Spacelog Apollo 13

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.

Roger. I got the camera kind of canted on you here, Vance.

Vance, Jim's going to go to VOX now.

Vance, how do you —

Roger. Read you loud and clear, Jim.

Okay. We'll—what we'll do—We'll be on VOX for the remainder of the burn and preburn countdown.

…

… And what we're waiting for is 54 minutes on our counter or 20 which would be minus —

Jim, we hear clipping on your VOX. Could you adjust it so that you're coming in continuously all the time?

Okay. Stand by 1.

1, 2, 3, 4, 5. How's that, Vance?

Okay. That's better.

Vance, how do you read the CMP on VOX?

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.