Apollo 16

This is Apollo Control at 53 hours, 7 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. We're having a change of shift here in Mission Control Center. Pete Frank's team of flight controllers coming on, relieving Gerry Griffin's Gold Team. There'll be a change of shift briefing with the Flight Director Gerry Griffin and the spacecraft communicator Hank Hartsfield in about 15 minutes in the news center briefing room. Crew at the present time preparing to transfer into the Lunar Module for the activation and checkout, transferring the pressure garments into the LM. And at 53:08, still up live, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 53 hours, 28 minutes. The LM TELMU, one of the Lunar Module flight controllers here in Mission Control, has just reported that from his telemetry data it looks as if the crew has opened the hatch preparing to enter the Lunar Module at this time. They're scheduled to spend about 50 minutes to an hour in the LM on housekeeping activities, in what will be the third entry into the Lunar Module Orion during the course of this mission. A change of shift press briefing is scheduled to begin shortly in the MSC news center briefing room. During the course of that briefing, we will tape record any conversations with the crew for playback immediately following the briefing.

This is Apollo Control. The change of shift press briefing is ready to begin. We'll switch at this time to the MSC news center briefing room.

This is Apollo Control at 54 hours. During the change of shift briefing, John Young and Charlie Duke entered the Lunar Module, Orion. They powered it up, checked the communications system, completed their housekeeping activities aboard the LM and are in the process of returning to the Command Module. The total time from the time the LM was switched to its own power until they were back on the Command Module providing power to the Lunar Module was about 21 minutes. Again, as on the two previous occasions when we've had a look at the Lunar Module systems, when the data has been transmitted back to Earth, all systems on that vehicle look good. We'll play back the accumulated tape conservation with the crew at this time. [PAO commentary goes live again at 54:10].

This is Apollo Control. That completes our playback of the accumulated tape. We'll continue to stand by now and monitor the conversations live.

This is Apollo Control at 54 hours, 44 minutes. The Apollo 16 crew at this time is in the process of donning their Pressure Garment Assemblies, without helmet and gloves. Young and Duke are then scheduled to re-enter the Lunar Module and return to the Command Module. The exercise is part of a check of the procedures that the crew will be using on the day that they perform the landing on the Moon in suiting up and entering the LM. Following this exercise, the crew is scheduled to eat. During the eat period, they will be running the Skylab food test. There are several Skylab food items packed in with the crew's regular food. Such things as snap-top cans containing foods such as dried peaches and puddings, peanuts. Also a wet pack with spoonable foods, some postage stamp size salt dispensers, and the plastic bellows drink containers. And while trying out this food, we expect that we'll be getting comments from the crew on how easy it is to use the food in its packaging and ease of handling and preparation. They're also scheduled to take some still and motion pictures of the food packages in use. Apollo 16 at the present time is 170,817 nautical miles [316,353 km] from Earth and the spacecraft velocity is 3,063 feet per second [934 m/s].

This is Apollo Control at 55 hours, 35 minutes. A short while ago Ken Mattingly reported that the tunnel had been closed out, indicating that Young and Duke had completed their suit exercise, were back in the Command Module. The tunnel hatch replaced after all of the probe and drogue assembly equipment had been reinstalled. And we heard Charlie Duke report that his suit, when John Young attempted to zip it up across the back, appeared to feel tighter than he was used to feeling in that suit. Charlie said he didn't feel this would cause him any particular problems, but he was concerned that perhaps the -the length would be too short when the suit was pressurized, and suggested the possibility - or at least asked that people here on the ground look into the possibility of lengthening the suit a bit using laces that are in the legs. This is a relatively minor adjustment and we're reviewing that possibility. And we'll get back to Duke at sometime later in the mission with an evaluation of that suggestion. Following that, Ken Mattingly was involved in some activities using the onboard computer, checking out a new program flying on this mission. This is a program which during Mattingly's solo activities in orbit around the Moon, would give him a warning using the Inertial Subsystem warning light on the Display Panel, to alert Mattingly to the fact that a thruster was stuck on - should one of the thrusters stick, for example during a sleep period, an opposing thruster would then begin to fire to counteract the effects of this, the result being an unnecessary depletion of a thruster propellant. In order to avoid this sort of situation, a change has been made in the - one of the erasable memory programs - or actually an erasable memory program has been added, which Mattingly will activate during that portion of the mission, and which would then give him the warning through the inertial subsystem light, should one of the thrusters stick on. And then you heard the test of that program checked out and he got the light as expected. At the present time Apollo 16 is 172,327 nautical miles [319,150 km] from Earth. And the spacecraft is traveling at a speed now of 3,028 feet per second [923 m/s].

This is Apollo Control at 56 hours, 46 minutes. The crew should be shortly beginning their dinner which will include Skylab food items that they'll be evaluating. At last report, Ken Mattingly mentioned that they were busily involved in restowing the suits and when that was completed, they would be scheduled to begin their eat period and to give us an evaluation of the Skylab food packets that they'll be trying out at this time. We've also had some additional reports, primarily from Charlie Duke with some comments from John Young, on the tight fitting suit. Duke first reported the suit appeared to fit tighter than he had expected. After they had gone through the exercise of donning the suits and entering the Lunar Module, in his latest report, Duke said that his primary concern was not for the suits fitting properly once it was pressurized, that he felt that it would fit properly and be comfortable, but that they might, as he was concerned, that there might be problem in getting into the suit when wearing the Liquid Cooled Garment. This was not worn during tonight's exercise and Duke suggested that it might be wise to put on the Liquid Cooled Garment at some time and try getting into the suit to see if there would be a problem when getting into the suit in the same configuration that they will be using the day of powered descent, the landing on the lunar surface. We've recommended that the issue be put to rest for tonight and we're going to think about it here on the ground and see what steps might be taken tomorrow. And deal with the problem following the crew rest period. The Flight Dynamics Officer reports that the expected impact coordinates for the Saturn third stage, the S-IVB, remained virtually unchanged. That predicted impact point is at 1 degree, 50 minutes north and 23 degrees, 18 minutes west and the predicted time of impact remains 75 hours, 7 minutes and 3 seconds. This places the... We just had a call to the crew. We'll standby for that.

This is Apollo Control at 57 hours, 24 minutes. The series of checks that we've been performing with the spacecraft using the onboard VHF and S-band systems are a preparation for an experiment that'll be performed in lunar orbit, the Bistatic Radar experiment which uses the spacecraft's communications equipment in a passive experiment to determine something about the electromagnetic properties of the lunar surface. These radio signals are reflected off the Moon, and the Moon affects the way in which they are reflected, and these characteristics are measured on Earth in an experiment performed by Taylor Howard of Stanford University. The VHF signals are received by the Stanford Research Institute in California, and the S-band signals are received by the Manned Spaceflight Network Station at Goldstone, California, the 210-foot antenna. Flight Dynamics Officer advised us moments ago that while the crew is sleeping at 59 hours, 19 minutes, 45 seconds, we're scheduled to cross that mythical line known as the lunar Sphere of Influence, the point of which we begin calculating the increasing effects of the lunar gravity on the spacecraft. Our displays here in Mission Control shortly after that point are generally switched over to Moon reference from Earth reference. The velocities that we've been watching decrease steadily up to now, will then begin to increase as the spacecraft is accelerated toward the Moon. At the present time we show Apollo 16 175,461 nautical miles [324,954 km] from Earth, and traveling at a speed of 2,957 feet per second [901 m/s]. As is usually the case when the spacecraft is this far from Earth, and when we're using the omni directional antennas and the spacecraft is rotating in the Passive Thermal Control mode, we do have some noisy communications as we drift from one antenna to the next. And this mission is no exception in that regard, and so we will have from time to time periods of noisy communications.

This is Apollo Control at 59 hours, 9 minutes. The crew at this time completing the items on their checklist prior to getting an eight-hour rest period. And we had a description from Ken Mattingly of some problems he was having getting the chlorine and buffer injected into the drinking water system. This is done with a syringe-type device which injects the chlorine and the buffer alternately through a diaphragm in the waste - in the water management panel of the spacecraft. This is injected through with a hypodermic needle arrangement. And from the descriptions given by Mattingly and the discussions that he had with CapCom Tony England, it appears that the problem he had was related to the way in which the ampoules of chlorine and particularly the buffer are placed in the syringe. They are held in place by the nut that screws down on the ampoule and a plunger device then is activated which drives the buffer out of the syringe and into the water supply. Apparently the nut is not down tight enough holding the - which would have allowed the ampoule to ride up off off the needle and instead of buffer being injected into the water, water was allowed to flow back out and come out of the syringe. Mattingly reported, when he followed the procedure outlined by Tony England, that apparently the buffer was injected properly and we believe that sufficient chlorine was injected to take care of the requirements there and the plan at this point is to put the crew to bed as soon as possible. At the present time we're showing Apollo 16 178,435 nautical miles [330,462 km] from Earth and the speed of the spacecraft at this time, 2,891 feet per second [881 m/s]. In about eight minutes, Apollo 16 will be crossing the imaginary line designating the lunar Sphere of Influence. At this point, the Moon's gravitational force becomes the dominant gravity force acting on the spacecraft. And here in the control center, our displays monitoring the spacecraft velocity and altitude will switch over from Earth reference, which we've been using the bulk of the flight, to Moon reference. At that point the Earth will be 178,673 nautical miles [330,902 km] from the spacecraft and the spacecraft will be 33 thousand miles - 33,821 miles [62,636 km] from the Moon. The velocity of the spacecraft with respect to the Earth at that point will be 2,887 feet per second [880 m/s] and with respect to the Moon, it will be traveling 3,482 feet per second [1,061 m/s]. The time of that sphere crossing is 59 hours, 19 minutes, 45 seconds.

This is Apollo Control. While we were in the process of completing those last few items with the crew before saying good night, Apollo 16 crossed into the Moon's sphere of influence, and we're now showing the spacecraft at an altitude of 33,680 nautical miles [62.375 km] from the Moon and traveling at a speed of 3,482 feet per second [1,061 m/s], and that velocity is increasing. The time again of that sphere crossing was 59 hours, 19 minutes, 45 seconds. At 59 hours, 24 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 60 hours, 3 minutes. At the present time, we're in the midst of a shift handover in Mission Control. Our Flight Director Phil Shaffer is coming on to replace Flight Director Pete Frank. The spacecraft communicator on the oncoming shift will be astronaut Hank Hartsfield replacing astronaut Tony England. And at the present time, Apollo 16 is 32,321 nautical miles [59,858 km] from the Moon. Traveling at a speed of 3,492 feet per second [1,064 m/s]. During this past shift, the major activities for the crew included another activation and checkout of the Lunar Module. At 53 hours, 28 minutes, Duke and Young transferred into the LM and switched over from Command Module power for that vehicle to the LM's own power systems, activated the communications equipment and completed some general housekeeping activities aboard the LM. They then returned to the Command Module and all three crewmen donned their Pressure Garment Assemblies, less helmets and gloves, and Duke and Young re-entered the Lunar Module checking out the procedures that they'll use the day of the lunar landing for suiting up and ingressing the Lunar Module. Following this exercise, Charlie Duke reported that they had some difficulties when John Young attempted to close one of the large restraint zippers on Duke's suit. And he said when the zipper - when they tried to get the zipper closed across the small of his back that Young had to exert quite a bit of force to get the zipper to close. Later Charlie Duke reported that although he was not concerned that the suit would be comfortable once pressurized, there was some concern that they might have difficulties getting the suit zipped up when he was wearing the Liquid Cooled Garment. This is normally worn under the suits during the EVAs. It was not worn for the exercise tonight and Duke suggested that it might be a wise idea to try the suit with the Liquid Cooled Garment underneath to make sure that it would be possible to close the zipper. He also raised the possibility of lengthening the suit using a series of laces which were built into the suit. Now we advised him to leave the problem where it was for tonight. We're going to be looking at it both here in the Control Center and in the Engineering Support rooms in Building 45. Also among our crew systems people and determine what the next step should be. There seemed to be no undue concern about the problem here. The feeling was that if the suit fit during the time that it was worn for the launch, that it would fit prior to the lunar landing and the EVAs. However, we will be looking into the problem in more detail and coming up with some recommendations for the crew following their rest period. Also on the list of activities during this shift, the crew ran a check of the equipment which will be used in the Bistatic Radar experiment while in lunar orbit. Transmitting S-band and VHF signals which we'll receive the VHF signal as was received at Stanford as it will be during the actual experiment in lunar orbit allowing scientists there to calibrate equipment and to determine the precise frequencies that the spacecraft equipment will be operating on. And there were a number of items from the Skylab food which were included in the menu for tonight's dinner. The astronauts were evaluating this food, both it's packaging and ease of preparation. They were taking motion pictures and still photos of the preparation and will be providing postflight detailed reports on how this operation went. John Young made the comment that there were very few casualties and no loss of life following the use of the Skylab food. He did comment that it took as he put it a lot longer than they had allowed for. I think the supposition here in the Control Center was that he was talking more about the documentation procedures, the filming and the still photography. And we had one minor problem in the chlorination of the drinking water supply. This is done in two steps. Chlorine is injected using a hypodermic-type syringe and this device injects the chlorine through a needle and then through a diaphragm which then allows it to be inter-mixed with the drinking water. This is followed with an injection of buffer and Ken Mattingly reported some difficulty in injecting the chlorine and he said when he checked the ampoule which holds the chlorine was broken and he also said that when he tried to inject the buffer that instead of buffer going in, water came out. Tony England, capsule communicator on this shift, recalled having a similar experience prelaunch when he was chlorinating the drinking water in the spacecraft on the launch pad. And we very quickly remedied that situation with a recommendation from England that the nut which holds the ampoule into the syringe be firmly up against the syringe to permit the - the ampoule from separating from the needle and allowing water to come out rather than buffer to be injected in. Mattingly double checked his procedure and tried again and the second time around reported that everything went as planned with no problems. Also on this shift, we crossed this mythical line known as the Lunar Sphere of Influence at which point we begin calculating our spacecraft velocities and altitudes with respect to the Lunar Module. Also at this point that theoretically the Moon becomes the dominant force acting upon the spacecraft from a gravity point of view and the spacecraft begins to accelerate towards the Moon. At that point, Apollo 16 was 178,673 nautical miles [330,902 km] from Earth and 33,821 nautical miles [62,636 km] from the Moon. That event occurred at 59 hours, 19 minutes, 45 seconds Ground Elapsed Time. At 59 hours, 23 minutes or a little less than one hour ago, actually about 50 minutes ago, we said goodnight to the crew and we've heard nothing from them since. They have an eight-hour rest period scheduled. During that time, we will take the air-to-ground line down. We'll be recording any conversations should we have an unscheduled or unexpected conversation with the crew. We'll play that back following receipt. And we'll be giving periodic status reports. At 60 hours, 12 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 60 hours, 51 minutes since lift-off. We now show Apollo 16 at 30,683 nautical miles [56,825 km] away from the Moon; velocity now reads 3,503 feet per second [1,068 m/s]; this velocity relative to the Moon. Phil Shaffer's again the Flight Director for the White Team of flight controllers who are now on duty in the Mission Control. As previously reported, the crew of Apollo 16 is in their sleep period. Right now, we expect that Young, Duke and Mattingly will be allowed an extra hour of sleep, making the wake-up time at 67 hours Ground Elapsed Time. At 61 hours [means 60 hours], 52 minutes into the mission; this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 61 hours, 51 minutes into the mission. The crew of Apollo 16 continuing with their rest period as Apollo 16 continues on course toward lunar orbit. We presently show Apollo 16 at 28,605 nautical miles [52,976 km] away from the Moon; velocity now reads 3,520 feet per second [1,073 m/s]. Very little conversation over the Flight Director's loop in the Mission Operations Control Room. One of the items to be decided on this shift however, is the requirement for Midcourse Correction Number 4 prior to a Lunar Orbit Insertion. If it is decided to do it, MCC-4 will be a small maneuver. We're at 61 hours, 52 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 62 hours, 51 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. Our displays in Mission Control now show Apollo 16 26,522 nautical miles [49,119 km] away from the Moon and traveling at a velocity of 3,540 feet per second [1,079 m/s]. Meanwhile in the Control Center, we continue in our systems monitoring mode as the White Flight Control Team continues to maintain their logs and update their planning notes for handover to the next team of flight controllers. The next team will be on duty when the Lunar Orbit Insertion burn occurs. This morning, the Surgeon is monitoring Commander John Young's sleep response. He selects a different crew member each evening and he reports that Young is resting well. We're at 62 hours, 52 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 63 hours, 52 minutes into the mission. We now show Apollo 16 at a distance of 24,470 nautical miles [45,318 km] from the Moon and traveling at a velocity of 3,567 feet per second [1,087 m/s]. Our CapCom Hank Hartsfield has not spoken with the crew on his shift yet this morning. However, he will place the wake-up call and the wake-up call is now scheduled for a bit over three hours from this time. We're at 63 hours, 53 minutes and this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 64 hours, 51 minutes into the mission. We now show the Apollo 16 spacecraft at 24,237 [means 22,237] nautical miles [41,183 km] away from the Moon. We've had no contact with the crew of Apollo 16 for the past hour nor do we expect contact with the crew for a bit more than two hours. Crew wake-up time is now two hours and eight minutes away. We'll stand by however, and continue to monitor our conversations within the Mission Control Center and the various displays. At 64 hours, 52 minutes Ground Elapsed Time; this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 65 hours, 51 minutes into the mission. We now show Apollo 16 at a distance of 20,195 nautical miles [37,401 km] away from the Moon, and traveling now at a velocity of 3,626 feet per second [1,105 m/s]. The crew of Apollo 16 can expect their wake-up call in a bit over an hour. Our countdown clock in Mission Control shows one hour, eight minutes remaining until time of wake-up. The Flight Plan for the upcoming day for the crew, is essentially unchanged. However, one item is still open, this being the decision on whether or not to do Midcourse Correction 4. We're at 65 hours, 52 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control, Houston.