This repository has been archived by the owner on Jul 17, 2020. It is now read-only.
-
Notifications
You must be signed in to change notification settings - Fork 2
/
ch14-6.html
436 lines (391 loc) · 20.4 KB
/
ch14-6.html
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140
141
142
143
144
145
146
147
148
149
150
151
152
153
154
155
156
157
158
159
160
161
162
163
164
165
166
167
168
169
170
171
172
173
174
175
176
177
178
179
180
181
182
183
184
185
186
187
188
189
190
191
192
193
194
195
196
197
198
199
200
201
202
203
204
205
206
207
208
209
210
211
212
213
214
215
216
217
218
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243
244
245
246
247
248
249
250
251
252
253
254
255
256
257
258
259
260
261
262
263
264
265
266
267
268
269
270
271
272
273
274
275
276
277
278
279
280
281
282
283
284
285
286
287
288
289
290
291
292
293
294
295
296
297
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322
323
324
325
326
327
328
329
330
331
332
333
334
335
336
337
338
339
340
341
342
343
344
345
346
347
348
349
350
351
352
353
354
355
356
357
358
359
360
361
362
363
364
365
366
367
368
369
370
371
372
373
374
375
376
377
378
379
380
381
382
383
384
385
386
387
388
389
390
391
392
393
394
395
396
397
398
399
400
401
402
403
404
405
406
407
408
409
410
411
412
413
414
415
416
417
418
419
420
421
422
423
424
425
426
427
428
429
430
431
432
433
434
435
436
<!DOCTYPE HTML>
<html>
<head>
<title>Chariots For Apollo, ch14-6</title>
<meta http-equiv=Content-Type content="text/html; charset=UTF-8">
<style type="text/css">
caption {
font-size: 1.1em;
margin: 1em 0;
}
table {
margin: 1em 0;
}
th, td {
text-align: left;
}
th + th, td + td {
padding-left: 1em;
text-align: right;
}
td.right {
padding-right: 1em;
text-align: right;
}
</style>
</head>
<BODY BGCOLOR="#FFFFFF">
<p>
<h2>Return from Tranquility</h2>
<p>
After their fitful rest period, the moon dwellers were roused by Houston
and told to get ready to leave. Flight control and the crew discussed
the most probable location of the lunar module, and Armstrong and Aldrin
then aligned the guidance platform by the moon's gravity field. They had
some difficulty finding enough stars to sight on, but the
<cite>Eagle</cite> was ready to take off on 21 July - 21 hours 36
minutes after landing and more than 124 hours after leaving the earth on
16 July. Up above, Collins had been alone since the 13th revolution, and
he did not expect to have company until the 27th circuit, 28 hours after
the lander had separated from the command module. As the time drew
nearer for ignition of the ascent engine, Collins positioned his ship so
its radar transponder would be pointing in the direction of the lunar
module radar signal. Everything was ready for the next critical move.<p>
The <cite>Eagle</cite> lifted off the moon exactly on time, soaring
straight up for 10 seconds to clear its launch platform (the descent
stage) and the surrounding ground obstacles. When its speed reached 12
meters per second, it pitched over into a 50-degree climbing angle.
Armstrong and Aldrin heard the pyrotechnics fire and saw "a fair
amount of debris" when they first detected motion. The onset of
this velocity was absolutely smooth, and they had difficulty sensing the
acceleration. But when the cabin tilted over and they could see the
lunar surface, they realized that they were going fast. On several
occasions, familiar landmarks indicated they were on a correct flight
path - Armstrong spoke of one named "Cat's Paw" and Aldrin
spotted "Ritter" and "Schmidt."
<p align=center>
<img src = "images/c351d.jpg" width=414 height=411 ALT="Eagle returns to Columbia"><p>
<cite>As <em>Eagle</em> rose to dock with CM <em>Columbia</em>,
"home Earth," the next target to land on, came into view on
the lunar horizon.</cite>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
Stafford and Cernan had told Armstrong about their lander's lazy,
wallowing "Dutch roll," and the <cite>Eagle</cite> was flying
the same way. When the engine had fired for seven minutes, the lunar
module had reached an elliptical orbit of 17 by 84 kilometers, and the
race to catch the mother ship was on. Another hurdle had been
successfully vaulted. Collins could now call on one of the 18 recipes in
his rendezvous cookbook to rescue the lander if necessary. An hour after
the ascent engine's first firing, Armstrong turned it on again, to kick
the low point of the path up to 85 kilometers, to a nearly circular
orbit. After checking the results with flight control, as well as with
Armstrong and Aldrin, Collins found that the lander was on a good flight
path. He could let orbital mechanics take over and wait until Armstrong
slowed the lander's catchup speed at the proper moment.<p>
Eventually, Collins told his crewmates to turn off their tracking light;
he could see them fine without it. Later, as the lander turned the lunar
corner and lost contact with the earth, Armstrong slowed his vehicle for
stationkeeping 30 meters from the command module, so Collins could
inspect the lander before docking. During the inspection, Collins asked
his shipmates to roll over a bit more, and they went straight into
gimbal lock. Armstrong blamed himself for "the goof," but it
posed no real problems. Like all the lunar modules, the
<cite>Eagle</cite> was a sporty machine once it was rid of its descent
stage and much of its ascent engine fuel, and it took skill to keep the
skittish bird from dancing about. Four hours after lunar launch, the two
vehicles were ready to dock.<p>
Collins rammed the probe dead center into the lander's drogue. With the
ascent stage fuel tanks nearly empty, he met with little resistance; it
felt almost as though he was shoving the command module into a sheet of
paper. He had to look out the window to make sure they were docked. Then
he pressed the switch to reel the lander in closer and secure it with
the capture latches. Suddenly there was a big gyration in yaw - perhaps
because of the retraction, perhaps because of a lunar module thruster
that seemed to be firing directly at the command ship. Collins used his
handcontroller to steady the vehicles. Just as he was wondering if he
would have to cut loose and try again, <cite>Columbia</cite> grabbed the
<cite>Eagle</cite> and held on.<p>
Collins hurried to get the hatch and probe out of the way, to greet his
returning companions. As he did, the same strong smell of burnt
electrical insulation met his nostrils. But, again, nothing seemed to be
wrong. Armstrong and Aldrin began vacuuming the lunar dust from
themselves, their equipment, and the sample boxes. The dust did not
bother the trio much, and they began unloading, cleaning, and stowing.
Their progress was so good that flight control considered bringing them
home one revolution earlier than the planned 31st circuit (one less than
the Stafford crew had traveled). But they decided against it.<p>
During the 28th orbit, Armstrong reported the crew safely aboard the
command ship. Flight control soon signaled the lander to remain near the
moon until its orbit decayed and it crashed on the surface. The
<cite>Eagle</cite> flew slowly away, its thrusters firing to maintain
attitude. Aldrin thought he saw some cracks in its skin, but Houston
told him that cabin pressure was steady. That had been one very good
bird.<p>
Now the crew had nothing to do but rest, eat, take pictures, and wait to
begin the return to earth. Collins did wrestle with some command module
attitude excursions but, once the big service module engine fired behind
the moon, the ship steadied, right on course. The firing lasted so long
that Collins wondered if the automatic turnoff was going to work. Just
as he reached for the switch, the engine stopped. After the crew had
checked the results, all they could do was ride their stable machine
home. Armstrong asked when they would acquire the flight control signal,
and Aldrin, now totally relaxed, answered that he did not have "the
foggiest" notion. Soon the commander wanted to know if anyone had
any choice greetings when they did talk to Houston, but no one
volunteered. Aldrin readied a camera to photograph the earthrise. Coming
around the corner, Collins called to CapCom Duke, "Time to open up
the LRL doors, Charlie."<p>
Now they "mostly just waited," as Collins later said. Flight
control passed up the usual newscast, telling them that only four
nations<a href = "#explanation1"><b>*</b></a> in the world had not told
their citizens about the flight. President Nixon, in his
White-House-to-Moon chat, had mentioned that he would meet them on the
<cite>Hornet;</cite> now they learned that he was sending them on a
world tour. After more news - about Vietnam, the Middle East, oil
depletion allowances, and a drop in the Dow industrial averages - the
astronauts knew they had truly returned from Tranquility.<p>
On television they, like the Borman and Stafford crews before them,
philosophized about the significance of their voyage. Armstrong spoke of
the Jules Verne novel about a trip to the moon a hundred years earlier,
underscoring man's determination to venture out into the unknown and to
discover its secrets. Collins talked of the technical intricacies of the
mission hardware, praising the people who had made it all work. Aldrin
spoke about what the flight meant to mankind in striving to explore his
universe and in seeking to promote peace on his own planet. Armstrong
closed the session, speaking of Apollo's growth from an idea into
reality and ending with, "God bless you. Good night from Apollo
11."<p>
The pilots watched the earth grow larger and larger. They televised more
of life in a spacecraft. A day before landing, they checked out the
command module entry monitoring system, so flight control could check
for "any funnies," as Collins called them. But there did not
appear to be any. Stowage went smoothly. After they turned the ship into
the reentry position and kicked off the service module, they saw it sail
by, carrying with it the engine that had served them so well.<p>
As they neared the earth, Houston began grumbling about the weather in
the target zone - thunderstorms and poor visibility. Finally the landing
point was moved. Collins was not very happy about trying to reach a spot
580 kilometers farther downrange than he had trained for. He did not
complain, but he worried some.<p>
When the command module hit the reentry zone, Aldrin triggered a camera
to capture on film, as best he could, the colors around the plasma
sheath - lavenders, little touches of violet, and great variations of
blues and greens wrapped around an orange-yellow core. A surprisingly
small amount of material seemed to be flaking off the spacecraft;
Collins did not see the chunks he had seen in Gemini.<p>
By now, the crew had turned the spacecraft over to its computer - that
fourth crew member who had done a lot of the mission flying to this
point - and were watching the entry monitor. The computer held on to a
small downrange error for a while, decided it was wrong, and dumped the
figure. The vehicle dipped down into the atmospheric layer, zipped up in
a roller coaster curve out of the layer, and then came screaming back
in. The drogue parachutes opened, and the ship steadied. Armstrong and
his crew felt the jerk as the main parachutes came out; it seemed to
take a long time for those three parachutes to blossom. Some good sounds
came up from below as they heard the recovery forces trying to talk to
them at the end of the reentry communications blackout. Reentry was
fairly comfortable for the crewmen, without their bulky suits, but
splashdown came with a jolt - 24 June 1969 - 8 days, 3 hours, 18
minutes, 18 seconds after leaving Cape Kennedy.<a href =
"#explanation2"><b>**</b></a>
<p align=center>
<img src = "images/c356a.jpg" width=405 height=537 ALT="MOCR celebrates"><p>
<cite>Mission Control celebrates the successful conclusion of the Apollo
11 mission that landed men on the moon and returned them safely to the
earth.</cite>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<cite>Columbia</cite> landed close to its reprogrammed target and
flipped over on its nose in the water, but a flick of a switch inflated
the air bags and it soon turned upright. None of the crew were seasick,
but they had taken preventive medication before the landing. They went
through a lengthy checklist of the things to be done to keep the world
free from contamination. It had been a long trip.<p>
A swimmer threw them the biological isolation garments, and they put
them on. Armstrong disembarked first, followed by Collins and then
Aldrin. As they passed through the hatch they inflated their water-wing
life preservers before jumping into the raft. Armstrong noticed that a
swimmer was having trouble closing the hatch; he went over to help - the
commander did not want anything to happen to "those million dollar
rocks." He had trouble, too, so Collins came back and adjusted the
handle; then they closed the door.
<p align=center>
<img src = "images/c356b.jpg" width=536 height=403 ALT="Apollo 11 crew step from helicopter"><p>
<cite>Looking like three men from another planet in their biological
isolation garments, Aldrin, Armstrong, and Collins (left to right at
left) step from the helicopter onto the deck of the carrier Hornet on
their way into the Mobile Quarantine Facility.</cite>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
In the rubber boat, the astronauts were scrubbed down with an iodine
solution by the swimmers; they, in turn, did the same for the frogmen.
While a helicopter lifted the crew to the U.S.S. <cite>Hornet,</cite>
the spacecraft got its scrubdown before it, too, was lifted to the ship.
The travelers stepped from the aircraft onto the carrier deck and
straight into the mobile isolation unit. The "national objective of
landing men on the moon and returning them safely to earth before the
end of the decade" had been achieved.
<p align=center>
<img src = "images/c356c.jpg" width=391 height=400 ALT="Apollo 11 crew greet President"><p>
<cite>After removing the isolation garments and freshening up, the three
(Armstrong, Collins, and Aldrin, left to right) are greeted by President
Nixon.</cite>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
But the safe recovery was not the end of activities for <cite>Apollo
11.</cite> First, the crewmen changed from the isolation garments to
more comfortable flight suits and crowded to the door where, behind
glass, they presented their now familiar countenances (although Collins
had grown a moustache that altered his looks) to the TV cameras. Years
of study of the lunar samples lay ahead, and the crew had to spend their
21 days in quarantine. During that period, they answered a formidable
set of questions about everything that had taken place, relying on both
notes and memory, to make sure that they had done all they could to
assist the crews that would follow them to the moon. Collins closed
these thorough and exhaustive sessions by saying, emphatically, "I
want out."
<p align=center>
<img src = "images/c356d.jpg" width=549 height=406 ALT="LRL scientist examines moonrock"><p>
<cite>Scientists in the Lunar Receiving Laboratory, working through
glove ports, examine a moon rock.</cite>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
When they did get out, there was the swirl of a world tour; men and
women from all walks of life, of varying colors, creeds, and political
persuasions, both young and old, hailed the feat of mankind's
representatives. "For one priceless moment . . ."<a href =
"#source11"><b>11</b></a>
<p align=center>
<img src = "images/c357.jpg" width=550 height=404 ALT="Apollo 11 crew speak to Congress"><p>
<cite>One of the stops before Collins (at the speakers stand),
Armstrong, and Aldrin left on a world tour was to report to a joint
session of Congress.</cite>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<table>
<caption>Apollo 11 Mission Events Sequence<br>
Range zero - 13:32:00 GMT, 16 July 1969</caption>
<tr>
<th>Event</th>
<th>Time hr:min:sec</th>
</tr>
<tr><td>Liftoff</td><td>00:00:00.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>S-IC outboard engine cutoff</td><td>00:02:41.7</td></tr>
<tr><td>S-II engine ignition (command)</td><td>00:02:43:0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Launch escape tower jettison</td><td>00:03:17.9</td></tr>
<tr><td>S-II engine cutoff</td><td>00:09:08.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>S-IVB engine ignition (command)</td><td>00:09:12.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>S-IVB engine cutoff</td><td>00:11:39.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Translunar injection maneuver</td><td>02:44:16.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>CSM/S-IVB Separation</td><td>03:17:04.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>First docking</td><td>03:24:03.1</td></tr>
<tr><td>Spacecraft ejection</td><td>04:16:59.1</td></tr>
<tr><td>Separation maneuver (from S-IVB)</td><td>04:40:01.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>First midcourse correction</td><td>26:44:58.7</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lunar orbit insertion</td><td>75:49:50.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lunar orbit circularization</td><td>80:11:36.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Undocking</td><td>100:12:00.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Separation maneuver (from LM)</td><td>100:39:52.9</td></tr>
<tr><td>Descent orbit insertion</td><td>101:36:14.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Powered descent initiation</td><td>102:33:05.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lunar landing</td><td>102:45:39.9</td></tr>
<tr><td>Egress (hatch opening)</td><td>109:07:33.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ingress (hatch closing)</td><td>111:39:13.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Lunar liftoff</td><td>124:22:00.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Coelliptic sequence initiation</td><td>125:19:36.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Constant differential height maneuver</td><td>126:17:49.6</td></tr>
<tr><td>Terminal phase initiation</td><td>127:03:51.8</td></tr>
<tr><td>Docking</td><td>128:03:00.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Ascent stage jettison</td><td>130:09:31.2</td></tr>
<tr><td>Separation maneuver (from ascent stage)</td><td>130:30:01.0</td></tr>
<tr><td>Transearth injection maneuver</td><td>135:23:42.3</td></tr>
<tr><td>Second midcourse correction</td><td>150:29:57.4</td></tr>
<tr><td>CM/SM separation</td><td>194:49:12.7</td></tr>
<tr><td>Entry interface</td><td>195:03:05.7</td></tr>
<tr><td>Landing</td><td>195:18:35.0</td></tr>
</table>
<table>
<caption>Apollo 11 Recovery Sequence</caption>
<tr>
<th>Event</th>
<th>Time, GMT</th>
</tr>
<tr><td class="right" colspan="2">24 July</td></tr>
<tr><td>Visual contact by aircraft</td><td>16:39</td></tr>
<tr><td>Radar contact by U.S.S. Hornet</td><td>16:40</td></tr>
<tr><td>VHF voice and recovery-beacon contact</td><td>16:46</td></tr>
<tr><td>CM landing</td><td>16:50</td></tr>
<tr><td>Flotation collar inflated</td><td>17:04</td></tr>
<tr><td>CM hatch open</td><td>17:21</td></tr>
<tr><td>Crew egress in biological isolation garments</td><td>17:29</td></tr>
<tr><td>Crew aboard Hornet</td><td>17:53</td></tr>
<tr><td>Crew in Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF)</td><td>17:58</td></tr>
<tr><td>CM lifted from water</td><td>19:50</td></tr>
<tr><td>CM secured to MQF</td><td>19:58</td></tr>
<tr><td>CM hatch reopened</td><td>20:05</td></tr>
<tr><td>Sample return containers 1 and 2 removed from CM</td><td>22:00</td></tr>
<tr><td>Container 1 removed from MQF</td><td>23:32</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" colspan="2">25 July</td></tr>
<tr><td>Container 2 removed from MQF</td><td>00:05</td></tr>
<tr><td>Container 2 and film sent to Johnston Island</td><td>05:15</td></tr>
<tr><td>Container 1, film, and biological samples sent to Hickam AFB, Hawaii</td><td>11:45</td></tr>
<tr><td>Container 2 and film arrival in Houston</td><td>16:15</td></tr>
<tr><td>Container 1, film, and biological samples arrival in Houston</td><td>23:13</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" colspan="2">26 July</td></tr>
<tr><td>CM decontaminated and hatch secured</td><td>03:00</td></tr>
<tr><td>MQF secured</td><td>04:35</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" colspan="2">27 July</td></tr>
<tr><td>MQF and CM offloaded</td><td>00:15</td></tr>
<tr><td>Safing of CM pyrotechnics completed</td><td>02:05</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" colspan="2">28 July</td></tr>
<tr><td>MQF arrival at Houston</td><td>06:00</td></tr>
<tr><td>Flight crew to LRL</td><td>10:00</td></tr>
<tr><td class="right" colspan="2">30 July</td></tr>
<tr><td>CM delivery to LRL</td><td>23:17</td></tr>
</table>
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<a name = "explanation1"><b>*</b></a> China, Albania, North Korea, and
North Vietnam.<p>
<a name = "explanation2"><b>**</b></a> According to the command module
computer, <cite>Columbia</cite> landed at 13 degrees 19′ north latitude
and 169 degrees 9′ west longitude.
<p>
<hr>
<p>
<a name = "source11"><b>11</b>.</a> "Apollo 11 Debriefing," 2:
11-3, 11-4, 11-6, 12-3 through 12-6, 12-10, 12-11, 12-14, 12-20 through
12-25, 12-32, 12-33, 12-38 through 12-43, 13-1 through 13-5, 14-1, 14-3,
14-5, 14-10 through 14-13, 15-1 through 15-7, 16-1 through 16-7;
"Onboard Voice," pp. 158-59, 161, 175-80, 183-86, 189, 193-05,
207-10, 214-16, 218, 221-22, 225-26, 236-243, 247; "Apollo 11
Voice," pp. 470, 480-82, 488-92, 496-99, 502, 516, 521, 523-35,
538, 543-47, 550, 554-57, 564, 570, 572, 574, 576, 583-88, 604, 608-10,
613-14, 623-24; Charlesworth et al., "Flight Directors
Report," pp. 18-25; "Mission Report," pp. 1-2, 3-2, 3-4,
3-5, 4-16 through 4-20, 5-8 through 5-11, 7-4, 7-5; <cite>Apollo Program
Summary Report,</cite> JSC-09423, April 1975 (published as NASA
TM-X-68725, June 1975), p. 2-38; Hage memo, "Apollo 11 Daily
Operations Report No. 6," 22 July 1969; Hage memo, 24 July 1969;
<cite>Mission Report: Apollo 11,</cite> pp. 5-7; Collins to Grimwood, 13
Dec. 1976; Armstrong to JSC History Off., 3 Dec. 1976; Edwin E.
"Buzz" Aldrin, Jr., with Wayne Warga, <cite>Return to
Earth</cite> (New York: Random House, 1973), p. 241.
<P>
<HR>
<P>
<CENTER><A HREF="ch14-5.html">
<IMG SRC="previous.gif" ALIGN="left"
ALT="Previous Page">
</A>
<A HREF="epilog.html">
<IMG SRC="next.gif" ALIGN="right"
ALT="Next Page">
</A>
<A HREF="contents.html">
<IMG SRC="index.gif" ALIGN="middle"
ALT="Table of Contents"></A>
</CENTER><BR>
<HR>
<P>
</BODY>
<!--ADA TEAM 2001-->
</HTML>