Preparations for EVA-1

ALSEP Off-Load

 

Down the Ladder for EVA-1

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1995 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library.
Video credits in the Video Library.
Except where noted, MP3 audio by Thomas Schwagmeier and video clips by Ken Glover.
Last revised 2 April 2017.

[Al and Ed are at the top of the righthand column of checklist page 2-10.]

113:39:00 Mitchell: Okay. Overhead...Let's see, Forward Dump Valve, Open, now.

113:39:05 Shepard: Okay. I (garbled). (Long Pause) Okay; I got a tone.

113:39:33 Mitchell: Tone on; water flag A.

113:39:35 Shepard: Water flag A. (Pause)

[As the cabin pressure drops through about 1.5 psi, a sensor in the PLSS notices that the cooling system is not operating and triggers a warning flag and a warning tone.]

113:40:06 Shepard: Yeah. (Pause)

[Mitchell - "Al tried to open the hatch at a half pound and it wasn't going to budge."]

[No one was able to crack the hatch above 0.2 psi. Indeed, at pressures much above 0.2 psi, the force necessary to open the hatch would have been enough to break off the handle.]

113:40:17 McCandless: You got a lot of surface area on that hatch.

113:40:22 Mitchell: Yeah. Okay, there's a quarter of a pound. Still tight, huh? Let her drop. Rest a minute. Let her drop. (Pause) Okay. It should be almost zero now.

113:40:44 McCandless: Okay, we're showing a tenth (0.1) of a pound right now. (Pause)

113:40:51 Mitchell: There it comes. (Pause) Okay. Final Prep. PLSS feedwater, (Open).

[Jones - "Was there enough room between the two of you, or did Al have to get out of the way in order to swing that hatch open?"]

[Mitchell - "I had to get out of the way so that he could swing the hatch open. It was tight. I had to turn around and back right up against the instrument panel - the circuit breaker panel - so that the door could come open and Al could turn around and back his way out through it."]

[Jones - "While the door is actually opening, is it mostly over on your side, or is it centered?"]

[Mitchell - "The handle was on his side and the hinge was on my side. So it opened from his side toward me. He had to back in the corner while it swung open."]

[Jones - "Right. But, once it was swung open and you were backed into your corner, then he had two-thirds of the cabin or something like that."]

[Mitchell - "Right."]

113:41:06 Mitchell: Yep, I got it.

113:41:08 Shepard: Thank you. (Slight Pause) Okay, I(Ôve) got it now.

113:41:12 Mitchell: Straighten up.

113:41:13 Shepard: That's going to be enough. There we go.

[Two things are going on here. First, Al has leaned forward to get the hatch open. The hatch is hinged on EdÕs side of the cabin. Second, with the hatch open, they need to move feedwater shutoff valve to the Open position (aft) start the flow of feedwater to give them cooling now that they are off LM cooling. At 113:41:05, Al has the hatch open far enough that Ed, who is standing against the side wall on his side of the cabin, can reach down and use a hand to keep the hatch open against his legs. At 113:41:08, Al reaches back with his right hand for his feedwater controls, which are on the forward, righthand corner of his PLSS. AlÕs comments from the post-flight Technical Debrief (below) indicate that Ed opened AlÕs feedwater valve at the start of both EVAs. Evidently, AlÕs "I've got it now," was wishful thinking. At 113:41:12, Ed has decided that he'll have to open Al's feedwater valve and is telling Al to stand upright so he can reach it.]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I was unable to reach, without a great deal of difficulty, the PLSS feedwater lever. It's because of the location of the PLSS, behind the suit, where I couldn't get my hand in there when the suit was pressurized. We had done some last-minute adjustments (prior to launch from Earth) to allow a better aiming of the camera bracket in the front of the RCU and, in fact, that's what did it (that is, made reaching the feedwater control difficult). So, if I'd struggle with it, I think I could have made it, if I'd had to do it on my own. It turned out to be easier to Ed to do it for me, so we proceeded...on both occasions (that is, both EVA Preps) using that technique. I guess in rechecking the PLSS mounting after we had changed the straps, we used a one-sixth-g rig in the suit room. I guess this assumption wasn't quite right, because I didn't have any problem reaching it in the suit room, but I did in the actual suit."]

[Another factor that may be contributing to the problem is that, in response to the depressurization, the suits are quite hard and stiff. Once the suit pressure decays to the 3.85 psi operating pressure and they get outside, reaching the control will be easier. On Apollo 17, Jack Schmitt could not reach his control in the cabin, but had no problems out on the surface.]

[They are waiting for the PLSS sublimator to begin functioning. After they begin the flow of feedwater, a layer of ice has to build up in the sublimator. It is the ice that actually sublimates and carries off the heat brought to the sublimator by the closed-loop flow of water from the Liquid-Cooled Garment. This wait for cooling also lets the suit pressure decay. At elevated pressure - about 4.8 psi - they are almost immobile.]

[Comm Break]

113:43:44 Mitchell: No, they're on.

113:43:46 Shepard: Are they?

113:43:47 Mitchell: Yeah.

113:43:48 Shepard: Oh, I see. You've got them on dim. Okay. Just barely see them over there.

113:43:54 Mitchell: Okay. Getting a water flag clear here in a minute. (Pause) Okay my PGA is getting down to about usable pressure of 4.3 now. What's yours at?

113:44:13 Shepard: Okay. Reading 4.2.

113:44:15 Mitchell: We'll be able to work in a minute. (Pause)

[Jones - "By 'usable pressure', do you mean a pressure low enough that you can move?"]

[Mitchell - "It's workable. It's low enough that you can do something. When you're up above four psi, you're just a zombie standing there."]

113:44:50 McCandless: Ed, this is Houston. We're showing your feedwater pressure going up (in response to the buildup of the ice layer in the sublimator). You ought to be in business shortly.

113:44:57 Mitchell: Roger. Water flag just cleared. (Pause) That's great.

113:45:08 Shepard: Outstanding!

113:45:11 Mitchell: How's yours, Al? Your water flag about to clear?

113:45:13 Shepard: Don't know...

113:45:14 McCandless: Al's pressure is rising now; it ought to clear momentarily.

113:45:20 Shepard: Okay, Al's water flag is clear.

113:45:21 Mitchell: Okay. (Garbled under McCandless)

113:45:22 McCandless: Beautiful. (Long Pause)

113:45:33 Shepard: Okay.

113:45:35 Mitchell: Okay. Lighting/Annunciator to Dim

113:45:39 Shepard: Okay. Dim. Stop the DET (Digital Event Timer).

[Mitchell - "The DET's simply your LM stopwatch, the digital stopwatch on the LM panel that you could reset to time events."]

113:45:45 Shepard: Okay.

113:45:46 Mitchell: Forward hatch the rest of the way open.

113:45:49 Shepard: All righty.

113:45:52 Mitchell: Get your leg right up there. Okay. Forward hatch is open. Lower your visor. (Pause)

113:46:03 Mitchell: Let me get (garbled).

113:46:05 Shepard: Yeah. Let me...(garbled).

113:46:09 Mitchell: That's fine.

113:46:10 Shepard: Okay.

113:46:11 Mitchell: Okay; can you reach everything now? (Pause)

113:46:15 Shepard: Okay.

113:46:17 Mitchell: Let's see, I got...That ought to help you. (Pause)

[They are now on the cuff checklists. Ed's first page starts with "Assist, Monitor (Al's egress)".]

[The small area available to the crew at the front of the cabin is best illustrated by images taken during final Apollo 16 (LM 11, Orion) and Apollo 17 (LM 12, Challenger) LM close-out on the pad at the Cape prior to launch.]

[A view from above shows the LMP's PLSS (without the OPS) and two helmet bags (containing the LEVAs) filling the space. As detailed on pages LV-4 and 5 in the Lunar Module News Reference, the useable floor area measures about 55 inches (140 cm) from side to side and about 36 inches (91 cm) from the hatch to the base of the 18-inch (46 cm) 'midstep' behind the crew stations. Note that the PLSS dimensions are about 26 inches (66 cm) long, 19 inches (48 cm) wide, 9.5 (24 cm) inches thick at the base, and 8.75 (22 cm) inches thick at the top. The photographer was standing on the midstep, with its edge near the bottom of the frame.]

An Apollo 16 frame taken through the open hatch shows a member of the close-out team standing on tiptoes on the midstep, with the ECS on his right and stowed itens behind the Commander's station on his left. A similar Apollo 17 frame shows a member of the close-out team sitting on the Ascent Engine cover. Finally, an Apollo 16 frame shows the top of the engine cover with Velcro strips and cloth straps where the LM crew secured the helmet bags after re-installing the drogue and probe in preparation for undocking from the CSM.]

[Jones - "Can you describe what gyrations Al had to go through with you in there to get himself in position to get out?"]

[Mitchell - "He turned around, once we got the door open, and leaned against the left cabin wall. There was a handrail there, or guard rail. He got down with his left knee first, then his right knee, and backed himself in a circle, turning out through the door with my guidance."]

[Jones - "So he was facing his side of the spacecraft and got down in a kneeling position...."]

[Mitchell - "He was facing the back, side corner."]

[Jones - "And then stuck his feet out through the hatch and then, as he got his feet out, edged himself around so that he was pointed straight out the door."]

[Mitchell - "With me guiding him all the way. I mean, I was watching what he was doing and guiding him."]

[Jones - "Now, how about yourself when you got out with him not in there. Was it basically the same thing?"]

[Mitchell - "I had a little more room. Once he was out then I closed the door, got on his side and opened the door full open. That way I had more room to maneuver. And, without him in there and the door fully open, I could lean against the step and back out pretty straight. Remember, I had to go in and out two or three times, so I got pretty proficient at doing it."]

[In addition to not having Al in the cabin, Ed had the advantage of a softer suit when the time came for him to get out.]

113:46:29 Mitchell: Okay.

113:46:30 Shepard: Right way? Okay, very good.

113:46:32 Mitchell: I'll get your (PLSS) antenna as you go out.

113:46:35 Shepard: All righty. Starting out the door. (Long Pause)

113:46:52 Mitchell: Wait; you're going to have to get your PLSS down a little; roll toward me.

113:46:57 Shepard: Okay, coming on over.

113:46:58 Mitchell: Okay, there you go. Now you're clear. Get your head down as soon as you can. Back right on out. That's great. Wait a minute, let me get your antenna; hold it.

113:47:09 Shepard: Okay.

[Mitchell - "Getting your head down with the LEVA on, etc., and trying to get down, that rear step (the so-called midstep which is the eighteen inch transition from the flooring where the astronauts stand to the higher decking that surrounds the ascent engine cover) came right in front of your face. There was barely room for you to get your butt and the bottom of the PLSS out the door. You brushed the LEVA right across the (mid)step. I mean, it was tight."]

[Jones - "There was some mention of 'don't scratch your visor' on one of the missions."]

[Mitchell - "That's exactly right. It was so tight. There's just barely room for your torso - from the back of the PLSS to the top of your helmet - to get by there."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I disliked deploying those antennas inside. I think it's because we broke off a couple in practice. I'm still against deploying those antennas inside, except as we did with Al. He was on the way out and was obviously clear when I deployed it. This procedure leaves the LMP with his antenna folded until he gets outside. I suggest we do it that way because I would hate to see you snap off an antenna on the plus-Z-27 bulkhead on the first EVA. I think it's highly probable."]

[The plus Z-27 bulkhead separates the front the cabin from the back, just in front of the ascent engine cover. The plus Z-27 bulkhead is also the front face of what is called the Midstep. The astronauts had to exercise care coming into the cabin to avoid hitting vulnerable parts of the EMU on the bulkhead, particuarly scratching visors on the top of the midstep as they maneuvered into kneeling position.]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "No problems with the stability and balance. We had done this on two separate flights on the one-sixth-g airplane and practiced getting it out on that. We didn't do any training in the water tank, but felt that the airplane training was adequate for the occasion."]

113:47:34 Mitchell: Roger. Let me get over here on the other side so I can get to it. (Pause) Oops. (Long Pause) I'm hung up on something, Al. (Pause)

[Ed closes the hatch, moves to Al's side of the spacecraft and opens the hatch again.]

113:48:21 Mitchell: It's the door handle. I got it loose now.

113:48:23 Shepard: Okay, very good. (Pause)

[Ed may have caught his strap-on thigh pocket on the handle.]

113:48:38 Shepard: Okay. (Pause) Okay, I've got it. Now I'm standing by for the LEC (as per his first cuff checklist page).

113:48:50 Mitchell: Okay. (Long Pause)

[After getting the jettison bag from Ed, who probably slides it out with his foot, Al probably lifts it over the porch rail and lets it drop to the ground. Once he gets down to the surface, Al will kick the jett bag under the descent stage to get it out of the way.]

[The LEC is the Lunar Equipment Conveyor, basically a clothesline they will use to get the Equipment Transfer Bag (ETB) down to the surface. Ed will attach the LEC pulley to the yellow bar in the overhead inside the cabin. By the time of Apollo 16, the crews will have decided that the LEC is more trouble than it's worth and will carry most of their gear up and down the ladder by hand. On Apollo 14, Ed will be the first to dispense with the LEC, at least in some instances, and will carry some gear up to the cabin by hand. The ETB contains the cameras and film magazines.]

113:50:01 McCandless: Roger. (Pause)

113:50:11 Shepard: Okay, I have the conveyor now. (Pause) Out of the (LEC) bag. (Pause) And it's deploying. (Pause)

[Rather than take the LEC completely out of its stowage bag and have it turn into a ball of knots as he hands it out to Al, Ed only takes enough of the LEC out of the bag to make his connection in the LM and then hands the bag out to Al who can let the LEC drape down to the ground. At some point, Ed closes the TV circuit breaker, as per checklist.]

113:50:50 McCandless: Roger, Al.

[Al pulled a release lanyard mounted to the left of the porch. By doing so, he let the Modular Equipment Stowage Assembly or MESA, which is hinged at the bottom, swing out and down to a working height. The MESA actually swings down 30 degrees past horizontal so that, if there happens to be a crater where the astronauts need to stand to work at the MESA, they can still reach it. Once he gets down to the surface, Al will adjust the MESA to a comfortable working height.]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "We had practiced deploying the MESA with the flight hardware. We knew pretty much what to expect with the descent stage, as a result of the C-Squared-F-Squared (Crew Compartment Fit and Function). We had done that at the Cape with the actual vehicle."]

RealVideo Clip (3 min 06 sec)

113:50:52 McCandless: Roger. (Long Pause) Okay, Al. Beautiful! We can see you coming down the ladder right now. It looks like you're about on the bottom step. (Pause) And on the surface. Not bad for an old man.

[Al was born on 18 November 1923. At 47, he is by far the oldest of the Apollo Moonwalkers (painting by Ed Hengeveld). Birth dates of the others, in age order, are: Buzz Aldrin, 20 January 1930; Jim Irwin, 17 March 1930; Pete Conrad, 2 June 1930; Neil Armstrong, 5 August 1930; Ed Mitchell, 17 September 1930; John Young, 24 September 1930; Al Bean, 15 March 1932; Dave Scott, 6 June 1932; Gene Cernan, 14 March 1934; Jack Schmitt, 3 July 1935; Charlie Duke, 3 October 1935. Jim Lovell and Fred Haise, who saw their opportunity vanish in the Apollo 13 accident, were born 25 March 1928 and 14 November 1933, respectively. Jim Irwin was the second oldest moonwalker at 41. Charlie Duke was the youngest at 36.]

[The TV camera is positioned on the MESA to record Al's descent to the surface. The bottom rung of the ladder is about 3 feet - one meter - above the footpad. The ladder is attached to the west strut and, therefore, Al is in deep shadow. He has his visor up.]

113:51:51 McCandless: Roger; out.

[At first, Al stands at the bottom of the ladder, turning once to look off to the west.]

113:52:26 McCandless: Roger. (Pause)

[AS14-66- 9234 shows how the north footpad dug into the surface.]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "We got down the ladder fine, down on the ground fine, and had no mobility or stability problems to speak of. It takes a little while to get adjusted to it, but it's no more than just a couple of minutes before you're off and running. This business of having to adapt slowly is a familiarization process. Do it very slowly. Other fellows have made comments about its being different as far as controlled c.g. (center-of-gravity) is concerned. However, if you fly in a one-sixth-g airplane and then go through a period of zero-g, you get to the point where you're not so heavy handed with the maneuvers. I really felt right at home almost immediately as we got on the surface. Balance was good and getting control was good. I did not fall down at any time during either EVA. I got down on my knee a couple of times to pick up some things, but I got right back up again. Never, at any time, did I have any trouble with falling down and balance. We had the same problems everybody else did with the (TV and errectable S-band antenna) cables, of course. You have to watch them. We pulled the television camera over one time. That's just a matter of the cables being there and, sooner or later, you're going to run into them."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I agree completely with Al on the ease of mobility. The one-sixth-g training was all we really needed. There was no big problem with overcontrol, stability, or anything."]

[Except for Armstrong and Aldrin, who were purposefully cautious and conservative, none of the astronauts took more than a few minutes before they were literally running, hopping, and skipping, taking advantage of the weak lunar gravity field and spending as much time with their feet off the ground as possible.]

[As per checklist, Ed takes two pictures of Al out the window. These are AS14-66- 9229 and 9230. Note that Al has distinguishing stripes on his helmet, arms, and legs. He has moved around to the north side of the spacecraft, near the MESA, and is using his hand to shield his eyes as he looks east toward Cone. Ed took the photos out his own (north) window.]

[Lennie Waugh was captured a detail showing Al's watch and checklist. The picture was taken at about 1455 GMT/UTC or 0855 USCST and the watch seems to be showing a time close to 9 o'clock. See, also, a detail from the full-resolution scan done from the original film by NASA Johnson and posted in 2015 by Kipp Teague at Flickr.]

[Ulli Lotzmann has provided a photo of the stripe on the left arm of Al's suit ( 155k ), taken in August 2004 at the Smithsonian Air and Space Museum's Garber Facility.]

113:53:01 Mitchell: Roger, Houston. Thank you.

[As indicated in his checklist at 0+16, Ed has been verifying that the circuit breakers are still in the proper configuration and, also, is checking to make sure that the VOX system is set at maximum sensitivity. On Apollo 11, Buzz left the VOX system with less than maximum sensitivity and did not always trigger the system when he was out on the surface.]

113:53:40 McCandless: Roger, Al. (Long Pause)

[The horizon tilts in the TV picture as Al raises the MESA to a comfortable working height.]

113:54:04 Mitchell: And, Houston. I'm finishing up my circuit breaker check. Will be ready to go out shortly.

113:54:08 McCandless: Roger, Ed. (Pause)

113:54:14 Shepard: (At 0+22 in his checklist) Okay, the MESA is adjusted. Going over to remove the MET (thermal) blanket. (Long Pause)

[The Mobile Equipment Transporter is the handcart or rickshaw that was unique to this mission. It is stowed on the MESA and is the first piece of equipment to be taken off. Al raises the MESA some more to get at the MET. NASA photo KSC-70C-156BW (scan by J.L. Pickering) shows the MET stowed on the MESA prior to installation of the MET thermal cover.]

113:54:40 Shepard: Okay.

[Comm Break]

MPG Video Clip (56 sec; 9.8 Mb)

113:55:44 McCandless: Okay, Ed. We can see you coming down the ladder, now.

113:55:54 Mitchell: And it's very great to be coming down.

113:55:56 McCandless: Roger. Bottom step. (Pause)

[Ed has his visor up - as Al did - and we can see the central white stripe of his Snoopy helmet. After getting to the bottom rung, he jumps off and falls slowly to the footpad, letting his hands slide down the outer ladder rails.]

113:56:26 McCandless: I guess we got there with those lightweight (PLSS) units.

113:56:31 Mitchell: Yeah. Sure glad they did, too. That's great. (Pause)

[Mitchell - "This is a reference back to the conversation about the lightweight PLSSs that Ron Blevins handed in to us in training."]

[Jones - "Did you do any ladder training in the airplane?"]

[Mitchell - "No. That was a problem because, on Earth there was no way you could get up to the lowest rung. With a fully extended strut, somebody had to give you a boost to get from the footpad up to the first step. In the suit and with all that weight, you couldn't get up there but, as you can see on the video, it was a piece of cake. But we were concerned. And, furthermore, you couldn't see your feet, so it was all by feel."]

[Jones - "Did you do any ingress - or egress - practice in the one-sixth-g airplane? You only had 35 seconds per parabola, so there wouldn't have been time to get all the way in or out."]

[Mitchell - "No. I don't think we did much in the airplane. We may have tried going through a door but that 35 seconds really wasn't enough. The problem is the confinement of the cabin and then getting down and maneuvering yourself out that door. As I recall, the airplane didn't help much for that."]

[Jones - "Well, I guess the first two crews had had such an easy time of it that you weren't concerned."]

[Mitchell - "Yeah. They didn't express abnormal difficulty. They expressed exactly what we experienced in the real thing in the spacecraft. That it's cumbersome as hell and difficult but (the thing to do is) be cautious and move slow and you can do it."]

[Jones - "And on this ascent check, what I thought I saw on the video is that you had your hands on the sides of the ladder and then..."]

[Mitchell - "Push up with your legs and pull with your arms."]

[Jones - "And then move your hands up and grab higher."]

[Mitchell - "And you can see, it was relatively easy. I just kind of bounced up and gave a little pull with my hands."]

[Ed lowers his visor and goes off-camera to the right (north) to join Al.]

113:56:53 Mitchell: He's releasing it now. (Pause)

RealVideo Clip (3 min 27 sec)

113:57:02 Shepard: Okay, Houston. The MET is finally clear of the MESA.

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I had no problem adjusting the height of the MESA at all. In one-sixth g, it comes up and down very easily. I was surprised that the thermal blankets were glued on so tightly. I guess in training we use them so much, they come off a lot easier. The first surprise I had was when I tried to remove the thermal blanket for the MET. I grabbed the ring to pull it off, and the ring came out and the blanket was still on there. So I had to get it down with my hands. The difference is that that clear tape used to tape that stuff on makes it that much tougher. It came off all right, but we had to use a little bit more strength that I had expected to have to use to get it off. The pins on the MET pulled fine. The insulation blanket on the bottom of the MET, between the MET and the MESA, actually held it up there. So I had to pull it off when the pins were released. The one-sixth-g weight wasn't enough to make it fall down. So, anyway, we finally got it off (and) we put it on the plus-Y (north) footpad (as can be seen in AS14-66- 9255, which Al takes at about 114:53:38)."]

113:57:11 Shepard: Okay.

113:57:12 Mitchell: ...if I go around the corner or something.

[On Apollo 17, Cernan and Schmitt waited until they were both outside before they deployed the OPS antenna and had no comm problems. Indeed, before Schmitt joined him, Cernan walked over to two craters several tens of meters from the spacecraft and had excellent comm.]

113:57:16 Mitchell: Okay. (Long Pause) It is bright (looking) up-Sun, isn't it?

[The up-Sun direction is toward the Sun. It is still early morning at Fra Mauro and the Sun is only degrees above the eastern horizon.]

113:57:50 Mitchell: Get it?

113:57:50 Shepard: Stand by one. (Pause) Okay, you're now deployed.

113:57:59 Mitchell: Okay; thank you.

113:58:01 Shepard: Okay, Houston, the MESA (meaning MET) has been stowed on the plus-Y (north) footpad.

113:58:06 McCandless: Roger. Out. (Pause)

[Training photo KSC-70P-524 shows Back-up Commander Gene Cernan stowing the MET in the plus-Y footpad during a 14 December training exercise. PhotoKSC-70P-503 (scan by J.L. Pickering) shows the MET in the plus-Y footpad near the left side of the picture, beyond the erectable S-Band antenna, during an 8 December 1970 training exercise by the prime crew. MIssion photo AS14-66-9255 is one of several Al took showing the MET in the plus-Y footpad. It will stay there until Al takes it back to the MESA for deployment after 114:59:49.]

[Al is now on the cuff checklist page that starts with the 0+26 activities. That is, he is supposed to be 26 minutes into the EVA. In reality, it has only been 19 minutes since the EVA started at 113:39.]

113:58:36 McCandless: Roger. (Pause)

[In the TV, we can see Ed hopping and jumping, being very vigorous as he checks his ability to move around. He has only been on the surface about 2 1/2 minutes.]

[Jones - "It looks like you were hopping from one foot to the other, almost immediately."]

[Mitchell - "The first thing you do on here (in the checklist at 0+18) is the ascent check and then do a stability and mobility check. You have a few minutes to get familiar with the surface."]

[Jones - "But it looked to me like you were trying the foot-to-foot stride right away."]

[Mitchell - "Yeah. And that never worked for me. I did not end up doing that. I ended up using the bunny hop."]

[Jones - "There's a kangaroo hop or bunny hop which is a two-footed hop; and some of the guys did a kind of a skip with one foot leading all the time."]

[Mitchell - "I did it (as) a step hop. Left, right, hop. Left right, hop."]

[Jones - "As opposed to what Jack describes as a cross country (stride)."]

[Mitchell - "Right. Alan (Shepard) used the stride, I did not. It just didn't work for me very well."]

113:59:00 McCandless: The backup crew (Cernan, Evans, Engle) copies.

113:59:02 Shepard: We knew the troops would...(Listens)

113:59:06 Mitchell: I knew they would.

113:59:08 Shepard: We knew the troops on the ground would be glad to hear that. (Pause)

[Mitchell - "This was an inside joke. The backup crew, led by Cernan, were convinced we'd discard the MET before we got there with it. And all of us agreed (that) it might be sort of a problem, but the notion of having to carry equipment without the MET - to me - was a worse solution. So Al and I said, 'Now, we'll get it up there somehow.' And we did, as you know, we ended up carrying the damn thing up the last little bit because it was easier than pulling, 'cause it was bouncing. In that one-sixth g, even with the weight on it, it was about to flop over and was bouncing all around. So it was easier in moving fast (to carry it). If we moved slow and just dogged it and moved along, okay, it'd stay on the ground. But if we tried to move at a normal speed, it was very unstable. It just bounced around."]

[Jones - "Would you agree with the statement that walking, as opposed to any of the three gliding steps (hopping, skipping, and striding/loping), is harder."]

[Mitchell - "Oh, yes, yes, yes. You take full advantage of the one-sixth gravity and your strength. (In the suit) the thing you had the most freedom to do is push with your legs. So, if you pushed with your legs, then you floated for a nice long stride. To me the stride was not effective and efficient enough. By just giving a little push I could glide for long steps. And it was more of a bunny hop than a kangaroo hop where you're hitting with two feet."]

[Thomas Schwagmeier notes that Bruce seems to have thought that, when the TV pictured darkened, Al was putting on the lens cap, but then realizes that the momentary darkening was due to removal of the the MESA thermal blanket. Al will install the lens cap at 114:00:38.]

113:59:23 McCandless: Roger. MESA blanket.

113:59:24 Shepard: ...You'll lose television for a moment. (Pause) Okay. That's beautiful. (Long Pause)

113:59:48 Mitchell: Okay, señor. (Long Pause) Let me give you a hand, and we'll get it done. (Pause)

[Ed's use of "señor"may be a reference to the humor of comedian Bill Dana. His character, Jose Jimenez, the reluctant astronaut, was a favorite of Al's. Another possibility is that, living in Houston with its substantial Hispanic population, the astronauts would have picked up some Spanish simply by living there. Journal Contributor Bethany Lewis notes that the first use of Spanish on the lunar surface was at 111:24:25 during Apollo 11 when, having help Neil stow the film magazine from the Close-up Stereo Camera in his thigh pocket, Buzz turned to head up the ladder to the cabin, saying "Okay. Adios, amigo."]

[Ed's next task - at 0+28 in his checklist - is to raise the MESA table, a small platform designed to hold one of the rock boxes. He can't do that until Al finishes with the MESA thermal blanket and gets the TV off.]

114:00:29 Shepard: Ed...Just barely.

114:00:33 Mitchell: Great. (Pause)

114:00:38 Shepard: Okay, the lens cap is going on now, Houston. While we set up the tripod...

114:00:44 McCandless: Antares,...

114:00:44 Shepard: ...while the TV is (garbled) location.

114:00:45 McCandless: ...this is Houston. Request EMU status check here.

[The EMU is the Extravehicular Mobility Unit, which is the combination of suit, PLSS, LEVA, etc.]

[Jones - "I have been told that a request for an EMU status check was sometimes a request for you guys to slow down."]

[Mitchell - "It was at sometimes but, in this case, they just wanted to get a reading. They did that sometimes at rather inopportune moments but, since it only took a second to get it, nobody objected. And, yeah, I'm sure they also did it at times when they wanted us to take a little pause."]

114:01:09 McCandless: Roger. Min cooling?

114:01:13 Mitchell: Min cooling.

114:01:16 McCandless: Go ahead, Al.

114:01:17 Shepard: Okay, CDR is 81 percent, 3.75, no flags, Min cooling.

114:01:28 McCandless: Roger. Out. You're looking good down here. (Pause)

114:01:39 Mitchell: And, Houston. While Al's getting that television, I'll go ahead and get my contingency sample; get it out of the way.

114:01:52 McCandless: Roger, Ed. (Long Pause)

[Ed is supposed to do his next few tasks at the MESA but, since Al is still in the way, he has decided to jump ahead to 0+32 and take the contingency sample. CSRC is 'Contingency Sample Return Container'.]

[In LM-centered coordinates, 12 o'clock is west and 0100, or 1 o'clock, is 30 degrees north of west.]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "Getting the CSRC (Contingency Sample Return Container) out was no problem. I did overfill that bag and it caused subsequent problems in getting it closed up properly. The top of the bag did crack, apparently because of the cold or the vacuum effects, so that the contingency sample was leaking. It caused us to handle it a bit differently when we subsequently stowed it. We stowed it in one of the rock bags, instead of being able to stow it by itself. It was leaking very badly."]

[Some of the Apollo 12 sample bags also cracked. There is no discussion of this problem in either mission report. However, because there were no reported bag problems on the subsequent missions, the bag design must have been altered to incorporate materials less sensitive to extreme temperature swings and to vacuum.]

114:03:59 Shepard: Do you want to watch the (TV) cable as I go out, Ed?

114:04:01 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause)

[As indicated just before 0+31 in his checklist, Al is taking the TV out 50 feet in the 2:30 direction or, just 15 degrees west of north.]

114:04:20 Shepard: That's affirmative.

114:04:21 McCandless: Roger. (Long Pause)

114:04:40 Mitchell: Keep going.

114:04:42 Shepard: Okay. It's about 50 feet, I'd say.

114:04:46 Mitchell: Why don't we get all the cable out while we're at it?

114:04:49 Shepard: Okay. Go ahead and pull it out. I'll...

114:04:51 Mitchell: Okay. Let me get this contingency sample folded up. (Long Pause)

RealVideo Clip (3 min 30 sec)

114:05:25 Shepard: Okay, Houston, the lens cap is off. We're aiming for the general area of the MESA. (Pause)

[Ed backs away from the MESA, pulling out the last 10 to 15 feet of cable.]

114:05:46 Shepard: (To McCandless) Okay; you've got about 30-foot zoom. How does that look?

114:05:50 McCandless: Okay. I think you can zoom in a little more. Let's try 40 here. (Pause)

114:06:02 McCandless: Okay. And on the f-stop, Al, we'd like to stop it down one additional stop. That's toward the higher numbers.

114:06:12 Shepard: Okay. It's going from 22 to 44, and I'll zoom it in to 40. Stand by. (Pause)

114:06:23 McCandless: Okay. Hold the zoom there, and the position looks good, also.

114:06:31 Shepard: Okay, how about the f-stop? (Long Pause) Is the f-stop satisfactory, Houston?

114:06:50 McCandless: Al, this is Houston. See if you can stop it down a little more. Run the diaphragm ring up against the stop, there. It's still a little bright. (Pause)

114:07:07 Shepard: Okay. It's right up against the stop. (Pause) It's against the stop, Houston.

114:07:18 McCandless: Roger. Stand by. (Pause) Al, this is Houston. Request you go to peak control.

114:07:39 Shepard: Okay. Going to peak. (Pause) Satisfactory? (Pause)

114:07:57 McCandless: Okay, Al. Now, we'd like to open it up to f/22.

114:08:06 Shepard: Okay, this is the next adjustment to f/22. There you go.

114:08:14 McCandless: Roger. (Long Pause)

[Up to this point, Ed's image in the TV has been badly bloomed. The change to peak control solves that problem but at the price of a fairly dark picture.]

[Jones - "Ed, we haven't heard from you in a while."]

[Mitchell - "Let's see. (Scanning the items at 0+28 on his cuff checklist) I deploy the SRC table, unstow the ETB and off-load the bags, load two (PLSS) LiOH canisters in the ETB, deploy the TV cable, take the CSRC sample (Contingency Sample Return Container)...I've already done that. I did that out of sequence because I had a moment and Al was around the table. So I got that. Then I went back and deployed the SRC table, unstowed the ETB (film mags, cameras, etc.), loaded the two LiOH canisters out of the MESA into the ETB to go back into the cabin and deployed the TV cable. So that's what I'm doing through all this period."]

[Jones - "On the J missions they had the food for days 2 and 3 down in the MESA."]

[Mitchell - "We had all of ours in the cabin."]

114:08:48 McCandless: Al, this is Houston. Would you confirm that you're at f/22 now?

114:08:54 Shepard: Okay, I'm confirming that I'm in peak and I'm at f/22. (Long Pause) And while we're waiting for the television adjustment, the 2:30 position (at) approximately 50 feet, where the camera is, is slightly uphill. We see that the LM did, in fact, land on sort of a downslope...

114:09:43 McCandless: Al, this is Houston...

114:09:44 Shepard: ...It seems to be almost a basin. (Listens) Go ahead.

114:09:48 McCandless: Roger, Al; this is Houston. We'd like to go back to average and f/44; stop it down all the way, and then leave it there.

114:09:57 Shepard: Okay, this is the last adjustment. I'm going to 44.

114:10:04 McCandless: Roger, and back the zoom out to about 35.

114:10:07 Shepard: And going to average. And back the zoom, out to 35. And how does that look?

114:10:19 McCandless: Beautiful.

[The picture brightens and Ed's image blooms again. The MET is visible in the north footpad, the one closest to the TV.]

114:10:29 McCandless: Roger; press.

[The S-Band antenna is a large parasol antenna which will give them an improved signal, primarily for the TV. The delay in the TV adjustment has cost Al the few minutes he was ahead in the timeline. He is right on schedule at 0+31 in his checklist. The S-Band antenna is stowed in Quad 1, to the right of the ladder. A film clip shot during indoor training (50 Mb) shows Al deploying the S-Band]

[Jones - "We can see in the video that, when Al's going back to the LM to get the erectable S-Band antenna, basically he seems to be walking and is not bounding at all."]

[Mitchell - "No, he's not moving very fast at this point. He's probably still not terribly comfortable with the gait. We're not trying to move around quickly, we're not covering distance at this point. Mostly trying to be methodical and thorough in getting everything done. He's not moving very rapidly, at all."]

[Jones - "On 15, somebody did a time-motion study on Jim and Dave. On the first day, working around the LM, they were doing about a foot per second average. One and a half (fps) on the second day; and up to two (fps) on the third day as they got more confident. Similar thing here, I would say."]

114:11:20 McCandless: Roger, Ed. And you did leave the contingency sample on the ladder (as per checklist)?

114:11:26 Mitchell: That's affirmative. That's where it is.

[Jones - "Did you do any one-man EVA training? Would you have cross-trained on the deployment of the high-gain (S-band antenna)?"]

[Mitchell - "Oh, yes. We didn't spend a lot of time on it. But we did a couple of sessions practicing the other guy's job."]

[Jones - "And would that have been for the one-man contingency?"]

[Mitchell - "We frankly didn't worry too much about the one-man contingency. As much as anything, I think it was valuable in understanding the other fellow's problems and, if he got in trouble, to come help him. And it worked out pretty well because, as you know, when we were setting up the (ALSEP) station, where we each had to be working on some of the stuff, we had problems. So cross-training helped a lot with that. And then, had we had to think about a one-man EVA, either one of us could have done what we needed to do."]

114:11:36 Mitchell: Yes; indeed it does. Evidenced by the fact that you dug your front landing gear into a hole. (Long Pause) Okay, Houston. I have the SWC (Solar Wind Collector) out and starting now to deploy it.

[NASA's Public Affairs commentator reports that they both had heart rates coming down the ladder that peaked at about 120 beats per minute. Both of them are now in the 70-85 range. Figure 10-4 in the Apollo 14 Mission Report shows the crew's heart rates during EVA-1. How the displayed data was chosen is not known. In each 10-minute interval, as many as 7 or as few as 3 data points are shown implying either averaging or selection of typical values.]

[Ed will deploy the SWC 60 feet from the LM at the 10 o'clock position. He is at 0+37 in his checklist.]

114:12:22 Mitchell: Am I still in your field-of-view, Houston?

[Al moves away from the bay to the right of the ladder, carrying the antenna package.]

114:12:28 Mitchell: Okay. (Long Pause)

[As he moves past the ladder, going away from the TV to deploy the SWC, he is definitely bounding, albeit not with the confidence and length of stride that he will show later. He passes Al, who brings the S-band antenna toward the TV. Al is moving more quickly than he was, but is not getting both feet off the ground. Once he gets out of the LM shadow, he begins to run, getting both feet off the ground and floating between strides.]

RealVideo Clip (3 min 21 sec)

114:12:46 McCandless: Roger, Al; we're watching you.

114:12:47 Shepard: Positioning. (Long Pause)

[Al gets to the approximate spot where he will deploy the antenna and works at the top of the package, ultimately removing the end cap.]

114:13:44 McCandless: Roger, Ed. At 114 plus 53 plus 48 GET (114:13:45 transcript time). SWC.

114:13:54 Mitchell: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Note that McCandless is giving a time relative to the planned time of launch, 40:03 earlier than the actual launch. Ed's next task is to off-load the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector or LR-cubed which he will place in the plus-Z footpad to get it out of the way. Later, when the crew goes out to the ALSEP site, Al will carry the LR-cubed and, once it is deployed, astronomers on Earth will be able to illuminate it with laser pulses and, by measuring the times of the return, will be able to determine the distance between the telescope and the reflector with an error of only about three centimeters. In all, three retroreflectors were deployed during Apollo - one each on Apollo 11, 14, and 15 - and they produced data which was of great use in making accurate determinations of the relative motions of the Earth and the Moon.]

[At about 114:14:04, Al discards the end cap on the top of the antenna package off-camera to the left.]

[Ed goes to the southwest face of the LM to get the LR-cubed. As he moves, he is starting to use the stride that he calls the bunny hop or floating skip, keeping one foot forward, pushing off and gliding a short distance, landing on his back foot and then his front, and pushing off again.]

114:14:50 McCandless: Roger, Ed.

[Comm Break. In the foreground, Al extends the mast which will hold the transmitter/receiver at the focus of the S-band antenna and then extends the antenna's three legs. After getting the legs out, he lets them fold down onto the surface and then picks up the antenna assembly. This lets the legs drop down into their final, locked position.]

114:15:58 McCandless: Al, this is Houston. If you would, give us some commentary on how the legs go into the surface.

114:16:10 Shepard: Okay, the legs are in the surface approximately 1 inch, I would say. Appear to be fairly equal all the way around; perhaps the leg to the left is in an inch and a half. (Pause)

[Ed goes to the MESA, hopping sideways as he moves over from near the ladder. During the J-missions, many of the astronauts used this sideways hop when they worked around the spacecraft. In using this stride over short distances, they avoided the wasted motions of turning, going forward, and then turning again. In addition, they probably had more control and were able to stop with greater ease and assurance.]

114:16:51 Shepard: I didn't attempt to run any kind of an experiment...

114:16:54 McCandless: Roger, I copy.

114:16:55 Shepard: ...forcing the legs down. I just...(Listens; Long Pause)

[Jones - "This exchange sounds to me like somebody wanted Bruce to ask Al a question, and Bruce wasn't too eager to ask it."]

[Mitchell - "Right. That was a geologist in the Backroom trying to get eager, trying to think ahead about the surface and what sort of problem we were going to have with core tubes, etc. So they're just trying to get advanced information. And Bruce recognized that a question like that can break the flow of your concentration. That's why CapComs were always astronauts. Because other guys would tend to not understand the problem of breaking in with things that don't pertain to what's going on."]

[Jones - "Did CapComs do a lot of filtering? Did they ignore questions that they thought were inappropriate?"]

[Mitchell - "Well, if it came from the Flight Director, the question got asked. But they would pick and choose their time. And they'd fuss back and say, 'Hey, I don't think we'll ask them that now.'"]

114:17:25 McCandless: (Commenting on Ed's stride as he heads out toward Shepard) Looks more like a kangaroo.

[Mitchell - "It looks like my feet are operating independently. Boom-boom, boom-boom. Boom-boom."]

[Jones - "And leading with the left foot. Very small and very subtle, at least with the resolution that's possible on this copy of the video."]

[Mitchell - "Right. I'm not striding....I don't know if I can do it here or not. (Attempting a demonstration) You can't float (on Earth). I seemed to always have my left foot forward. And, so what I'm doing...I'm landing on the right and then pushing off on the left. But I'm not striding. See, I'm landing on the right - so it's going boom-boom - and push with the left, come down on the right but my feet are always (positioned with the left slightly forward)."]

[Jones - "And at this stage of the game you're not getting a lot of lift and they're fairly small strides."]

[Mitchell - "Right, and they'll get longer as I get more comfortable."]

114:17:43 Shepard: (Having turned to see how far he is from the end of the cable) Okay. How are we with respect to the cable.

114:17:47 Mitchell: (Coming out with the cable) I'm afraid you're too far away.

114:17:51 Shepard: Well, I wanted to get maximum length; but I'll moving on in.

[Mitchell - "This is our first of example of distances being deceiving. It's difficult when you go into a clear environment where there's no obstruction to visibility. It's like going out in the great southwest with a clear view to the mountains and you'll misjudge that distance. And you get on the lunar surface where there's no air and no obstruction to visibility - except the curvature - and, again, you're misjudging distance. It's something in our brain; it's a visual acuity we're conditioned to. It's not just the relative size of things, but it's a relative clarity of things that's a cue to part of our distance estimating procedure. And, when you change that...Al is even missing a fifty foot estimation...because he normally could estimate that distance right to within a few inches. And there you see he missed it by at least ten feet. And I attribute part of that just to the fact that everything is new, strange, unfamiliar. And it is exceedingly difficult to estimate distance."]

[Jones - "Jack Schmitt compares it to the difference between a place like here in Florida, where you've got a lot of haze in the air..."]

[Mitchell - "That's right."]

[Jones - "...and someplace in the mountain west where, unless the wind's blowing and you've got a lot of dust, it's clear."]

[Mitchell - "Right. And, on the Moon, it's even more clear. Yes, that's absolutely correct."]

[As an added factor, we have the following:]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "The S-band antenna was deployed too far out. The confined area used in the training building never allowed us to deploy that antenna to the full length of the cable. So we really didn't know how far to carry it out. Consequently, Al carried it to where he thought it should be, and it was just too far."]

[The issue, of course, is that the astronauts had a very limited time on the Moon and training that made them more efficient was time well spent. A short 8-mm film clip by Ed Dempsey shows Al deploying the antenna umbrella in the training building at the Cape. Film courtesy Frederic Artner; digitized by Ken Glover.]

114:18:04 Shepard: Okay; we'll bring it in. (Pause)

[Al turns around to get the antenna, turns toward the MESA and carries the antenna about 10 feet closer to the LM, walking flat-footed as he goes.]

114:18:22 Shepard: We'll have to put it right here to get it level.

114:18:24 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause)

114:18:30 Shepard: Okay. Can you reach that?

114:18:31 Mitchell: Oh, yeah.

114:18:33 Shepard: Okay. If you want to stand clear, we'll deploy the antenna (umbrella).

114:18:38 Mitchell: Let her rip. (Pause)

114:18:45 Shepard: Okay, here we go. (Pause)

[The release mechanism is at about shoulder height and, as was the case earlier in the deployment, Al doesn't appear to have any trouble working with his hands at that height. After releasing the umbrella, he holds onto the antenna frame as the umbrella oscillates and shakes the entire assembly. The umbrella fails to fully deploy.]

114:18:54 Shepard: Okay.

114:18:55 Mitchell: Yep. Can you tilt it over toward me without dropping it...I'll get it unhung for you.

114:19:01 Shepard: All righty. (Pause) Ready for it?

114:19:09 Mitchell: Okay, lower it on down.

114:19:10 Shepard: Okay.

114:19:13 Mitchell: Keep coming.

[Al raises the antenna and turns it 90 degrees so that Ed can free the umbrella.]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "The netting on the antenna hung up on the top of one of the umbrella ribs and it did not deploy fully. I lifted it up, tilted it over, and Ed reached up and deployed it. He released the little netting cufflink from the rib...and it went right on up after that."]

[The diameter of the parabolic reflector - the umbrella - when fully deployed is 3.0 meters (10 feet).]

114:19:17 Shepard: Okay. All kinds of freebies in today's simulation.

114:19:27 McCandless: Roger. We've got the boys in the Backroom working overtime.

RealVideo Clip (3 min 44 sec)

114:19:31 Shepard: Sure have. (Long Pause) Okay. (Long Pause)

[Mitchell - "A 'freebie' is something for free. And that's referring to little glitches that come along - that weren't planned for - that screw things up. And the boys in the Backroom - the failure simulator guys - were always throwing problems and glitches in. So that's just a little inside reference to...it's kind of like 'Kilroy was here.'"]

[Jones - "So this was just an added opportunity in this simulation to work out a little problem."]

114:20:04 Shepard: Appears to be.

114:20:06 Mitchell: Okay. (Long Pause)

114:20:34 Mitchell: Okay! There's Earth, way up there.

[Jones - "You were about mid-longitude and a little bit north of the equator?"]

[Mitchell - "A little south. It was almost overhead, slightly off the vertex."]

[Jones - "And, do I remember correctly that there was some kind of a hand crank to adjust the pointing?"]

[Mitchell - "Yeah. It was kind of like a little telescope crank, that you can change azimuth and elevation on - to get it centered. Al was helping and I was sighting through the tube."]

[They have done a rough, eyeball alignment. Al is at the bottom of his 0+31checklist paragraph. Ed is at the bottom of his 0+42 paragraph.]

[Al is standing west of the antenna and Ed hops sideways around him to get to the sighting scope on the LM-ward side.]

[Jones - "Here at 114:20:42, you just moved around to 'get on the glass here'. And that's the little sighting scope. Al's got the antenna rough pointed. It looks like it's depressed from the vertical by about 30 degrees toward the east."]

[Mitchell - "I think Al's holding it to try to keep it steady. We're so clumsy and it's so lightweight that, by bumping it, you knock the whole damn thing awry. So, as I recall, Al was holding it down so that we wouldn't bump it while I was trying this fine adjustment."]

[Al is probably noticing that, as Ed turns the crank, the antenna moves, so he is going to hold it down. Thomas Schwagmeier notes that, in the TV just before Ed's next transmission, the antenna gets a "pretty good jolt".]

114:21:04 Shepard: That's about it. (Garbled) Azimuth

114:21:07 Mitchell: Okay. I don't see it, Al.

114:21:08 Shepard: I'll just put it back down again. (Pause) Okay.

114:21:16 Mitchell: Okay. I think my PLSS - my OPS - is hitting it.

114:21:19 Shepard: All right, just a second. Let me back it off a minute. And move this a little bit. (Pause) Okay, that's about it for azimuth. I'll come down a little bit.

114:21:34 Mitchell: Okay.

114:21:36 Shepard: Let me just check and see if that's the way we want to go. (Pause) (Garbled) pretty soon.

114:21:47 Mitchell: Okay.

114:21:49 Shepard: Okay, come on down a little bit.

114:21:50 Mitchell: Coming down. (Pause)

114:21:56 Shepard: Hold it.

114:21:57 Mitchell: Back up just a bit. Right there. Okay, I have the Earth centered.

114:22:05 Shepard: Okay.

114:22:08 Mitchell: Okay, Houston. Boresighted the Earth, dark side and all.

114:22:14 McCandless: This is Houston. Roger.

114:22:16 Shepard: Okay. The S-band antenna has been erected and aligned and the cable has been attached.

114:22:20 Mitchell: And I'll go back in to switch.

[They are at 0+49 in both checklist and 0+43 into the actual EVA, meaning that they are about 6 minutes ahead and are working very efficiently.]

[Ed goes to the ladder, using his skipping stride. He will climb back into the LM to change a couple of switch settings so that they can transmit through the S-Band antenna. While Ed is in the cabin, Al will send the ETB up on the LEC with the contingency sample and the lithium hydroxide canisters and, once Ed has those out of the way, he will load the cameras, film magazines, maps, and a thermal degradation experiment in the ETB and send it out.]

114:22:30 Shepard: Okay. (Pause)

[Al walks to the MESA, still not getting off the ground.]

114:22:41 Shepard: Okay. The CDR's reading 3.75 (psi). Reading 76 (percent) on the O2. I have no flags; I'm still in minimum flow; and I'm comfortable.

114:22:56 Mitchell: Okay, and this is Ed. I'm reading 3.75, about 75 percent on the O2, no flags, minimum cooling, and I'm very comfortable, too.

RealVideo Clip (3 min 30 sec)

114:23:09 McCandless: Roger. Out. (Long Pause)

[Ed jumps up to the bottom rung of the ladder, just barely making it again. The most impressive jump we have in the TV record is Neil's at the end of his EVA.]

114:23:34 Mitchell: Okay. (Long Pause)

[Mitchell - "That was high on the geologists' priority list. 'Never forget the contingency sample.' Always double bugging us that we had the contingency sample. They wanted something. It became kind of an in-house joke, because they were so insistent on that, almost to the exclusion of everything else."]

[Jones - "A little piece of Fra Mauro, in case you had to abort the EVA. (Pause) As long as we've got the video stopped here, is there anything you want to say about your experiences with the LEC? Later on - I think after the second EVA - you just hopped up the ladder carrying some of the stuff, rather than bothering with the LEC. Is there anything you want to say about that?"]

[Mitchell - "Yeah. It was cumbersome. You could do it. Once you got familiar and comfortable moving around, you could do a lot more things than you'd thought you could. The LEC seemed to be a little bit more of a problem than it was really worth, unless you were having to carry a whole lot of things. Frankly, we got where we could get up and down that ladder pretty darn handily. In one-sixth g, you found you could do things you didn't think you could do when you were training for it."]

[Ed starts climbing the ladder; and Al goes to the ladder strut and gets the contingency sample ('CS' in his checklist) so he can put it in the ETB.]

114:24:10 McCandless: I didn't notice any on the TV.

114:24:15 Mitchell: Good. (Long Pause)

[Ed crawls into the cabin. Al is at the MESA loading the contingency sample and attaching the ETB to the LEC. (Isn't NASA jargon wonderful?)]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 technical Debrief - "Going in and out of that hatch you have to remember to keep you posterior up and your head down in order not to rub the PLSS against that upper hatch seal. It would sure be bad to damage it. You have to really concentrate when entering in the horizontal attitude, so that you don't drag the upper seal."]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "This technique is the same technique used in the one-sixth-g airplane using the hatch mock-up to position your body. It isn't complete, but it's excellent training."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "You're right. In the one-sixth-g airplane, you normally don't practice getting completely in because of the time limitation."]

[The one-sixth-g airplane would climb at a steep rate and then would start down again on a trajectory designed to give one-sixth g inside the cargo bay. Each arc gave only about a half-minute of one-sixth-g experience, but many arcs could be flown on a given flight. For obvious reasons, the aircraft was quickly nicknamed "The Vomit Comet" and its successors, used for zero-g training and for reduced-gravity experiments of many types, still go by that name.]

114:24:50 McCandless: Roger, Ed.

114:24:51 Mitchell: Without a great deal of problem. I'm getting ready to switch to Lunar Stay. Give me a call, and, if I don't hear you in about 30 seconds, we'll go back.

114:25:04 McCandless: Ed, this is Houston. You're Go to switch to Lunar Stay. Go ahead. (Pause)

114:25:19 Mitchell: And, Houston; this is Ed. How do you read?

114:25:22 McCandless: Loud and clear, Ed.

114:25:26 Mitchell: Okay, you're on the erectable antenna.

114:25:28 McCandless: Roger. And how are you reading us?

114:25:33 Mitchell: Loud and clear.

114:25:35 McCandless: Beautiful. (Pause)

114:25:41 Mitchell: Okay, Alan. I'm ready for the ETB most anytime.

[Al gets into position west of the ladder, holding the LEC straps taut against the weight of the hanging ETB.]

114:25:59 McCandless: And did the contingency sample get in there?

114:26:04 Shepard: That's affirmative.

114:26:09 Mitchell: Wouldn't never do for us to leave that one behind, Bruce. (Long Pause)

RealVideo Clip (4 min 27 sec)

[Now that Ed has the ETB in the cabin, he will do the tasks on the 'ETB Trans, Egress' page in his checklist. Al will do some site description as indicated in the middle of the 0+55 liine in his checklist.]

114:26:34 Mitchell: Who?

114:26:35 McCandless: Don't I wish it.

114:26:36 Shepard: (From the foot of the ladder) While Ed is loading up the ETB...(Listens) While Ed is loading up the ETB (with film mags and cameras), (as per checklist) I'll describe the general landing site. We are, in fact, in a low area. (Looking east and south) There seems to be a general swale or a wide valley between the Triplet Craters and the Doublet Craters. And we are on the downhill side at this particular point. (Turning slowly toward the west) It levels off at a lower elevation to the left of the LM (south), approximately 15 feet lower there, and then it starts back up to the rim of Doublet. It's a very uneven landing area here. And, of course, like all of the sections of the Moon, it's pockmarked by (a) tremendous amount of craters. The surface here, as we pointed out, is mostly fines and I hate to discuss any kind of lineations here in the immediate vicinity of the LM, because I can see very definite indications of the radial dust pattern caused by the descent engine. And I don't see any other lineal pattern, as such, right here in the area. (Pause)

114:28:11 Shepard: There are, oh, perhaps half a dozen fairly large rocks at the 1 o'clock position from the LM. (Uncertain) Perhaps they're ejected from Cone, although they don't seem to have any particular ray pattern. They probably are ejected from Doublet, since they appear to be closer to Doublet than they do Triplet. They are a lighter gray in material - excuse me - the material is lighter gray in color and I'm certain that we'll get some of those samples on the way back from our ALSEP deployment. (Now facing east, apparently trying to keep his eyes in the shadow of the LM) It's very difficult to assess any kind of stratigraphy in Cone right now, looking back at it, because we're looking into the Sun at a low Sun angle, and it's just not the right direction to view that crater for looking for stratigraphy. But there certainly are boulders on it. From here, it looks as though they are at least 20 feet in diameter perhaps, at least the ones we can see here in the western slope. They appear to be grouped fairly close to the rim of the crater and not too many large boulders on down the sides of the slopes, the outside rim. (Pause)

[Cone Crater sits on a north/south ridge of ejecta from the Imbrium Basin and the outer slope to which Al refers is actually the ridge slope, rather than the outer slope of the Cone Crater rim.]

[Al has been getting a good rest, leaning slightly forward to get his center of mass over his feet. His knees are slightly bent and his arms are hanging a foot or so out in front of him, in the natural rest position of the suit.]

114:30:46 Shepard: Okay, Ed, how're you (doing) up there?

114:30:48 Mitchell: Okay, Al. I've got it (the ETB) loaded. I'm about ready to start down with it now.

114:30:52 Shepard: Okay.

114:30:53 Mitchell: Just another minute. (Pause) The ISA came loose from its straps and is being a great major headache. (Pause)

[The ISA is the Interim Stowage Assembly, which is a set of soft-sided stowage bags on a framework that fits over Al's PLSS recharge station on the bulkhead behind his flight station. The ISA can be seen on the left at Neil Armstrong's back in Apollo 11 training photo KSC-69PC-319. (Scan by Kipp Teague.) Al goes over to the ladder to get the LEC straps.]

114:31:17 Mitchell: Okay, let me give you a call on them, Bruce. I put in one black-and-white camera...(correcting himself) television camera, two Hasselblads, one TDS, two 16-millimeter Mags, and two maps.

[The TDS is the Thermal Degradation Sample. The following is taken from the Apollo 14 Preliminary Science Report: "The purpose of the TDS experiment was to evaluate the effect of lunar dust on the optical properties (absorptivity and emissivity) of a dozen candidate thermal coatings. The coatings may be used in subsequent lunar missions on such items as the lunar communications relay unit, the lunar roving vehicle, the television camera, and the Apollo lunar-surface experiments package."]

["Two duplicate arrays (serial nos. 1001 and 1002), each containing samples of the 12 thermal coatings, were taken to the Moon. A series of seven stereopairs of the arrays was obtained for three conditions: when the arrays were pristine (i.e. before exposure to lunar soil), when the arrays were dusted, and after the lunar dust had been brushed off. The arrays were then packaged and returned to Earth for extensive examination and testing."]

114:31:47 Mitchell: No. Thank you. Guess we kind of need that one.

114:31:56 Shepard: Yeah, that's the one that's supposed to photograph you coming down the ladder!

[After Al films Ed's climb down the ladder, Ed will mount the camera on the MESA for filming of the flag deployment and, then, once they deploy the MET, they will mount the LDAC on the MET for traverse photography.]

[Jones - "As long as we're stopped...when you were in the spacecraft (looking out the hatch), could you see down the ladder?"]

[Mitchell - "You could see the porch, but you couldn't see down the ladder. In fact, to see anything beyond just the first few inches of the porch you had to bend down. The only way to see out was to look out the window."]

114:32:34 Shepard: Okay, Houston. With respect to the erosion pattern, directly under the engine bell there is very little erosion. Most of the erosion occurs about 3 feet to the southeast of the current location of the bell. That's probably where the thrust was when the engine was cut off. And the LM slowly drifted to the northwest from there. (Pause)

114:33:30 Shepard: As perhaps you can see from your (TV) camera Houston, the view off to the south is undulating hills. And I would estimate that (highest) hill back there to the south is, oh, perhaps 100 feet higher than we are.

RealVideo Clip (4 min 21 sec)

114:33:54 McCandless: Roger.

114:33:55 Mitchell: Okay, Al. I am ready to bring this (ETB) down.

114:33:56 Shepard: (Backing up to get the line taut) Okay. (Pause)

114:34:03 Mitchell: Wait a minute. (Pause) Got it.

114:34:09 Shepard: Okay.

114:34:10 Mitchell: Okay. Let her come gently.

114:34:13 Shepard: All righty. (Long Pause)

114:34:28 Mitchell: Okay.

114:34:31 Shepard: Okay, just a second here, we'll get a little more tension. Coming over the sill. (Pause) Put a little more tension, please. There you are. Okay, coming over the steps now. (Pause) Okay. Clear of the steps; and I'll take it down slowly.

114:34:58 Mitchell: Do you have it in hand?

[Al moves to his left before letting the ETB all the way down.]

114:35:13 Mitchell: And it's all yours.

114:35:14 Shepard: Very good. I've got it.

114:35:18 Mitchell: All right. Coming out again.

114:35:22 McCandless: Okay. ...

114:35:22 Shepard: Wait a minute. I'll get a picture of you.

114:35:24 Mitchell: Okay.

114:35:23 McCandless: Give Al a few seconds to get the camera (unloaded before Ed comes back out)...(Long Pause)

[Al is unloading the ETB at the MESA. This is the next-to-last item on his 0+47 page.]

[Jones - "There is a black & white TV mentioned in your checklist at this point. What was the purpose of that?"]

[Mitchell - "I recall that that was a source of controversy. We took it along but we never used it, obviously."]

[Jones - "Can I assume that it was an Apollo-11-model camera, just as a backup in case you had an Apollo-12-type problem?"]

[Mitchell - "Right."]

114:36:36 Shepard: No. Stand by one. (Long Pause) Okay, lens cover's coming off (the 16-mm movie camera). (Long Pause as Al moves out of the TV picture north of the ladder) (To Ed) Okay, come on down.

114:37:40 Mitchell and McCandless: (Recorded in Houston simultaneously) Okay. (Long Pause)

114:37:52 McCandless: Okay. Give me a mark, Al, when you start using film.

MPG Video Clip (1 min 07 sec ; 12 Mb)

[This clip shows Ed emerging from the cabin and descending the ladder.]

114:38:01 McCandless: Roger. Are you on 24 (frames per second)?

114:38:05 Shepard: 12 (as per checklist).

RealVideo Clip (3 min 13 sec)

114:38:07 McCandless: Roger, 12. (Pause)

114:38:12 Mitchell: Okay. Let me close the hatch. (Pause)

114:38:23 Mitchell: But not too far. (Long Pause) Tell me when I hit the bottom step.

114:38:44 Shepard: You're on the bottom step.

114:38:46 Mitchell: I'm on it?

114:38:47 Shepard: Yep.

114:38:48 Mitchell: Oh, okay. (Pause)

114:38:52 Mitchell: I wanted to miss the LR-cubed (which is in the ladder footpad). There it is.

114:38:55 Shepard: Okay

[Without losing his grip on the side rails, Ed pushes himself far enough out from the ladder that he probably lands on the surface, missing the footpad entirely.]

114:38:59 Shepard: Okay. Camera stopped, Houston.

114:39:00 McCandless: Roger.

114:39:06 Mitchell: Okay. (Consulting his checklist) Mount one flag.

[Next, they will deploy the U.S. flag. Photo KSC-70P-503 shows Ed and Al practicing the flag deployment in the Training Building at the Cape on 8 December 1970. Note that the MET is in the plus-Y footpad beyond the S-Band antenna. A detailed discussion of the flag assembly can be found in Anne Platoff's 'Where No Flag Has Gone Before'. On Apollos 11 and 12, the flag was stowed in a thermal shroud attached to the underside of the lefthand ladder rail. On Apollo 14 and later missions it was stowed in the MESA.]

[They are both at the MESA. Al is at 1+00 in his checklist.]

114:39:30 Shepard: Okay.

114:39:33 Mitchell: Want to go off to the left over there by the SWC? (So that Houston can) see it on television.

114:39:41 Shepard: (It will) be the best place, I guess.

114:39:43 Mitchell: Okay, f/8. (Long Pause) The camera was on 1/60th (of a second shutter speed) and I hope it got bumped there.

114:40:20 Shepard: No, that's where it's supposed to be for you.

114:40:22 Mitchell: Was it?

114:40:23 Shepard: Yeah; 2.8, 1/60th.

114:40:26 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause)

[Mitchell was in shadow as he came down the ladder. The flag deployment, which they will film next, will be in full sunlight and Ed resets the shutter speed to 1/250th. Ed will mount the 16-mm camera on the MESA.]

114:40:34 Mitchell: Aim my (16 mm) camera out there at about the right spot.

114:40:37 Shepard: Okay. Let's see. (Pause) Up there on the rise? (Pause) Be okay?

114:40:54 Mitchell: Let's see where you pointed.

114:40:56 Shepard: Right over there on the rise?

114:40:57 Mitchell: Okay. Let me point a little bit further around that way. (Pause)

114:41:05 Shepard: Get out there in the sunlight, I think, with it.

114:41:07 Mitchell: Okay.

[Al moves west and seems to be striding a little.]

114:41:08 Shepard: Good? (Pause)

114:41:18 McCandless: Antares, Houston. The flag is going off the (field-of-view of the TV) camera to the right. (Pause)

114:41:34 Shepard: How about that?

114:41:39 McCandless: Al, this is Houston. We still show you're off...

114:41:41 Shepard: Okay, Houston?

114:41:43 McCandless: Okay. You're coming back in now.

114:41:48 Shepard: Okay. (Pause)

[Al moves toward the SWC, beyond the LM shadow.]

114:42:02 Shepard: Well, we can put it (pause) right down here close by, if he wants.

114:42:09 McCandless: Al, this is Houston. ...

114:42:10 Mitchell: (Garbled) down here.

114:42:10 McCandless: ...I think it would look a lot better if you could bring it over closer towards the TV.

114:42:16 Shepard: Okay.

114:42:17 Mitchell: Put it right here in front of us, Al.

114:42:19 McCandless: Yeah, maybe on the TV camera side of the LM shadow. At 1:30 (LM position), 20 feet. (Pause) There...

114:42:36 Shepard: (Garbled)

114:42:36 McCandless: ...you go. Beautiful, babe.

114:42:39 Shepard: Okay. (Pause)

[For the first time in the EVA, Al runs as he comes toward the TV camera, stopping just as he emerges from the LM shadow.]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "One comment on the flag. Because of the placement of the holes in the training building, we were fairly well constrained in where the flag was set up. We had already agreed that we were going to set it on the opposite side of the LM in view of the TV camera, in real time. Because we didn't have a hole on that side of the LM mock-up in the training building to practice it there, it took a few moments to select a site in the view of the (TV) camera and also in the line of sight of the 16-mm camera. I think that's what caused our delay in getting the flag set up. In my opinion, the site we selected was a little too close to the MESA because, at times, it got in the way of the rest of our work."]

[Training photo 70-H-1119 (scan by J.L. Pickering) shows Al preparing the flag for deployment during a 28 August 1970 exercise. Note the dirt-filled box at the lower left. This is one of the 'holes' to which Ed is referring. See, also, training photo KSC-70P-503 from an 8 December 1970 session.]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I would make the general comment here that you try to set up a timeline for EVAs that would leave extra time (for contingencies). The last two things we mentioned - the positioning of the flag and getting the (S-band) antenna out too far - are the little things that come up during the timeline. If you plan an EVA that you can do in one g, and after you've done it numerous times in the mock-up, if you aren't able to get ahead of the timeline, then I think you've got problems."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "Definitely."]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "If you have a timeline you can go through after practicing in one g, and you don't have any built in pad, then I think when you get on the surface, small, unexpected things such as the (MESA) blankets being a little hard to pull off, fittings being harder to use because they're newer, positioning the antenna correctly the first time; these little things should be allowed for. If you can build in a 25- to 30-percent pad in your training cycle, then I think that's somewhere in the ballpark. It's what you need to take care of these little odds and ends that always crop up."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "To show how our planning worked out in relation to real time, consistently near the end of our training, we were getting ahead of our timeline by 25 to 30 minutes by the end of the ALSEP deployment. We felt that would be adequate to take care of the extra time that we would use on the surface in being more careful, and to allow for problems. As it turned out, it really wasn't quite enough. We ran longer in real time. Of course, there's one factor you can't take into consideration. That is the fact that you're just a bit more careful with the actual flight equipment; in the actual case, you want to be sure you do it exactly right, so this just takes a little extra time. That's something difficult to factor in there. So I think the fact that you've got a 25- to 30-percent built-in pad there, and you don't have to tell people about it because there's no way to explain to them what you need this for, unless you've been there and done it yourself, or you have talked to people that have. That's the kind of thing you keep to yourself, but every follow-on crew should be apprised of it."]

[Ed is also at 1+00 in his checklist.]

114:42:48 McCandless: Give me a mark. (Pause)

114:42:53 Mitchell: Mark. It's running.

114:42:57 McCandless: Roger. Out. (Pause)

114:43:08 Mitchell: How's this, Bruce? Look okay?

114:43:10 McCandless: Roger. That's a good site. (Long Pause)

[Al raises the telescoping crossbar and locks it into place as Ed joins him. Ed then hammers the lower flagstaff section into the ground at the extreme right edge of the TV picture.]

114:43:30 Mitchell: It does, indeed.

[Ed goes back to the MESA, perhaps taking the hammer back, while Al puts the top section of the flagstaff into the bottom section. As first, he positions it with the flag off-camera.]

114:43:55 Shepard: Okay. (To Ed) Take a picture this way (facing the 16-mm camera) and then we'll swing it around so they can see it in the television.

114:44:01 Mitchell: All right.

[Next, they will take 70mm photos of each other.]

114:44:03 Shepard: Okay, let me turn it around a little (garbled) here. (Long Pause) Okay. (Pause) There we go. (Pause)

114:44:39 Mitchell: I think I'm still too close to you, Al.

[Ed first picture of Al is AS14-66- 9231. After backing up, he will take 9232.]

114:44:42 Shepard: Look out for the LM leg.

114:44:45 Mitchell: Yeah. (Pause)

114:44:50 Shepard: Okay. And when you're finished (having his picture taken), you can flop it around so they can see it a little better on the TV.

[Al and Ed swap places.]

114:45:01 Shepard: Indianapolis, Indiana.

114:45:03 McCandless: Roger. Indianapolis, Indiana; but that was my line.

114:45:04 Mitchell: Got your feet in the TV cable, Al. Al, watch your TV cable.

114:45:17 Shepard: Thank you.

114:45:18 Mitchell: The S-band cable both...Got them both. Back up. Try it again. (Pause) Okay, you're clear.

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "The comment here concerns the 3-foot-diameter crater, 8 to 10 inches deep, between the MESA and the plus-Z (west) footpad, which was somewhat of an annoyance. It placed things on an elevation and sometimes you were on a slope. The reason I mention it because the TV cable, which comes down the right side of the MESA (the side closest to the ladder), instead of laying flat on the ground, came down over this crater and caused me to tangle up in it several more times than I probably would have otherwise."]

114:45:46 Mitchell: Ready!

114:45:50 Shepard: Okay. Got it.

[Al's portrait of Ed is AS14-66- 9233.]

114:45:56 Mitchell: Houston. Give me a good orientation for the flag.

114:46:00 McCandless: Okay, Ed. If you just turn...

114:46:01 Shepard: Frame twenty-five...

114:46:02 McCandless: ...it broadside...

114:46:03 Shepard: Twenty five.

114:46:04 McCandless: Just turn it broadside to the TV camera with the field to the TV camera right; that is, 180 out from that would be better.

114:46:15 Mitchell: Okay.

114:46:16 Shepard: There you go. (To Houston) You got 25 on the (Hasselblad) Mag.

114:46:22 McCandless: Copy, Al. (To Ed) Okay, that's good on the flag.

114:46:28 Mitchell: Okay, Houston. (Pause)

[Ed goes to join Al at the MESA. They have reached 1+06 in both checklists. Al will inspect the LM and take documentation photos while Ed does a TV pan.]

114:46:37 Shepard: No.

114:46:38 Mitchell: Okay. 16 is off, Bruce.

114:46:43 McCandless: Roger. Stop. (Pause)

114:46:49 McCandless: You have about 3 minutes remaining on that magazine, Claremont, California.

114:46:56 Mitchell: Rog. We won't change it. Okay, I'm going to press on out for the TV pan, Houston.

114:47:03 McCandless: Roger.

[Ed comes toward the TV camera. In doing his skipping stride, he is starting to get good elevation and stride length.]

114:47:15 McCandless: Roger.

114:47:17 Shepard: ...and all the features about the LM.

RealVideo Clip (3 min 41 sec)

114:47:18 McCandless: Roger. Using Indianapolis, Indiana.

[When Ed finishes with the TV pan, he will point the TV at the MESA so that Houston can watch the MET deployment. Al walks over to the north (plus-Y) footpad.]

114:47:38 McCandless: Okay. We want to go to a zoom of 25 on this.

114:47:45 Mitchell: Rog. (Long Pause) Okay. You're zoom of 25; focus pointing out toward infinity. And how's your picture, Houston? (Pause; no answer) Houston, this is Ed. (Pause) Al?

114:48:25 Shepard: Yeah.

114:48:26 McCandless: Go ahead, Ed.

114:48:26 Mitchell: Do we have comm? (Hearing McCandless) Okay. How's your picture now?

114:48:34 McCandless: Roger. It looks good. We can pick up...

114:48:37 Mitchell: Okay. Can you see the horizon?

114:48:39 McCandless: That's affirmative. The horizon is about two-thirds of the way up from the bottom of the tube. The flag is over near the left-hand corner of the field-of-view. And that little rise is sort of centered. (Pause) With the small crater off to the left.

[The LM shadow is draped over the small rise, with the tip of the shadow near the right edge of the picture.]

114:49:31 McCandless: Say, Ed.

114:49:33 Mitchell: ...a rise that's shown on the map. The craters are on the map. Since I don't have it handy, it - I'll have to give you the coordinates later, but I think you already know them. They are about 150 feet south...

114:49:47 McCandless: Ed, this is Houston.

114:49:48 Mitchell: ...southwest of the LM. Go ahead.

114:49:52 McCandless: Roger. If you're going to spend several seconds describing each of these locations here, after the camera steadies out you might just as well zoom out a ways, and we'll pick up some features at random on higher magnification, and zoom back in when you go onto the next 45-degree sector.

[Ed points the TV a little farther north, with the LM shadow extending in about a third of the picture width from the left.]

114:50:45 McCandless: Yeah, you're doing fine. Keep zooming, if you've got any left. (Pause) It's well centered.

114:50:52 Mitchell: Okay. That's zoom all the way.

RealVideo Clip (3 min 21 sec)

114:50:54 McCandless: Okay. Beautiful.

[Although the picture is badly washed out, the crater in question extends from the center of the picture over to the left edge.]

114:51:10 McCandless: Okay, bring her (the zoom) back in.

114:51:11 Mitchell: However, I will shoot across it because you won't be able to see it. (Listens) Okay. Now, another sector to the right.

114:51:20 McCandless: Roger.

114:51:21 Mitchell: Facing almost down-Sun.

114:51:24 McCandless: Roger. We got your shadow.

[Other than Ed's shadow, there is very little discernible detail in the picture.]

114:51:47 McCandless: Okay, zoom out while you're talking.

[A comparison of Mitchell's descriptions with Shepard's shows how much more sensitive Ed was to the detail of the scene - or, at least, how much better he was at putting his impressions into words. Mitchell's feel for detail is excellent and his descriptions approach the quality of those given by the very well trained J-mission crews. The J-mission crews had the advantage of having trained as backup crews for landing missions and so, were able to devote a far larger fraction of their prime-crew training time to the surface operations. Mitchell, with Donn Eisele and Gordon Cooper, had been on the backup crew for Apollo 10 and he and Shepard needed to spend most of their training time on flight operations, particularly because Shepard had not served on a backup crew and had to learn the LM from scratch.]

114:52:12 McCandless: (Noting that the horizon is now near the bottom of the frame) Okay, you're aimed up a little high.

114:52:14 Mitchell: It rises up on the far side to (an elevation) above us. (Listens and lowers his aim) Okay. How's that now?

114:52:19 McCandless: A lot better. Say, Ed, you don't need to stop talking when I talk if you can do both at once.

114:52:26 Mitchell: Okay. I have a little trouble listening to you and talking at you, too. Not polite. (Chuckles). Okay. I'm bringing it back in. And coming around through the west-northwest (and stopping just as his shadow goes out the lower left corner of the picture); and you should be able to see, in the distance, Doublet Crater. And I've lost it now because of the Sun angle, but it's just about on the near horizon. I'm sorry; there are three mounds, three ridges. The nearest one, the ridge that Doublet is on, and then the far horizon. And I'm bringing it on out for you. Doublet is on the second hill that you see.

114:53:21 McCandless: Roger, we can see the ridges, and I...

114:53:24 Mitchell: (Garbled).

114:53:24 McCandless: ...can see a crater that probably is Doublet.

[Even though McCandless claims to pick out Doublet, I certainly can't. Thomas Schwagmeier has created a comparison (0.3 Mb) between a portion of LROC image M127049821RC and a TV still captured at 114:53:24. Schwagmeier has added a representation of the outline of South Doublet (orange) to the upper version of the TV image along with two ridges delineated in blue.]

114:53:34 Shepard: Negative. I'm still working at 8 o'clock.

114:53:38 Mitchell: Oh.

[After taking a couple of pictures of the north (plus-Y) footpad - AS14-66- 9234 and 9235, Al took a pan at the 4 o'clock position consisting of frames AS14-66-9236 to 9257.]

[Frame 9254 is an excellent picture of the aft section of the LM.]

[The f-stop settings used relative to the direction of the Sun are shown on decals mounted on the tops of the film magazines. 'HBW' is High-Speed Black-and-White and 'HCEX' is High-Speed Color Exterior.]

[Next, Al took a series of photos of the LM, the footpads, and the surface under the LM. These are AS14-66- 9258 to 9270.]

. [Frame 9258 shows the north footpad and the pile of dirt pushed up during final spacecraft motions.]

[Frame 9261 shows the sweep pattern and a fist-sized rock under the engine bell.]

[Al is currently working on an 8 o'clock pan, which consists of frames AS14-66-9271 to 9293.]

114:53:39 Shepard: Ed, I just wonder how come McCandless has the audacity to presume that we're wrong about Doublet Crater. (Laughs)

[Mitchell - "Al's picking up on Bruce's remark back up here at 114:53:21. It's just the continual banter that goes back and forth between the guys. We never passed up an opportunity to do that."]

RealVideo Clip (3 min 01 sec)

114:54:13 McCandless: Yes, please.

114:54:15 Mitchell: Here we come.

114:54:18 McCandless: Okay, now point the camera down a degree or 2.

114:54:26 Mitchell: (Listens) Okay. How's that?

[After he finishes zooming in and re-aiming, Ed gets the TV nicely centered on Turtle Rock. AS14-66-9240 is a frame from Al's 4 o'clock pan showing Ed at an earlier point in the TV pan, with the camera pointed south of down-Sun. Turtle Rock is the fourth sizeable rock to the left to the TV lens. It has a rounded top.]

114:54:41 Mitchell: (Garbled under McCandless)

114:54:41 McCandless: ...What's that object in profile on the horizon?

114:54:43 Mitchell: I mentioned a quadruplet chain of craters...(Listens)

114:54:51 McCandless: Point it down a little.

114:54:53 Mitchell: ...They're right here in front of me...(listens) Okay. The quadruplet chain of craters starts right here in front of me; well, it's halfway between the rock and myself...

114:55:06 McCandless: You're getting all sky.

114:55:07 Mitchell: (Garbled) across here, now, there's quite a few...(Listens) Let me zoom back in again.

114:55:15 McCandless: Roger. (Pause) Okay, hold it.

114:55:25 Mitchell: Okay. How's that now?

114:55:27 McCandless: Good.

[Ed has the TV centered on Turtle Rock again.]

114:55:43 McCandless: Roger. (Pause) Okay, we probably better go back to zoom 25 and press on with the panorama.

114:55:52 Mitchell: Okay, I'm at zoom 25. And I'm looking almost due north now. I'll swing back around and pan for my rocks. There's the rocks we were looking at. Panning slowly to the north, you can now see the undulations, the ridges that I was talking about.

114:56:14 McCandless: Roger.

114:56:15 Mitchell: There's not a level portion out here that's more than a few square meters. And you can see at least three ridges between us and the horizon. Now, I'll zoom in out here once more. Let you see at close-hand what's out there. Another pile of rocks (and) more ridges.

114:56:44 McCandless: You're pointing at the sky. (Pause)

114:56:51 Mitchell: Okay.

114:56:52 McCandless: That's better.

114:56:53 Mitchell: You need a gunsight on this thing.

114:56:54 McCandless: You sure do.

114:56:55 Mitchell: That better?

114:56:56 McCandless: Yeah. The horizon is about one quarter of the way up.

114:56:58 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause as Ed lowers his aim)

RealVideo Clip (2 min 55 sec)

114:57:04 McCandless: Beautiful. (Long Pause)

114:57:20 Shepard: Okay, Houston. Al is finished with the documentation; (and the frame) counter (is reading) 110.

[Al has taken a 12 o'clock pan, which consists of frames AS14-66-9294 to 9316.]

114:57:28 McCandless: Roger, Al. 110, Indianapolis, Indiana. And, Ed, a frame or two ago it looked like one of those rocks was split right down the middle. Did you notice that, too? (Pause)

114:57:47 Shepard: I don't think it is. I...It may be; it may look like it from there. We'll go by there later on.

114:57:57 McCandless: Roger. Let's press on with the TV panorama. (Pause) We're about 2 minutes behind timeline at this point, Ed. And you're looking at sky again. Bring her down. Okay. Okay, Ed, we're recording all this on video tape so that it only takes a relatively brief period of time looking at the scene that we can play it back, frame at a time, later on. (Pause) Back to 25 (zoom). (Pause) Ed. Are you reading me?

114:59:01 Shepard: Ed. Are you reading Houston?

114:59:07 McCandless: Ed...

114:59:08 Shepard: Don't look like Ed's reading anybody.

114:59:10 McCandless: Oh, God. Ed, this is Houston; we're not reading you.

[Thomas Schwagmeier notes that, in the Apollo 14 Final Flight Mission Rules, Rules 20-18 and 20-19 indicate that the EVA would have to be terminated if the LM astronauts lost comm with each other of if neither of them had comm with the Manned Space Flight Network (MSFN). Obviously, everyone would like to have a completely functional comm system. Readers should note that McCandless' "Oh, God" is the only reaction of its kind by an EVA CapCom. A more usual response would be "Roger. Ed, this is Houston; we're not reading you." In other words, don't voice concern, especially if the problem is likely to be fixed easily.]

114:59:21 McCandless: Roger! Loud and clear.

[The switch in question is probably the Comm switch on the lower left on the front of the RCU.]

[That is, he doesn't want to risk burning out the vidicon tube by getting the Sun in the field-of-view. The Cone Crater ridge is mostly in shadow but can be seen on the horizon to the right of center.]

114:59:43 Shepard: Okay, we're...(Listens)

114:59:45 Mitchell: Okay. There you go.

114:59:47 McCandless: Beautiful.

RealVideo Clip (2 min 41 sec)

114:59:49 Shepard: Okay, we're at the time to deploy the MET, Ed, if you want to swing it on back around.

114:59:55 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause)

[They are at 1+15 in both checklists and 1+20 in the EVA. Ed pans the camera counter-clockwise - thereby avoiding pointing it toward the Sun - until he has it pointed at the MESA. Al is walking from the MESA over to the plus-Y footpad to get the MET.]

115:00:02 McCandless: Okay, let's try...

115:00:02 Mitchell: ...(Garbled) for the MET?

115:00:03 McCandless: ...it at about 45 there; we'd like to get the flag in at the right extremity and the plus-Y (north footpad), if we can, at the left extremity. Hold that. Pan left about 2 degrees.

115:00:17 Mitchell: (Garbled).

115:00:18 McCandless: Left 2 degrees. (Pause) Okay, that looks...(Pause) Okay.

115:00:28 Mitchell: Is that okay?

115:00:29 McCandless: Yeah. Back it out about to 40 on the zoom. (Pause) Okay, that's good.

115:00:39 Mitchell: Okay.

115:00:40 Shepard: (Garbled) really. Okay.

[Mitchell - "It's like a sloppy feedback system. You do something that you think is right but, two and a half seconds later you hear them talk about a position you've already moved away from."]

115:00:54 Shepard: Okay. (Pause)

[Ed makes his way over toward the flag. He uses a mixture of skipping steps and doesn't yet have the confident movements he will show later. He does, however, appear to have good control of his center of mass. Astronaut Deke Slayton, the Director of Flight Crew Operations, joins the conversation.]

115:01:07 Mitchell: Okay.

115:01:08 Shepard: Okay.

[Al is carrying the MET to a spot just north of the MESA and stops and turns toward the television, holding the MET easily in his right hand.]

115:02:04 Shepard: That's fine, Deke. Thanks very much. And we appreciate those kind words.

115:02:10 Mitchell: Thank you, Deke. And convey our thanks to the President, please.

115:02:13 Slayton: Roger. Will do. I don't think Stu got this, but we'll see he gets it later. 115:02:18 Shepard: Okay. (Pause)

[Ed goes over to Al to help him set up the MET, which is currently folded up on itself. Ed stands between Al and the TV and blocks Houston's view of the deployment. He moves out of the way occasionally, but the images of the astronauts and the MET are so badly saturated that little useful detail is visible. An 8-mm film clip by Ed Dempsey ( 15 sec ) shows Al and Ed deploying the MET during training. Film clip courtesy Frederic Artner; digitized by Ken Glover.]

115:02:21 Shepard: (To Ed) Okay. You ready? (IÕll) get the wheels first.

[As indicated in both cuff checklists at 1 hour 15 minutes, Al will deploy the MET wheels, with Ed assisting in deployment of the legs and handle. The illustrations on page 6 in the 27 April 1970 edition of the MET OperatorÕs Familiarization Manual suggest that, in deploying the wheels, he grasps one in each hand and pulls them out from their stowage configuration under and parallel to the MET deck and rotates each of them up 90 degrees so they are perpendicular to the deck.]

115:02:31 Shepard: (Probably grasping the wheels) Okay. (Pause)

115:02:34 Mitchell: Wheels out.

115:02:35 Shepard: Tires feel good.

115:02:34 Mitchell: 180, gear down and locked.

115:02:42 Shepard: Both... Both tires are inflated properly on the MET.

115:02:46 McCandless: Roger. Out. (Pause)

[Unlike the Rovers of the later missions, which have wire-mesh tires, the MET has rubber tires inflated pre-flight to 1.5 psi (absolute) with nitrogen. Each of the tires is 16 inches in diameter and is 4 inches wide.]

115:03:07 Shepard: Okay. Put it down. (Pause) Let's get the...(Pause) Deploy it while it's still up here. There we go.

[After unfolding the wheels, they have to lock the front legs and handle into place. NASA photo KSC-70C-165BW shows the MET next to LM-8 at the Cape.]

115:03:28 Shepard: Yeah. Hardly worth mentioning.

115:03:33 Mitchell: Agree. (Pause)

[Jones - "I had heard that the backup crew had put greetings in lots of places on the spacecraft. Did you just find one on the MET?"]

[Mitchell - "I think what we're talking about there is one of their patches, because they put the goddamn things all over the spacecraft and, whenever we opened up something, there would be one of them. It had a Roadrunner on it and was a parody of our patch."]

[The exchange 'Visitors...hardly worth mentioning,' is, of course, a very dry, joking dismissal of the backup crew.]

[Journal Contributor Andrew Chaikin wrote in his book A Man On The Moon, "Before the flight, Cernan's crew had devised a mocking version of the Apollo 14 mission patch featuring the Road Runner and Wile E. Coyote cartoon characters. On it, the Coyote, representing Shepard's crew, reaches the moon only to find the Road Runner -- Cernan's crew -- is already there, waving a 'First Team' banner. Along the border was printed the Road Runner's trademark 'Beep Beep'. The real message was unfit for publication: 'Watch your ass -- we're right behind you.' During the flight, Shepard's crew discovered Road Runner patches in every notebook and storage locker in their two spacecraft. Even on the lunar surface, they couldn't escape: There, on the MET, was another 'Beep Beep'." (Used with permission.)]

[Journal Contributor Brian Lawrence has supplied a copy of the patch and notes: "The backup crew (Roadrunner) are depicted waiting on the Moon for the prime crew (Wile E. Coyote) to arrive. The Coyote has red fur for Roosa, a pot belly for Mitchell, and a grey beard for Shepard."]

115:03:45 McCandless: Roger.

115:03:49 Shepard: Looks like it's in good shape.

115:03:53 Mitchell: (Going to the MESA) Okay. (As per checklist) I'll get a (70mm) camera (from the ETB). (Pause)

115:04:01 Shepard: Okay, if you want to...Leave this right here, I'll move around to put the TV camera on the scientific equipment (SEQ) bay.

[As per checklist, Al will position the TV camera so that Houston can watch the removal of the ALSEP packages from the stowage compartment.]

RealVideo Clip (1 min 00 sec)

115:04:14 Shepard: (As he runs out to get the TV) Okay. CDR is 3.7 and reading 72 (percent oxygen remaining); no flags. I'm on low flow (that is, minimum cooling), and in good shape.

115:04:29 McCandless: Roger.

[Jones - "In the video, we can see that Al's beginning to get off the ground and is doing a foot-to-foot stride with some confidence. It's a pretty wide stance, like a running back about to cut but he's not cutting. He's just real wide."]

115:04:49 McCandless: Roger.

115:04:51 Shepard: TV camera (lens) is covered, and proceeding to the rear of the LM to observe the deployment of the ALSEP.

115:05:02 McCandless: Roger.