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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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Houston, Apol … Roger. We're thinking together. And we're here waiting for your call.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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Roger, Jim. We are ready for the launch-vehicle-systems debriefing whenever you are. Over.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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I might mention that the noise level during the first stage was not sufficient to be uncomfortable at all.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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That's affirm. COMM was very good all during—throughout the entire flight. Much better than I expected.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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Okay, Jim. I guess the significant point there is that you didn't notice the vibration before you saw the engine light.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Jack Swigert (CMP)
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Yes, and that—it was all pretty—pretty short in span—just a second or so before and like a second afterwards, Joe.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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And on the S-IVB, the vibration of the vehicle itself wasn't what … second … powered flight—a very-high-frequency vibration.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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Well, it was a high-frequency viola—vibration but more noticeable during the TLI burn than it was during the … flight.
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Jack Swigert (CMP)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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Okay, you called this about 3-1/2 minutes, but I guess the thing was slowly building up throughout the whole burn. Right?
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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Okay, was it uncomfortable or did it cause your vision to degrade or anything like that?
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Jack Swigert (CMP)
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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.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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And, during the high-Q portion of the flight, the Alfa meter, to my knowledge, nearly went above 25 percent.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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And, I guess we answered number 5. I don't think at any time did we have any communication problem during powered flight.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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In answer to number 6, the answer is essentially no. We saw no venting or suspected leak on the LM or the CSM …
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Fred Haise (LMP)
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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.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Fred Haise (LMP)
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But, Joe, assuming the S-IVB is still stable. The object I was looking at was definitely tumbling.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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Okay. This may be a stupid question, but do you have any idea what the frequency of it was?
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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Only to say that it was much higher—I couldn't really guess now. It was rather a rapid longitudinal vibration.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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Okay, Jim. It should be pretty good now. We copied you answering question number 9.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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?
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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Okay, we were just wondering because it appeared to us that we had a longer TLI burn than had been predicted.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Fred Haise (LMP)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Fred Haise (LMP)
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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.
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Fred Haise (LMP)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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 —
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Jack Swigert (CMP)
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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?
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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Jack, we are not quite ready with that yet, but we will be before too long. Can you wait awhile?
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Jim Lovell (CDR)
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It's going pretty good. We have about four different methods of spreading catsup, right now.
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Jack Swigert (CMP)
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Okay. Fine, Joe. We did a pit check on the Hycon camera and everything works okay.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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That's acceptable, Fred, and meanwhile, when you guys are ready to copy, we've got an MCC-2 pad for you.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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Roger that. And also if you can go to P00 and ACCEPT conveniently, we'd like to uplink.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Fred Haise (LMP)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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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.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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The two additional comments were just that, first of all, they biased DELTA-VC 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.
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Fred Haise (LMP)
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Okay, understand. For Jack's information the EMS DELTA-V bias is 3.4, and our targeted pericynthion after this maneuver is 60 miles.
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Joe Kerwin (CAPCOM)
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Roger. And —
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Jack Swigert (CMP)
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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.
Spoken on April 12, 1970, 8:30 p.m. UTC (54 years, 6 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet
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