, who's winding the victrola? It sounds like it's having a hard time running there.
209:34:28 Conrad: Listen, we're getting low on Bat power.
209:34:45 Conrad: That's our launch tape.
209:35:18 Weitz: Hey, Pete. Hold the mike a little closer. We're not reading it very well.
209:35:26 Weitz: There you go.
209:36:40 Conrad: Hey, Paul. We dedicate that song to Saturn 507.
209:36:45 Weitz: Okay. Duly noted.
209:36:52 Conrad: And the high tenor was sung by Al Bean.
209:36:55 Weitz: Yes. I was going to say, I thought you said he was sleeping.
209:37:01 Conrad: He gets up every once in a while.
209:37:06 Gordon: Okay, Paul. I have a question on this EMS entry test. We're on ground test pattern number 2 and I assume you want it run right on that one, and the same for the flight test patterns for entry?
209:37:20 Weitz: Okay. Stand by. Also, will you confirm your lithium hydroxide canister change?
209:37:29 Gordon: That's been done.
209:37:31 Weitz: Roger. Thank you. [Long pause.]
209:37:57 Weitz: 12, Houston. That's affirm, Dick. Run it on test pattern number 2.
209:38:06 Gordon: Okay. We're ready to do that now.
209:41:13 Gordon: Houston, 12.
209:41:15 Weitz: Go ahead, 12.
209:41:19 Gordon: The EMS checked out satisfactorily.
209:41:21 Weitz: Roger. Thank you, Dick.
209:47:13 Weitz: Hello, 12; Houston, Cliff Charlesworth and his Green Team, are going off for the last time. They said say "Hey" and they'll see you in Houston.
209:47:24 Conrad: Very good. We appreciate the fine descent.
209:47:29 Bean: Sure do. It was magnificent.
209:47:32 Weitz: They copied that.
209:47:40 Conrad: Yes. I was going to say, why don't you save that Flight Controllers' blast until after the eleventh of December? I'd sure like to be there.
209:47:48 Weitz: Okay. That's a promise.
This is Apollo Control, Houston;at 110 [means 210] hours, 16 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. At the present time, Apollo 12 is 135,659 nautical miles away from Earth. It's present velocity now reading 4,113 feet per second. The Mission Control Center in Houston, Pete Frank is now aboard as Flight Director and his team of Orange Flight Controllers with him at this time. The CapCom position is due to be filled very shortly by Ed Gibson, who is now in the control room and being relieved by Paul Weitz, who is currently on as Capsule Communicator. We're at 210 hours, 16 minutes into the flight, continuing to monitor; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
210:09:23 Conrad: Houston, you got those torquing angles?
210:09:26 Weitz: Roger. We got them.
210:09:30 Conrad: Okay. Very good.
This is Apollo Control Houston at 210 hours, 50 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. We presently show Apollo 12 with an altitude of 134,228 nautical miles above the Earth and with a velocity of 4,155 feet per second. Flight Director Pete Frank has been going around the Mission's Operations Control room consulting with each of his Flight Controllers and looking ahead planning for today's activities With the Apollo 12 crew. At the present time we're looking for 2 series of P23 navigational star sightings during the upcoming 8 hour shift and the test on the High Gain antenna very similar to that performed yesterday. We'll stand by and continue to monitor the air-to-ground loop and at 210 hours, 52 minutes into the flight, this is Apollo Control Houston.
210:27:35 Gordon: Houston, 12.
210:27:37 Gibson: 12, Houston. Go ahead.
210:27:41 Gordon: We commenced the Bat A charge at this time.
210:27:45 Gibson: Roger. Bat A.
210:27:52 Conrad: Morning, Ed.
210:27:55 Gibson: Morning, crew.
211:18:39 Conrad: Houston, 12.
211:18:41 Gibson: 12, Houston. Go ahead.
211:18:45 Conrad: In case you're watching the DSKY, it's a little OJT [on the job training] for Al, and we won't torque.
This is Apollo Control, Houston, at 211 hours, 19 minutes. That was Pete Conrad reporting that Al Bean is doing some on the job training with the computer. The DSKY, or display keyboard, presently shows them in Program 52 which is a platform alignment. And at this time we find Apollo 12 133,062 nautical miles away from Earth with a velocity reading of 4,189 feet per second. This is Apollo Control, Houston.
211:55:24 Gibson: Hello, Apollo 12; Houston.
211:55:28 Conrad: Go ahead, Houston.
211:55:30 Gibson: Say, 12, we've got a couple of points we'd like to talk over if you would - a few things on magazines, storage, and P23's. Have you got about l0 or 15 minutes?
211:55:42 Gibson: Okay. First of all, which magazine was used to photograph Fra Mauro on the LM activation day?
211:55:55 Conrad: Okay. Wait 1.
211:56:01 Gibson: And our second question related to that was - is - was this same magazine - Was this the same magazine which failed during the bootstrap photography?
211:56:12 Conrad: No. No, that - That we can answer. All of the magazines are marked what they are, and Dick doesn't remember offhand now which magazine he had Fra Mauro on during LM activation, but he's looking. Let's see. Maybe we have it in the Flight Plan.
211:56:35 Gibson: We've got some folks down here who are pretty interested in Fra Mauro.
211:56:42 Conrad: The Fra Mauro troops are in on Sunday, huh?
211:56:48 Gibson: They have no time limits.
211:56:57 Conrad: Who do you got down there? Captain Shaky?
211:57:02 Gibson: No, he's not down here now, but we got other folks pursuing it for him.
211:57:09 Conrad: Oh, I see. [Pause.] We'll get it for you in just a minute [garble], we got to do a little digging.
211:57:22 Gibson: Okay. Thank you, Pete. [Pause.]
211:57:34 Conrad: It's in magazine S.
211:57:37 Gibson: Magazine F. Thank you.
211:57:40 Conrad: That's the one - that's the one that called out for it, and that - that is the one that opened up on us.
211:57:53 Gibson: Okay. Understand. Magazine Foxtrot, and that is the one that opened up?
211:57:59 Conrad: No. It was Sugar, Sugar.
211:58:03 Gibson: Say again.
211:58:06 Conrad: This magazine's Sugar, Sierra.
211:58:12 Gibson: Okay. Understand. Fra Mauro is on Foxtrot and Sugar is the one that opened?
211:58:19 Gibson: Other way around?
211:58:20 Conrad: They're all on Sugar. They're all on Sugar, and Sugar is the magazine that opened up.
211:58:28 Gibson: Okay. Thank you.
211:58:32 Conrad: Now, we got Fra Mauro and Descartes and Lalande with 500-millimeter on another magazine also. That was the second trip around.
211:58:50 Gibson: Okay. Thank you, Pete.
211:58:51 Conrad: So somewhere along in there we'll get it. And I'm not - I'm not sure that all of magazine Sugar is ruined, by any means, but we just didn't want to take any chances.
This is Apollo Control, Houston. The gentleman referred to as Shakey...
211:59:14 Gibson: Okay, 12. One question which you might have to put a little thought in, and that is: What deviations from the entry stowage checklist had to be made in terms of pounds and location from - The folks down here, for re-entry purposes, would like to figure that out.
211:59:33 Conrad: Okay. We - we have stowed everything, as far as the boxes go, according to the Flight Plan. And let me mention a couple of boxes to you that have some gear in them that's not listed.
211:59:56 Conrad: In A-8, in the single garment LCG and [garble] kit, we have all that junk that we brought back from the LM. And now, what my suggestion is on the TV camera off the Surveyor and the extra rocks is to tie up in front of the L-shaped bag on the; floor in front of A-4 and A-5 rather than on the top of A-1 as it calls out in the Flight Plan.
212:00:35 Gibson: Okay, Pete. Do you have any sort of an estimate?
212:00:36 Conrad: And if you all could...
212:00:38 Gibson: Do you have an estimate of the number of pounds for those rocks?
212:00:44 Conrad: The rocks probably weigh 15 pounds.
212:00:54 Conrad: What they are is four large rocks.
212:00:57 Gibson: Those are the grapefruits?
212:01:01 Conrad: Yes. They're the grapefruits, all of them. They would - they would - not - None of those would fit in the - We didn't want to use up the room in the rock boxes for those big ones.
The gentleman referred to as Shaky is Jim Lovell who is not here at this time.
212:01:27 Gibson: Okay, Pete...
212:01:28 Conrad: Now, if it's okay with you, we would like to tie that Surveyor camera gear and all that stuff right in front of the L-shaped bag between it and A-4 and 5.
212:01:49 Gibson: Pete, let us run...
212:01:50 Conrad: Another thing is...
212:01:51 Gibson: ...that one down a little bit, and we'll be getting back to you.
212:01:55 Conrad: Okay. The other thing is we have the two lunar surface suits, Al's and mine, in the lower part of the L-shaped bag, and we have Dick's in the upper part. And what we intend to do, with your concurrence there, is to leave those two lunar suits in the lower part of the L-shaped bag, and we'll take Dick's out and tie it on top of A-1 , under the Commander's couch. I don't want to take those lunar suits out of the bags. They're so darned dirty that it's unbelievable.
212:02:30 Gibson: Okay, Pete.
212:02:38 Conrad: And that's it. We don't have any other gear. Everything's stashed where it belongs.
212:02:46 Gibson: Okay, Pete. Do you have any rocks underneath couches?
212:02:52 Conrad: Do we have any what?
212:02:54 Gibson: Do you have rocks stowed directly underneath couches? And, if so, we'd like to assure that you have at least a 3-inch clearance.
212:03:01 Conrad: No. No, we don't have rocks stored there. They're all in the Surveyor - in the big bag that has the Surveyor camera in it. The lunar tools and the extra bag of rocks are all in the - in the one big white bag, which we want to put down in front of A-4 and 5.
212:03:18 Gibson: Okay. And for that, you estimated the total weight of that bag is 15? Or was that only the rocks?
212:03:25 Conrad: That's only the rocks. That's got the camera - the Surveyor camera - and the lunar tools that we said we were bringing back.
212:03:37 Gibson: Okay. Thank you.
212:03:41 Gibson: Pete, is Dick on the line?
212:03:46 Gordon: Yes. I'm listening. Go ahead, Ed.
212:03:49 Gibson: Okay, Dick. One thing on the P23's, which we have done - and the ones coming up. The latest vector shows the angle Gamma of about minus 6.04, and that's based on 14 hours of unperturbed tracking after dumps, purges, and unbalance-couple P23's. Inaccuracies in our ground vector or trajectory perturbations could give us this angle. You have already demonstrated the extreme accuracy that you can get using two jets. To avoid trajectory perturbations and uncertainties in our ground vector, we would like you to use balance couples from here on for your P23s. Also, since the use of unbalance couples perturbs the state vector, as you have so accurately determined, it would be useful to see how accurately you can do the balance-couple P23s.
212:04:45 Gordon: That sounds like a pretty good speech.
212:04:51 Gibson: I've been working on it all morning.
Apollo 12 presently announced an altitude of 131,185 nautical miles. And with a velocity of 4,244 feet per second. This is...
212:06:05 Gibson: Dick, from your - from your brute silence, I can only conclude that you're working up a comparable speech.
212:06:14 Gordon: Yes. We'll do it. No. There's no question about that, Ed. We'll do it any way you want to. Sounds like GUIDO and FIDO are having at it again. Wait a minute. [Pause.]
That last bit of guidance passed out by CapCom, Ed Gibson, was to do the P23 navigation sighting with four quads and able.
212:07:12 Gibson: Say, Dick, a note from the trench, here. Don't put GUIDO in with the bad guys.
212:11:56 Gordon: Houston, Apollo 12. The position report: we're over 16 North, 144.97 West - correction, East.
212:12:09 Gibson: Roger. That looks good to us down hero.
212:12:15 Gordon: How could it be? That's with my bad state vector.
212:12:27 Gibson: I guess...
212:12:28 Conrad: Are you hitting the needle?
212:12:29 Gibson: I guess I'd better go back and work on that speech again.
212:12:45 Conrad: No, I think the only point that Dick was trying to make - and that's a very valid point - certainly it perturbs the vector, but the next series of marks takes out that perturbation from the previous set and so forth; and, if you're really doing your own Nav - navigate all the way down, almost to entry and that's what we're trying to prove. I think you all are worrying a little bit too much about preserving your own vector down there so far out. We all know that doing it with balance couples is going to make it ... and there are going to be poorer marks. And if I was coming home no Comm, my last worry would be perturbing my own state vector by a gnat's eyebrow, as long as I was going to continue those marks all the way down to just before re-entry.
212:13:34 Gibson: Okay. You really think using balance couples will degrade appreciably the marks you may be able to get?
212:13:43 Conrad: It does in the simulator, so we'll find out up here.
212:13:48 Gordon: Ed, that's a good point; we ought to look at it that way since I'll be doing it, and I'll be using the same techniques. I - I know it's going to be a lot harder to do, and it'll take a little longer, but maybe - maybe we can prove something by doing it that way. I think it's a good idea to look at it the other way, also.
212:14:06 Gibson: Okay. So far, the ones you've done on two quads look real good. You can get a job down here as a P23 instructor.
212:14:17 Gordon: Oh, no, I won't.
This is Apollo Control Houston at 212 hours, 39 minutes now into the flight. Our displays in Mission Control presently show Apollo 12 to be 129,817 nautical miles away from Earth. Apollo 12 now traveling at a speed of 4,285 feet per second. Relatively calm and quiet in the Mission Control Center, we've had no conversation with Apollo 12 for sometime, however we will keep the line up and will continue to monitor, this is Apollo Control Houston.
212:47:40 Gordon: Houston, 12.
212:47:44 Gibson: 12, Houston. Go ahead.
212:47:48 Gordon: Hey, Ed, I've just been thinking about the nasty accusations you people have been making about my unbalanced-couple minimum-impulse P23's, and gee whiz, I kind of think it's probably EECOM's water dumps that's doing all this to the state vectors.
212:48:09 Gibson: Just a minute, Dick; we've got EECOM and FIDO wrestling down in the trench. We'll get them apart and discuss it.
212:48:18 Gordon: No, you don't have to do that; I was just bugging you. Trying to find something in my defence. [Pause.]
212:48:30 Conrad: What he's telling you is he's getting lazy up here and he doesn't want to work today.
212:48:34 Gibson: Yes. But the people down here are talking a lot about dumps we've been having. Maybe that could do it.
This is Apollo Control Houston at 213 hours, 14 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. Apollo 12 presently 128,356 nautical miles away from Earth, velocity now reading at 4,329 feet per second. We've been watching on our displays Dick Gordon performing a navigational star-sighting program aboard the spacecraft. We've had no conversation with the crew during this period of the past several minutes. We'll stand by and continue to monitor this report. We're at 213 hours, 15 minutes and this is Apollo Control Houston.
213:17:44 Gordon: Houston, you getting all this good data?
213:17:49 Gibson: We sure are.
213:20:10 Gordon: Hello, Houston; Apollo 12. No star for this particular one.
213:20:21 Gordon: That star 204?
213:20:23 Gibson: Roger, 204. We have an alternate star for you here. Star 125, near, and we'll have the unit vectors for you and Noun 88 when you're ready to copy.
213:20:34 Gordon: Okay. Just stand by.
213:20:54 Gordon: Go ahead, Houston.
213:20:55 Gibson: 125 is the star; unit vectors Noun in 88 are as follows: minus 0.25472, minus 0.78647, minus 0.56266.
213:21:25 Gordon: All right, Houston; this is 12. Understand star - star 125, minus 0.25472, minus 0.78647, minus 0.56266. That Charlie?
213:21:37 Gibson: That's Charlie, and the magnitude of that is 2.4.
213:21:43 Gordon: Okay. Was 204 pretty close to the Sun or about 20 degrees, maybe?
213:21:53 Gibson: That's affirmative. Shaft line is about 6 degrees from the Sun.
213:24:03 Gordon: Hello, Houston. I still don't have a star.
213:24:10 Gibson: Okay, Dick. Stand by. Okay, Dick; let's' try star 24, far, and you have the unit vectors on board. That's a 2.8 magnitude.
213:24:18 Gordon: That was star 24. That's okay; I don't need the vector for it. Star 24 was far horizon?
213:24:32 Gibson: Affirmative.
213:34:07 Gordon: Houston, this is 12. A comment on that first mark: I was a little deep into the horizon on that one. I think that's why it came out of that Delta-R.
213:34:20 Gibson: Roger, Pete.
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 213 hours, 35 minutes into the flight. The conversation you hear discussions from Dick Gordon and Ed Gibson at Mission Control are all concerned with the Program 23 navigational star sighting effort that Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon, is involved with at this point in the mission. We presently show Apollo 12 at 127,460 nautical miles from Earth. They are traveling at 4,356 feet per second. This is Apollo Control, Houston.
213:45:44 Gordon: Hello, Houston; 12.
213:45:48 Gibson: 12, Houston. Go ahead.
213:45:52 Gordon: Ed, I went back to look at 204 again, and every now and then I can't pick up the star. It's so dim that I'm trying to move it out of the horizon I or move it at all. I lose it in the field of view, so I really can't use it for a P23.
213:46:10 Gibson: Roger, Dick. That star - star 125 is really 15 degrees.
213:46:12 Gordon: [Garble].
213:46:13 Gibson: ...star shaft angle from the line of sight of the Sun. I think we quoted your figure as 6.
213:46:25 Gordon: Okay. Then, I still can't see it. I'm going back and do - give you another trunnion - or optics Cal trunnion bias.
213:46:40 Gibson: Dick, say again. We didn't copy your last comment.
213:46:44 Gordon: Going to go back and get you an optics Cal.
213:49:20 Gordon: Okay, Houston. There you are. [Long pause.]
213:49:36 Gibson: Okay, Dick. Thanks very much. It looks good. Would you hold this attitude for about another 2 minutes while we finish up on the tape dump?
213:49:47 Gordon: Sure will. We're getting ready to maneuver to the High Gain antenna test attitude, but we'll wait.
This is Apollo Control Houston at 213 hours and 50 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. Presently, Apollo 12 at 126,846 nautical miles away from Earth, and velocity now reads 4,376 feet per second. As you heard, Dick Gordon talking on the loop, Apollo 12 is nearing completion of its first set of navigational star sightings and we'll shortly pick up the High Gain antenna test. Meanwhile in the Mission Control Center, the recovery staff support room has recommended to the Flight Director that the USS Austin, in the Atlantic, be released. The Flight Director, Pete Frank, has concurred with this. We are at 213 hours and 51 minutes into the flight and this is Apollo Control Houston.
213:56:55 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston. We have the switch configuration for the S-band test.
213:57:06 Gordon: Go ahead. We're ready to copy.
213:57:09 Gibson: Okay. It's the same configuration, which we went through yesterday. If you still have that, it's good; if not, I'll read it up to you again.
213:57:21 Gordon: Ed, I think we still have it, but go ahead and read it and we'll do it as you read it.
213:57:24 Gibson: Okay. S-Band Transponder to Primary, S-Band Aux to Tape.
213:57:35 Gibson: Tape Recorder, PCM/Analog; Tape Recorder, Record; S-Band Antenna, High Gain; High Gain Antenna Power, On; High Gain Antenna Servo Electronics, Primary.
213:58:05 Gordon: Okay. We're - we're all there except - we're all there except for the Servo Electronics to Primary, and I'm in the Secondary Transponder and going to Primary Transponder at this time. [Long pause.]
213:58:44 Gordon: Hello, Houston; Apollo 12.
213:58:45 Gibson: 12, go ahead.
213:58:50 Gordon: Houston, 12.
213:58:57 Gibson: Apollo 12, go ahead.
213:59:01 Gordon: Roger. We're all set now. We've got the Transponder in Primary; S-Band Aux is to Tape; PCM/Analog to Record; I'm not yet to Forward; High Gain Power and the Servo Electronics in Primary.
213:59:22 Gordon: And are you going to - are you going to run the tape?
213:59:29 Gibson: Dick, we'll be running the tape if we come up with a problem. But we'll have it - We'll be asking you to turn it on when we develop a problem.
213:59:45 Gordon: Okay. Fine; understand. And we're in Low Bit Rate. You want Low or High Bit Rate?
213:59:54 Gibson: High Bit Rate.
213:59:58 Gordon: Okay. All set.
214:00:42 Gordon: Houston, 12.
214:00:45 Gibson: 12, Houston. Go ahead.
214:00:48 Gordon: Roger, Ed. While we're in this attitude, we can run the same test with our GDC as we ran yesterday for you. The difference is that we're using the rate 1 needles at this - rate 1 package at this time for the GDC, and it seems to be just as bad as the rate 2 system, so if you want to, we can give you the same check.
214:01:10 Gibson: Okay. Let's go ahead with that, Dick. We're ready to copy.
214:01:15 Gordon: Okay. We're just going to - we're aligning the GDC at this time.
214:03:33 Conrad: Okay, Houston. We aligned it in roll 049.4, pitch is 000.9, and yaw is 068.6.
214:03:55 Gibson: Roger, 12. Copy 049.4, 000.9, and 068.6.
214:11:35 Gibson: 12, Houston.
214:11:40 Gibson: Would you put the Attitude Set switch to the GDC position?
214:11:49 Gibson: Thank you.
214:13:38 Conrad: Houston, 12.
214:13:41 Gibson: 12, Houston. Go ahead.
214:13:45 Conrad: I was just going to mention that we've gotten up to 60 on the glycol evap temp, but I see it's starting back down now that we've got tailpipe to the Sun. I'll just leave them alone. We're quite comfortable.
214:14:00 Gibson: Roger, Pete.
Apollo Control Houston at 214 hours, 15 minutes into the flight. Apollo 12 now at 125,789 nautical miles of altitude above the Earth, presently traveling at 4,409 feet per second. At this time, Apollo 12 is proceeding with the High Gain antenna test, the test to place the spacecraft in attitude hold to obtain the maximum heating effect on the antenna. We'll stand by and continue to monitor. This is Apollo Control Houston.
214:39:59 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston.
214:40:03 Conrad: Go ahead.
214:40:06 Gibson: Could we, get another reading on those GDC angles? And then after that, we'd like to propose another method in order to get a little more accuracy. One of the problems we're having is, when the yaw angle gets over 60 degrees, we get a lot of coupling with the other axes, and it's difficult for us to sort it out and get a good hack on what the drift rates really are. If you give us those...
214:40:28 Conrad: That's true.
214:40:30 Gibson: Okay. If you could give us those readouts now, and, then afterwards, align the - you can use the align - the attitude set to 000, using the thumbwheel.
214:40:42 Conrad: Okay. [Long pause.]
214:41:22 Conrad: Okay, Houston. The roll is 051.1, pitch is 358.7, and yaw is 069.3.
214:41:39 Gibson: Roger. 051.1, 358.7, 069.3. Thank you. [Long pause.]
214:42:12 Conrad: Wait a minute, Houston; we used the wrong numbers.
214:42:17 Gibson: Roger. Standing by.
214:43:41 Conrad: Okay, Houston. The angles are 052.4, 003.8, 071.0.
214:43:58 Gibson: Roger. 052.4, 003.8, 071.0.
214:44:09 Conrad: That's right.
214:45:08 Conrad: Okay. We aligned at 000.
214:45:11 Gibson: Roger, Pete. Thank you.
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 214 hours, 45 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. Apollo 12 continuing to accelerate in its trip towards Earth. Velocity now reading 440 or 449 feet per second, no 4,449 feet per second, correction. And at a present altitude of 124,483 nautical miles above the earth. This is Apollo Control, Houston.
This is Apollo Control Houston at 215 hours, 07 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. At the present time, the Apollo 12 spacecraft is 123,571 nautical miles away from Earth, currently traveling at a rate of speed of 4,478 feet per second. We've had no recent contact, or no contact for the past several minutes with Apollo 12. However, the crew of Apollo 12 are continuing with their test involving the High Gain antenna. We're at 215 hours, 08 minutes into the flight, and this is Apollo Control Houston.
215:09:05 Conrad: Houston, 12.
215:09:08 Gibson: 12, Houston. Go ahead.
215:09:15 Conrad: About 3, 4 days ago, I guess, our number 1 urine filter stopped flowing, so we switched filters; and our number 2 filter just quit flowing, so we're dumping without any filter, and I wondered how long that's going to work. Any good words about that?
215:09:36 Gibson: Stand by, Pete. We'll try to get some for you.
215:13:15 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston.
215:13:19 Gordon: Go ahead.
215:13:21 Gibson: 12, would you start a battery B charge, and also give us a readout of the battery manifold pressure?
215:13:29 Gordon: Okay. [Long pause.]
215:13:38 Gordon: 4-A battery manifold reads 1.5.
215:13:44 Gibson: Thank you.
Apollo Control Houston at 215 hours, 35 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. The Apollo 12 Spacecraft continuing to progress down its path towards Earth. Presently 122,358 nautical miles away traveling at a speed of 4,517 feet per second. This is Apollo Control Houston.
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 216 hours, 5 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. Apollo 12 presently 121,046 nautical miles away from Earth. Coming in now at a speed of 4,559 feet per second. Capsule Communicator, Ed Gibson, has not contacted the Apollo 12 crew. Since our last report the crew is continuing with its - with the High Gain antenna test aboard the spacecraft. We're at 216 hours, 6 minutes into the flight and continuing to monitor.
216:06:29: [Music - "Sugar Sugar" Archies]
216:07:02 Gibson: 12, we have a little more endurance than that. [Pause.]
216:07:33 Conrad: It's R&R time aboard the Clipper. [Pause.]
That was Pete Conrad reporting rest and recreation time aboard the Yankee Clipper.
216:07:54 Gibson: 12, do you have the sequence camera going?
216:08:01 Gordon: Negative. [Long pause.]
216:08:33 Gordon: What's the movie tonight in the wardroom?
216:08:38 Gibson: Dick, say again.
216:08:43 Gordon: What's the flick in the wardroom tonight? [Long pause.]
216:09:13 Gibson: Dick, we've got one called "Lost in Space" or "After P23's."
216:09:23 Gordon: Are you giving me a - Are you sending me a message?
216:09:33 [Music- "Hey, Little Woman".]
P23 is the star sighting navigation program. You heard that rather light hearted exchange.
216:10:17 Gordon: Ken, are you telling me that MSFN's vector's the same degree as mine?
216:10:24 Gibson: Dick, we're trying to shape up the MSFN vector now.
216:10:29 Gordon: Okay. [Long pause.]
That music being piped in to the Mission Control Center courtesy of Yankee Clipper.
216:11:24 Gibson: Dick, was that meant to be post-TLI music?
216:11:31 Gordon: Well, yes, you might say that.
216:11:36 Gibson: I hope it's not post-TEI.
216:11:37 Gordon: This isn't too bad right now. Well, it's not too bad right now. I guess it depends on where the song originates, huh? [Pause.]
216:22:12 Gibson: Apollo 12. Tape Recorder to Forward and Wide Beam width.
216:22:21 Gordon: Roger. Forward, Wide Beam width. [Long pause.]
216:22:38 Gordon: It takes almost 10 hours to start - 2 hours to start that up, doesn't it?
216:22:46 Gibson: It took a little longer time this time. [Long pause.]
216:23:19 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston. Could we have the readouts of the AGC and the antenna pitch and yaw angles?
216:23:29 Gordon: Okay. Pitch is about minus 20 degrees, yaw is 190, and the AGC on European clock code for 12 o'clock, it's about - l45; in other words, I'd estimate about three-quarter full scale.
216:23:54 Gibson: Roger. Understand. Pitch, minus 20; yaw, 190; and AGC, 45, or about three-quarters scale. Thank you, Dick.
Apollo Control, Houston. This discussion between Ed Gibson and Dick Gordon on procedures and readings is concerned with the High Gain antenna test that's still in progress. We're at 216 hours, 24 minutes into the flight. We presently show Apollo 12 at an altitude of 120,193 nautical miles above Earth, and with a velocity of 4,587 feet per second.
216:25:16 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston.
216:25:20 Gordon: Go ahead.
216:25:26 Gibson: 12, we'd like you to, first of all, dial in a pitch of minus 60, yaw, 240; and, then on our call, switch the High Gain antenna to Manual mode and then to Reacq. And we'll give you a call when we want you to go to Manual.
216:25:50 Gordon: Okay. I've got minus 60 and 240 already set up. Waiting for your call.
216:27:13 Gibson: Apollo 12, will you go to Manual mode and then Reacq?
216:27:20 Gordon: Okay. In Manual - going to [garble].
216:27:48 Gibson: Apollo 12, would you again give us the readings of the AGC and antenna pitch and yaw?
216:27:56 Gordon: Roger. It's the same as before, Ed. Minus 20, 190, and about three-quarter full scale.
216:28:04 Gibson: Roger, Dick. [Long pause.]
216:28:41 Gibson: Apollo 12, would you switch the High Gain to Narrow Beam? And we'll give you a call in 30 seconds and ask you to read out the same quantities.
216:28:51 Gordon: Roger. On Narrow Beam. [Pause.]
216:29:08 Gordon: Okay, Ed. Pitch looks like it's about minus 12, yaw is 180, and the AGC peaked in when I switched to Narrow and it's dropped off now to three-quarter full scale.
216:29:28 Gibson: Roger. Understand. Minus 12, 180, and AGC peaked and now at three-quarter scale.
216:30:54 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston. Do you observe the antenna still oscillating?
216:31:07 Gordon: [Garble] straight. Ken, but it's gone up by about five-sixths, and the antenna position angles are pitch, minus 20, and yaw, 190.
216:31:22 Gibson: Roger. We copied pitch, minus 20, and yaw, 190; and - do you see any oscillations at all?
216:31:35 Gordon: No, I don't see any at all right now.
216:31:38 Gibson: Thank you, Dick. [Long pause.]
216:32:12 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston. Could we have the GDC angles?
216:32:21 Gordon: They are the same, Ed; minus 20 and 190.
216:32:26 Gibson: Dick, right now we're looking for the GDC angles -We're finished now with the High Gain test.
216:32:31 Gordon: Oh, I'm sorry - I mis - misunderstood you, and we'll give them to you real quick here. I think we've got a better GDC on the number 1 package than we had with the number 2.
This is Apollo Control Houston at 216 hours, 33 minutes into the flight. The Apollo 12 crew, specifically Dick Gordon in this case...
216:33:12 Gordon: Okay, Ed. Roll is 5.8, pitch is 6.7, and yaw is 6.1.
216:33:21 Gibson: Copy. 5.8, 6.7, and 6.1.
216:33:33 Gordon: That's Charlie.
216:33:38 Gibson: 12, we can go now to the P23 attitude, but we'd like you to roll 180 from that attitude for thermal reasons.
216:33:53 Gibson: And would you - Be sure that you are manually maneuvered away from gimbal lock.
216:34:02 Gordon: You bet.
This is Apollo Control Houston - Apollo 12...
216:36:24 Gibson: 12, Houston. Would you give us S-Band Aux to Off and Tape Recorder to 0ff?
This is Apollo Control Houston. Apollo 12 presently 119,733 nautical miles away from Earth, velocity now 4,602 feet per second.
216:36:35 Gordon: You got it.
This last call up concluding the High Gain antenna test. We are at 216 hours, 37 minutes into the flight of Apollo 12.
216:46:36 Gordon: Hello, Houston; Apollo 12.
216:46:39 Gibson: 12, Houston. Go ahead.
216:46:42 Gordon: Hey, what'd you learn from that High Gain antenna test?
216:46:48 Gibson: Stand by, Dick.
216:50:26 Gibson: 12, Houston.
216:50:32 Gordon: Go ahead.
216:50:34 Gibson: Okay, 12. We have a recommendation on the use of that system without the filter. First of all, we recommend you continue to use the overboard line without the filter, and it's possible it may clog. If so, we'll have you dump the waste water down to some quantity, which we'll specify at that time. After that, you can install the interconnect line and use the system as before. The interconnect procedure, you'll find on ECS 31.
216:51:09 Gordon: 12. Roger.
216:51:36 Gibson: And, 12, one note on the stowage configuration which you specified earlier. That configuration looks to be a good one from our standpoint. We would like to make sure we understand it as you do. We understand you've got the Surveyor parts bag, rocks, and tools all in one large white bag, and that is on the floor in front of the L-shaped bag. And between it and A-4...
216:52:04 Conrad: That's where it is.
216:52:06 Gibson: Okay. And that's between it and A-4, A-5, and that this bag is tied down.
216:52:11 Conrad: That's correct.
216:52:12 Gibson: Okay. Your LM gear is in A-8...
216:52:15 Conrad: It's not there right now, Ed.
216:52:17 Gibson: Okay. But that's where you plan to have it.
216:52:20 Conrad: That - That's right.
216:52:21 Gibson: Okay. LM gear is in A-8 - and Dick's PGA under A-1?
216:52:31 Conrad: That's correct.
216:52:34 Gibson: Okay. It's a good way to go.
216:52:41 Gordon: Hey, Ed. What page did you say this interconnect was on the...
216:52:47 Gibson: That's ECS Mal 31.
216:52:48 Gordon: ...What number?
216:52:50 Gibson: ECS Mal 31.
216:52:52 Gordon: Okay. Now, is this - Okay; got it, 31? Is this doping the waste water through the hatch?
216:53:00 Gibson: Negative, Dick. Stand by. [Long pause.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at...
216:53:50 Gordon: Houston, this is 12. We understand what you're talking about okay - on the waste water.
216:53:59 Gibson: Okay, Dick. That's the first procedure stuff defined on that page.
216:54:04 Gordon: Yes. We understand it.
Apollo Control, Houston. 216 hours, 54 minutes now into the flight. Apollo 12 presently at an altitude of 118,870 nautical miles above the Earth. Traveling at a speed of 46,030 feet per second. This is Apollo Control, Houston.
217:00:24 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston.
217:00:28 Gordon: Go ahead.
217:00:29 Gibson: The drift rates you got on package 1 were 3.7 degrees in all axes. We'll be sitting in this attitude here for - on the order of 45 minutes to an hour. Why don't we go ahead and take a look at package 2 in the same way as we did package 1?
217:00:49 Gordon: Okay. It's a good idea. Are you saying also we're delaying the P23's for another hour or so?
217:00:56 Gibson: That's affirmative.
217:00:59 Gordon: Okay. That's fine with me. Yes. We're not going to go anywhere; we'll be here.
217:01:15 Gordon: Okay...
217:01:16 Gordon: Mark it.
217:01:17 Gordon: The GDC is aligned on package 2.
217:01:23 Gibson: Roger, Dick. Thank you.
217:01:25 Gordon: On package number - package number 2.
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 217 hours and 6 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. The Yankee Clipper is presently 118,334 nautical miles now from Earth. Velocity now reading 4,648 feet per second. We're somewhere more than 30 minutes away from the start of our second set of navigational star sightings which will be performed by Dick Gordon on the Yankee Clipper. Meanwhile since the Apollo 12 spacecraft will remain in an attitude hold for this period of time that last message passed up by Ed Gibson indicates that they will run a drift rate check on the BMAG package of BMAG standing for Body Mounted Attitude Gyros, one of two packages in the stabilization and control system aboard Apollo 12. We're at 217 hours, 7 minutes into the flight, and this is Apollo Control, Houston.
217:19:10 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston.
217:19:15 Gordon: Go ahead, Houston.
217:19:18 Gibson: 12, we'd like you to take the waste water dump to 30 percent at the present time. Your P23 can then be done at 218:30 where we - where it should be clear for the sightings. And also, our temperatures will come back to where we like to see them, and the second set of P23's can he done at 220 hours even.
217:20:06 Gordon: Okay. I understand. Take the waste water and dump it right now to 30 percent. The second set of P23's, do those at 218:30 and the third set as in the Flight Plan at 220. Is that affirmative?
217:20:23 Gibson: That's affirmative, Dick. And you have the attitudes for those on board.
217:20:31 Gordon: Yes, I sure do. And for my information, on the waste water dump to 30 percent, will that give us our 80 percent for re-entry tomorrow?
217:20:44 Gibson: That's affirmative, Dick; that's what we're looking for.
217:20:48 Gordon: Okay. This should be our last one on the waste water then, is that right?
217:20:51 Gibson: That's right.
Apollo Control, Houston at 217 hours, 21 minutes now into the flight. That was Ed Gibson, Capsule Communicator in Mission Control Center, updating Dick Gordon as to Ground Elapsed Times for his navigational star sighting. Presently we show Apollo 12 at 117,652 nautical miles away from Earth and traveling at a speed of 46,071 feet per second. This is Apollo Control, Houston.
217:34:20 Gibson: Hello, Apollo 12; Houston.
217:34:23 Gordon: Hello: Houston; Apollo 12.
217:34:27 Gibson: Say, 12, you can go ahead and carry out a fuel cell O
2 purge for 2 minutes at the present time. You won't have to do an H
2 purge either now, nor before re-entry. This ought to group together all of the perturbations and also will be that last of any dumps or purges that will he required by us. This will make one big happy FIDO down here and ought to just cut down and - or eliminate anything else we'll require from you.
217:35:03 Gordon: Okay. We'll purge the fuel cells of oxygen for 2 minutes on each one. And I'm glad to see you; have a very happy FIDO then.
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 217 hours, 38 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. The Yankee Clipper heading home presently 116,885 nautical miles away from Earth traveling at a speed of 4,697 feet per second. The Apollo 12 crew presently performing 2 items, the waste water dump and fuel cell purge; and as was described by CapCom, Ed Gibson, these should be the last of these kinds of activities prior to return. We presently show we're 26 hours, 43 minutes away from time of entering into the Earth's atmosphere, and this is Apollo Control, Houston.
217:45:13 Gibson: Apollo 12, Houston.
217:45:20 Gordon: 12 here.
217:45:21 Gibson: Dick, we'd like you to go to Bravo-Delta roll in the DAP, and we have an RCS consumables update for you when you're ready to copy.
217:45:35 Gordon: Okay. Let me get the PAD first.
217:46:23 Gordon: Okay, Ed. Go ahead.
217:46:25 Gibson: Okay. GET 217 plus 30; RCS total, 29; 31, 31, 24, 30.
217:46:45 Gordon: Roger, Ed [garble] 217, 30, 29 total, 31, 31, 24, 30.
217:46:52 Gibson: That's Charlie. And, Dick, on the P23's which you're doing at 217; before you reported you had a problem with star 204, which is your third star listed there, we would like you to take and try 125 over again in its place. That should be about 0.7 magnitude brighter relative than 204. You have the unit vectors for that already; they were read up, or you could find them on page 3-188 on the Flight Plan.
217:47:27 Gordon: Okay. I already have them. It is interesting that I couldn't see star 125 before either.
217:47:36 Gibson: Okay, Dick. if you would, give it a try again this time and if it won't work, we'll have another star ready for you.
217:47:42 Gordon: Okay. I'll be glad to. [Long pause.]
217:48:27 Gordon: Houston, 12. Was that far horizon or near horizon on 125?
217:48:33 Gibson: 125 is near.
217:48:43 Gordon: Okay. Near. Thank you. [Long pause.]
217:53:12 Gibson: Hello, 12; Houston. We have a preliminary result of your high gain test.
217:53:20 Conrad: Okay. Go ahead.
217:53:22 Gibson: The up - and downlink RF signal strength decreased by approximately 10 to 12 dB. The data does not show that the beam switching occurred during the problem period. The onboard antenna does show the - the antenna would move off boresight as though it was tracking and nulling a false error. The tentative conclusion is that since the antenna would operate in the Wide Beam in Reacq in Narrow Beam, Manual, it appears that the boresight shift is caused by a loss of anteana feed or a comparator circuitry in the Narrow Beam mode - the strip lines- The High Gain antenna malfunction has been isolated to the High Gain antenna RF area, thereby eliminating the High Gain antenna, the electronic box, and the S-band transponder. The problem appears to be associated with the dynamic thermal operation of the antenna.
217:54:16 Conrad: Thank you.
Apollo Control Houston at 217 hours, 54 minutes now into the flight. That was Ed Gibson passing on the preliminary reading on the High Gain antenna test that has taken place in each of the last 2 days. That was Pete Conrad responding. We are now 116,142 nautical miles away from earth, Apollo 12. And Apollo 12 shows a velocity of 47,022 feet per second at this time. This is Apollo Control Houston.
218:07:34 Gordon: Houston, 12.
218:07:38 Gibson: 12, Houston. Go ahead.
218:07:41 Gordon: Hey, Ed, what did the boys in the back room say about that first set today of P23's?
218:07:49 Gibson: Stand by on that, Dick, and we'll try and get a word up to you.
218:08:14 Gibson: It's going to take a little while to get a speech together on this one, Dick.
218:08:19 Gordon: Say again.
218:08:22 Gibson: It will take to get - a little while to get a a comparable speech to the last one together.
218:08:28 Gordon: Don't worry about that, just a good, bad, or indifferent, or usable. I don't want any speeches from you, Ed. Conrad's giving them all up here.
218:12:31 Gibson: Hello, Dick; Houston.
218:12:36 Gibson: Dick, the sightings themselves that you took were very good in terms of procedures and, from what we could tell, the accuracy. When you incorporated them into the state vector, however, we did see a raise in the vacuum perigee of about 6 miles.
218:13:05 Gordon: Where - What did this bring it up to, Ed, about 30 miles?
218:13:16 Gibson: Dick, that moves us up to about 27 miles.
218:13:21 Gordon: Okay. [Long pause.]
218:14:20 Gordon: Ed, my onboard perigee is 23.2 miles.
218:14:26 Gibson: Copy. You have 23.2 miles.
218:14:31 Gordon: That's out of a Verb 32 - That's a negative value, of course.
218:16:11 Gibson: Dick, at this time, you can maneuver to the P23 attitude; and - First, however, we would like those drift check numbers. You can start those P23's if it's - the atmosphere around the spacecraft looks sufficiently clear to take sightings.
218:16:28 Gordon: Okay. [Long pause.]
218:16:54 Conrad: Okay, Ed. They are 3.1, 7.0, and 8.3, roll, pitch, and yaw.
218:17:05 Gibson: Thank you, Pete. That's 3.1, 7.0 and 8.3.
218:17:12 Conrad: That's correct.
This is Apollo Control Houston at 218 hours 18 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. Apollo 12 will be maneuvering now shortly to its attitude to perform the navigational star sightings, this done by Dick Gordon, Command Module pilot. We presently show Apollo 12 at an altitude of 115,085 nautical miles above the Earth and with a velocity reading 4,758 feet per second. This is Apollo Control Houston.
218:28:31 Gibson: 12, Houston.
218:28:36 Conrad: Go ahead.
218:28:38 Gibson: Your package 2 drift weights were roll, 1.9; pitch, 5.9; and yaw, 6.8. We've been able -We've calculated your vacuum perigee using your state vector as a value of plus 18.6, and a re-entry angle of minus 6.63. Using our state vector, we get a value of plus 27 nautical miles and the angle of 6.01.
218:29:23 Gibson: And, Pete, if you would, would you have Al check his leads on the EKG when convenient? We're not getting a valid EKG reading down here.
218:29:34 Conrad: I'm not sure he's alive. He only comes out every once in a while for a meal.
218:29:44 Gibson: Well, we want to watch him, too.
218:29:49 Conrad: Will you let me know what he's doing?
218:29:58 Gibson: Well, okay. Go ahead.
218:30:04 Conrad: How's that look, Ed?
218:30:08 Gibson: Stand by. [Long pause.]
218:30:21 Gordon: Houston, 12. I have no star for the number 1 star.
218:30:32 Gibson: Roger, Dick. We've got another star here, that's 156, and you can find the unit vectors for that on page 3-188 on your Flight Plan.
218:30:52 Gordon: Star number is 156?
218:30:55 Gibson: Affirmative.
218:31:22 Gibson: And, Pete, we're still getting some noisy readings from Al's EKG. If you would, ask him to check them again and, if they appear unchanged or loose, then we'd like him to go ahead and rebond them.
218:31:40 Bean: Okay. I just checked them, Ed, and they seem to be okay to me. Is this the same kind of erratic ratings we were getting just prior to going into the LM, or do you think it's some - do you think it's a sensor problem? Do you think it's something - connector problem or something?
218:31:57 Gibson: It looks to be exactly the same as we've noted before, and we think it's a connection problem. [Pause.]
218:32:21 Gibson: Al, clarification on that, it's a connection of the sensor to your skin as opposed to the other connector.
218:32:33 Bean: Roger. [Long pause.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 218 hours, 33 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 12. Earlier in that conversation you heard Ed Gibson compare onboard and ground navigational readings with Apollo 12. Looking at the present track being made from the moon by Apollo 12, Flight Director, Pete Frank, has indicated that - that it will not be necessary to perform Midcourse Correction Number 6. We presently show Apollo 12 traveling at a speed of 4,783 feet per second and presently at an altitude of 114,368 nautical miles less than 4,000 nautical miles away now from that point of equal distance between tile Earth and Moon. That distance being...
218:33:51 Gordon: Okay, Houston. This is 12. I still don't have a star. 156 is no good either.
218:34:02 Gibson: Okay, Dick. Last one we have worked up down here is 174 and you car, find the state - unit vectors for that on the same page, 188 in your Flight Plan.
...That distance being 10,904 nautical miles. You heard Dick Gordon preparing to begin Program 23 a navigational star sightings. We're 218 hours, 35 minutes into the flight of Apollo 12 and this is Apollo Control, Houston.
218:36:46 Gordon: Houston, you'll be happy to hear I have a star this time.
218:36:51 Gibson: Good show, Dick.
218:39:42 Bean: Houston, Apollo 12.
218:39:44 Gibson: 12, go ahead.
218:39:47 Bean: I just took a look at my Biomed harness and, sure enough, the very same sensor is dried out again, the paste in there. And I'm not able to ease it out this time to replace it with new paste, so what I'm going to do is take off my old bio harness and put on a brand new one, if that's okay with you.
218:40:09 Gibson: Roger. That's very good. We'll have a happy surgeon if you do that.
218:40:13 Bean: Okay. Well, tell him I'm going to take them off, and it'll take me about 30 minutes or an hour to do it.
218:40:21 Gibson: That's great, Al; press on.
Apollo Control Houston. That was Al Bean reporting that he would be switching to a new biomedical harness. The happy surgeon in Mission Control at this time is Dr. John Zieglschmid. We are at 218 hours, 41 minutes into the flight and this is Apollo Control Houston.
218:45:46 Gordon: Houston, 12. No star.
218:45:53 Gibson: I read you, Dick. Let's go to 26-F.
219:04:53 Gordon: Okay, Houston. There you are.
219:05:00 Gibson: Roger, Dick. We have it. You can remain at that Optics Cal attitude until your next set of P23's coming up in about 1 hour.
219:05:10 Gordon: Okay. Fine. Thank you. [Long pause.]
219:05:19 Gordon: How about the stars for that next one? Looks like we already got some bad ones we know about.
219:05:28 Gordon: Roger, Dick. We see that. We're working on some, and we'll pass then up to you shortly.
219:05:34 Gordon: Okay. [Long pause.]
This is Apollo Control Houston at 219 hours and 6 minutes into the flight of Apollo 12. The Yankee Clipper presently at 112,870 nautical miles away from the Earth, and traveling at a speed of 4,803.6 feet per second. In Mission Control Center, we are now in the process of undergoing a Change Of Shift.
219:06:14 Gibson: 12, Houston. You can terminate Batt B charge now.
219:06:21 Gordon: Roger. [Long pause.]
Flight Director Pete Frank, will soon be replaced by Flight Director Gerry Griffin. The Capsule Communicator for the Gold Team coming on will be Astronaut Jerry Carr. We're at 219 hours, 7 minutes in the flight and this is Apollo Control Houston.
219:07:09 Gibson: 12, could we have a readout of the battery manifolds before you vent?
219:07:21 Gordon: Houston, it's 1.2, and we're going to vent it.
219:07:24 Gibson: Thank you.
219:09:48 Gibson: Hello, Dick; Houston.
219:09:54 Gibson: That last set of P23's moved us in the right direction; looks as though your vacuum perigee now is 23.4 from using your onboard state vector and re-entry angle of minus 6.28. So we're - looks as though that set of P23's is giving us good agreement between MSFN and your onboard value.
This is Apollo Control at 219 hours, 25 minutes. Apollo 12 is 111,953 nautical miles from Earth. Velocity 4,868 feet per second, spacecraft weight 25,036 pounds.
219:33:04 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. Give us Wide Beam width, please.
219:33:10 Conrad: Roger. Good morning, Jerry.
219:33:12 Carr: How you doing?
219:33:14 Bean: Where've you been all day. Watching the football game?
219:33:17 Carr: Yes. You better believe it.
219:33:21 Bean: Which one did you watch?
219:33:25 Carr: I just saw the Oilers getting started with Miami. They're tied right now, 7 to 7. Oh, it's 10 to 7 now; and I'm kind of waiting for the Rams and the Cowboys to get started a little later. Be starting in about 2-1/2 or an hour and a half from now.
219:33:40 Bean: Very good.
This is Apollo Control at 219 hours, 47 minutes. We're about 20 seconds away from the time Apollo 12 will be equidistant from the Moon and from the Earth. [garbled] 219 hours, 47 minutes, 40 seconds. Apollo 12's distance from the Earth, 110,154 nautical miles from Earth, velocity 4,805 feet per second
219:49:05 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston with a Flight Plan update.
219:49:10 Gordon: Stand 1, Jer. [Long pause.]
219:49:24 Gordon: Go ahead.
219:49:26 Carr: Okay. This is for your P23 at 220. Star number 161 is still good; star number 174 is still good; and 26 is still good for the third sighting. For the fourth sighting, change your star number to 31 - 31 far and I think you have the unit vectors on that, already. The fifth sighting...
219:49:58 Gordon: I don't think we're going to need it.
219:50:01 Carr: Say again.
219:50:04 Gordon: That star 31, I don't need the unit vectors, Jerry.
219:50:06 Carr: Okay. Star number 5, or sighting number 5 is Jupiter; that's still good. Sighting number 6 would be on star 75 near, and here's the unit vectors for it: R1 is minus 09871; R2 is minus 79163; and R3 is minus 60299. For alternates, you have 24 far and 236 North, or correction, near; and the unit vectors on 236 are as follows: R1 is minus 45010; R2 Is minus 89075, and R3 is minus 06311. Over.
219:52:10 Gordon: Okay, Jerry. I'm sorry [garble]. I'm with you now. I was looking up star 174. I thought I had used that before and it was no good; but I did use it, and it was good. Number 1 star is 161. It's okay. Number 2 star is 174, and it's okay. Number 3 star is 26. Number 4 star is 31, and it's Earth far on horizon. Jupiter is okay for number 5; and number 6 we're replacing with star number 75; Earth near horizon unit vectors: minus 09871; minus 79163; minus 60298. Two alternate stars, 24 on the far horizon and 236 on the near horizon; 236 unit vectors are minus 45010, minus 89075, minus 06311. Over.
219:53:03 Carr: That's affirmative, Dick. Your magnitude on star 31-F is 0.2, and the magnitude on 236 near is 3.0.
219:53:16 Gordon: Okay. Fine. Understand.
219:53:19 Conrad: Thank you.
219:58:21 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. It's Oilers, 17; Miami, 7.
220:14:47 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. It's Oilers, 22; Miami, 7, now. We've got a field goal and a safety.
220:15:00 Conrad: Very good.
This is Apollo Control at 220 hours, 22 minutes. Apollo 12 distance from Earth now 109,270 nautical miles, velocity 4,964 feet per second.
220:28:38 Gordon: Houston, 12.
220:28:41 Carr: 12, Houston. Go.
220:28:44 Gordon: Roger, Jerry. No star is visible for number 6 or 75 near horizon. Which would you rather have me use - 24 or 236?
220:29:00 Carr: Standby a second.
220:29:08 Gordon: Say again. [Pause.]
220:29:19 Carr: 12, Houston.
220:29:23 Gordon: Go ahead.
220:29:25 Carr: Roger. They want to check your unit vector again on star 75. They didn't see it come up in the last register. [Pause.]
220:29:34 Carr: As best we can tell, you ought to be able to use 75. [Pause.]
220:29:48 Gordon: Well, the best I can tell, I can't.
220:29:54 Carr: Okay. Stand by a second. [Pause.]
220:30:10 Carr: 12, Houston. Recommend you use 24 far. Over.
That was Dick Gordon who is performing some onboard navigation exercises.
220:40:18 Gordon: Okay, Houston. It's all yours.
220:40:22 Carr: Roger, 12. You should be going to the PTC attitude now, and I've got some procedures for you for photographing that hatch window contamination when you're ready to copy.
220:40:41 Gordon: Okay, Jerry. Stand by.
220:40:42 Carr: Okay. [Long pause.]
220:41:25 Gordon: Go ahead, Jerry.
220:41:27 Carr: Roger, Dick. The best way to take these photos is with a Sun-incidence angle of about 45 degrees, and, in PTC, you'll get this angle when your roll is either 215 degrees or 290 degrees. And the procedure to use is essentially the same as we did on the way out, you know, when you took pictures of windows 1 and 2. They need to have you clean the inside pane, and then set your Hasselblad with the 80-millimeter lens with black-and-white film and take two photos at an f-stop of 5.6 at 1/250th and a focus of 3 feet, and then change your f-stop to f:4 and take two more photos. Over.
220:42:28 Gordon: Okay, Jer. We got all that, and we'll get that done.
220:53:15 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston.
220:53:21 Carr: Roger. In your - Going into PTC, we recommend that you disable quads Charlie and Delta and select Omni Bravo for us, and we'll take care of switching for you. On your High Gain antenna, would you turn off your power and we'll leave it off until time for TV and then get it up again? And, just a reminder, during the TV portion, it looks like you're going to have to limit your - your views to interior because the Sun being - pretty near to being behind the Earth like it is, we're afraid that if you try to take a look at the Earth with the camera, you're liable to zap it in the sunlight. And, looking ahead to 221:30, we would like you to do that P52 that's planned on there, but as things stand right now, looks like there'll be no midcourse number 6, and we'll probably do a midcourse number 7. Over.
220:54:17 Conrad: Okay. Understand.
220:54:18 Carr: Good enough, and has Dick got any comments on the results of the last P23? It looked pretty good down here. [Pause.]
220:54:28 Conrad: He says no.
220:54:31 Gordon: Good up here.
220:54:32 Carr: Roger. Final score on that ballgame was Houston, 32; Miami, 7.
220:54:42 Gordon: Very good, Jer. Thank you.
220:57:20 Conrad: Houston, 12.
220:57:21 Carr: Go ahead, 12.
220:57:24 Conrad: Earlier they reported that we weren't going to do anything more from the ground in the way of purges. Does that mean that we're going to skip this H
2 purge here?
220:57:40 Carr: That's affirmative, Pete.
This is Apollo Control at 221 hours. Yankee Clipper is now 107,452 nautical miles from Earth. Velocity, 5,031 feet per second.
221:12:25 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. You can start your PTC.
221:30:33 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston.
221:30:37 Conrad: Go ahead.
221:30:39 Carr: Pete, we've just uncovered a problem on the TV program that's scheduled. We come to find out we have a terrain-masking problem on Goldstone, and the TV start and stop times that we've got for you right now are too early. What it boils down to is, we can't start TV until 224:10 and, with your concurrence, we'd like to run the TV show between 224:10 and 224:40. And that means stopping your PTC at 223:50, and I've got some attitude angles and High Gain angles for you; and so what you'll do is stay in PTC a little longer and get all your pre-sleep checklist out of the way and have it all done so that we can run this _ show - the press conference that we've got for you here - And then as soon as we're finished with that, we can just shut her down, and you guys can head for the sack.
221:31:39 Conrad: Very good. That's fine with us.
221:31:42 Carr: Okay. If you're ready for...
221:31:43 Conrad: We're having a hard time using - we're having a hard time using all that 10-hour rest period these days.
221:31:52 Carr: Okay. If you're ready to copy, I've got your times, and attitudes, and everything for you.
221:32:00 Conrad: Okay. We're ready to copy.
221:32:03 Carr: Okay. We're on page 3-191. Where it says "maneuver to TV attitude," change 223:15 to 223:50. And your roll is 340; pitch, 270; yaw, O. Your High Gain angles are pitch, plus 190; and yaw, 270. And in this attitude, you'll have window number 1 looking at the Earth and window number 5 looking at the Moon. And, as I mentioned before, your TV then will be from 224:10 to 224:40, and let's move this - and go ahead and get this pre-sleep checklist done early. And we've got your - The questions that I'll be reading up to you on this press conference submitted by the Apollo 12 press corps, and that 's about it, Pete.
221:33:06 Conrad: Okay. Very good.
This is Apollo Control at 221 hours, 33 minutes. The new start for the TV pass 224 hours, 10 minutes is 6:32pm Central Standard Time, 6:32pm Central Standard Time and it will be a 30 minute TV pass. At present and it will be a 30-minute TV pass. At present Apollo 12 is 105,801 nautical miles from earth. Velocity, 5,093 feet per second.
221:40:13 Conrad: Houston, you got those torquing angles?
221:40:26 Carr: 12, Houston. Affirmative. We've got your torquing angles.
221:40:31 Conrad: Okay. That Dick Gordon is getting pretty fancy in PTC, isn't he?
221:40:37 Carr: Pretty slick.
221:40:45 Gordon: A few more days, and I'll understand it.
This is Apollo Control at 222 hours, 4 minutes. Apollo 12 is 104,273 nautical miles from Earth. Velocity has increased to 5,152 feet per second.
This is Apollo Control at 222 hours, 9 minutes. We'll recap the television situation for you. Television transmission has been delayed for 55 minutes from the scheduled time, originally scheduled for an elapsed time of 223 hours, 15 minutes, now scheduled at 224 hours, 10 minutes. The reason for the delay is that terrain features near the Goldstone tracking station will mask out the signal at the earlier scheduled time and we will not receive a suitable signal for television until the 224 hour, 10 minute mark that is equivalent to 6:32pm Central Standard Time. Apollo 12 now 104,015 nautical miles from earth. Velocity, 5,162 feet per second.
222:28:18 Gordon: Houston, Apollo 12. We're going to be working with our TV camera inside, and so we're going to take out our S-band FM transmitter group 1 circuit breaker.
222:28:28 Carr: Roger, 12.
This is Apollo Control at 222 hours 53 minutes. Apollo 12 distance from Earth 101,864 nautical miles. Velocity 5,246 feet per second.
223:41:02 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston.
223:41:06 Conrad: Go ahead, Houston.
223:41:07 Carr: Roger. Got a few ball scores for you.
223:41:14 Carr: Roger. The Rams beat the Cowboys 24 to 23 in a real squeaker of a game that just finished. The Raiders beat the Chiefs, 27 to 24; and Vikings, 52; Steelers, 14. That pretty well covers it for today with the TV ballgames, and you already know the score of the Oiler-Miami game.
223:41:41 Conrad: Roger. Thank you.
223:41:43 Carr: Okay. And another item - wanted to just review with you the format for today's TV show. In this particular little news conference bit, you're going to be asked questions that were submitted by newsmen right here at MSC. That's the news staff that's been here covering the flight. Most of the questions that are going to be read up to you will be exactly as submitted by the newsmen, and they'll be in an order of priority specified by the news media.
223:42:20 Bean: We're going to stop in about 2, 3 minutes and at 340 roll.
This is Apollo Control at 223 hours, 50 minutes. Apollo 12 is now 98,927 nautical miles from earth, velocity 5,364 feet per second.
223:57:41 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston.
223:57:45 Gordon: Go ahead, Houston.
223:57:46 Carr: Roger. On that High Gain antenna, you can go ahead and just go to Reacq, Narrow Beam, and let's wait and see what happens. If it goes sour on us, we'll have to go Manual.
223:57:59 Gordon: Okay. It's in Reacq, Narrow Beam, now.
223:58:01 Carr: Okay, and we're getting you 5 by right now.
223:59:41 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston with some more football score for you.
223:59:46 Gordon: Go ahead.
223:59:47 Carr: Roger. New Orleans 43, San Francisco 38; San Diego 45, Denver 24; Detroit 16, Green Bay 10; Cleveland 28, New York 17; Baltimore 24, Chicago 21.
224:00:16 Gordon: There's a few interesting ones in there, isn't there?
224:00:22 Carr: Didn't copy that, Dick. Say again.
224:00:27 Gordon: I said, "there's a few interesting ones in there."
224:00:30 Carr: That's affirmative. The Saints are looking pretty good. [Long pause.]
224:01:12 Carr: 12, Houston. One more score: Philadelphia, 34; Saint Louis, 30.
224:01:20 Gordon: Like I said, a very interesting day.
This is Apollo Control at 224 hours, 4 minutes. We're within 5 - 5 1/2 minutes from the start of this TV pass. Apollo 12 is 98,213 nautical miles from earth. Velocity 5,394 feet per second. On your television monitors in the news center you may notice a bouquet of roses on the Flight Director's console. Those were received a short time ago here in the Mission Control Center from a family in Montreal, Canada.
224:06:38 Gordon: Houston - Yankee.
224:06:42 Carr: Clipper, Houston. Go.
224:06:45 Gordon: We're ready anytime you are.
224:06:50 Carr: Okay. We're checking out our lines; we'll be right back with you.
224:07:02 Gordon: Okay. We're sending.
224:07:06 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]
224:07:21 Carr: 12, Houston. We're copying you. [Long pause.]
224:07:55 Carr: 12, Houston. You look great but you're upside down.
224:08:01 Conrad: Take the camera...
224:08:02 Gordon: Turn us over.
224:08:03 Conrad: Take the camera over - that's the only way we could mount it.
224:08:06 Carr: Okay. Look like a bunch of bats hanging from the ceiling. [Long pause.]
224:08:37 Gordon: That's what flying with rookies will do for you.
224:08:54 Carr: 12, Houston. Stand by a couple of seconds here; we're going to try to flip the picture.
224:09:01 Conrad: Okay. [Long pause.]
224:09:15 Conrad: The fourth guy holding the camera doesn't understand English, so we can't get him to turn it around up here.
224:09:24 Carr: Would you believe that we can't flip it?
224:09:31 Carr: About the best we can do is flip black and white but the color has to stay where it is.
224:09:36 Conrad: Okay. Well, let's see what we can do.
224:10:54 Carr: 12, Houston. We're getting our usual excellent quality picture. [Pause.]
224:11:11 Carr: Looks very good, Pete.
224:11:32 Conrad: Okay, I guess we's ready if you're right side up now.
224:11:38 Carr: Real fine, Pete. It looks good. We can see all three of you. We see Al Bean flipping in on the side there. First of all, I'll read you a little statement; then, we'll start off with the questions. The questions that you'll be asked in this news conference have been submitted by newsmen here at the Manned Spacecraft Center who have been covering the flight. Some of the questions their raise will have been answered in your communications with Mission Control but the public at large has not heard them. The questions are being read to you exactly as submitted by the newsmen, and in an order of priority specified by them. So, here comes question number 1. If you had this mission to fly over again or were planning another with your present knowledge, what would you do differently and what equipment would you add or modify, specifically in connection with the EVA? Over.
224:12:36 Conrad: Well, I think we'd work over all the tools and - the tool carrier and the bags. I think we'd work over just about all of it. I think it was very good, and I think it operated very well, seeing we'd never been there before and attempted to do that kind of work. Now that we've done it, I think we can make some improvements on it. Now, I'll let Al talk about it.
224:13:00 Bean: I think that you about hit it, Pete. I think the PLSS's and the OPS's and the suits, as far as the operation of both EVA's were, you couldn't ask for anything better than that. The tools are going to need a little work.
224:13:17 Carr: Okay, troops, here comes...
224:13:18 Gordon: [Garble] - Hey, Jerry?
224:13:21 Carr: Go ahead.
224:13:22 Gordon: If I had it to do over again, I'd of - I'd of wagered a little more with all those people who said I would never be able to find the LM on the lunar surface. In fact, if I'd of been that smart, I'd have bet them I'd find the Surveyor also and I'd retire.
224:13:37 Carr: [Laughter] Roger, Dick. Okay, here comes question number 2. Was there some confusion about something you said yesterday about the launch into the thunder-clouds? Would you or would you not consent to launching under those conditions again?
224:13:55 Conrad: I'd go again.
224:13:58 Gordon: We made it this time; why couldn't we do it again?
224:14:04 Carr: Okay, troops. Question number 3. Aside from the lightning, what gave you your most apprehensive moment, if any, either before the lunar landing, during your time on the Moon, or afterwards? And if you never had an apprehensive moment, was there ever a time when you may have been a little bit concerned over what was going on?
224:14:31 Bean: Well - how about from lift-off all the way through to a GET of 224 hours and 14 minutes and 30 seconds?
224:14:38 Conrad: Yes, that's a pretty good answer. I think - I think clearly all three of us were a lot calmer through most of the flight than I thought we'd be or any of us thought we'd be, except I think both Al and I were a little hit nervous about ascent. After [garble] you only got to have one engine. I think we were a little tweaked there right - towards T-0 on lift-off through the ascent stage; but once we got going and it was going so well, that - really didn't concern either one of us after that.
224:15:15 Bean: The only time I can think of is - one time when we were walking around on the lunar surface on the second EVA, I felt my suit pressure kind of pulse. And that PLSS is so good that you never feel any change in pressure as you walk around or move around or jump up and down or anything else. This one time it did, and I took a quick glance at my suit pressure gage because I thought maybe it was building up or decreasing; I had some sort of problem where I would have had to use the OPS, but it wasn't the gage. It was just right, and that was the end of it. The only time it occurred either, but that gave me quite pulse there for a second.
224:15:55 Gordon: Well, I think when we - switched to the Command Module side of the house, Jerry. Everything has gone according to plans and as expected. I think that the best thing about my end of the operation is that there have not been any surprises, and I'd like to keep it that way.
224:16:14 Carr: Yes, that's kind of nice, no surprises. Pete, now questions number 4 is for you. Out there on the Moon, you sounded happy, even euphoric. Some people think that maybe you were on an oxygen high. Were you? And for both you and Al, how did it feel subjectively to be out there?
224:16:36 Conrad: Well, I was very happy, but I wasn't on any oxygen high. I was very happy because all the work that we had put into that EVA was beginning to pay off; and once we got over the initial stumbling block of the one little problem we had getting the fuel cask going, why I was quite happy because we were on the time line; everything was going the way we thought it was going to go; and I was just having a ball because it was much easier than all the one-g practice we'd done learning how to do that.
224:17:14 Bean: Yes. You're asking about how it feels - I think for about the first l0 minutes that you're out, at least in my case, you find that it's not as hard as you think it's going to be to move around, and you're pretty happy about that. But you could sense that first l0 minutes you still want to be careful and you don't want to overextend yourself, so you're -you're sort of excited trying to get up to speed, get your balance in good shape, and get your movements in good shape so you can start doing the work. And once the first l0 minutes is over and you sort of realize that you now know how to hold your balance and you now aren't going to fall down and everything is working real well, I think right then you start getting down to the operational part of it and after that you - you just press on and get the job done, like Pete said.
224:18:00 Conrad: I was in a good humor to start with seeing we had landed next to the Surveyor. That started the thing off right.
224:18:10 Carr: Okay. Question number 5. On Apollo 11, Armstrong and Aldrin had to curl up in the corners of the LM to sleep and complained that they were cold and uncomfortable. You had hammocks and blankets. How did you sleep? And, on the subject of sleep, a lot of people are wondering whether you dreamed there on the Moon.
224:18:32 Conrad: Well, let's take them all in order. In the first place, we didn't have any blankets. We had the hammocks. And, as you may or may not remember, about a week before the flight, we found a problem on the boot of my backup suit and all four of our suits were sent back to the factory and the boots were replaced. And, in the process of doing that, the suit had to be re-rigged when we came back - when they came back to the Cape - and I had to fit my suit without the liquid cooled garment because both the flight ones were already packed, and you can't put a non-flight one in a flight suit. And I had - the legs got a little bit too tight, so in my hammock that night I didn't want to take my suit off; it was too dirty in there. In my hammock, I was very uncomfortable; my shoulders - the suit was pressing on the bottom of my feet and my shoulders and it sounds funny but even bending your knees or anything you can't - you can't get rid of that. If the suit's too short, it's too short; it was about a half an inch too short. So I beared with it most of the night and I only slept maybe 4½ hours, mostly on account of that, and then Al, very kindly, the next morning, let my suit out for me and - which took him about an hour, so that - that's about how I spent my night. And as for the dreams, I don't dream normally anyhow, that I can remember, and I didn't dream there.
224:20:12 Bean: I didn't - I didn't dream either, and I don't know; I didn't sleep too good on the Moon. Not because we were cold or hot, because we weren't; we had both the liquid cooled garment on and we had air running through our suit. And so, if we got a little warm, we could either turn on the water pump and get a little cool water running through your suit, which would rapidly cool you down, or turn on the air and get a little air running through your suit to cool you down. So using those two controls, I think Pete and I stayed just about the temperature we wanted to stay. And the hammocks were very comfortable; it's interesting that if you rig them on the Earth and they're pretty long and you say - boy, when you get in that, it's really going to sag but when you get on the Moon and you only weigh about 30 or 35 pounds and you get in those hammocks, I was looking at Pete up on his; you don't hardly sag a bit. You just kind of lay there almost horizontal. A real comfortable place to sleep.
224:21:10 Carr: Roger, Al. And you didn't dream either, huh?
224:21:14 Bean: No, I didn't dream a bit. I woke up and went back to sleep a number of times. Another interesting thing, people have worried about the amount of sound in the LM bothering you. It's fairly noisy in there and there s a couple of pumps that change frequency every once in a while; but, all in all, I don't think that was any hindrance to sleep, do you, Pete?
224:21:36 Bean: The one-sixth g is nice; it just keeps - it pushes you down enough so that you feel pressure on your back or your side or wherever you're laying but it's not enough to really give you any pressure points in the suit. I think one-sixth-g is nicer than either zero-g to sleep in or one-g to sleep in. It - It's a - It's a good happy medium. It's pleasant.
224:22:00 Carr: Roger. Question number 6 is for Dick Gordon. Dick, how does it feel to be alone for a day and a half in orbit around the Moon? And what were you able to observe of Pete's and Al's activities on the surface? Also when the LM was crash landed after rendezvous on Friday, were any of you able to see the impact.
224:22:24 Gordon: Well, it's a little hard - to - to really express how one would feel, being with Pete and Al for 4 days on the way out there, being very close through all that training, and then being left alone to tend the Command Module in lunar orbit while they're down there for some 32 hours of the lunar stay. I'd thought about this beforehand - what it would really be like to be completely alone on the back side of the Moon, no contact with any other human being; but, surprisingly enough, the activities were such that I was awful busy during my waking hours; didn't really have time to dwell upon that; and to be perfectly frank, so blasted tired at the end of the day, that I could hardly get to bed fast enough to get enough sleep to carry on the next day's activities which were busy in themselves because of the photographic requirements that were levied on me while in lunar orbit, while Pete and Al were working on the surface. I never did observe them personally on the surface, although I did see the LM through the optics, which are right behind us; and I also saw the Surveyor in the crater. I saw both of these objects twice on two different passes. On one pass, I put the camera on the sextant. Hopefully, I'll have pictures of that so my doubting friends will no longer doubt. All in all, I think that kind of describes the activities that I went through while Pete and Al were down on the lunar surface. The last part of your question, Jerry, I forgot was. Would you repeat it again?
224:24:07 Carr: That's about the crash landing, Dick. Did you see it go in?
224:24:12 Gordon: No. None of us saw it go in. After we separated, I tracked the LM for a considerable length of time in the optics, and thought I had a pretty good state vector so that the Auto optics would track the LM automatically. Therefore, I put the camera, the same camera on the sextant right here behind me, hoping that it would automatically track the LM into the lunar surface. I don't know whether we were successful with that or not. I have some doubts about that. Certainly we - none of us saw it with our naked eye.
224:24:50 Carr: Roger, Dick. Thanks. Question number 7. You mentioned during the EVA finding three kinds of soil. Will you give a brief description of each, its color, its texture, and so forth, and discuss whatever problems you had in handling all the different kinds of lunar material.
224:25:10 Conrad: Well, when we say three different kinds of soil yesterday, that was a - I guess what I want to say a subjective thing in that the colors were all the same. It appeared that some soil was firmer than other soil in the manner in which we sunk into it. And the finer soil would be - the softer soil that we sank deeper in was of a finer grain. This was over towards the very extreme end of our traverse, over at the sharp crater, which is about as far away as we could get from the LM. And now, we have samples - in the sample bags - some of these types of soil. When I say three different kinds of soil, the medium-textured one was where we landed on one side of the Surveyor crater; and, over on the other side when we went down to get to the Surveyor, we found the ground was - I'd say considerably more firmer. It appeared to be firmer ground, not quite as - we didn't sink in quite as much as we did over working around the LM. Then, when we got over to the sharp crater, which was the far end, that's the softest ground; we sank in the deepest there. Do you have anything to add to that, Al?
224:26:33 Bean: No, you covered it. They asked about the color.
224:26:36 Bean: One of the real difficult things about the whole EVA, in the geology part of it, was the fact there didn't appear to be any difference in color among either the rocks or the soils. They all looked about the same. The first day, to me, they all looked sort of a dull gray And I think I described most of the rocks that way, as a dull gray, and the soil's a dull gray, and this sort of thing's a dull gray. And if you look real close, of course, you could see maybe...
224:27:09 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. Break, break. You'll have to go Manual on your High Gain antenna. We just lost you.
224:27:17 Conrad: Okay. [Long pause.]
224:27:31 Carr: Okay. We're getting you back now, Pete. Press on.
224:27:39 Bean: Well, anyway, all the - the rocks, the soil looks sort of a gray, and if you look real close maybe you can find a white rock now and then or you could maybe disturb something and get a little darker gray; but generally, they were gray. The second day we went out, the same thing that looked gray to us the first day, started looking, at least to me, started looking a sort of a brown, a dark brown, or a tannish brown; and it was really one of the most interesting things of the EV - of the lunar surface operations, was how much that color could change just with a 7-degree or so Sun-angle change and how everthing there changes color with it. In fact, when we came upon the Surveyor, you'll recall, it was gray, I mean, it was brown. We saw it the second day; it was brown, and we asked you if it had been painted that way and you said no, it hadn't been; it had really been white. When we got up next to it, we discovered that sure enough it looked brown, and the coating on it was the same brown as the soil. Now, I I wouldn't be a bit surprised when we get all those parts back to Houston, they don't turn out to be, you know, under the Earth light and light of the laboratory, they turn out to be kind of a dark gray, again. It's going to make geology quite a bit more difficult than we see it on Earth because the color cues just aren't going to be there; you're going to have to look for texture and fracture and luster and a lot of other things that will aid you in determining differences in rocks and minerals.
224:29:16 Carr: Roger. Let's move on to the next question here. It's number 8. Were the Moon's color, texture, and general appearance, as seen from above, as you expected them to be? And is there any place on Earth you know of that looks like the Ocean of Storms?
224:29:38 Gordon: No. I can't think that there is. It reminds me of desert areas. You might be able to find appearance like that in some deserts, particularly the back side of the Moon, which is a lot more beat up than the front side. As far as the Ocean of Storms, I guess there really isn't any corollary, any one place on Earth that we can recall, at least.
224:30:08 Carr: Okay. The next question is for Pete. Pete, everybody's wondering about the fall you took on the Moon. Was it accidental or on purpose? And how did it feel to fall in the weak lunar gravity and could you have recovered your footing if Al Bean hadn't been there to help you?
224:30:32 Conrad: Yes. No, I was - I didn't fall on purpose. I was trying to pick up something, and I was just standing next to Al. It was a rock that was too big to go in the tongs and we sort of had a little game we played there of leaning on the tongs and sort of doing a one-armed jabber-do all stretched out, and I just sort of rolled over on my side down there on the ground and Al, before I got all the way down, just gave me a shove back up again. I don't think it'll be any problem. The business of falling against a rock and cutting your suit or something; you don't fall that fast. You just wouldn't hit a rock hard enough, do you think, Al?
224:31:19 Bean: No, not only that, you're talking about not falling fast: When you start to fall, and you lose your balance at first sort of quickly, particularly if you ever try to back up, because the ground is uneven and you step in holes or over rocks. You fall so slowly that it gives you plenty of time almost to turn around, or catch your footing before you actually get low enough down before it's too late. I can re-call a number of times when I lost my balance. If I'd lost my balance that much on Earth, I would have probably fallen down. But on the Moon, because you start moving so slowly, you're usually able to spin around and bend your knees and recover. And, like you say, Pete, you're falling so slow that you can usually catch yourself or roll over or something.
224:32:02 Conrad: I think that's another thing. I think - and I saw Al do this two or three times also, in trying to bend over to get something, we'd start to fall over and you fall so slowly that you just start moving out and you just keep moving until your feet come back up under you again. So it's not that easy to fall over up there, for that matter. And I really don't think there's any problem.
224:32:30 Carr: Roger. Question number 10 I think you've pretty well answered, but I'll read it anyway and you can add any more thoughts you might have to it. While you were inspecting the Surveyor spacecraft down there in the crater, you commented about changes in its appearance, the white part seemed to turn tan and so on. Will you discuss this further and give us any impressions or conclusions you may have about what caused these changes?
224:32:54 Conrad: Well, this brown color is definitely some lunar dust that's on it. And it was evenly distributed all the way around it, so I don't think it's dust that we blew on with the - with the LM when we landed. I think it's accumulated there; it wasn't that easy to wipe off. And the other thing I think that was most apparent to Al and I were in cutting the tubes; in practice, we had, and I'm going to have to check this, hut theoretically we had the same aluminum tubing as the struts were on the Surveyor and the tubing appeared much more brittle and much easier to cut up there, so I suspect that some crystallization or something had happened to the metal in the 31 months that it was sitting there. And the other thing was that we noticed that the wire bundles that we had to cut, the insulation had gotten very dry and very hard and also very brittle. And I think that's about it. Can you think of anything else, Al?
224:33:55 Bean: No. I think you covered it, Pete.
224:33:58 Carr: Okay, here comes number 11. Do you think that future EVA's can be extended beyond the 4-hour limit? Or do you believe the number of 4-hour EVA's should be increased in order to get more exploration done on each mission?
224:34:13 Conrad: No, I think you ought to go a longer time on each EVA. We felt badly, sort of, that we got shut off the other day, although we didn't have the data in real time, nor did we have the agreement with the ground, that we weren't going to go past the 4 hours. But we had 6 hours worth of consumables and we'd gotten out early on the second EVA. And as far as being tired or anything, we weren't tired; we were - We could have kept on going: we hustled to get back just to make our 4-hour deadline. And I think that the big problem is getting suited up and getting unsuited when you get back in. Doing the work outside is easy. Once you step down the ladder, you're on your way. And I think what you should do is get a long-term PLSS. And, if you have a 3-day LM, you have a PLSS that'll stay out for 8 or 9 hours and some way to give the guy a drink of water and maybe a shot of food. And he can sit down and take a little siesta out there for a half an hour in the middle of it. And he can do an 8-hour day work out there. And that's the big, the big thing is getting it all on and getting out and getting it all off and putting it away when you get back in.
224:35:26 Gordon: I think there's another significant problem Pete didn't mention. That's the amount of dirt that you bring back in the spacecraft with you. Both Pete and Al, although they had been in the LM for a considerable length of time before they got back into the Command Module, still brought back a tremendous, just a tremendous amount of dirt and dust in their clothing and on their persons, and I think if you're going to work in that environment for any length of time, you're really going to have to tackle this problem of keeping clean.
224:35:56 Carr: Roger. Thank you. That was a good one. Question number 12. For future lunar explorations, is a geologist a desirable member of the crew? And what sort of surface transportation would you recommend?
224:36:12 Conrad: Well, you can go pretty good on your feet; I can tell you that right now. I guess we ran almost a mile out there without giving it too much thought. Certainly, I think a geologist should go on the trip. I'll tell you one thing, though, it took every bit of knowledge I had getting that baby down there in the right place. That was no easy task and I think - As a matter of fact, we were discussing that earlier today; I'm a big advocate of the LLTV. I think that was a tremendous help to me, and I - Certainly, that's been my profession and it took everything I had to get that LM down in one piece. I think that we got some things to work out on that that'll make those tasks easier, and I think that the idea is to get the transportation system worked out and then take the necessary people to go. There's no doubt that a geologist can do a better job than I can; I'm not a geologist.
224:37:19 Carr: Roger, Pete. This is the last question now. Millions of people who stayed up late one night last week are wondering what happened to that TV camera, anyway.
224:37:31 Conrad: Well, Jerry, we really don't know what happened to it. All I know is you told me you were getting a picture and then I didn't pay any more attention to it until I herd you talking with Al, and we don't know what happened to the camera; but we have it on board. We brought it back with us., and whatever is wrong with it, they'll find out and have it fixed so that they have good TV for 13.
224:37:55 Carr: Roger, Pete. That covers all the questions we have. You got any general-nature little goodies you'd like to show us or talk about?
224:38:04 Conrad: Well, I just - is - is George Low down there, by any chance?
224:38:14 Carr: Pete, he doesn't seem to be in the MOCR or in the viewing room, but we know he's listening.
224:38:21 Conrad: Okay, well, he could probably see it later, but he sent us a letter about not having a certain passenger aboard the spacecraft; and, unfortunately, he is aboard the spacecraft, and we just wanted to show it to George so that he could write the proper letter to allow him to have made the flight.
224:38:46 Bean: I've got something to say. Pete, Dick, and I spent...
224:38:50 Carr: Roger. You found him, huh?
224:38:54 Conrad: We sure did. He was in the food locker.
224:39:02 Carr: Is he fat?
224:39:05 Conrad: He's very fat.
224:39:07 Carr: Go ahead, Al.
224:39:10 Bean: Pete, Dick, and I spent a couple of years getting ready for this mission, both backing up Apollo 9 and working on this one. We spent a lot of time sitting around thinking about what our chances were of actually getting to the Moon and landing there and coming back home. Every one of these space missions boils down, as you know, Jerry, boils down to about three big things. One, you got to have trained people that operate the spacecraft and that operate on Earth as flight controllers, and we felt pretty good about that. We've been training hard; we've worked with the flight controllers and we knew they had. You got to have a good set of procedures to work by and people like Bill Kindle and the men that work with him; they've spent many long hours and a heck of a lot of effort developing them. So, we were pretty happy about that too. And that leaves the hardware; the machinery that's got to work; the Saturn V and the Command Module and the LM, and that was our sort of big unknown. We knew there were millions and millions of parts in here, and it doesn't take very many parts to go bad before you can - you can abort a lunar mission. It's a long chain of events, and any one of them can shoot you down and cause you to come back home early without making it. We, of course, couldn't walk around and cheek all the parts on any of these things; we don't ever know that much about it. We did know the people that worked on it, though, people like Jim Harrington at the Cape, and Buzz Hello there, and Chuck Tringali, our team leader, and a lot of others that I didn't mention right then. We kind of felt pretty good about the fact that they were handling the gear. We're on the way home now; we'll be back tomorrow, and every bit of this machinery has worked beautifully. We've had a couple of small failures, but none of the equipment that we worried about has shown anything but perfect performance. The fuel cells, for example, are just perking along, just as beautifully as they can, been putting out 20 amps apiece and holding their own just perfectly. I think this is a fantastic tribute to the people that designed this equipment, and the people that built it, and the people down at the Cape that checked it out. I'm pretty proud of the Apollo 12 mission. We got everything we were supposed to do done. I hope that all of those people there, that had anything to do with this hardware, that built it, that designed it, or that checked it out, feel as proud about this mission as I do.
224:41:40 Carr: Roger, Al. I think I can speak for everybody down here when I say that we're all darn proud of it ourselves. I think all of our little mascots - Snoopy and BC and the rest of them - have really done their jobs well in helping us to keep the mission before the people and keep everybody motivated.
224:42:12 Conrad: We got one last thing to show you and then we'll close.
224:42:47 Carr: Roger. Go ahead.
224:42:56 Carr: Pete, while you're making preparations, the family's here in the MOCR viewing you.
224:42:58 Carr: We got you on the big, big screen.
224:43:02 Conrad: Hey, great. Tell them we'll be home in about a week.
224:43:06 Bean: We can call tomorrow.
224:43:09 Conrad: We wrote a little inscription over the FPAI and signed it...
224:43:18 Carr: Roger. Try focusing in just a little bit. We can almost read it. It says "Yankee Clipper with Intrepid in tow...
224:43:29 Conrad: No, it says, "Yankee Clipper sailed with Intrepid to the Sea of Storms, Moon, November 14, 1969."
224:43:39 Carr: Roger; we can read it now. Thanks. [Pause.]
224:43:51 Carr: And we copy the signatures.
224:43:56 Gordon: And that's it, Jerry, from Apollo 12, good night. We'll be talking to you tomorrow morning.
224:44:00 Carr: Roger. We'll be seeing you.
224:44:01 Conrad: Tally-ho, good night. [Long pause.]
224:44:45 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston.
224:44:49 Conrad: Go ahead.
224:44:50 Gordon: Go ahead.
224:44:51 Carr: Roger. We got all that state vector for you. Would you like to just load it in the LM slots? Or do you want to take it the way it is?
224:44:57 Conrad: I don't know; is it any different than the one I've already got?
224:45:05 Carr: It is a little different.
224:45:09 Gordon: Jerry, I'll take it anywhere you want to send it to up here [laughter]. There's plenty of electric [garble] the P23 slot would do.
224:45:28 Carr: Okay. We'll just put it in the LM slots and preserve the P23 for now.
224:45:35 Gordon: Okay. You can stuff it into any slot you want to.
224:45:38 Carr: Roger, babe. [Pause.]
224:45:52 Carr: 12, Houston for PTC this time. Disable Bravo and Charlie.
224:45:59 Gordon: Roger. [Long pause.]
224:46:24 Carr: 12, Houston. We're going to have a MCC7 PAD for you and an entry PAD, and then we'll - these are preliminary PAD's which will be updated later. [Pause.]
224:46:38 Gordon: That's what we'd like to hear, that entry PAD.
224:46:42 Conrad: Stand by, Jerry. We've got to get a couple of books; we may even have to manufacture a couple of PADs. [Long pause.]
224:47:37 Conrad: Go ahead with that preliminary P30 PAD, Jerry, and I'll copy it down.
224:47:43 Carr: Standby just a second, Pete, we're still scratching it out.
224:51:19 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. P00 and Accept, and we'll start the uplink.
224:51:28 Gordon: You got it. [Long pause.]
224:52:00 Carr: Here she comes. [Long pause.]
224:52:17 Carr: 12, Houston. I have your maneuver PAD, midcourse 7, ready.
224:52:24 Carr: Roger. Midcourse 7. RCS/G&N; Noun 47 is 25036; NA; NA, 241:21:53.33; Noun 81: minus 0006.0, all zips, plus 0000.2; roll, pitch, and yaw are all zips; 310, all zips; Noun 44 is NA; NA: Delta-V
t 0006.1, 0.13, 0006.1; sextant, 11, 241.4, 39.7; boresight, 044, up 01.3, left 5.0; the rest is NA. Comments: Sirius and Rigel for GDC align; roll is 336; pitch, 262; yaw, 357; ullage is four quads, plus X; under "other," we assume entry IMU alignment. [Pause.]
224:54:37 Bean: Okay, Jerry. 25036; NA; NA; 241:21:53.33; minus 0006.0, all zips, plus 0000.2; 000; 310, 000; NA; NA; 0006.1; 0.13, 0006.1; 11; 241.4, 39.7; 044, up 01.3, left 5.03 Sirius and Rigel the stars; 336, 262, 357, four quads; plus X and assumes entry IMU alignment.
224:55:21 Carr: That's affirmative.
224:55:32 Carr: We'll have your entry PAD in just a couple of minutes.
224:55:36 Bean: Okay. We're ready when you are.
224:55:44 Conrad: After the weatherman told me for the launch that it was going to be clear with scattered clouds, 10 miles of Vis, and a very weak cold front was going through that was very dry, I hesitate to ask the preliminary weather in the recovery area.
224:56:02 Carr: We'll give it to you if you really want it.
224:56:05 Gordon: Yes. Go ahead end give it to us, will you?
224:56:07 Carr: Okay. We'll scare it up; we got it all written out somewhere here: While you're waiting, I got a few more football scores - these are American League. [Pause.]
224:56:30 Gordon: Yes. Go ahead and send them up.
224:56:31 Carr: Okay. New York Jets 40, Cincinnati 7; Boston 35, Buffalo 21; and then back to National - Washington was 27, Atlanta 20. [Pause.]
224:57:47 Carr: 12, Houston with the weather. This is based on a forecast on 23 November at 1100. The weather will be 1800, scattered, variable broken, high scattered, 10 miles; the winds from 120 at 15, and the seas are 4 feet.
224:58:10 Conrad: Okay. Thank you. [Long pause.]
224:58:42 Carr: 12, Houston. The computer is yours. [Long pause.]
224:59:15 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston with an entry PAD.
224:59:24 Carr: Roger. Entry PAD. Mid-PAC is the area; 000, 151, 000; GET for the horizon check is 244:05:21, 267; Noun; 61 is minus 15.82, minus 165.16; 062; Noun 60, 36116, 6.49; 1167.9, 3619.7; RRT is 244:22:21, 00:29; Noun 69 is all NA's; VCIRC 4.00, 02.10; 00.19, 03.23, 08.04; sextant, 23, 294.6, 29.0; boresight, 016; up 14.7; left 1.1; lift vector, up; comment 1: Assumes entry IMU alignment; comment 2: Assumes midcourse 7. Over.
225:01:55 Gordon: Roger. Copy 000, 151, 000; 244:05:21; 267; minus 15.82, minus 165.16; 062; 36116, 6.49; 1167.9, 3619.7; 244:22:21, 00:29; NA for the next four slots; 4.00, 02.10; 00.19, 03.23, 08.04; 23, 294.6, 29.0; 016; up 14.7; left 1.1; up; and the two comments are assumes entry IMU alignment and MCC7 completed.
225:02:50 Carr: That's affirmative. We've got a few other goodies here for you. When you start up PTC, we'd like you to do it with quads Bravo and Charlie disabled. And a couple of switches for your Comm system; your FM transmitter group 1 circuit breaker should be closed and S-Band Aux TV switch Off, and then go ahead and power down your High Gain antenna and give us Omni Bravo. And a quick reminder, your state vector is now loaded in the LM slot and your P23 is still in the CSM side.
225:03:27 Gordon: Okay. We've got all those switches set and we're going to give you Omni Bravo right now.
225:03:33 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]
225:03:55 Gordon: Houston, 12.
225:03:57 Carr: Go ahead, 12.
225:04:00 Gordon: What's the midcourse adjusting for?
225:04:04 Carr: Standby for a second. We'll check. [Long pause.]
225:04:25 Carr: 12, Houston. The reason for the midcourse is that you're a little bit shallow and we want to steepen it up. Right now, we're looking at a flight-path angle of 5.77 and a perigee of 30.
225:04:43 Bean: Say, Jerry, earlier today, I asked to take off my sensors so that I could replace them with some new ones because they weren't working properly, and I took them off and one of them is sort of broken out like Pete's. What I'd like to do, if it's okay with the surgeons, is leave the sensors off tonight and when I get up tomorrow morning real early, I'll put the whole new set on; that way, they'll have the Biomed for re-entry and - see if they think that's okay.
225:05:20 Carr: Roger, Al. The surgeon concurs on that. They'd like to watch the CMP tonight for the sleep period and the other two guys in the bags can go without.
225:05:31 Bean: Sounds good.
225:07:51 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. We're handing over from Madrid to Goldstone in about 20 seconds.
225:07:57 Conrad: Okay. [Long pause.]
225:08:46 Carr: 12, Houston through Goldstone. How do you read?
225:08:50 Conrad: Loud and clear.
This is Apollo Control at 225 hours, 10 minutes. Apollo 12's distance from Earth now 94,762 nautical miles. Velocity 5,540 feet per second. In this preliminary PAD...
225:10:32 Carr: 12, Houston. Looks like all we need from you is your pre-sleep checklist data and we'll leave you alone.
225:11:47 Carr: 12, Houston. We...
225:11:48 Conrad: Are you ready for - for the E-memory dump?
225:11:52 Carr: Just going to tell you we're ready.
225:11:59 Conrad: Coming at you.
225:12:05 Conrad: Okay. The Command Module RCS injector Temps are 4.2 for 5 Charlie; 4.0 for 5 Delta; 3.6 for 6 Alpha; 6 Bravo is 4.4; 6 Charlie is 3.4; and 6 Delta is 4.6. Batt C is 37, Pyro Batt A and Pyro Batt B are both 37. The CDR and CMP both had one decongestant today. The LMP had one sleeping pill last night. We can't chlorinate the water; we have no buffer left. So, I don't think that makes any big deal. And everything else is per checklist.
225:12:54 Carr: Roger, Pete. [Pause.]
225:13:08 Conrad: See you in the morning.
225:13:09 Carr: Roger, 12. We copied your E-Mod. This, by the way, guys, is the last shift for your friendly Gold Team, and Gold Flight and all of us on the team are mighty proud of you guys and we thought we'd like to let you know it. We'll see you back here at the ranch in a few days so take care and don't take any bolters.
225:13:29 Conrad: Roger-Roger. We appreciate it. A great job from you guys. Thank you.
This is Apollo Control at 225 hours, 13 minutes we have said good night to the Apollo 12 crew. This preliminary PAD that we sent up for midcourse correction number 7 calls for an ignition time of 241 hours, 21 minutes 53 seconds. Magnitude of the maneuver 6 point 1 feet per second. It would use the Service Module Reaction Control System with a burn time of 13 seconds. This MCC 7 PAD will be updated. The final PAD will go up to the crew about 2 hours prior to the maneuver and these figures could change some by that time based on the tracking between now and then. Some of the more significant items in the preliminary entry PAD that we passed up and this PAD will be updated tomorrow too prior to entry but a preliminary - on the preliminary PAD that we passed up it shows entry interface at 400 thousand feet at an elapsed time of 244 hours, 22 minutes, 21 seconds. Velocity predicted at that time 36,116 feet per second. At blackout would begin 19 seconds after entry interface, blackout would end 3 minutes, 22 seconds after entry interface. Drogue chutes deployed 8 minutes 4 seconds after entry interface. Main chute deployed times are not included in that preliminary pad. We also show expected maximum g forces during entry of 6 point 2. Targeting for a landing point coordinates 15 point 82 degrees South latitude 165.16 degrees West longitude. At 225 hours, 16 minutes this is Mission Control Houston.
225:21:01 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. No need to answer me, but you need to get quads Bravo and Charlie off.
And that was the sum total of the call and we have monitored on telemetry the fact that the crew has disabled those quads. Apollo 12 now 93,951 nautical miles from Earth, velocity 5,575 feet per second. And the entry clock showing 18 hours, 56 minutes remaining until entry into space. This is Mission Control, Houston.
226:10:57 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. [No answer.]
226:04:17 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. [No answer.]
226:05:21 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston.
226:08:49 Conrad: Go ahead, Houston.
226:08:52 Carr: Roger, guys. Sorry to wake you up, but we're concerned about the chlorine situation. We'd hate like the dickens to see you guys get stuck with an extra 20 days in the quarantine because of it. The status down here now is we'd like you, if you've got chlorine, to go ahead and chlorine the water - chlorinate it even if you don't have the buffer. The thing is that you ought to do it now, so when you get up in the morning, it'll taste reasonably good enough so that you can handle it.
This is Apollo Control at 226 hours, 9 minutes. We just put in a call to the crew to ask them to chlorinate water...
226:09:21 Conrad: Okay. Consider it done.
226:09:26 Carr: Roger. How about the CMP; is he hooked up to Biomed?
226:09:33 Conrad: Yes. Do you have it on him?
226:09:34 Carr: No. We sure don't.
226:09:38 Conrad: Don't, huh? [Long pause.]
226:10:21 Gordon: Houston, 12.
226:10:25 Gordon: What are we supposed to use for a buffer for that chlorine?
226:10:34 Carr: 12, Houston. The surgeon says that you won't even need a buffer. If you put it in now and let it sit all night and then disseminate into the water, that it won't be too bad in the morning.
226:10:45 Gordon: Okay. Hey, Jer, I'm sorry. I'd fallen asleep here and left my suit power and audio off, but I've got them back on now.
226:10:54 Gordon: You see my heart?
226:10:55 Carr: We got you loud and clear...
226:10:56 Gordon: ...on the way over there?
226:10:57 Carr: You'd better believe it, Dick...
226:10:59 Gordon: ...Okay.
226:11:04 Carr: ...just pitty-patting right down the line.
226:11:07 Gordon: Watch it get lazy.
226:11:11 Carr: You made the surgeon's whole night.
226:11:15 Carr: Good night, guys.
226:11:18 Gordon: Night, Jer.
This is Apollo Control at 226 hours, 12 minutes. We said goodnight to the crew again for the second time. We don't anticipate having to call them again. The surgeon decided, however, he did want the water chlorinated even though there was no buffer left in the spacecraft for the chlorination process. We wanted to have it done now, so that by in the morning the water would be palatable for the crew. Apollo 12 is now 91,354 nautical miles from Earth. Velocity, 5,690 feet per second. At 226 hours, 13 minutes, this is Mission Control, Houston.
226:16:15 Conrad: Houston, 12.
226:16:19 Carr: Go ahead, 12. [Long pause.]
226:16:46 Carr: Apollo 12, Houston. Go ahead.
226:16:51 Conrad: I think we found a third bag of this stuff up here, so [garble] got everything.
226:16:57 Carr: Good show. We figured that was probably what had happened, Pete. And we were thinking if you talked to us again, we were going to tell you where everything was stowed and see if you could find it.
226:17:11 Conrad: Yes, well, we only thought we had two bags, and we had three.
226:17:15 Carr: Roger. See you in the morning.
226:17:19 Conrad: Roger. Nighty-night.
This is Apollo Control at 226 hours, 18 minutes. The crew has just called us to report they have found another bag of the chlorine buffer in the spacecraft and will use that in connection with the chlorination process...
So now for the third time we have said goodnight to the Apollo 12 crew. The last time - elapsed time of about 226 hours and 18 minutes. Apollo 12 now 90,971 nautical miles from earth, velocity 5,707 feet per second. 18 hours, 1 minutes to entry interface. This is Mission Control, Houston, at 226 hours, 20 minutes.
This is Apollo Control at 227 hours, 19 minutes. We've had no further conversations with the crew in the past hour. Apollo 12 is 87,654 nautical miles from earth. Velocity, 5,861 feet per second. The Change of Shift News Conference will begin at 10:30 PM Central Standard Time in the Houston News Center and at that time, the latest entry information will be available. At 227 hours, 20 minutesthis is Mission Control Houston.
