Apollo 9 - part 3

Here's a couple more short clips of the Apollo 9 mission. One shows the Command and Service Module, 'Gumdrop', orbiting with the hatch open, allowing EVAs to be performed around the spacecraft. The other features the Lunar Module, 'Spider', being tested in Earth orbit. This mission was the first time a manned 'pure' spacecraft had been tested in space. By that I mean that the Lunar Module had no capacity to serve as a viable re-entry vehicle to Earth. It was built only to operate in space and in a low gravity environment like the Moon.

The astronauts took Spider out to over a hundred miles away from the Command and Service Module, using the Lunar descent engine to travel out, and the Lunar ascent engine to return. The film clearly shows the ascent stage of the LM (minus the LM descent stage with it's landing legs) returning to rendezvous with the CSM. The crew then successfully re-docked with the CSM. That's proper test pilot stuff.

Having rehearsed and proved the major procedures of undocking, free flight, rendezvous and redocking, the next time U.S. astronauts would perform the feat would be a quarter of a million miles away whilst orbiting the Moon.

That test, amongst many others would take place on the Apollo 10 mission, scheduled for May 1969.

Apollo 9 - part 2

Apollo 9 - part 1

Continuing the 40 year retrospective look at the Apollo Moon landing programme:- Coming Soon - Apollo 9!


Launch date is set for March 3rd. This will be the first tests in space of the Lunar Module - which needs to work properly to enable a landing on the Moon, followed of course by a safe return to Earth for the crew. The LEM tests will be carried out in Earth orbit.

Let's Go to the Moon this Christmas - 10

SPLASHDOWN!

I couldn't find a video of the Apollo 8 splashdown, so here's one they did later - Apollo 15;



So the mission went almost perfectly. A good thing too.
In November 1970, it must have preyed on Jim Lovell's mind that had the Service Module exploded on Apollo 8, as it did on his later flight Apollo 13, there would have been no hope of recovering control and returning to Earth. Apollo 13 only made it back because they had the Lunar Module still attached and were able to use it's engine to power back to Earth before the crew all died of exposure or more likely, asphyxiation.

In the case of Apollo 8 though, once the mission had slowed from the free return trajectory to orbit the Moon, there was only one way back; firing the Service Module engine successfully.
The mission was a bold and courageous undertaking. There was no back up plan, no hope of rescue and no experience to draw upon. The Apollo 8 mission emboldened NASA and made the Moon landing in 1969 a possibility - it converted hope into experience.

Let's Go to the Moon this Christmas - 9

Apollo 8 is now about half way between the Moon and the Earth, coasting back towards a splashdown rendezvous in the Pacific Ocean on the afternoon of the 27th December.

To illustrate the difference in the size and capability of a launcher and spacecraft system needed to support a lunar mission as opposed to Earth orbital trips, here's a scale comparison of the first three U.S. launch systems. Mercury, a single man system was the first, followed by the two man Gemini and lastly the three man Apollo.

Let's Go to the Moon this Christmas - 8

Having orbited the Moon for a day, all the crew needed to do now was to come home to Earth. This required a long burn of the single SPS engine to increase their speed to escape the Moon's gravity and head off in the right direction for Earth. Here's some extracts from the verbatim flight logs:

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Apollo Control Houston at 89 hours, 19 minutes into the flight. We are now less than 30 seconds to the scheduled time of ignition for the maneuver to start Apollo 8 on its course back to Earth. In the last 15 seconds, prior to ignition, the crew will be burning their Service Propulsion System - rather their Reaction Control System engines to settle propellants. And here in Mission Control Center, we have just counted down to the burn. We should have ignition at this time. That will be a 3-minute and 18-second burn nominally. It will increase the spacecraft velocity by about 3,522 feet per second or some 2,395 miles per hour. Following the maneuver, The spacecraft should have a velocity of about 8,800 feet per second - some 6,000 miles per hour. And here in Mission Control, it is relatively quiet, as it has been since we lost communications with the spacecraft as they went over the Moon's horizon. At this point, flight controllers here in Mission Control, as with the rest of the world, now they are waiting."

089:20:16 Anders (onboard): Burned for 1 minute.

089:20:18 Borman (onboard): Okay.

Public Affairs Officer - "Coming up in just a few seconds now, we should have shutdown of the Service Propulsion System engine on the spacecraft that should have occurred at 89 hours - or rather will be occurring at 89 hours, 22 minutes, 34 seconds. Actually, we are just a little less than a minute from that event. And the clock here in Mission Control Center that is counting down to the time when we will reacquire the spacecraft shows that we have 6 minutes, 30 seconds until reacquisition. At this point, the SPS engine should be shut down and we will now be waiting for the spacecraft to come over the lunar horizon and give us a report on their status We now show 5 minutes, 45 seconds until reacquisition."

089:23:02 Borman (onboard): 1, OFF.

089:23:03 Anders (onboard): Got it.

089:23:04 Borman (onboard): 2, OFF.

089:23:05 Anders (onboard): Got it.

089:23:06 Borman (onboard): 3, OFF.

089:23:07 Anders (onboard): Got it.

089:23:08 Borman (onboard): 4, OFF.

089:23:09 Borman (onboard): Got it.

089:23:10 Borman (onboard): Okay -

089:23:11 Anders (onboard): TVC SERVO POWER, 1 and 2. OFF.

089:23:13 Borman (onboard): OFF.

089:23:14 Anders (onboard): FLIGHT Recorders OFF; MAIN BUS ties, going OFF; A is OFF - -

089:23:20 Lovell (onboard): There we go.

089:23:22 Anders (onboard): - - B is OFF.

089:23:23 Anders (onboard): Proceed.

089:23:24 Borman (onboard): Wait a minute. Did you get all this, Jim?

089:23:26 Lovell (onboard): Yes.

089:23:28 Anders (onboard): You ready to proceed?

089:23:29 Lovell (onboard): Proceed. I'll get these.

089:23:31 Anders (onboard): Okay, null residuals. Record DELTA-V.

089:23:33 Lovell (onboard): Minus 54 - -

089:23:34 Borman (onboard): That 0.5?

089:23:36 Lovell (onboard): Yes, 0.5.

089:23:37 Anders (onboard): You don't have to do a thing to that.

089:23:39 Borman (onboard): Just record it.

089:23:41 Anders (onboard): Record DELTA-Vc.

089:23:43 Borman (onboard): Minus - that's up here - minus26.4.

089:23:49 Lovell (onboard): I got 26.4, and the burn time was- -

089:23:52 Borman (onboard): Minus 26.4.

089:23:53 Lovell (onboard): - - have it, burn time was 2minutes (cough) and 23 seconds.

089:23:58 Borman (onboard): Okay, can we proceed out of here, then? You got all this?

089:24:01 Lovell (onboard): I have all that.

089:24:02 Borman (onboard): Proceed.

----------------------------------------------------------------------

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Apollo Control Houston at 89 hours, 26 minutes. Flight Director Milton Windler has just advised his flight control team here in Mission Control Center that we have less than 3 minutes now until reacquisition of the spacecraft and he requested that they monitor their console, get prepared to reacquire and to get a status from the crew. (Pause.)"

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Apollo Control Houston. We now show less than 30 seconds until reacquisition. We will stand by for the first words from the Apollo 8 crew as they come over the lunar horizon, and into acquisition."

Public Affairs Officer - "We have AOS signal. There is a little bit of a cheer going up among the flight controllers here. We should be hearing from the crew shortly."

Public Affairs Officer - "Our station at Honeysuckle reports that we do have a radio signal from the spacecraft. Having a bit of trouble locking up at this point, to the point where we can get voice communications from the crew."

089:31:12 Mattingly: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

089:31:30 Mattingly: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

089:31:58 Mattingly: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

089:32:50 Mattingly: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

089:33:38 Mattingly: Apollo 8, Houston.

089:34:16 Lovell: Houston, Apollo 8, over.

089:34:19 Mattingly: Hello, Apollo 8. Loud and clear.

089:34:25 Lovell: Roger. Please be informed there is a Santa Claus.
089:34:31 Mattingly: That's affirmative. You're the best ones to know.

089:34:37 Lovell: And burn status report: it burned on time; Burn time, 2 minutes, 23 seconds; seven-tenths plus VGX. Attitude nominal, residuals; minus five-tenths VGX, plus four-tenths VGY, minus 0 VGZ; Delta-VC, minus 26.4.

089:35:14 Mattingly: Roger.

089:35:19 Mattingly: Apollo FLIGHT has...

089:35:23 Mattingly: Apollo 8, reconfirm your burn time, please.

089:35:30 Lovell: Roger. We had 2 minutes, 23 seconds. Our - wait one. Stand corrected to that; 3 minutes, 23 seconds.

089:35:43 Mattingly: Thank you. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Mission Control, Houston. Flight Dynamics Officer says that burn is good."

089:36:33 Borman: You get the sensation that you're climbing, Ken.

089:36:35 Mattingly: Say again, Apollo 8.

089:36:41 Borman: I say, this gives you the sensation that you're climbing.

089:36:47 Mattingly: Rog. [Pause.]

089:36:53 Borman:. What's next on the docket?

089:36:56 Mattingly: High Gain Antenna. [Long pause.]

089:37:10 Mattingly: Apollo 8, at the first convenient moment, we'd like to have the High Gain Antenna.

089:37:19 Borman: You've got it; you're on the High Gain.

089:37:25 Mattingly: Rog.


.....and that was that, they were on their way home. No drama, no excitement, just on to the next thing on the checklist. These guys really were ice-cool.