Spacelog Apollo 13

Okay. Joe. The time of torquing will be 23 hours 47 minutes 30 seconds.

Houston, 13.

13, Houston. Go ahead.

For information, Joe, we're all configured back again now to our regular seating positions, if you're monitoring us.

Hello there, Houston; 13.

13, Houston. Go ahead.

Gosh, we had forgotten, but we'd like to hear what the news is.

Okay. There's not a whole lot to it. Well, let's see, we'll start with the—Let's start with sports, what the heck. The Astros survived 8 to 7, the Braves got five or six runs in the—five runs in the ninth inning, but they just made it; and in the other important game of the day, the Cubs were rained out. I have all the rest of the scores, you can tell me if you want any of them. They had earthquakes in Manila and other areas of the island of Luzon. There were three tremors and they kept the buildings shaking for about a half an hour or so, and it was about a 5 on the Richter scale. Okay, let's see. The Beatles have announced they will no longer perform as a group. The quartet is reported to have made in excess of a half billion dollars during their short musical career. However, rumors that they will use this money to start their own space program are false.

Maybe we could borrow some.

(Laughter) Okay. Okay; West German Chancellor Willy Brandt, who witnessed your launch from the Cape yesterday, and President Nixon will complete their round of talks today. Brandt reportedly came to the U.S. to seek assurance from the President to go ahead with talks with the eastern European nations, especially East Germany, Poland, and Russia. Many air traffic controllers are still out, but reports indicate that they are slowly returning to work, and you'll be happy to know the controllers here in the MOCR are still on the job.

…

Go ahead.

I said thank goodness for that.

Okay. Some truck lines are being struck in the Midwest, and the school teachers have walked off the job in Minneapolis. Today's favorite pastime across the—Uh oh; have you guys completed your income tax?

How do I apply for an extension?

(Laughter)

Yes, Joe. I got to—hey, listen—It ain't too funny; things kind of happened real fast down there, and I do need an extension.

(Laughter)

I didn't get mine filed. And this is serious; would you —

You're breaking up the room down here.

— because I may be spending time in a —

We'll see —

I may be spending time in a—I may be spending time in another quarantine besides the one that they are planning for me.

We'll see what we can do, Jack. We'll get with Recovery and see if we can get the agent out there in the Pacific when you come back. By golly, let's see. In professional basketball, the Nicks beat the Milwaukee Bucks 110 to 102, and Billy Casper is leading the Masters after 54 holes with a 208, and spring football practice is in full swing. And that's about all the news we got; the updated plan of the day for you guys, the uniform will be service dress inflight coverall garments with swords and medals, and tonight's movie shown in the lower equipment bay will be John Wayne, Lou Costello, and Shirley Temple in the “The Flight of Apollo 13.” Over.

Outstanding.

Houston, this is 13. Is it true that Jack's income tax return was going to be used to buy the ascent fuel for the LM?

Well, considering that he's a bachelor and hasn't got that deduction to take, yes.

Hey, Joe. I'm glad you brought that up, because I was really serious about that.

Okay, Jack. We'll—We'll take care of it. Tom Stafford says he'll get an extension for you.

Okay.

And Jim McDivitt says, “yes, now that you mention it, he forgot to fill the ascent stage.”

(Laughter) Suspicions confirmed.

Should give you very good performance on descent.

We should have a lot more hover time, huh?

That's right.

Okay, crew. About the only other thing I've got for you right now is an update to your P37 pad for lift-off plus 35. This is a change to the pad we gave you yesterday. The reason for the update is for weather avoidance in the mid-Pacific landing area at 70 hours, which is the return time for this pad, and in case the question arises in your mind, we don't expect any problem there for the end of the mission. The weather area is 20 degrees south of your end-of-mission landing point, and it appears to be moving to the south.

Okay, Joe. I'm ready to copy the pad.

Okay. GET of ignition is 035:00, DELTA-V_T 7883, Longitude minus 155, and the GET 400K 069:54. Over.

GETI is 035:00, 7883, minus 155, 069:54.

Okay.

And, Houston, Jack's going to try donning his suit now for practice, himself, and when he gets it out, we'll give you a dosimeter reading.

Houston, Apollo 13.

13, Houston. Go.

Okay. We've retrieved Jack's dosimeter, and it's reading 02022.

Okay. We copy 02022 on the dosimeter, Jim.

That's affirm.

13, Houston. At your convenience, we'd like the LM/CM DELTA-P reading.

That reading is 0.65 psi.

Apollo 13, Houston.

Houston, Apol … Roger. We're thinking together. And we're here waiting for your call.

Okay, you were a little broken up there, Jim, but I think it's getting better. We are ready for the launch-vehicle-systems debriefing whenever you are.

Okay, Houston; Apollo 13. You were cut out again; say again, please.

Roger, Jim. We are ready for the launch-vehicle-systems debriefing whenever you are. Over.

Okay. Stand by 1.

Okay, Houston; 13. In answer to Question 1, the changes in noise level occurred mainly between the first stage and the other stages—the other stages were about the same in noise level, very quiet, with the first stage, of course, making quite a bit of noise in the beginning but—which built up during the high Q, and then … went quiet just after high Q.

Okay, copy that, Jim.

I might mention that the noise level during the first stage was not sufficient to be uncomfortable at all.

Roger. And I assume COMM was okay.

That's affirm. COMM was very good all during—throughout the entire flight. Much better than I expected.

Okay.

Now, in answer to Question 2, there was, of course, a vibration transient in the second stage that—due to the number 5 engine going out—which occurred shortly before the engine went out, and slightly after that then the S-II stage was very smooth.

Okay, Jim. I guess the significant point there is that you didn't notice the vibration before you saw the engine light.

That's right. We—we noticed the vibration but it wasn't such that we thought something catastrophic was going to happen; it just started vibration and then the EN light came on, and then the vibration went away and the stage itself was smooth.

Okay, copy that.

Yes, and that—it was all pretty—pretty short in span—just a second or so before and like a second afterwards, Joe.

Oh. Roger.

And on the S-IVB, the vibration of the vehicle itself wasn't what … second … powered flight—a very-high-frequency vibration.

That was—was that during—just during TLI, or did you notice that at insertion?

Well, it was a high-frequency viola—vibration but more noticeable during the TLI burn than it was during the … flight.

Okay, I—understand.

I guess the S-IVB vibration during TLI was there all the time although it seemed to—to grow to us as the burn progressed, although that may have been just due to the boost weight decrease.

Okay, you called this about 3-1/2 minutes, but I guess the thing was slowly building up throughout the whole burn. Right?

That's right.

Okay, was it uncomfortable or did it cause your vision to degrade or anything like that?

No, it—it was not uncomfortable at all but I was recalling the ride on 8, and the S-IVB was more—much more smooth than even it was on 13.

Copy that.

Okay, now, in answer to number 3, we did not experience any unexpected transients except that all of us noticed the PU shift. We thought it was more pronounced than we had expected it to be.

Okay. Understand.

Joe, on that. I guess most of every time that PU shift occurred we all—almost all of us glanced at the engine light. We could feel definite acceleration change.

Roger. Understand, Jack.

And, during the high-Q portion of the flight, the Alfa meter, to my knowledge, nearly went above 25 percent.

Okay.

In answer to number 4, we got a pretty good look at the thermal shroud and the IU after taking the LM away, and from our viewpoint, the shroud was completely intact. I saw no loose particles or parts of it floating at all.

Okay, Jim. Understand.

And, I guess we answered number 5. I don't think at any time did we have any communication problem during powered flight.

Roger.

In answer to number 6, the answer is essentially no. We saw no venting or suspected leak on the LM or the CSM …

Okay, Jim. I guess you described to us the non-propulsive venting on the S-IVB after the APS maneuver and we copied that at the time.

Okay. Fred saw the S-IVB venting.

Yes, we had already talked about that, Joe. And that was also visible when it—of course, when it did its evasive maneuver when we were looking at it right close up.

Roger.

Okay, Joe. The last time we saw the S-IVB positively was when Fred saw it venting at about—at about 5 hours. We think we might have picked it up later on. We saw a particle or something out there that was tumbling which might have been the booster or one of the SLA panels.

And when was that, Jim?

We're—we're debating. It was somewhere between—say 7:30 and 9 hours.

Okay.

But, Joe, assuming the S-IVB is still stable. The object I was looking at was definitely tumbling.

Okay, Fred. As I recall, it was stable then, although it's tumbling now.

Okay. It probably was the SLA panel I picked up.

Right. Incidentally, I guess the guys in building 6 —

Oh and I think we -

Go ahead, Jim.

I—I think we answer to number 9. We—at around 5:32, I think, was when we think the number 5 light came on in the S-II, and a definite vibration which was more than just a high-frequency vibration we got with the normal S-IV burn, and then the light came on. I called ECO thinking from the training that it was 7:42 and looked up at the time and realized it was early. And then, soon after the light came on, the vibration stopped and the engine or the booster smoothed down. It was very smooth from there on.

Okay. This may be a stupid question, but do you have any idea what the frequency of it was?

Only to say that it was much higher—I couldn't really guess now. It was rather a rapid longitudinal vibration.

Okay, Jim. Stand by now for a minute, we're going to switch OMNI.

Houston, 13, …

13, Houston. I read you. We still have quite a bit of noise on the loop.

I'll stand by. Roger.

Okay, Jim. It should be pretty good now. We copied you answering question number 9.

Do you want any more comments on the S-IVB vibrations?

I don't think so. When you get all done, I'll—I'll make a quick check to see if the booster people have any—any additional questions. You skipped number 8, Jim; could you go back to that for a second?

Okay, stand by.

Our only comment there, Joe, was that the burn on TLI, to our knowledge, was about 3-3/4 second longer than had been predicted and that was the only thing that we really noticed; otherwise, looked like PI [?] was nominal at cut-off.

Okay, understand.

Okay, on comparing the flight of 13 to Apollo 8, lift-off was about the same amount of vibration as I noticed on 8, but at the beginning of the flight, there was less of the sideways motion than we experienced on Apollo 8. The S-IC separation felt more violent on 13 than it did on 8, maybe that's because I was in a different seat, I don't know. But there was about three sharp transients of the cut-off and a couple of big bangs where we were thrown backwards longitudinally on our straps before the S-II went off. And the S-II was, of course, just as smooth on 13 as 8 except for the number 5 engine. And we did not experience the vibration that we experienced on 8 towards the end of the S-II burn. And the S-IVB was—had more vibration than we had on 8.

Okay, Jim, got all that.

The up—the update on the ORDEAL ball was a good one. At the burn, we were about—just about 8 degrees. We had to pitch down. The yaw was right on all the way through the entire burn, and just towards the end of the burn, the ball started going black in pitch a little bit.

Okay, sounds good, we'll give Mike Wash a gold star on that one. Okay, Jim, stand by 1 while I see if we have any extra questions.

Jim, while we're waiting to see if they have any more questions, I'd like to read you the booster people's preliminary analysis on the—the S-II cut-off. Over.

That would be very interesting. Go ahead.