Spacelog Apollo 13

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.

Okay, preliminary analysis of the data indicates that the center S-II engine vibrated at a somewhat higher amplitude than we've seen on previous flights, and it started at about 160 seconds into the S-II burn. As a result of these vibrations, the engine chamber pressure decreased to the level where the two low-level thrust sensors, the thrust-okay sensors, initiated center engine cut-off. Early evaluation of data indicates that no damage occurred to the engine, and the cause of the increased vibration amplitude is still under investigation. Over.

I thought it was the center engine.

Yes, right.

Joe, do you have any word on what marks we had for TLI?

At the time of TLI, as I recall, you had 6 seconds longer than the nominal burn which was 3 seconds longer than the B-sigma low burn, and you were also GO for a second-opportunity TLI if we had required one.

Okay, we were just wondering because it appeared to us that we had a longer TLI burn than had been predicted.

Yes, you did. We confirmed that—that—that cut-off time just about as you saw it, and I don't have an explanation for it, but it was within the B-sigma margin.

13, Houston.

Go ahead.

Roger, we have no further questions. All the answers were clear and satisfactory, and we thank you very much. You can press on with the rest of your busy day.

And, Houston; 13.

13, Houston. Go ahead.

Okay, Joe. Out window 5, I just picked up the tumbling object again so, for sure, it must have been a SLA panel. I don't think we could still be in the proximity of the S-IV at this time.

I don't think so, Fred. It's several hundred miles aft of you. 700 miles is—is the number, I'm told. And since the SLA panel didn't make the midcourse correction, that might be it.

Yes, it's, I can't really tell for sure even through the monocular that it is, but it looks the same relative position to the stars. And the best I can tell about the same intensity and still about the same distance from us.

Can you see it tumbling. Does it have a shape, or is it a point?

No. I can tell it's tumbling; I guess the flat side not only is facing me, it's not only much brighter, it also grows larger.

Okay. Very interesting. We'll see if we can figure out where that's relative to you. They keep updating the S-IV impact on us a little bit. The last guess we had was that it will impact about the same longitude we gave you but close to zero latitude and a little bit later. You still won't be able to see it. And they're saying it might make a —

Roger.

— they're saying it might make a 100 to 120 foot crater, too.

It'll still be past the terminator for us for awhile.

Right. It will be at about the REV 20 terminator, so it will be late in your lunar orbit activities before you will be able to photograph it, and FAO is looking at whether we can work that in or not.

Houston, 13.

13, Houston.

Hey, Joe? Is FAO ready to—do you—or are you ready to give me those items that we made optional and deleted in the solo book?

Jack, we are not quite ready with that yet, but we will be before too long. Can you wait awhile?

Sure can. Got lots of time.

Okay.

Hello, Houston; Apollo 13.

13, Houston. Go ahead.

Just a passing comment, Joe. We're having lunch right now, and I just made myself a hotdog sandwich with catsup. Very tasty and almost unheard of in the old days.

That's correct, 13. As I recall the flight plan, you're supposed to put mustard on the hot dogs and not catsup, but I guess we'll overlook that.

We blew it.

Right. How's everything going?

It's going pretty good. We have about four different methods of spreading catsup, right now.

Okay. Jack, we'll have your update to you before too long.

Okay. Fine, Joe. We did a pit check on the Hycon camera and everything works okay.

Houston, 13.

13, Houston. Go ahead.

Okay. We'd like to get the FM up now to look at some inside pictures there.

Okay. Stand by and I'll get a GO on this.

13, Houston.

Go ahead.

That's acceptable, Fred, and meanwhile, when you guys are ready to copy, we've got an MCC-2 pad for you.

Okay. Stand by 1.

Roger that. And also if you can go to P00 and ACCEPT conveniently, we'd like to uplink.

Okay. You've got it.

Okay.

Okay, Joe. You can go ahead with the P30 pad.

Okay. Here we go. MCC-2, SPS/G&N: 63634; plus 0.96, minus 0.23; 030:40:49.00; minus 0021.7, minus 0001.7, minus 0008.0; 080, 164, 326; N/A, N/A; 0023.2, 0:03.5—We'll give you half a second on the burn time because it's so short—0018.5; 44, 135.9, 28.1; and the rest is N/A. Comments: set stars 31 and 23; roll aline 288, pitch 205, yaw 034; no ullage, LM weight 33499, and over.

Okay. MCC-2, SPS/G&N: 63634; plus 0.96, minus 0.23, 030:40:49.00; minus 0021.7, minus 0001.7, minus 0008.0; 080, 164, 326; N/A, N/A; 0023.2, burn time 0:03.5, 0018.5; 44, 135.9, 28.1; and the rest N/A. Set stars 31, 23; roll aline 288, pitch 205, yaw 034; no ullage, LM weight 33499.

Roger. Readback correct. I have two more short comments on them, but I want to wait just a second and make sure I understand them before I pass them to you.

Okay.

Okay, Fred; Houston.

Go ahead.

The two additional comments were just that, first of all, they biased DELTA-V_C by minus 0.34 feet per second based on your EMS null bias cheeks. That's just for information. And the second one also for information is that your targeted pericynthion is 60 miles after this correction.

Okay, understand. For Jack's information the EMS DELTA-V bias is 3.4, and our targeted pericynthion after this maneuver is 60 miles.

That's correct on the pericynthion. The EMS bias is 0.34, very small.

Okay. 0.34 on the EMS DELTA-V bias.

Roger. And —

Hey, Joe, we'll give —

Go ahead, Jack —

We'll give you—we'll give you the read—we'll give you the results of another null bias test for comparative purposes right before the—oh, at the proper time.

Okay. Real fine; and the computer is yours.

Okay, Houston; 13. Are you copying the torquing angles on the P52?

Okay, Jack. Give us a second.

And, 13, Houston. We have them. You can torque them.

Okay, Joe. Time of torquing 29 hours 0 minute 30 seconds.

Apollo 13, Houston.

Go ahead, Joe.

Hey, you've got a new CAPCOM on now with the Black Crew, and we have about three items to give you, Jack.

Okay. Stand by 1. Are these updates or what?

I'm going to give you some high gain antenna angles for TV and the rest is just information, general words.

Go ahead …

Okay. Burn attitude for TV, your pitch and yaw angles are as follows: PITCH minus 1—minus 69, YAW 180, HIGH GAIN.

Okay.

Okay. Second point is that you're GO for MCC-2. Everything's looking good here.

Okay. Real fine.

And the last item's for Jack. Jack, the preliminary indications are that you can get a 60-day extension on your—filing your income tax if you're out of the country.

That's good news. I guess I qualify.

Yes, we were just looking at the map, and you're south of Florida so you're not in the country now. But we wondered how about your car tags. Have you taken care of those?

Yes, I did, as a matter of fact. I think I did!

Known as, “plan ahead.”

Okay. Good.

And, Apollo 13, Houston. Recommend OMNI Alfa until you get to the burn attitude.

Okay, Houston; Apollo 13.

13, go ahead.

Okay, Vance. The EMS DELTA-V pass passive, the results of the no-bias pass in 100 seconds, have been from 100 to 101.5.

Roger. Copy plus 100 to plus 101.5, and that agrees fairly closely with the last one, as I recall.

Okay, Houston. We're at P40 burn attitude. Jim is on the sextant star check, and we do have a star in the sextant.

Roger, Jack. Copy. Very good.

But we couldn't tell you whether it's 44 or not.

Whoops.

Okay, Houston; 13. We're a little bit ahead of ourselves. Do we have a GO to do the fuel cell purge and the waste water dump?

Jack, that's affirm. You have a GO for those.

Apollo 13, Houston.

Go ahead.

Jim, battery A is charged now. Whenever you want to unhook it will be fine with us.

Houston, 13. Are you still planning to have TV at the scheduled time?

Okay, 13; Houston. That's affirm. At the flight-plan-scheduled time.

Okay. All right. We've got a beautiful sight we want to show you.

Right.

13, Houston. You can go ahead with the TV now. We're standing by.

Okay. Here it comes.

Okay.

Okay. Jack. It's coming in, and it's right in the center of our screen.

Okay, Vance.

Can you—Think you could guess what that might be, Vance? Better than Charlie?

I don't want to start flipping coins at this point.

Okay, Vance. We're pointed just a little ways off from looking directly at the Moon. Jim is holding the camera through window 3. The Sun is coming at about 40 degrees off our left side, and what we are going to show you in just a minute is about 30 seconds of waste water dump and just show you just what it looks like. It's really fantastic.

Okay. We'd like to see that.

Okay. We saw some droplets speeding out for a little while, Jack. Now we don't see anything.

Actually, Vance, what you're looking at is solid water droplets coming out just about all the time. It lights up the whole sky around the Moon. It's Just far too fine for you to see. Now I think they're coming out a little thicker.

Okay. Yes, we see those.

Jack's complaining about seeing stars.

FIDO says he can understand why that would perturbate a trajectory now.

It's amazing watching these little frozen droplets maneuver. They seem to go in all directions, but finally after they get out a certain ways, settle down and they all seem to be traveling in the same direction.

Right. That's coming in real well.

The objects in the foreground are parts of the LM that you're looking at.

The camera is now going to …

We can just barely see those parts of the LM. They must be in a shadow.

Okay. Now you are looking at a thruster quad at the lower part of your screen.

I've got the f-stop all the way open now, Vance; that's quad—quad 1 you're looking at with the LM should—The Moon should be in view just over the top of the quad.

Right. We see the nozzle of the quad, but it's dark and it's not easy to see.

13, Houston. INCO suggests you try AVERAGE if you're in PEAK to see if that gives us a better picture.

Okay. We're in AVERAGE now.

I think that helps out. We can see it better.

Okay. Now, 13, request you either move it away from the bright area or else move it back to PEAK. Over.

Okay, Vance. I cranked the focus down a little bit. Is the quad coming in any better now?

It's coming in about the same, Fred, and you're a little weak now on the COMM.

We could see when you went back to PEAK.

And I'm now … all the way out.

Okay. We could see you zoom in on the Moon, and it's near the center of our screen, just a little to the left. Very clear.

Yes. I show it just about at 38.

We can't tell if it's gray or light brown, though.

Do you have your grid down there, Vance?

That's negative, Fred.

Okay.

I don't know if you can make out the features there, Vance, on the Moon, but it looks like the terminators are at central plains area somewhere around Descartes, maybe.

Okay. We're—We see it just as a bright portion of the lunar disk, and it looks a lot like you see it from Earth. Very bright. We are unable to see any features at all.

It's pretty much the same with the eyeballs in here, and it looks a little bigger now. But the only way I could see it very good at all was with the monocular, a little while ago.

Okay, Fred. Very good. We'd be interested to seeing the cabin when you get ready for that, too.

Okay. I'll set up now.

And, Vance, we're counting down to midcourse-2, we're up to, in our checklist, to minus 6 minutes to go.

Roger. Minus 6 minutes. Understand you're about ready to turn on the gimbal motors and all that sort of thing. Okay. We see the computer now in the upper middle part of the—the panel. I think we see somebody's checklist in the center couch. It must be Jim holding the checklist.

Right. And what Jim's holding now, he's got a pen in his hand we've rigged on a string, as sort of a simple-minded accelerometer. This burn's pretty short and I'm not sure even that's going to show very much. But we'll see if it'll stretch out at the end of its string.

Yes. We see the pencil at the top of the picture floating around. And Jack's coming into view now.

And I've gone back—Okay, I've gone back to AVERAGE now and … pitch up.

Now in a few minutes, Vance, I guess we'll see how about the only system we haven't used yet works. Everything else sure has worked mighty fine.

Right. The spacecraft's really working nicely. Okay. We're picking up panel 2 now. Still a little bit of the checklist.

Wondering if you can pick up the caution array there?

Right. We just saw your—your testing of the caution and warning system at the left-hand side of the panel on our TV. See the lights all flash on. You're doing it again.

You mission timer's showing up as a—a brilliant green in the upper left-hand part of the picture.