Spacelog Apollo 13

Okay, Joe. We're ready to copy a flight plan update and your consumables.

Okay, Jack. The flight plan update has a couple of items in it, and the first one we'd like to do is to update the T_ephem values in the G&C checklist on page G/9-2. These are fairly small changes, but in case you need them, we'd like you to have the exact numbers. Over.

Okay. Just a minute. I'll get it out.

Joe, was that the G&C checklist, page 9-2?

That's affirmative. G&C, page G/9-2.

Okay. Go ahead.

Okay. On that page in line 04, column B, change the number from 03366 to 05253. Over.

— 53.

Okay. And in line 05, column B, change from 11000 to 33661. Over.

33661.

Okay. That's right. The only other thing I've got for you, Jack, is three additional questions for the booster systems debriefing, which is to take place at about 25 hours, and we thought we'd pass these questions up to you early so you can consider them. Over.

Okay. We're ready to copy.

Okay. The first extra is, and let me get the original question because this question says, “More specifically on item 2,” and item 2 says, “Were there any significant changes in the noise vibration level during the single stage of powered flight?” Specifically, describe your observations during the early S-II center engine out-off, and approximately 90 seconds prior to TLI cut-off, you reported a high vibration in the S-IVB. We'd like you to describe the buildup of this vibration and its behavior through cut-off. Over.

Okay. Essentially, what you'd like us to talk about is vibration sequence during the early S-II cut-off of the center engine and also describe the vibrations that we encountered during the S-IVB TLI burn. Is that correct?

That's it. Okay. The second extra question is for you, Jim, and it says, “Comparing this flight with your ride on Apollo 8, were there any significant differences in the powered flight environment?”

Okay. We'll describe a comparison with 8 and 13 as far as powered flight goes.

Roger. And the last additional question is what did the ORDEAL ball look like during TLI? As you know, we passed you an update to that setting, and we'd like to know whether it was riding right on zero or what during the burn. Over.

Okay. Will do. We'll describe the ORDEAL ball.

Okay. That's it, and that's the whole flight plan update. I have a consumables update now if you want to listen to that.

Okay, Joe. We're ready to copy.

Okay. At 23 hours the total RCS is 1121, quad A is 274, quad Bravo is 286, quad Charlie is 274, quad Delta is 287, and the cryos are as follows: H₂ tank 1, 83 percent; H₂ tank 2, 86 percent; O₂ tank 1, 87 percent; O₂ tank 2, 87 percent. Over.

Okay, Joe. We got all those, and how do we compare them with where we should be in the time line?

As I understand it, Jack, you're running slightly ahead of nominal in both those areas.

Okay; real fine.

No problem.

And, 13, Houston. That's all the business I got right now. I have a little news and plan of the day for you, if you feel like listening to that a little later on.

Just hold off a little bit there, Joe if you don't mind. …

Stand by one, Jim. You're coming in garbled again.

Houston, 13.

Okay, 13; Houston. Loud and clear again. Go ahead.

Okay. Joe. On the news, Jim would like to hold off a little bit on that, and I want to make a request to FAO, if he will at sometime during the day, when we get a flight plan update with those activities we agreed to make optional during lunar orbit and the few activities we were going to delete, I think that I forgot and left that card back during the press of suiting, I left it in the suit room.

Okay. Wilco.

Okay, Jack. I understand FAO's working on that and we'll have something for you later on.

Okay. We're not in any hurry.

Okay, Houston; 13.

Okay. Jack. We copy the angles. You can go ahead and torque them.

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.

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?