Spacelog Apollo 13

Jack, read you loud and clear.

Okay. Fine.

We show minus 8-1/2 minutes.

Roger. Houston copies.

Close —

Is that too close, Vance, or can you make out the SPS engine panel now?

We can see your fuel and oxidizer gages and hydrogen/oxygen gages at the top of the picture and the PUGS, but it isn't coming in in focus too well. It's a little dim.

Yes. I think the problem is I'm about 2 feet and it doesn't go down but to 4.

Right. We understand that's the panel right in front of your face.

Okay. Vance, stand by for the main …

Okay. We're minus 7 minutes.

Roger.

Fred, the focus is good enough that we can see the position of your four ball valves at the top of the picture for the big SPS engine.

What would you like to watch, Vance?

Hopefully, you'll see the—or we'll see the two on the left here, set A, go on here directly —

Minus 6 minutes.

MAIN BUS TIES, two, ON, Fred. Okay. SPS HELIUM VALVE, two, AUTO and checked AUTO barber pole. TVC SERVO POWER is 1, AC1/MAIN A; 2, AC2/MAIN B.

AC1/MAIN A, AC2/MAIN B.

MAIN BUS TIES, ON.

Okay. ROTATIONAL POWER NORMAL no. 2, AC.

Number 2, AC.

DIRECT, two, OFF.

DIRECT, two, OFF.

BMAGs, three, ATT 1/RATE 2.

ATT 1/RATE 2.

SPACECRAFT CONTROL, SCS.

SCS.

And arm your hand controller.

RHC armed.

Okay. Let's do a primary TVC check.

Fred, are you ready to start primary?

Okay. Go ahead on primaries.

Okay. PITCH 1, START.

Good.

YAW 1, START.

That one's good.

Thumbwheel control. 0.96 plus 0.96 minus 0.23.

That's affirm. Check MTVC.

MTVC checked. Okay.

Okay.

THC —

… C —

— TRIM returns to NEUTRAL.

Clockwise on the translation controller.

Mine? No MTVC.

No MTVC. Okay.

What was that one again?

I say, you know the new—the new fad with long hair?

Right.

It doesn't work too well up in space, you can't comb your hair up here.

Well, I guess you have to give up something.

Well, at least it—it helps to try. We can see you trying to comb your hair there, Jim. It looks like your—your beards haven't come along to the point where you've had to use the razor though.

Well, we've been debating that. We thought we'd take care of our beards tomorrow and make that one of our daily routines.

I take it that was a subtle hint, Vance.

No, no. We're not commenting on your appearance, Fred. I mean nothing derogatory, understand.

And, Vance, thought we'd get a picture of Jack just so that all the girls know that he's still here.

(Laughter)

…

Yes, we—we appreciate that. There he is. Big Jack.

Jack, you're in the shadow right now; we have a little bit of interference from your window, which is very bright, so we can't—I think you're smiling, but it's a little hard to tell.

…

Hey, there we go. Incidentally, we've been getting all kinds of bits of information to pass up to you. We've had baseball scores coming in, basketball. Somebody said there's 220 days, shopping days left until Christmas.

Yes. Who won the Masters, Vance?

It was a tie in the Masters and stand by. It was a tie between Littler and Casper after 72 holes, and there is going to be a playoff Monday, we understand.

Oh. Sounds good.

One thing the world might be interested in knowing is what you do after the burn in the way of configuring switches back. We—We heard you go through the checklist. But, I guess right now, basically, you probably have all the switches back in position and you're in the mode to continue on with—Okay. What does the flight plans say? You're going to be doing cislunar navigation. So, Jack you're going to be down in the LEB. Is that correct?

That's right, Vance. Be going down there shortly.

Okay. The TV now is all but black. Looks like it must be pointing into a shadow.

What he's doing, he's trying to give you one more shot of the Moon, and right now I'm setting to maneuver pad and the optics calibration attitude.

Roger.

And what I wanted to point out, I don't know if it's apparent, but … to show the advantage of doing all the dumps just before the burn, we're looking again at the same scene over quad 1 at the Moon. And now you don't see all the sparkly frozen particles outside there any more. We've sort of run off and left them.

Roger. We—We don't see anything out there anymore in the way of particles leaving the spacecraft. We'd suggest, maybe you zoom the Moon in a little bit again so we can see the shape of it better.

Okay. That brings the Moon in. We can see the terminator at the top of the melon-shaped disk.

Okay. Now you can see a few of the spark—sparkling particles going across the screen. Those are being emitted from the thrusters. Jack's maneuvering the spacecraft now.

Okay. We can see those very poorly. Well, actually, they are coming in better now. It looks like little specks going from the upper left part of the screen across to the right, and understand those are from the thrusters.

That's affirm.

Okay, 13; Houston. Just as an item of interest, advise your speed with respect to the Earth is now 4667 feet per second.

Okay. Thanks, Vance.

Okay, Apollo 13; Houston. The Moon has been in and out of the—the—our screen here. Right now it's off at the bottom side, but we can still see the particles coming off of the spacecraft.

Okay. I am going to have to pull it out the window now, Vance. The Sun's coming up on the right side.

Roger. Understand. You —

Do you want to see any shots down in the LEB, Vance?

Say again.

Do you want to see any of the photographs or do you want the TV down in the LEB?

That's right, Jim. It would be good to see what you are doing down in the LEB or the far corner of the spacecraft where the optics are. Might be interesting to describe what you will do in the next few minutes in the way of sighting.