Spacelog Apollo 13

And -

Okay, Jack, I'm looking out the right window now, and not too far off in the distance now, you can see the objective, and I'll zoom in on it here a little and see if it brings it in better.

And it's actually beginning to look a little bigger now. You can see quite distinctly some of the features with the naked eye. And so far, I guess I have to even agree with Jim that it's still looking pretty gray with white spots.

Okay, Fred. We're getting a good picture of your destination there.

Jack, you've been looking at the—at Fred's workshop now, and you can see the abort guidance computer. And over there on the—tucked away in his armrest, is our activation checklist, which we'll be using very shortly. Up on the top of the window, we have our camera already mounted ready for photographing the descent. And now Fred's engaged in his favorite pastime, I found out on this flight so far.

He's not in the food locker, is he?

That's his second favorite pastime. He's rigging his hammock for sleep on the lunar surface now to find out—to see what it's going to be like.

Roger. Sleeping and then eating.

It's kind of difficult here, Jack, getting into a hammock in zero g. I'm not sure if I keep floating away from it or it keeps moving away from me.

If you notice a few things floating around, we found just about one or two washers occasionally.

And for the benefit of those that may wonder where Jim sleeps. Be a little difficult to rig his hammock in here right now with the hatch open, but his runs laterally in this direction, fore aft. So he has the upper berth and I get the lower berth.

And now while Fred's taking his hammock down and restowing it, I might give you some idea of what sort of confusion of attitudes since there is no up or down, and I'm situated on top of the ascent engine just at the entrance to the tunnel. I'll reverse the camera 180 degrees and go from Fred, look through the tunnel again back at Odyssey, and we might pick up part of Jack.

There he is. We see him.

Okay, Houston. For the benefit of the television viewers, we've just about completed our little inspection of Aquarius, and now we're proceeding through the hatchy-gap into the tunnel and going back toward the Odyssey.

Okay, Jim. It's been a great show so far.

And finally, Jack's let me back into the Odyssey as we slide on through the tunnel here

Houston, 13. Are you still on TV?

Yes, we sure are. We've got a good picture of the skipper there.

Okay. What we can show you now, a little added benefit, we've got the drogue on Fred's couch in the command module right now. We stowed it temporarily while we're checking out the—out Aquarius and underneath his couch, we've got the probes stowed. Quite a big cumbersome device, and we'll get a shot of it for you.

You're looking now at our probe, the place on the nose of Odyssey. It's a very heavy thing but I suppose in zero gravity it weighs nothing, and it's much easier to move around. As a matter of fact, both Fred and Jack commented, as many people in the past have, of how much bigger the spacecraft appears in actual flight when you have such ease in moving compared to our simulator which make training rather difficult.

Okay. We're seeing a good picture of the probe there, Jim, and looks like the characters shaved before the show this time.

Well, Fred said he had to keep up his TV image.

Yes. That may be my first and last time though, Jack.

It took Fred 1 hour to shave.

We might give you a quick—a quick shot of our entertainment on board the spacecraft, which has been keeping us company for some time.

(Music—Willow Weep For Me)

This little tape recorder has been a big benefit—has been a big benefit to us in passing some of our time away on our transit to the Moon, and it's rather odd to see it floating like this in Odyssey while it's playing the theme from “2001.” And, of course, the tapes wouldn't be complete without “Aquarius.”

Okay, Jim. We're seeing the tape recorder now, and just—by the way, how long do you expect to keep the TV on this evening?

Well, when we—Stand by 1.

Yes, I got them with the cabin repress valve again there, Jack.

Every time he does that our hearts—our hearts jump in our mouth. And, Jack, any time you want to terminate TV, we're all set to go.

Okay, Jim. It's been a real good TV show. We think we ought to conclude it from here now. What do you think?

Roger. Sounds good. And this is the crew of Apollo 13 wishing everybody there a nice evening, and we're just about ready to close out our inspection of Aquarius and get back for a pleasant evening in Odyssey. Good night.

Apollo 13, Houston. The next thing we'd like you to do is to -

Go ahead.

— we'd like you to roll right to 060 and null your rates for photography of the Comet Bennett. To do that, we would like you to enable quads C and D. For the maneuver, use all your quads. And in precisely 1 minute, we'd like you to terminate the battery charge on battery B. One other request, we'd like to have you verify —

Okay. Will do.

One other request, we'd like you to verify your high gain configuration. We'd like to know what track mode, what SERVO, and what beam width.

Okay, Jack, during the TV, we were AUTO TRACK, NARROW BEAM WIDTH, and the PRIMARY ELECTRONICS. And we had a good lockup. Just after we started the maneuver, I was able to lock you up and get real good signal strength, and it just seemed that right there at about 239 degrees in yaw, that the signal strength would just drop off and yaw would go to zero and pitch would go to 90.

— for looking at the Comet Bennett, if you need it.