Apollo 17 Flight Journal - Footnotes / Anomalies - Launch - Earth Orbit - Translunar Flight - Apollo 17: The Blue Marble

Day 1: TLI, Separation, TD&E

Translunar Injection (TLI), Separation, Transposition, Docking and Extraction (TD&E)

[Previous: Earth Orbit] [Next: ] Last updated March 23, 2006

Earth Orbit 2

Last updated March 23, 2006

[Primary: Technical Transcription]

00 03 12 01: CC: 17, you're looking great on the final status check here, and you're GO for TLI.; PAO: 20 seconds now to ignition and we're maintaining communications with the spacecraft through one of the ARIA, Apollo Range Instrumented Aircraft.

ARIA (REV. 2)

00 03 12 20: CDR: ... 42, the SEP lights are OUT.; SC: Roger.; PAO: 10 seconds.
00 03 12 37: CDR: The light is on and we have ignition.*

Cernan: The TLI burn from the ground targeting point of view and targeting went just as written. We went down the checklist and cue card without any problems or any anomalies, without any changes except to the manual. We had a change to all our manual angles to monitor the S-IVB burn because of the late lift-off. We wrote those down on our cue cards and were going to use those in case we had to take over during the burn. We had to change to the nominal and we rewrote both of those on our cue cards. That's the only basic change I think we had.

PAO: And, very faintly we copy the crew reporting S-IVB ignition and that's confirmed by the telemetry and booster reports the thrust looks good on the S-IVB.

CC: 17, Houston. You're looking good, and the thrust is GO.

CDR: Bob, you're now advised that we're GO on board at 20 seconds.

CC: Roger.

PAO: And telemetry data from the Saturn instrument unit shows the velocity increasing up now to 26,000 feet per second, beginning to climb ever more rapidly. This burn was initiated at an altitude of about 97 nautical miles above Earth, and when finished, the spacecraft will be at about 150 miles above Earth, and on its way to the Moon, some 213,000 miles nautical miles away.

SC : ... antenna.

CDR: One minute, Houston, and we're GO.

CC: Roger, Gene. We can barely hear you through ARIA, but you're GO.

CDR: You have reasonable signal strength, but you are unreadable.

PAO: Very weak voice communications and booster says the data is now static but at last look everything looked normal.

CDR: Everything's GO at 1:30.

CDR: Confirm a PU shift to GO at 01:45.

CC: 17, Houston. We can confirm PU shift, and you are GO.

PAO: That was CAPCOM Robert Overmyer confirming to the crew that our data showed the Saturn shifting its propellant utilization for a most efficient utilization of the propellant.

Schmitt: We all were very aware of PU shift.

Cernan: I guess I could have called that or I was looking forward to seeing it. It is on my checklist. It's on my cue card and I've looked for it and I've seen it in the simulator.

Schmitt: It just didn't register in the simulators, I guess. And the other thing flying through that sunrise, it did to a small degree interfere with visibility in the cockpit.

Cernan: It didn't bother me from the standpoint of monitoring on my side at all.

CDR: Okay, Houston, 2:30 - in the blind - we're still GO.; CC: Roger, 17. You're GO; looking great.; CDR: Okay, Bob. Got that. Understand we're GO from the ground; and it's a good ride, although it's rumbling around a little bit.; CC: Okay.; PAO: Coming up now 3 minutes into the burn and velocity approaching 30,000 feet per second.
00 03 15 38: CDR: Three minutes, and we are GO.; CC: Roger, Gene.; CDR: Bob, we're going to TLI right through sunrise.

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AS17-148-22668

CC: Roger; understand.

PAO: Gene Cernan reporting the TLI burn has taken them out of darkness and into sunrise now and we' re showing a velocity of 30,463 feet per second.

00 03 16 06

CDR: Okay, 3:30 is GO. We have - 17 is GO at 3:30.

CC: Roger, 17.

PAO: Apollo 17 now about 107 nautical miles above Earth and continuing to climb ever more rapidly. 4 minutes and 30 seconds now and everything continuing to look good. Apollo 17 at a velocity of 32,000 feet per second.

00 03 17 06

CDR: Okay, Bob, 17 is GO at 4:30. You're still unreadable.

CC: Roger. How do you read me? You are GO, by the way.

CDR: Okay, we got you that time. Understand we're GO on the ground, and we're still GO here, and we're TLI-ing right through sunrise.

CC: Understand.

PAO: 5 minutes now, less than 1 minute to go, and booster engineer reports that we're very close to the nominal predicted shutdown time.

CC: 17, Houston. Your burn time is nominal.

CDR: Roger. Understand burn time, nominal.

PAO: Shutdown time now in about 21 seconds. Showing a velocity of 33,000 feet per second. Altitude now approachlng 150 miles.

00 03 18 30

CMP: Cut-off at 52. Did you read the DSKY?

CC: We don't have the DSKY. You have to read it to us, Ron.

00 03 18 40

CMP: Okay. V_I is - I got a 00 and a 00 and NOUN 95 V_I is 35573 - is a plus 9. And, Bob, the EMS is minus - EMS is minus 19.4, minus 19.4.

CC: Roger. We copy that.

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Note about the Hasselblad frame counter: Since the camera was motorized, it would have automatically advanced to the next frame after the last picture was taken, so if the counter was #65, the photo just taken would be #64. The actual frame count could be off by one either way in either reading, since the camera's film magazine had a very small analog frame counter.

CMP: And it was an auto cut-off - auto cut-off on time.

CC: Understand a guided cut-off on time. Looking great.

Cernan: The S-IVB performance was outstanding. She lit off on time and burned for 5 minutes and some odd seconds as I recall. And we had shutdown on time. The residuals and the EMS on the spacecraft are written down somewhere, but they were all very nominal, very excellent. We stayed in IU. As the S-IVB maneuvered, we flew through a sunrise during TLI, which in itself was also very interesting, very spectacular. We had nominal S-IVB performance after shutdown; and maneuvering to the sep attitude, we went through checkout load NOUN 17 and NOUN 22. There was again no noticeable pogo. The S-IVB sounded and performed just like it did on the insertion phase burn and I'll let the CMP pick up the separation and the transposition and docking.

CMP: And I am watching tank pressures - are venting, the tanks are venting.

CC: Understand. The tanks are venting.

PAO: Well, we're still getting communications through the Apollo Range instrumented aircraft. We'll be picking up through Ascension shortly, at which time we'd expect the communications to improve, the noise to drop off. From Gene Cernan's report, also from the reports from Ron Evans, it appeared that that translunar injection was extremely close to nominal. The crew read a cut off time of 5 minutes 52 seconds. The premaneuver prediction was 5 minutes 51 seconds. And the cutoff velocity appeared to be very, very close to the planned normal. Booster engineer, Frank Van Rosilier reports the booster cutoff appeared to be exactly normal. And booster engineer now predicting that the maneuver to separation attitude will begin in about 3 hours 33 minutes 27 seconds.

NOTE After the ARIA pass following TLI, there is continuous acquisition among Goldstone, Parks, Honeysuckle, and Madrid.

00 03 22 52: LMP: Okay, Houston, how do you read?; CC: 17, Houston. We'd like OMNI Delta.
00 03 22 59: LMP: Okay. I picked it up a little bit. How do you read now?; CC: Read you loud and clear.; LMP: Okay. I hope you got all that. It was a beautiful burn, right through sunrise. Did you get the numbers ?; CC: Yes, we copied your V_I and your EMS numbers, and we've got a number for you. Maneuver start time will be at 03 plus 33 plus 27.; LMP: Okay, we got you. Maneuver at 03:33:27.; CC: That's affirmative, Jack.; LMP: You guys didn't tell us we couldn't see anything going through the sunrise.; CC: (Laughter) Roger.
00 03 25 01: CC: 17, Houston. We're making plans here for a spacecraft SEP time of 03 plus 43.; LMP: 3 plus 43. Roger.
00 03 27 27: CC: 17, Houston. We're copying cabin press of 5.9 this time.; CMP: Roger. We - we just got it, Bob.; CC: Okay.; CMP: Thank you.
00 03 30 00: PAO: This is Apollo Control at 3 hours 30 minutes. The Flight Dynamics Officer has just reported that initial tracking, following the translunar injection burn, shows the spacecraft to be on a very nominal trajectory, and a relatively small midcourse correction indicated at this time. The pre-burn prediction on that first midcourse correction was around 5 feet per second and we expect that that will be updated as we get additional tracking following the burn. In about 3 minutes the spacecraft should - the launch vehicle should be - begin maneuvering to the proper attitude for separation and we're predicting separation to occur at about 3 hours 43 minutes - or about 13 minutes from now.
00 03 31 55: LMP: Frame 65 for the LMPs mag November November.

PAO: About 10 seconds now until the Saturn third stage begins maneuvering into the proper separation attitude. And booster engineer reports from telemetry data that the booster has begun maneuvering into the proper attitude for spacecraft separation.

00 03 34 10

LMP: Okay. We - we are maneuvering, Houston.

CC: Roger. We're watching it.

CMP: Now we've got a few very bright particles or fragments or something that go drifting by as we maneuver.

CC: Roger. Understand.

LMP: There's a whole bunch of big ones on my window down there - Just bright. It looks like the Fourth of July out Ron's window.

CMP: Yes. Now you can see some of them have shape. They're very jagged, angular fragments that are tumbling.

CC: Roger. They look like fluid of some sort?

CMP: Not to me. They look like pieces of something.

CC: Roger.

CMP: They're very bright.

CC: Jack, we'd like OMNI Charlie.

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CMP: Bob, for the most part, these fragments are not - or are tumbling at a very slow rate. I tried a couple of pictures of them - different settings. You may get an idea of what, at least, the patterns look like.

CC: Roger. I've got you. We're all ears on these fragments. Do you think you can figure out what they might be?

CMP: Well, you know I - I don't know. There are a number of possibilities. If you had some kind of a - I got the impression maybe they were curved a little bit, as if they might be - off the side of the S-IVB. And that's a wild guess - -

CDR: Okay. RCS LOGIC is ... - -

CMP: - - ice chunks, possibly. Or maybe there's paint coming off of it.

00 03 37 34

CC: Roger. I noticed on one trip up the elevator last week near one of the flags. I thought it was on the S-II, but it might have been on the S-IVB. Looked like it was peeling. Maybe that's what you've got.

00 03 37 45

CC: And the S-IVB maneuver is complete.

00 03 37 46

LMP: ... in 1 minute.

CDR: Okay. We'll set the old clock.

CMP: Okay. And the - with the maneuver complete, the fragment field is essentially static, except for very slight tumbling within the fragments.

00 03 38 01

CC: Roger. Cut in.

CMP: Every once in a while, a fragment of considerably higher velocity than the others goes across my window. But that' s very rare.

CC: Roger.

CMP: Hey, that's that field of view I saw out my window. Jack, do you see it now?

LMP: Yes.

CMP: And, Bob. At least, there - there's no apparent relative motion between fragments.

CC: Roger. Understand.

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CMP: I'll take two pictures about a minute apart if I can. And it'll be Frame 70.

CC: Okay. Frame 70.

CDR: And, Bob. This is Geno. My impression is that they are - flat, flake-like particles. Some may be 6 inches across. And, although there's no relative motion between the two, most of them seem to be twinkling. And I think, for the most part, they're all moving away from us.

CC: Roger, Gene. Thank you.

00 03 39 35

CMP: Okay. We've got 0180 and 0 on the old thumbwheels.

LMP: Okay.

CC: Roger, Ron.

00 03 39 53

CMP: Okay. TRANS CONTROL is ARMED.

LMP: ... two ARMED.

00 03 39 57

CMP: CONTROLLER number 2 is ARMED.

LMP: ... SECS LOGIC ...

00 03 40 01

CMP: Okay. SECS LOGIC is CLOSED; SECS ARM are CLOSED; LOGIC POWER is ON.

LMP: Okay.

00 03 40 13

CC: 17, Houston. You have a GO for T&D.

CDR: Okay. A GO for T&D.

00 03 40 38

CMP: Okay. We'll ARM the PYROs. And we'll hit the GDC ALIGN.

00 03 41 00

CMP: And maneuver's complete. And 0180 and 0? On the GDC? No. It's just ... It's kind of diddling.

00 03 41 19

CMP: Okay. DELTA-V in NORMAL.

00 03 41 42

CMP: S-IVB, okay. Okay, switches are all set.

LMP: Okay; 59: 30.

00 03 41 55

CMP: Okay. Let's start the DET.

00 03 41 59

CDR: Tickity-tick-tickity, Houston. We're running at 59:30.

CC: Roger.

CMP: Okay.

00 03 42 12

CMP: Okay. That's LAUNCH VEHICLE SEP, push button.

LMP: Okay.

00 03 42 19

CMP: MC in AUTO.

CMP: Next ?

00 03 42 29

CDR: SEPARATION, Houston.

Cernan: As I recall, we undocked and separated just a little earlier than had tentatively been planned, but that was no problem because we were ready to do it.

Evans: As far as the separation from the SLA, it was nominal. There's a louder bang than I expected from pyros.

Cernan: Translunar/transearth - After CSM separation from the booster and docking with the LM several hours later, we could see something which may have been the S-IVB or SLA panels. As soon as we turned around for docking I could see three of the four SLA panels tumbling slowly in space. This is not unusual. That's been seen before.

Evans: I never did see a SLA panel.

Cernan: There seemed to be an awful lot of particles with us continually throughout the flight, both in transearth and translunar coast and in lunar orbit. These particles were obviously residue from the RCS. Others were from dumped residues. They seemed to be hanging around the LM as a result of pulling in and out of the S-IVB and they were always small particles. Some, initially, were pieces of Mylar from the S-IVB LM separation. The others were just like small dump crystals or residue. On the LM, particularly, when you fire the RCS you could see the RCS residue.

Evans: That residue from the RCS didn't look a lot different than a waste-water dump.

Cernan: That's right, except that it's less dense.

CMP: Okay, check the covers. Okay. And check the other ones off.

LMP: They're all ...

CMP: Okay, I'm going to start the - My gosh, look at the junk! Okay; there's 15 seconds. Pitch her up. Okay, we'll PROCEED on the - -

LMP: ... normal ...

CMP: Okay, we've already PROCEEDed, Jack.

00 03 43 10

CMP: Okay, we've checked her out.

CDR: Houston, we're right in the middle of a snowstorm.

CC: Roger. And we'd like OMNI Delta.*

CMP: Hey, look at that burst. It's going to be bright as all get out.

00 03 43 22

CDR: And there goes one of the SLA panels.

CMP: Yes.

CMP: We're not there yet. Long ways to go yet. It's on the other side of the Earth, if the simulator's any good.

PAO: Apollo 17 now in the process of turning around after having separated, blown the pyrotechnic charges that separates the spacecraft from the Saturn third stage.

CMP: Oh, man !

00 03 43 58

CDR: There goes another SLA panel, Houston, going the other way.

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CMP: Yes.

CDR: I've - -

00 03 44 03

#80 AS17-148-22687

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LMP: Hey, there's the booster!

CC: Roger. Bet you never saw the SLA panels on the simulator.

CDR: No, but we've got the booster and is she pretty. Challenger's just sitting in her nest.

CC: Roger. We' d like OMNI Bravo, now, Jack.

LMP: Okay, we'll plus-X it. We'll see the - oh, you can't see ... Okay. Oh, I can't see my COAS.

CDR: And, Houston, some of the particles going by the window - -

LMP: Okay, did you change the DAC?

CDR: - - were obvious enough - fairly obvious to me - paint.

CC: Okay. We'll buy that.

LMP: Okay. There it is. Okay, did you change the DAC? Got ATT 1 RATE 2?

CDR: Okay, Houston, you want the high gain?

CC: Roger. We're standing by for it, and the angles as published on L/3-3 should be good.

CDR: Okay.

00 03 46 01

LMP: Okay, it's flying pretty good.

LMP: Okay, we're in REACQ here.

LMP: Houston, how do you read? We don't have a very good knock - lockon here in REACQ.

CC: Roger, Jack. We're reading you pretty good - voice.

LMP: Okay. It looks like it's improving. It dropped off - signal strength dropped off, and now it's picking up again.

CC: Roger.

CC: We're getting good signal now, Jack.

CC: Jack, the high gain is looking good.

LMP: Oh, okay.

CMP: I'm guessing. I don't know - about a hundred ... - -

LMP: That's good news. It seemed to smoo - slew very smoothly, so it looks all right.

CC: Roger, Jack.

LMP: ATT 1 RATE 2?

CDR: I can't tell you too much, Bob, from the center seat other than Captain America is very intent on getting Challenger at the moment.

CC: Roger. I can believe that.

00 03 48 26

CMP: Yes, I'm coming in a little slow, but we've got plenty of time.

PAO: Ron Evans now at the controls of America. Now moving in for the docking with lunar module Challenger.

Evans: This is the first time that I really noticed that in the plus-X translations, or in any translations as far as that goes, you get about 0.4° per second rates within the dead band. As opposed to the simulator, it has about 0.1° per second on any of the translations maintaining attitude.

Formation flight was great. The S-IVB by itself was as steady as a rock out there. No problems. I couldn't tell it was dead banding or moving at all. I came in relatively slow, about 0.1 ft/sec, somewhere in that area.

00 03 48 59

CDR: Okay, Houston, While we're moving in here, I can see a few chunks of that platy [PAO: flaky] material, possibly paint, down in the SLA sort of bouncing around between the S-IVB and the LM.

CC: Roger.

CDR: But, so far, LM looks very clean. Can't see anything abnormal from this view yet.

CC: Okay.

LMP: Isn't it, though? That thing is really stable out there.*

00 03 50 31

LMP: Yes. Can you see it at all, Gene?*

00 03 51 20

LMP: Got one little chunk coming out - it just came out of the SLA, and it's spinning along the long axis, and it looks very stable.

CC: Roger.

LMP: Every once in a while, a small particle flies off of it though.

CC: How big of a chunk are you talking about, Jack?

LMP: Say again?

CC: How big an item are you talking about?

LMP: Oh, I - reference to the thrusters, about the same diameter as the thruster on the LM.

CC: Oh, Roger.

LMP: That's how long it was, and about - oh, a fifth that thick or that wide.

CC: Roger.

LMP: And I don't think - I don't think it's more than a quarter of an inch or maybe even less thick.

CDR: That same particle, Bob, came by and as it went spinning, it was throwing off pieces of itself - radially out.

CC: Roger. We copy.

00 03 52 31

CDR: There's a small one come floating by and it looked like flakes. And I think I caught three of the four SLA panels going as we were maneuvering. I've got one out the hatch window now. It's quite a ways out.

CC: Roger.

CDR: It's tumbling in all three axes.

LMP: And I saw the fourth one out my side, so we saw them all.

LMP: Area around the two spacecraft is cleaned up pretty well by now. There are just a few fragments moving around.

CMP: Now she's coming in.

PAO: The crew of Apollo 17 describing what appeared to be paint or possibly ice flaking off the Saturn 3rd stage. But somewhat puzzling at this point is just exactly what the flakes or particles that they're describing might be. And Apollo 17 in the process of docking with the lunar module. Preparatory to extracting the LM from the Saturn 3rd stage. This occurring at some 5300 nautical miles from Earth. And we're watching the spacecraft velocity drop off rapidly as the altitude increases rapidly. The velocity which at the translunar injection cutoff was around 35,000 feet per second down to about 22,000.

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00 03 54 58

LMP: Rover looks in good shape, so far.

CC: Roger, Jack. Can you see down on that quad? Is that what you're looking at?

LMP: Yes, I'm looking right at it. And I got a good view of the MESA top anyway. It's pretty well covered, but it looks all right also.

CC: Roger.

LMP: Ail the antennas look good; thruster quads all look great. I could see all four of them a minute ago.

CMP: Okay, about 10 feet there, Gene. Stand by for a ... on the barber pole.

CDR: Okay.

CMP: All right; in good shape.> Okay, about 10 feet there, Gene. Stand by for a ... on the barber pole.

CDR: Okay.

CMP: All right; in good shape.

00 03 56 35

CMP: It's out now.*

00 03 56 45

CDR: Capture, Houston.

CC: Roger. We copy.

CMP: Okay, we're FREE; rates look pretty good. Let's lock it together.

LMP: Okay. You ready?

CMP: Ready. She's lined up not bad.

CDR: Okay.

CMP: PRIME 1.

00 03 57 03

CDR: MARK it. Stand by.

00 03 57 04

CMP: Here she comes.

00 03 57 10

CMP: Ka-chunk. My gosh!

00 03 57 13

CDR: Okay, Houston, ripple fire; but we still have number A barber pole.

CC: Roger. We copy.

Evans: Docking was nominal. As soon as he got capture on the thing, there were no rates. Everything was steady. I didn't have to handle the translation controls or null rates at all. We went directly to hard dock. There's more spacecraft movement during that period because I feel that the COAS and the docking target were off a little bit. And I don't say misaligned, but it's a little bit off. But, of course, it was in limits and was no problem.

Cernan: When we went to retract, we got our big ripple fire - bang on the latches, so we had a relatively good hard dock. We only got one gray indication on the talkbacks. The other one was barber pole.

Schmitt: There's a lot of descriptive material, I think, in the transcript on that. As I recall, we got two pulses in the ripple fire. It seemed like there was one or two latches and then the ripple fire.

Cernan: I just recall a woomph!

Schmitt: I think, if you look at the transcript, we said that there were two pulses to it.

00 03 57 19: CDR: And we have a MASTER - and a MASTER ALARM.; CC: Roger.; CDR: We got - we got the most of the latches, but A is barber pole, and B is gray.
00 03 57 29: CMP: Okay, check both circuit breakers; they're IN. Both okay.*; CMP: We had one clear fire, maybe one or two latches and then a ripple fire on the rest.; CC: Roger.; CMP: And, by the way, I had a good view into the AOT, and I can still look in there, and it's very clean.; CC: Roger.; CMP: In fact - -; CC: Ron and Gene, we saw your MASTER ALARM. Did you have any - anything on the matrix light up?; CDR: No, not a thing. I looked.; CC: Roger.; PAO: That appeared to be a repeat of the master alarm has been reported several times previously by the crew. They get the alarm light and tone, but when they look for the exact location of precise indication of what's wrong it's not there, indicating some sort spurious response by the master alarm to a problem that doesn't exist.
00 03 59 20: CDR: Okay, Bob, we're going to go ahead and take a look at that docking malfunction before we press on here further and check this barber pole out.; CC: Roger. We're working some words up here. We'll be back with you in a second on that, Gene.
00 03 59 33: CDR: Okay. We're down on the checklist through the EDS POWER breakers, OPEN.; CC: Understand.; CDR: And, Houston, in case we didn't tell you, it's talkback A that's barber pole.; CC: Understand. We have it.; CC: Say - say, Gene, we don't think it's a problem. We'll find out what it is when you get in. We think we should just press right on with the Flight Plan checklist and keep going.; CDR: Okay, we concur with that. Okay, we'll press on, Bob.
00 04 01 38: CDR: Okay, Bob. We just got a MASTER ALARM when I went to the RETRACT PRIM, from 1 to OFF.; CC: Roger. We copy that. Looks like panel 2 is jinxed up there, huh?
00 04 03 09: CDR: Okay, O₂ HEATER number 3 went to AUTO.; CC: Roger. We copy that.*
00 04 07 47: CDR: Okay, Bob. We're reading a DELTA-P of greater than 4, and I'm going to open the PRESSURE EQUALIZATION VALVE now.; CC: Roger, 17. We copy that.
00 04 08 44: CDR: Okay, the DELTA-P is coming down, Bob.; CC: Roger.; CC: Gene, while you're watching that, I just thought you'd be interested. We talked to some of our friends down at the Cape who watched the launch, and they said you were aglow all the way until you faded into - you couldn't tell you from a star. They saw staging, and they could Just see you as a star way off in the distance until you faded out. Not a cloud in the way at all.
00 04 09 31: CDR: Beautiful. Okay, we're at - we're at 2, and we're monitoring it for 3 minutes.; CC: Okay.
00 04 09 46: LMP: And, Houston. While we're checking the integrity here, on Mag Alfa Alfa, there's about 50 percent.; CC: Mag Alfa Alfa, 50 percent. Roger.
00 04 12 00: PAO: This is Apollo Control at 4 hours 12 minutes. The crew aboard Apollo 17 at this time pressing ahead with their preparations for separating the lunar module and command module, now docked together from the Saturn third stage. You heard some conversation earlier about an indication that all of the docking latches have not locked up. Now there are 12 of these latches in the docking mechanism, 6 of which are instrumented, and of the 6 that are instrumented, there was an indication that one of those may not have latched. However, we are confident that more than enough latches have locked up to assure a good solid dock, and for that reason the crew is pressing ahead with their preparations for separation.
00 04 12 28: CDR: Okay, Bob. That's 3 minutes. It's - DELTA-P change is less than 0.1.; CC: Three minutes and less than 0.1.; CDR: We are pressing on.; CC: Roger; press.; PAO: That report from Gene Cernan indicating that they have a good seal at the docking interface. Once the hatch is removed between the two vehicles, the crew will get a good look at all of those docking latches and they will be able to tell how many - if any of them didn't latch up. We're pushing ahead now for - for extracting the lunar module separating from the Saturn third stage at ground elapsed time of 4 hours 39 minutes.
00 04 14 18: CMP: Okay, you want cabin's at 4.8 now; REPRESS is about empty. Okay. No, not yet, it's still getting a little bit.; CMP: That REPRESS PACKAGE VALVE is kind of noisy.
00 04 14 56: CMP: That's all the REPRESS O₂ . We'll turn that OFF. Okay, Houston, the REPRESS PACKAGE is empty now, and we're down to a DELTA-P of 0.2.; CC: Roger. We copy that.; CC: And, 17. Just be advised, you're going to have an S-IVB nonpropulsive vent start 04:18:27. You've got about 3 minutes on that.; CDR: (Laughter) Okay. Thank you.
00 04 16 40: LMP: Can you reach ... there?; CMP: Yes, I'll get them.*
00 04 16 43: CDR: Okay, Bob. We seem to be holding DELTA-P at about 0.2. I suspect that's probably zero.; CC: Roger. We copy that.
00 04 17 00: CDR: And the cabin pressure's about 4.5. You want us to wait until 5 psi for the EMERGENCY CABIN PRESSURE SELECTs ?; CC: Negative on that. Let's just go ahead and let's press on.; CDR: Okay. They should be BOTH.
00 04 17 33: CMP: Okay, EMERGENCY register working.; CMP: Coming down though, Gene. Let's wait until it gets down a little ways.; CMP: Yes.; CMP: Yes. Straight up and down as well.; CMP: Up one one. Must be the nonpropulsive VENT that's banging. (Laughter) Here comes all the - look at all the stuff going again. It's really glowing.; LMP: Your nonpropulsive vent gives quite a glow.; CC: Roger, Jack.; CMP: It looks like a rainbow. Dark one.
00 04 19 16: CMP: Okay. REPRESS PACKAGE to FILL.; CDR: That ought to take the surge tank down a little bit. .. about at what? About 400?; CDR: 500 on the surge. No, they ought to be closed off by now, I think. Yes.; CC: 17, Houston.; CDR: Go ahead.; CC: Roger. Be advised, you don't have to wait until 5 PSI cabin to go ahead and open the hatch.; CDR: Okay, we're not, Bob. We're pressing on with it now.; CC: Roger.
00 04 20 07: CDR: Okay, it looks like we're going to maintain about 400 on the surge.; CMP: Okay?
00 04 20 53: CDR: Okay, Houston. The hatch is coming out.; CC: Roger.; CMP: (Laughter) I don't know what you're going to do with it.; CDR: Put it up here in the - in the - on the couch.; CDR: There we go.; CDR: Hey, that's a lot lighter than it used to be.; CDR: There's going to be a lot of happy people down there, Bob. I haven't checked them all, but visually, they're all locked.; CC: Understand, Gene. Ail of them are locked.; CDR: Let me give them a good check·; CMP: Yes. You'd better check them, because we got a barber pole on that one.; CDR: Okay, here's one that slipped over.*; CMP: What is the position of it?; CDR: 7 ***; CMP: 7 and 9 ?; CDR: Hey, Bob. Maybe we aren't all going to be so happy.; CC: Go ahead.; CDR: Okay, 7, 9, and 10 - the handle is flush; the bungee is vertical, but the handle is not locked down, and the - and the red button is showing. And I can pull each one of them back slowly. I haven't done anything with them. That's 7, 9, and 10.; CC: Roger. We copy that. The handle is flush; the bungees are vertical, but the handle is not locked down, and the red button is showing on 7, 9, and 10.; CDR: That 's affirm.
00 04 23 58: CDR: Okay, Bob. Bob, I just pushed the handle on 10 home a little bit and it did lock. And the red button is flush. So that leaves me 9 and 7-; CC: Roger; understand.; CC: Geno, go ahead and try the handle on 9 and 7; and, if that doesn't work, cock them and refire them starting with 9, please.; CDR: Okay; the handle doesn't work. I'll have to recock them.; CC: Okay.; CMP: When you trip it with your - did you cock it twice?; CDR: Yes.; CMP: And it took two cocks to make it go?; CDR: Yes.
00 04 25 04: CDR: Okay, 9 cocked twice; it tripped. It is over center and locked.; CC: Roger. How about the barber pole now?; CMP: Okay. Wait a minute, I've got - DOCKING PROBE MAIN A circuit breaker's IN and gone to RETRACT, and it's gray.; CC: Okay - -; CDR: Aha! That did it.; CC: Roger.; CC: And -
00 04 25 47: CDR: Okay, Bob. Cocked 7 twice and tripped it, and it's over center and locked.; CC: Roger.; CDR: I think that takes care of them all.; CC: Good show.

Cernan: Subsequent inspection of the latches showed that there were three latches which were not made entirely. One of them, as I recall, had to be recocked. Anyway, it turned out that once we got those three latches (which at that time looked like they were operating properly) reset, we got two barber poles on the talkbacks. Ultimately, latch 4 was found to be unseated on the ring, although, at that time, it looked nominal.

00 04 26 34: CMP: Okay, DOCKING PROBE circuit breakers are OUT and EXTEND/RETRACT is OFF.
00 04 26 48: CMP: Because it belongs on the probe .... it's painted yellow, it belongs on the probe.
00 04 28 08: CDR: Okay, Bob. The umbilicals are connected.; CC: Roger.
00 04 29 06: LMP: Okay, Houston, 7 Delta on the test meter is now reading 1.0. It Jumped up to 2.6, and is now back to 1.0.; CC: Roger. We copy. That's good.
00 04 30 00: PAO: This is Apollo Control at 4 hours 30 minutes. About 9 minutes from now the crew will be firing the pyrotechnic charges that separate the lunar module docked to the command module from the Saturn third stage, and springs will push the LM CSM back away from the launch vehicle at a rate of about 1 foot per second, and at ground elapsed time of 4 hours 52 minutes the launch vehicle will yaw to the proper attitude for an evasive manuever of about 10 feet per second to be performed at a ground elapsed time of about 5 hours 3 minutes. This will increase the separation difference to assure no chance of recontact between the booster and the spacecraft on route to the Moon. On removing the hatch between the LM, the CSM, allowing the crew to get a look inside the docking tunnel, they found that 3 of the 12 latches had not locked up, but on manually recocking them and activating them, they latched up properly, which indicates that there's nothing physically wrong with the system. We would expect that the next time the 2 vehicles come together to dock that the latches will function properly.
00 04 30 31: LMP: There we go. Okay. There, we're going up in the tunnel.; CMP: Pretty good ham sandwich [(garble) service?] *
00 04 32 02: CDR: Okay, Bob, the hatch is back in.; CC: Roger, Gene.*

00 04 34 57: CC: 17, Houston.; CMP: Go ahead, Houston.; CC: Roger. We've got some new - new angles here for you.; LMP: Stand by a minute, and let me find a place to copy them.; CMP: What - what kind of angles are they, Bob?; CC: They're your NOUN 22 attitude maneuver for APS burn out of the hatch window. They're in the middle of the page L/3-5.; CMP: Oh, okay.; CC: Instead of 270, we want 274.; CMP: Wait one. We're not quite with you.; CC: Okay.; CMP: Okay. I think I'm with you at 3-7; go.; CC: It's on 3-5, Jack, middle of the page there. Those NOUN 22s.; LMP: Okay, I take it back; 3-5, middle of the page.; CC: Okay. You notice there's three angles there - 270, make that 274.; LMP: Okay. That the only change?*; CC: And no, the next one, the 129.8, change that to 164. And 4.3 on the yaw, change that to zero. It's close enough; zero on the yaw.*; LMP: Okay. We got them 274, 164, 00.; CC: Roger, and the high-gain angles that you've got on the Flight Plan are close enough and should do it.; LMP: Very good.; PAO: Telemetry data now shows the crew loading the information into the spacecraft digital auto pilot in preparation for separation from the Saturn third stage. That should be occurring in the next minute or so.
00 04 39 23: CMP: Okay. We're 6 frames a second. Okay, what - what did ... RANGE ...*; CMP: Okay, I'll - I'll leave it at 10 feet and about an f - f/8.
Okay, ... at set.
Because I had that one to 0180 to 0.
00 04 40 32: CDR: Okay, Bob. We're aligning our GDC, and the next thing we'll pick up will be SECS ARM circuit breakers. And we'll give you a call on the LOGIC.; CC: Roger, Gene.; LMP: Okay, Bob. While we're waiting, does the balance on the - -; CMP: I see what you mean (laughter).; LMP: - - H₂ and O₂ flow into fuel cell 3 - well, actually, in all three fuel cells, look pretty good to you?; CC: Jack, the flows look just right for the current.; LMP: Okay. Used to seeing them more or less lined up, and I hadn't calculated any further than that.; CC: Roger.; LMP: O₂ - O₂ seems a little higher H₂, relatively speaking.; CMP: Okay. That's pretty close. Verified: SECS ARM breakers are CLOSED.; CMP: Okay, Houston. We're ready to come up with the LOGIC.
00 04 42 13: CMP: Okay, Houston, LOGIC 1 is coming on now and LOGIC 2.; CC: Roger.; CMP: And, Houston, just to keep track of EMS null bias check that time, was - went from 100 to 100.7 in 100 seconds.; CC: 17, we'd like to just verify on that top line S-IVB/LM SEP circuit breakers - both of them are CLOSED?; CMP: Okay, we'll verify them again. We double checked them.; CC: Okay, we just didn't hear your call and we want to make sure of that. Didn't want to miss anything here.; CMP: Okay. They are - they are verified CLOSED, and Jack just checked them again.
00 04 43 27: CC: Okay. You are GO for PYRO ARM and GO for extraction.; CMP: Okay, GO for PYRO ARM; GO for PYRO extraction - or LM extraction (laughter).; LMP: Okay, PYRO ARM.
00 04 43 41: CMP: Okay, we'll ARM the old PYROs. There's PYRO A; PYRO B.; LMP: SERVO POWER number 1 ...
00 04 43 49: CMP: DVC SERVO POWER, AC 1.; LMP: TRANS CONTROL POWER, up and ON.
00 04 43 54: CMP: TRANS CONTROL POWER is ON.
00 04 43 59: LMP: Okay, ROT CONTROLLERs are ARMED. Okay, I'll wait just a little bit on that - EMS to NORMAL. Get DELTA-V ...*
[Note: PAO transcript has "You missed it all/You missed another" for "EMS to NORMAL", and "What the hell have you done?" for "Get DELTA-V"]
00 04 44 28: CMP: Okay, EMS to NORMAL? Push right there. Yes.*; CDR: Okay; on my mark, the S-IVB/LM SEP will come on.
00 04 44 40: CMP: Okay, and then I'll back it off to - Okay?
00 04 44 51: CDR: Okay, on my mark, S-IVB/LM SEP: 3, 2, 1 -
00 04 45 02: CDR: MARK it. Okay, we got it.; CMP: Oh, ho! Man, did we! There she goes. Yes; LM came with us.
00 04 45 13: CMP: Okay, we're CMC, AUTO. Ail right. We've got 0.6. It 's all right. Okay, whoopee-dee-doo !
00 00 45 28: CMP: Safe the PYROs. Okay, LOGIC's OFF.
00 04 45 38: CMP: SECS - SECS ARM breakers are OPEN.; PAO: This is Apollo Control. America and Challenger are on their own. LM injection occurred at 4 hours 45 minutes - that's Ground Elapsed Time - at an altitude of 13 thousand nautical miles from earth.

Cernan: The attitudes given us were excellent; we were able to watch the S-IVB maneuver. We were able to see the S-IVB vent and it all went well and nominal.

Schmitt: It was very clean as far as any debris or anything coming out during the docking phase, and I could see a few little things that were bouncing around inside around the LM, particles of some kind. It was nothing like previous flights where they had a lot of debris. It was very clean.

00 04 46 10

CMP: Now I think we ought to go to the maneuver pretty quick. Otherwise, the S-IVB will be so far away you can't see it. Okay, you ready to maneuver?

00 04 46 26

CMP: Okay, CMC in AUTO, caged. Away we go. That - that ... wasn't as bad as the original ...

CMP: Yes.

CMP: Came right out, though.

00 04 46 48

LMP: MAPPING CAMERA and PAN CAMERA are OFF.

00 04 47 05

#92 AS17-148-22699	#93 AS17-148-22700	#94 AS17-148-22701
#95 AS17-148-22702	#96 AS17-148-22703	#97 AS17-148-22704
#98 AS17-148-22705	#99 AS17-148-22706	#100 AS17-148-22707

CMP: Okay. POWER's OFF. Hey, Jack. Hand me the Hasselblad. I think we're bowing the right direction. Yes, the Moon is there. The Earth is - that's the Earth.

CMP: SERVO POWER' s OFF, yes.

CMP: The Earth just fills up window 5. Okay, f infinity, about a 250th.

CC: Roger. We copy that. We're standing by for your GO for yaw maneuver.

CMP: We can give them a GO for yaw, can't we? We can see it now.

CDR: Yes, we can see it. You've got the GO for the yaw.

CC: Roger. Thank you, 17.

CDR: Looks like she came out of there clean as a whistle.

CC: 17, Houston. The yaw maneuver will be starting in about 4 plus 52, a little less than 2 minutes from now.

CDR: Okay.

CC: Sounds like you are taking a picture of that old dome out there, huh?

CMP: Oh, we're at the end. (Laughter) We're at the end - you know.*

SC ... in there.

00 04 52 04

LMP: Hey, there it goes. Look at the aft fire of the thing.

CDR: Yes, we can see it firing now.

CC: Roger, 17. Yaw maneuver started.

LMP: The old S-IVB had a flare for the dramatic, but it certainly did its job for us.*
AS17-148-22704

CC: Roger, Jack. Preliminary data indicate that you are about as nominal as you can be.

CDR: That's the way we'd like to keep it, Bob.

CC: You'd better believe it.

	#101 AS17-148-22708	#102 AS17-148-22709
	#103 AS17-148-22710	#104 AS17-148-22711

CDR: Okay. She's - as we're looking at it, she's pitching up. She was looking right at us - we were looking right at the dome - and now she's pitching up. The shroud around the IU seems to be totally intact. It - it looked like a super clean separation. I can't really see where there's any paint or anything externally chipped off the - the booster from here. We're beginning to - to pick up the bell. It's really a shame you don't have this - this whole thing on TV; it's really quite a sight.

CC: Roger. We concur with that.

CDR: The Mylar and the gold coating on the inside of the shroud that's now visible is also intact. It looks like you could use it again if you could get it back.

CC: Well, it's got a Job to do when it hits the Moon yet.

CDR: Okay, Bob. We've - we're almost looking at it broadside now.

CC: Roger.

CDR: Okay. She's spitting a little; looks like the yaw maneuver may be complete.

CDR: We got a - full view of the - entire J2 from here; and no kidding, Bob, the whole bird, the shroud at the top by the IU, the separation plane down by the S-II, from here all looks as clean as a whistle, all the way.

CC: Roger, Gene. If you're happy, we'd like a GO from you for the evasive burn.

CDR: Okay. You're going to burn on the booster's plus X-axis, is that right?

CC: That's affirmative.

CDR: Let's get a picture or two here yet, and we'll give you a GO.

CC: And, Gene, it'll be about 7 minutes until the evasive burn; 5 plus 03.

00 04 56 31

CDR: Okay. You have a GO.

	#105 AS17-148-22712	#106 AS17-148-22713
	#107 AS17-148-22714	#108 AS17-148-22715
	#109 AS17-148-22716

LMP [CDR?]: And for your reference, at frame 105 I started a few 250-millimeter pictures of the S-IVB.*

CC: Roger, Jack[Gene?].* [Note: Tech and PAO transcripts conflict]

CDR: And, Bob, the entire sky, as far as I can make it out through the hatch window, is completely filled with our twinkling flakes.

CC: Roger. We copy that.

LMP: I saw a couple particles go by the window a while back, and it looked a little bit like insulation in this - these particular case - styrofoam insulation, but in flat flakes.

CC: Roger that.

LMP: That was right after we separated from the S-IVB.

CC: Roger.

CDR: CSM sep - CSM sep, Bob.

CC: Roger. Understand.

00 04 59 05

CDR: Bob, I know - I know we're not the first to discover this- but we'd like to confirm, from the crew of America, that the world is round.

CC: Roger. That's a good data point. Have you gotten a good look at any of that weather down there on the Antarctic?

CDR: CDR: Well, Ron's at window number 1 - maybe he can tell you a little about it.*

CMP: You know, it's real funny there in Antarctica the - You can see the snow, but there isn't any weather at all in it. All of the weather's around it in the water.

CC: Roger.

	#110 AS17-148-22717	#111 AS17-148-22718	#112 AS17-148-22719
	#113 AS17-148-22720	#114 AS17-148-22721	#115 AS17-148-22722

LMP: That's where the moisture is. I don't know what to take a picture of.*

CMP: I can't see the U.S. at all.

CC: 17, Houston.

CDR: Go ahead.

CC: Look's like you've got a super conservative CMP up there. We've run off some numbers - Looks like you used about 40 pounds of RCS on the T&D, and you've used about a total of 42 pounds RCS total; so we're hanging right in there. Beautiful.

CDR: Very fine; glad to hear that.

SC ... velvet touch.

CMP: Still a little bit too much, but that's not bad.

CDR: We'll be glad to leave all that extra, I hope, in the service module when we get home.

CMP: It's in the Volkswagen pouch down there.

LMP: No, I'll change the lens now.*

CC: 17, Houston. It's about 30 seconds from the evasive maneuver burn.

CDR: Okay.

	#116 AS17-148-22723	#117 AS17-148-22724	#118 AS17-148-22725
	#119 AS17-148-22726	#120 AS17-148-22727	#121 AS17-148-22728

CMP: Here, Jack, can you see him good?*
[CMP?]: Check the settings there. I took an f/22 stop.*

00 05 03 19

CDR: here it goes, Bob.

LMP: There it goes; finally.

CC: Roger.

PAO: This is Apollo Control at 5 hours 5 minutes.

CC: 17, Houston. The evasive burn is complete, and the LOX dump will be at 5 plus 24 plus 20.

CDR: Okay; 5 plus 24 plus 20.

CC: Roger.

LMP: It's going to be gone, I think, before we see it.

CDR: And, Bob, you can tell Frank to forget the - returning that phone call I made to him a couple days ago.

CC: Roger. Understand.

CDR: Ail my questions are answered.

CC: Think you've had enough booster briefings, huh?

CDR: Yes. I figure this is probably the best one of all.

CC: Frank said he'd guarantee all those S-IVBs would be just as good as that one.

CDR: Okay. That's - fair enough.

CDR: The S-IC and the S-II didn't put on a bad show either.

CC: That's right.

CMP: Houston, magazine November November is on about 123 right now.

00 05 08 14

CC: Okay, Ron. Magazine November November is on 123.

CDR: And, Bob, we're on page 3-9 of the Flight Plan now. We'll check the LM/CM DELTA-P, get the cabin fan filter in. We'll go over the check - the Systems Checklist, get the primary EVAP and a few odds and ends, and start doffing our PGAs. How's that sound?

CC: Sounds like a winner, Gene.

CDR: Okay.

LMP: I guess you saw that one, Houston. That had no caution or warning with it.

CC: Roger. That a MASTER ALARM?

LMP: Yes, sir.

CC: How about the LEB?

LMP: ... say again. (Laughter) You caught me. I forgot to look. Keep after us; we'll get you that data point.

CC: Roger, Jack.

LMP: Gene's got his hands all over panel 2, which probably is what caused it.

CC: Jack, we think that might have been a real one due to the accumulator cycle with the O₂ makeup flow going on there - it gave - it held the O₂ flow higher for - greater than 16 seconds.

00 05 11 35

LMP: Well, that's certainly a possibility. We didn't notice it - Looked upright at the time. But it - Sure that was the right time?

CC: Well, EECOM's watching it here, and he feels it is.

LMP: Gee, I can't argue with him.

LMP: Okay, Houston. Ready to deactivate the primary evaporator if you concur.

CC: Roger, Jack. We concur.

00 05 15 18

LMP: Okay, Bob. VHF SIMPLEX, Alfa's OFF.

CC: Roger.

LMP: And we're gradually moving into getting out of the suits.

CC: Yes. I'll bet you're looking forward to that.

LMP: Well, I'll tell you it's a different world without that old one g on you. The old suit's a little bit friendlier.

LMP: And, as you may have noticed, Bob, we've come to the end of the Launch Checklist.

CC: That's affirmative, and we've put ours away for posterity. We also stored it with our TLI-0 data that we worked so hard to generate.

LMP: Well, I'm just happy we didn't use it. That view of the Earth for a rev there was something I was looking forward to and I was not disappointed.

CC: That's great, Jack.

CDR: Bob, you've got a pretty good size storm over the north - I guess the northwestern coast of India, where it starts to wrap up and around to the west. It's a - rounded out on the horizon, so I can't make out exactly where it is too well.

CC: Roger.

CC: Could we get a read-out on the LM/CM DELTA-P?

00 05 18 20

LMP: Plus 0.4.

CC: Roger. We copy that.

CDR: Bob, Antarctica is what I would call effectively just a solid white cap down on the - South Pole. There's definite contact between the continent and the water. But, as Ron said, most of the clouds seem to be very artistic, very picturesque - some in clockwise rotating fashion but appear to be very thin where you can, for the most part, kind of see through those clouds to the blue water below.

CC: Roger.

CDR: The continent - the continent itself is - is the same color as the clouds; but, of course, more dense - and striking difference than any of the other white background around because you can definitely see that contact with the water and with the clouds over the water.

CC: Roger. Understand. There'll soon be a comm switch over to Madrid here shortly. We may break ... in just a few minutes here. Or a few seconds, rather.

CC: And you might watch - your accumulator's going to cycle in about 20 seconds here. Let's see what happens on the MASTER ALARM.

CC: 17, Houston. How do you read through Madrid?

00 05 20 36

CMP: You're loud and clear, Bob, and could you give us our distance from the Earth?

CC: Roger. I'm looking up at the board. I'd guess at about 19,000 miles. Want me to get it exact?

CMP: No, just approximate's good enough.

CC: 18,100, FIDO says.

CDR: Okay. And I suppose we're seeing as 100 percent full Earth as we'll ever see; certainly as I've ever seen. It appears to be - it may be a little bit - a little bit of a terminator way out to the - well, to the east - out beyond Australia and beyond India. But beyond that it's about 99 percent pure.

CDR: Bob, it's these kind of views - these kind of views that stick with you forever.

CC: Roger, Gene.

00 05 22 39

CDR: We've got a - I guess probably the continent of Africa dominates the world right now. It's covering the - oh, the upper third - upper and western third of the - of the world. We can see the Sinai; we can see up into the Mediterranean; we can see across the Mediterranean, although we can't quite make out the countries up there; we can see across into India. I catch a glimpse of Australia out in the far horizon. Got Zanzibar on the southern tip of Africa, the Cape down there just almost directly below us. And, I don't know exactly how big Antarctica is, but I guess we can certainly see more than 50 percent of it. And - the rest of it is all ocean. The Indian Ocean out into the Pacific Ocean and back into the Atlantic Ocean. And for the most part relatively clear of clouds except in the Antarctica region, and up towards Europe which is - which is on the horizon, across the Mediterranean, it looks like there might be some clouds back up in that way. I probably - probably - well, not probably - I can make out the entire coast of Africa from Mediterranean around to the west, coming back to the south back where it takes its big dip to the east, back around the Cape, back around up through the Suez Canal, almost perfectly.

CC: Roger. We understand.

CDR: And there's one batch of clouds in northern Africa, just a small batch, it looks like it may be up near the - well, no, it's not near the mouth of the Nile; it's quite a bit west of that, as a matter of fact, I can see the mouth of the Nile; I can see it running straight down towards us as it parallels the Suez and then sort of fades out into the central darker brown or darker green portions of Africa.

CC: Roger, Gene. Sure be nice to have that on TV, wouldn't it?

CDR: Boy, I'd love to give it to you; any way I could.

CDR: You know - and there's no strings holding it up either. It's out there all by itself.

CC: Roger. I just was - going through the 17 status report on CSM systems and, boy, everything is absolutely nominal, with the exception of ... glitching MASTER ALARMs that we're trying to still track down; but every other system is just nominal. Everything is great.

00 05 26 01

CDR: Okay. Sounds good. That's the way they built it for us.

CC: Gene, looking at our plot board, you're directly over the southern tip of Africa or just slightly out in the Indian Ocean there, according to our plot board, which isn't exactly accurate all the time. But shortly you're going to start going backwards on the Earth here and head back across the Atlantic. That ought to be some sort of a first. You cross the Atlantic twice, going from west to east, and then, now you're going to cross it going from east to west here shortly. All in a very short span of time.

00 05 27 40

CDR: Yes. I guess that does sound like a first.

PAO: This is Apollo Control at 5 hours 30 minutes ground elapsed time. The white team of flight controllers, headed by Gene Krantz, is in the process now, of handing over to the team headed by flight director Pete Frank. After 12 hours, the team came on about 3 hours prior to the scheduled launch time of 8:53 PM Central Standard Time. Of course, launch occurred 2 hours 40 minutes late at a ground elapsed time of 11, of a Central Standard Time rather, 11:33 PM. As a result of the late launch-time the translunar injection, that's up through translunar injection, also slipped 2 hours, 40 minutes. We would expect that the translunar injection which is targeted to make up the difference will get us back on the nominal flight plan time by the time the spacecraft arrives at the Moon. In other words, arrival time at the Moon would be at the same Central Standard Time as called for in the Flight Plan at about 1:49 PM Central Standard Time, December 10. But, the Ground Elapsed Time would be about 2 hours, 40 minutes earlier than that provided for in the Flight Plan, the arrival being at about 86 hours, 14 minutes ground elapsed time. The 2 hour, 40 minute difference being accounted for in a speedier arrival time at the Moon, a translunar injection burn being targeted just slightly longer than would have been the case in a normal launch. The spacecraft getting to the Moon in a total elapsed time 2 hours 40 minutes less, in effect, making up for lost time from the late launch. In order to get the flight plan back in agreement with the ground elapsed time the GET, or ground elapsed clock, will simply be moved ahead 2 hours, 40 minutes between now and the time spacecraft arrives at the Moon. So, that by the time Apollo 17 is inserted into Lunar Orbit, the GET will once again agree with the flight plan GET and of course, the Central Standard Time of arrival will be the same as was originally planned by virtue of a speedier trip time. As a result of the late liftoff it was not possible to program television coverage of the transposition and docking. This was because of a shift in the orbital ground track moving the ground track away from the needed Manned Spaceflight network coverage for television. We simply didn't have an adequate ground station to receive the television signal from the spacecraft. There has been one recurring problem that is yet unexplained. That is in the displays and control system. The crew reported on several occasions that master alarm was occurring. The master alarm manifests itself in a form of a light that flashes in the Command Module. There are three of these lights and also a tone that comes on and a normal procedure is when the master alarm light comes on and the tone sounds, the crew then looks at another matrix of lights to determine precisely where the problem is. However, when looking at this matrix of lights none of them were lighted, indicating that some spurious signal had ignited or lighted the master alarm light and that there was in fact no problem in the systems. There is at this point no explanation for the problem. However, engineers here in the Control Center, are looking into the past history of panel 2, which is the panel on which a number of switches are located, which have triggered this master alarm to see if there is a history of panel 2 that would indicate a possibility of some momentary short in the caution and warning system, which could give a master alarm. Apollo at this point is an annoyance, but does not appear to be a serious problem. All other spacecraft systems are performing normally, and the trajectory to the Moon is almost precisely as planned at this point. We do not anticipate a change of shift press briefing. The white team will be coming back on at the regular Central Standard Time 4:00 PM tomorrow. And in light of this rather short turn around we' re going to forego the change of shift press briefing. At 5 hours, 36 minutes this is Apollo Control, Houston.

[PAO transcript page out of order - MC-74A/1 118 in PDF]

00 05 29 53

CDR: Bob, I can assume that from what you said there will be - probably not be a midcourse 1?

CC: That's exactly what we're working towards, Gene. And I - I'm sorry I didn't convey that feeling to you a little earlier. There's no reason for midcourse 1 right now.

CDR: Okay. Because we prefer to press on and get the suits off and hit the sack rather than make it, unless we have to.

CC: That's for sure. Roger. The earlier data showed us midcourse 1 would have been less than 3 feet per second, and we wouldn't have done it. And the data's been fluctuating, but they're smoothing it out, and it's still holding that way; so we won't be doing it, probably.

CDR: Okay. Very good.

#122 AS17-148-22729

#123 AS17-148-22730

#124 AS17-148-22731

LMP: Bob, I'm looking over Gene's shoulder here at the Earth, and it must be an awful clear day for the so-called convergence zone across Africa. Gene, I think, indicated, as it looked to us as we crossed it earlier, most of Africa is clear. Only some - probably are broken and scattered clouds - cumulus in the east central portion that are running along the line of - north/south lines.

CC: Roger.

LMP: Looks like a major circulation system off the southern tip of Africa, as Gene mentioned, plus one west of that, 20 or 30 degrees of longitude. Make that east of that.

CC: Roger.

LMP: And, southwest of the - make that south southwest of the tip of Africa at Cape Good Hope, there looks like an incipient circulation system developing about half way between the coast of Antarctica and Africa. If I had to guess, it's going to swing up north towards the Cape and - and then swing west. The whole pattern, ... it looks like now, is a fairly equally spaced cyclones that are sort of circling around the Antarctic continent, as we can see it now.

CC: Roger, Jack.

00 05 33 50

LMP: But I would guess that South Africa is going to have good weather for several more days, at least. And if the pattern is - is apparent in the clouds we see is correct, the last disturbance I mentioned probably is going to pass south of the Cape also.

CC: Roger. Understand.

LMP: As we were going - over our daylight around the Earth in orbit, it was very clear looking at the various clouds, Bob, what were high clouds and what were low clouds, particularly when you had them together. The high clouds cast very distinct shadow patterns on the lower ones and, very commonly, had entirely different orientations - pattern orientations. The low ones seem to be more associated with arcuate front patterns; whereas, the high clouds were generally transverse to that, roughly north/south directions. That's not completely general observation, but I noticed it several times.

CC: Roger. Understand.

CC: I just noticed on the plot board here, it looks like you're come up on 20,000 miles out, right about now.

00 05 35 27

LMP: It feels like about, 20,000 miles.

CC: Okay.

LMP: Bob, I have the first hint of contamination on window 5. It's covering, probably, the central - well, I'd say, - roughly around - it's square about - 7 inches in - on the side with a very thin film that's catching the sunlight; and slightly iridescent, but also very finely granular - very finely granular. You can just barely tell what it is, actually.

CC: Roger. Understand.

00 05 37 45

LMP: Looks like very uniform in thickness right now.

[PAO transcript resumes in order]

00 05 46 31

LMP Bob, this is Jack. We've got a UCTA dump scheduled, or is possible, at 6 o'clock. There's nothing sacred about that time, is there?

CC: Nothing at all. Whenever you're ready, just go ahead and dump.

00 05 49 03

LMP: Okay.

LMP: Bob, one of the things that we miss in our training is a good geography lesson, and particularly on Antarctica. I got the monocular out, and apparently the dark band that Gene - Ron mentioned as interface between the continental water is that between the pack ice and the water. And you can, by very subtle changes in the apparent smoothness of the ground, probably make out where the actual continent begins and the pack ice ends. There are a few exposed ranges. I guess it's midsummer down there now, and you can make out the snow-free areas scattered at least in the northern portion of the continent.

CC: Roger. Did you get any pictures of that, Jack?

#125 AS17-148-22732

#126 AS17-148-22733

LMP: Oh, yes. We got some pictures earlier. I'm going to get another one here in a minute. I'll tell you, if there ever was a fragile-appearing piece of blue in space, it's the Earth right now.

CC: Roger.

00 05 50 21

CDR: And we got a MASTER ALARM.

CC: Okay. We copy that.

CDR: And there's one in the LEB.

CC: Okay. Good data point.

CDR: And there are no caution lights.

CC: It came right ... accumulator cycle, along with the high O₂ flow again.

CDR: Yes, I just checked the time, and I think you are right on that one. Well, we gave you your LEB data point.

CC: Yes, sir.

LMP: The problem with looking at the Earth (laughter) particularly Antarctica, is it's too bright.

CC: Understand.

LMP: And so I'm using my sunglasses through the monocular, which is not the best (laughter) viewing platform. I think I can see some of the areas of the Dry Valley but, again, I'm not too sure of my geography, Bob. There are clouds over the continent, I believe. But, of course, they're just as white as the snow, and you only see differences in texture brought out by - probably varying photometric return because of fairly low sun angles down there.

Schmitt: Partly, I used try glasses because they do have a small correction for my astigmatism, and that did increase the resolution with which I could view the surface. Looking at the Earth and translunar coast with the sunglasses, I often did that for the correction. I used the binocular and the sunglasses and it did seem to help the resolution of viewing cloud patterns and geographic locations. When I used the sunglasses they seemed to be very adequate in terms of the level in which they reduced the brightness. As soon as I looked in the cabin to look at instruments and this sort of thing, the glasses did inhibit the observation of those instruments and the lettering on the panels, and I would push them up on my forehead for cabin work.

CC: Roger.; LMP: But you can see patterns of what I believe is pack ice - leading off from that sharp interface that was talked about earlier. And those patterns seem to merge directly with the patterns of the clouds as if the - at least near the continent - the oceanic currents are controlling the air currents, up to a point, along with the movement of the pack ice.; CC: Roger.; LMP: I'm distinguishing the pack ice from clouds mainly by the angularity of the patterns within them. There is no good clear color or albedo distinction. So, I could - I could be looking entirely at clouds, but I suspect there are some pack ice patterns, too. I'm not keeping you awake, am I, Bob?; CC: No, sir. Just keep talking; we're listening. And I'm sure not much of the world is listening, but this will all be recorded, and you can read it all when you get back and think it through and tie it up with the pictures. And I'm sure there's going to be people interested in this. And we're interested ourselves; Just keep talking.
00 05 53 29: LMP: All I want to do is read what I say.; CC: Roger. If I had a little more geology training, I'd be asking you some better questions. I'm afraid, right now, I can't think of anything to ask you.; LMP: Well, I can't - I really wish I knew that geography. I don't know - I wish I'd thought of bringing a good map of Antarctica. Could somebody do a little researching for me and see if they could tell me if we're - have a Little American view - say on the eastern edge of the continent?; CC: Roger. We'll see if we can get some Antarctica geographers around.; LMP: Yes, I'd like to - and, also, whether or not they think the Dry Valley area is visible to us. Let's see, there's some - some of the people over there in Bill Bennett's group, I think, have a little Antarctic experience, or used to. They might be able to help you out.; CC: Okay. We'll see what we can track down on it.; LMP: Don't use up a lot of people's time on it, but - but I'd be interested.; CC: Roger. It's getting pretty empty around here. It's 5:00 in the morning, so - (laughter); LMP: Okay. There is a good strong northern hemisphere cyclone up near India, and I think Gene mentioned that. It, I think, was one I saw in some of the forecast sheets as a dissipating hurricane or typhoon. I'm not sure which it is there. I guess it's a typhoon. And I see something here that I noticed in Earth orbit, Bob. That as you approach the terminator - and now I'm looking at the eastern terminator - have to keep all my directions straight here - yes, eastern terminator. The clouds - those associated with the cyclone over India and one that's - appears to be due south of there - maybe 30 degrees of latitude - have a gray appearance. The - instead of the brilliant white of other clouds as you approach the terminator, those - at least the high level clouds are gray. Now, when we were going over them in orbit, the lower level clouds were still white, and I think I can see a hint of that right now. The Sun gives a strong light reflection off of the buildup in the low level clouds; whereas, the high-level and probably layered cirrus and maybe some of the intermediate level stratus tend to look gray because of grazing Sun, I suspect.
00 05 56 46: CC: Roger. You mentioned something in Earth orbit that kind of intrigued me. You mentioned seeing the rainbow, and we were trying to figure out how you saw a rainbow up there. And you were in orbit already at that time. Do you remember that?; LMP: Well, - we're not - we were speaking of the merits of the sunrise.; CC: Okay. Roger.; LMP: Of having a banded color appearance that varied as you approached sunrise. I can't remember what we - I think we put some of that on tape, and we were probably LOS at the time. But the banded character of the sunrise in the atmosphere was very, very marked. There was a gray-blue upper layer followed - that merged or graded into a brilliant blue intermediate zone that was just above the cloud levels. And within the clouds, you got a orange to yellow band, getting more yellow as the Sun rose, that was broken by the dark patterns of the buildups.; CC: Roger. Good show.; LMP: The interesting thing was the continual glow on the horizon we had, even at night, on the darkside pass. And that glow was in the atmosphere because I could see stars rise over the horizon in it and then pass on through it.; CC: Roger. You were talking - the airglow, I guess, is the phenomenon most of the guys had seen before. It's kind of interesting, huh?*; LMP: Yes, that's - that's right. It's interesting - I guess standard airglow, but it is very striking that it's a continuous thing even in the dark pass.; CC: Roger.; LMP: I think I did see the eastern tip of South America, now.; CC: Roger. You're starting to back up now, coming the other way. So you're still over Africa, according to our chart here, but you're backing up towards the - South America.; LMP: Yes, I can see the part of South America that Mercator thought that fitted in with the bend in Africa so many decades ago and started people thinking about moving continents around on the crust.; CC: Roger. Jack, how'd the PGA doffing go? Most of you - are you all out of the PGAs now?
00 06 00 01: LMP: That's in work. We're taking it slow and easy up here, Bob.*; CC: Roger. Understand. I'll just be curious to see if they all fit in that bag.*; LMP: I think you'll find that Ronald Evans will also be curious about that. He's already made comments.; CC: Roger.; LMP: Bob, you certainly do have a very clear intuitive impression, although the evidence is hard to pull together, that the - any frontal systems that move off the Antarctic continent do not take on any well-defined character until they get into the moist [PAO] regions of the ocean. And when they do, they seem to pick up an arcuate circulation that, in the view we have, seem to get fairly regularly spaced cyclone patterns that lie between the Cape of Good Hope and northern portion of Antarctica. And these - circulations of cyclones follow roughly an east/west pattern, and the curve - and the arcs of the fronts are more north/south than - let's say northwest, swinging around to the south.
PAO:; CC: Roger.; LMP: All of them - all of them very - very nicely defined as southern hemisphere cyclones. There are about four of those visible swinging around - oh, I guess, that's latitude - I'm having to guess here, but I'd say latitude 50 to 60 south.; CC: Okay; 50 or 60 south on that, huh?; LMP: Yes, I have to look at the map here in a minute and see if that puts me between Antarctica and the Cape.; CC: Roger.; CC: Well, the tip - the tip of Africa there is at about 32 south.; LMP: Well, that sounds like a pretty good guess, then. It looks like the intertropical convergence zone over Africa is starting to get more and more clouds in it now. I suspect as midday approaches, which is what we're seeing there, we can expect to see more and more moisture indications.; CC: Roger. They're - they're probably about noontime right there right now. It's 11:36 at the zero meridian at Greenwich, so it's just a little bit before noon right in that area you're talking about.; LMP: Yes, some of those masses of what I suspect are cumulus buildups - well, not really. They don't look like they're as concentrated and localized. More like just masses of fairly dense clouds that are developing in that band of green that crosses the lower portion of Africa.; CC: Roger.
00 06 04 19: LMP: Stay tuned for the next installment on the Earth. I'll try to get out of this suit.; CC: Okay. Just take it easy, Jack, and we'll be listening.; LMP: Man, I've never taken it so easy in my life. I'll tell you, Bob, I couldn't have believed this would be an experience like it is now.; CC: Roger.; LMP: Every time you turn around, there is something else to see and wonder what's causing it. Whether it's a particle zipping across the window, or one zipping across the cabin, or spring mechanics here in zero g; there's always something going on.; CC: Roger.; PAO: This is Apollo Control at 6 hours 7 minutes. No midcourse correction number 1 will be performed. The value of the maneuver that would be required is less than 3 feet per second and midcourse correction number 1 will not be performed by Apollo 17. The spacecraft is now 23,682 nautical miles from Earth, velocity 12,301 feet per second.
00 06 10 20: LMP: Bob, if I'm not waking you up, an observer from another planet certainly - probably could decide that we have such things as clouds and at least large thunderstorms because right at the terminator you get a brightening of the sunlit side and a long, long shadow out to the - out to the east that is reminiscent of what we saw in the early days looking at the Moon at the terminator.; CC: Roger.; LMP: However, in the next pass around, I'll bet you wouldn't see them.; LMP: I've never been a big - Well, I didn't grow up with the idea of drifting continents and sea-floor spreadings, but I tell you, when you look at the way the pieces of the - of the northeastern portion of the African continent seem to fit together separated by a narrow gulf, you could almost make a believer of anybody.; CC: Roger. It's beginning to look like the globe that you might buy down at the store, huh?; LMP: Oh, I don't think so, Bob. (laughter); CC: Okay.; LMP: I don't think we'd better put this one up for sale. Somewhere there might be somebody who would like to buy it.
00 06 12 53: CC: Say, Jack. We noticed the O₂ flow has dropped down now. We're wondering, did you all close the waste storage vent valve?; CMP: I don't think so; let me check on that. It might have gotten closed inadvertently in this game we were playing down in the LEB.; LMP: Ron says it's still on VENT.; CC: It's on VENT. Roger.; CC: Okay. We're noticing the flow is coming back up slowly; so something caused it to drop, and it's coming back up.
00 06 13 42: LMP: Okay.
00 06 18 09: CC: 17, Houston.; LMP: Go ahead.; CC: Jack, just to ease those words I said before, we looked at the schematics here a second, and you'd be dumping urine out of that same line as that waste vent, and that would probably cause the pressure to build up enough to slow the O₂ flow. And we noticed that the O₂ flow is climbing back up to where it belongs.; LMP: Well, that's clever. Okay.; CC: Didn't mean to worry you there. Shouldn't have said it, I guess, before we looked at the schematic.; LMP: Oh, I really hadn't started to worry about it yet, Bob, so no sweat.; [End of tape]
00 06 22 44: LMP: How'd the S-IVB work go, Bob?; CC: They just finished their second burn, and it's targeted right where they want it. Just working perfectly.; LMP: Where were they going to put that one? I guess I lost track of that.; CC: Seven degrees south and 8 degrees west, Jack.; LMP: Say again, you cut out on the first.; CC: Okay; 7 degrees south and 8 degrees west.
00 06 23 45: LMP: Okay. That ought to be interesting.; PAO: This is Apollo Control at 6 hours 24 minutes. The S-IVB maneuver that was just being discussed was performed with the auxiliary propulsion system; just completed Delta V of 13 feet per second to tune up the trajectory for S-IVB impact at the desired location on the lunar surface of 7 degrees south, 8 degrees west. That's approximately 200 kilometers of the Apollo 14 ALSEP site where the seismometer is located. That impact is expected to be picked up by the other seismometers on the Moon, the other Apollo lunar surface experiment seismometers. Booster systems engineer is now maneuvering the S-IVB stage, the third stage of the launch vehicle to a solar heat control attitude. This is to minimize the heat into the instrument unit. They will then track the stage for a considerable length of time and determine whether another corrective burn will be required. At 6 hours 25 minutes into the mission, this is Mission Control, Houston.; PAO: This is Apollo Control at 6 hours 27 minutes. Booster systems engineer has just reported to the Flight Director that the S-IVB stage is in good shape, with 14 hours life time remaining. The limiting factor on the S-IVB is the battery life. Fourteen hours of battery life remaining on the S-IVB.
00 06 29 19: CDR: Hello, Houston; how do you read CDR?; CC: Read you loud and clear, Gene.; CDR: Okay.; LMP: Bob, LMP's going off the air for a little while.; CC: Roger, Jack.; LMP: It sounded like a sigh of relief.; CC: No, sir. Been enjoying listening to you; keeping - keep me awake down here.; LMP: You had a long day.; CC: Not as long as you've had.; LMP: I've Just been lying around, floating around.; CC: You make it sound so good.; LMP: Piece of cake. I'll talk to you in a little while.
00 06 30 41: CC: Yes, sir.; PAO: This is Apollo Control at 6 hours 34 minutes. Apollo 17, now 26,553 nautical miles from Earth. Velocity 11,606 feet per second.
00 06 40 31: CMP: Houston, Apollo 17.; CC: Go ahead, Ron.; CMP: Okay; we had another MASTER ALARM, and I just glanced up and it was the MAIN A UNDERVOLT light that was on, just for a second.; CC: Okay. Ron, we didn't see anything at all on MAIN A down here. We did have an ACCUMULATOR cycle again. Don't know if that ties in or not.; CMP: Well, the MAIN A UNDERVOLT - I just happened to be looking right at the panel and the MAIN A UNDERVOLT light blinked on for a second. And, of course, obviously, MAIN A is up now.; CC: Roger.; CC: Ron, Houston here. We've checked the back room and the high-speed charts and that and don't see any glitch on MAIN A at all on our data down here.
00 06 42 34: CMP: Okay, Bob.; PAO: This is Apollo Control. It's 6 hours 49 minutes. Apollo 17 is 28,232 nautical miles from Earth; velocity 11,291 feet per second. We're continuing to operate at present on the normal GET of the flight plan, normal ground elapsed time. Under that schedule the crews rest period will begin about 9 hours and 15 minutes into the mission. If, however, the crew completes the activities that are scheduled in the flight plan early the rest period will probably begin early if they so desire. However, at the present time we are continuing to operate on the GET of the flight plan. At 6 hours 50 minutes, this is Mission Control, Houston.; PAO: This is Apollo Control at 7 hours 7 minutes. Apollo 17 has just passed the 30,000 mile mark on its journey to the Moon. Now, at 30,039 nautical miles, velocity continuing to decrease now 10,932 feet per second.
00 07 10 28: CMP Houston, 17. That was O₂ FLOW HIGH.; CC: Roger. We copied that one. We saw it. Just about ready to call you when you called us just now.
00 07 10 41: CMP: Okay. Mighty fine.; CC: Okay, standby. [PAO only]

[End of tape]

PAO: This is Apollo Control at 7 hours 15 minutes. Astronaut Bob Parker is now relieving Astronaut Bob Overmyer at the CAPCOM console and the commander of the backup crew, Captain John Young, has just left the control room. He has been sitting at the CAPCOM console with Overmyer since returning from the Cape early this morning. So the next CAPCOM voice you will hear will be that of Bob Parker.

PAO: This is Apollo Control at 7 hours 34 minutes. Apollo 17 now 32,697 nautical miles from earth velocity 10,457 feet per second. The crew a little over midway in the scheduled meal period in the flight plan.

00 07 50 33

CMP: Houston, 17.

CC: Roger. Go 17.

CMP: That little MASTER ALARM there, I can't be absolutely positive, but out of the corner of my eye, I think it was the SUIT COMPRESSOR light that glitched.

CC: Okay. We copy that. You - we believe down here it was the HIGH O₂ FLOW.

CMP: Well, they're pretty close. I thought it was red and I thought, okay; that's good. That's the right time, I guess.

CC: Okay, cause we'd just called it out just 5 seconds before you called me.*

CMP: Very good, Doctor.

CC: Roger. And Tony is back in Houston on the console.

CMP: That's hard to believe. What are you doing back there? We're - we haven't even had time to go to sleep.

CC: Well, I tell you, it's a tale that's hard to believe. It's almost as miraculous as your escape from the pad tonight.

CMP: Did you enjoy the launch?

CC: Beautiful.

CMP: You've seen one night launch, you've seen them all. Huh, Parker?

00 07 52 54

CMP: We go to SCS. Okay.

CMP: Never know if it's drifting up, but we'll try it.

CMP: Dust whipping all over the place. The stars in there -

CMP: ... Yes, let's do a little better now.

00 07 57 21

#127 AS17-148-22734

#128 AS17-148-22735

#129 AS17-148-22736

LMP: MARK. Bob, mag November November is 130 now. And I just took another set of Earth pictures.

CC: Okay. Copy that. November November at 130.

CMP: And, Houston, 17. You copy the torquing angles now?*

CC: Roger. Stand by.

00 07 57 59

CC: Okay. We have them, and you're GO to torque them.

00 07 58 05

CMP: Okay. I'll torque it at 58:10.

PAO: This is Apollo Control at 7 hours 58 minutes. Ron Evans is realigning the inertial platform that was scheduled on the flight plan for 8 hours 15 minutes. That indicates that they are running 15 to 20 minutes ahead of the flight plan. Jack Schmitt is obviously taking some pictures. He gave Bob Parker a report on a film magazine that he was using.

00 07 59 38

CMP: ... REFSMMAT.

CC: And, 17, we have a preferred REFSMMAT standing by if you want to give us ACCEPT, and we'll send it up before you do your second P52.

00 07 59 53

CMP: Okay, you have P00 and ACCEPT now.

00 07 59 55

CC: Roger. Understand we have update. It's coming in. And, Ron, while we're sending it up to you, we'll also send you an update on the zero trunnion bias, as per the Flight Plan.

CMP: Okay. Mighty fine.

CMP: Somewhere. There it goes.

CMP: There they are, right there.

00 08 03 15

CC: Okay, 17. Ron, you can go to BLOCK now. You've got your PTC REFSMMAT. You're free to do a P52 option 1, if you want. And, be advised we are suspicious from time to time you may have an open mike there.

CMP: Okay. Thank you, Bob.

00 08 10 45

CMP: Okay, Houston. Those are the differences in the gyro torque and I'll torque it - oh, 11, I guess. Eight to 11.

CC: Okay. Copy that.

00 08 14 13

CC: Apollo 17, Houston. Over.

CDR: Go ahead.

CC: Roger. We've been discussing the question of what your sleep configuration is going to be in terms of headsets or not, particularly with reference to all of these various MASTER ALARMs. And I guess we'd feel better if one of you guys slept with his headset on. We were curious as to what your plans are?

CDR: Bob, since I've got to wear the biomed anyway, I might Just as well go ahead and keep it on.

CC: Okay. The other option is for us, - if we were trying to get hold of you - is to put the Klaxon up. But we're a little - un-in-favor of that, because of the possibility of one of these spurious things waking everybody up that way.

CDR: Yes, I'll go ahead and keep it on and see how it works out for a while.

CC: Okay. We copy that. And, when you guys are ready, we have a couple of - we have three items to read up to you, three updates in the Flight Plan.

CMP: Okay. Go ahead, Bob.

00 08 15 34

CC: Okay. The first's in the Flight Plan itself, and it's the quads for the PTC spinup, and they'll be Alfa and Bravo.

CMP: Okay. For PTC spinup, quads Alfa and Bravo.

00 08 16 06

CC: All right, we just took that back. It should be Bravo and Delta for spinup; Alfa and Bravo only for damping. Copy Bravo and Delta for spinup; Alfa and Bravo for damping.

00 08 17 45

CC: And, 17, if you have that, I have two others. One in the Flight Plan Supplement Book, and the other one is in the G&C Checklist.

CMP: Okay. Go with the Supplement.

CC: Okay. In the Flight Plan Supplement, we have an E-LOAD update on page 1-43. Okay; 1-43 - give me a call when you get to that page.

CMP: Okay, Bob. I'm there.

00 08 18 23

CC: Okay. Under line - it's 307 04, column Bravo - you'll find currently 33550. And let me give you a word of warning. When we change this, we'll be changing it again around 67 hours. These are primarily due to the launch delay. And we'll give you another GET update of this sort later on. The new number to replace 3 - -

CMP: Bob - -

CC: Go ahead.

CMP: Let me get a pencil, please.

CC: Okay.

CMP: I'll use that instead of a pen.

CC: Okay.

CMP: Go ahead.

00 08 20 03

CC: Okay. Under - Again, I remind you, 307 04 column Bravo, which was 33550, is now 34761. The line just below it, which is 05, also in column Bravo, is 15403. Over.

CMP: Okay, Bob. For 30704 Bravo, 34761; and for 31005 Bravo, 15403.

CC: Okay. Very good. The next one is in the G&C Checklist under the P37 block data. And to help you find it, that's on page 4-23.

CMP: Okay. Go ahead.

00 08 21 20

CC: Okay. On the liftoff plus 15, be the first block. It's 015:00, 3893, minus 174, 057:56. The second block for lift-off plus 25 is 05 - Pardon me, start over again there; 025:00, 6651, minus 175, 057:25. Over.

CMP: Okay, Houston; Apollo 17. First one would be 015:00, a DELTA-V of 3893, minus 174, and GET_400K is 057:56. The other one is T_ig of 025:00, DELTA-V of 6651, longitude of minus 175, GET of 400K is 057:25.

CC: Roger. Good readback.

00 08 23 13

LMP: Okay, Bob. This is Jack. I'm going to be moving into the presleep checklist here. Are there any things you want to change or alter in that? Are you ready for the waste - waste stowage vent to be closed?

00 08 23 30

CC: Roger, 17. We're ready for the vent valve to go closed. WASTE STOWAGE VENT to CLOSED. And we have no anticipated changes, at the present time, in the Flight Plan, Jack.

LMP: Okay, I'm just looking at 1-29 in the presleep checklist and - wondering if there was anything there.

CC: Stand by, Jack.

00 08 24 43

CC: Okay, 17. For antenna management tonight, we'd like you to select OMNI Bravo at the current time, and stow the high-gain antenna. And we'll take care of managing our antennas from here on.

CMP: Okay. We'll give you OMNI Bravo and stow the high-gain.

CC: Okay.

CC: And, Jack, we indeed do not have anything to add to the presleep checklist tonight.

LMP: Okay.

00 08 25 56

LMP: And - with your concurrence, I'll take the H₂ FANS all to AUTO now.

CC: Stand by.

00 08 26 07

CC: Roger. We're ready for that. All to AUTO.

00 08 27 10

CC: Okay, Jack. I guess that you - we're not quite sure what you said or meant there - or what - what it is. In the Flight Plan itself, we want H₂ HEATERS 1 and 2 to AUTO, and we want H₂ FANS, on tank 3 only, to AUTO. They're three there for H₂ tank 3.

LMP: Okay. You're teaching me to read carefully early, aren't you?

CC: We're trying. The 1 and 2 HEATERS will be in AUTO and 3 FAN will be in AUTO.

00 08 27 46

LMP: That's the way it is now, and consider the fans have been cycled.

CC: Roger.

LMP: According to the checklist, you might look at the third line on 1-29, and look at the H₂ line on the Flight Plan, and see why I was confused.

CC: Roger. We were Just discussing whether or not there was a fan or fans in each tank.

LMP: That ought to keep you awake this morning.

CC: Going to take something.*

LMP: What I was really trying to do, Bob, was get out of chlorinating the potable water, but you wouldn't bite.

PAO: This is Apollo Control at 8 hours 28 minutes. Apollo 17 now 37,832 nautical miles from Earth; velocity 9,667 feet per second. Apollo 17 crew in the period now in the flight plan where they're making preparations for their rest period. Getting the systems in the proper configuration for a sleep period. The spacecraft has been maneuvered to the passive thermal control or PTC mode - attitude, rather. And just prior to the rest period the crew will spin up the spacecraft for thermal control during the rest period. The spin rate will be slow or approximately 3 revolutions of the spacecraft per hour but it will keep the thermal balance on the spacecraft. At 8 hours 30 minutes, this is Mission Control, Houston.

CC: Apollo 17, Houston. Over, Jack.

LMP: Go ahead. Over, Bob.

00 08 31 33

CC: Okay. We're going to give you a little high-gain antenna practice here. We'd like to pick up with the high-gain antenna again so that we can get your PTC or can watch your PTC develop. We'd like you to go to a PITCH of 40 and YAW of 275 on the HIGH GAIN. That's 40, PITCH: 275, YAW; and MANUAL and WIDE. Over.

LMP: Okay. You want the high gain selected, I presume.

CC: That helps, yes.

00 08 32 15

LMP: You got it.

CC: Roger. Our apology.

LMP: Oh, I don't expect that'll be the last time you have to apologize. I think we're running about even now.

LMP: You're missing quite a view, Bob. Sorry you're not here.

CC: That makes two of us. White just said; "That makes three of us."

LMP: What are you trying to tell me?

CC: Look out.

LMP: Who's your friend off on your right, tonight?

CC: Wally Moon, would you believe?

LMP: Say again?

CC: Wally Moon.

LMP: Oh, a Moon, huh? Why don't you ask him what he's reading at H₂ tank 3 quantity?

CC: Okay. I'm asking him.

LMP: In percent.

00 08 34 05

CC: Okay, 17. On tank 3 of H₂, we're reading 84.38.

00 08 34 13

LMP: Okay, it looks like we're reading almost the same nowadays.

CC: Good.

LMP: I thought we launched a little bias, but I guess that's gone now. We're a little higher than that.

00 08 36 09

CC: And, 17, Houston. We're seeing your rates are quite low enough to start the spinup to PTC.

CMP: Okay. We'll see if we can't get it right this time.

CMP: Houston, 17.

CC: Go ahead, 17.

CMP: Does it make any difference with the plus or minus roll there with the - now that you are going to use the high gain?

CC: Okay. Well, the Flight Plan says minus roll, why don't we do it that way?

CMP: Oh, okay.

00 08 38 59

CC: And after you start the roll, 17, we'd like to go back to OMNI Bravo and stow the high-gain.

CMP: Okay.

CC: We only needed the high-gain to just keep a good check on your rates.

CC: And, 17, that means stow the high-gain after you - after the startup. We'd like to watch the startup itself.

CMP: Okay. I was just going to ask you when.

00 08 42 18

CC: Okay, 17. We're ready for high gain to stow and select OMNI Bravo.

CMP: Okay.

00 08 49 35

CC: 17, Houston. We gather you're ready for sleep, almost. One thing we'd like to check at the end here is your O₂ heater configuration. Over.

CMP: Okay. Go ahead, Bob.

CC: Roger. Can you give us your O₂ heater configuration?

CMP: Okay. We've got 1 and 2 in AUTO, and 3 is OFF.

CC: Okay. We'd like those per the Flight Plan; 1 and 2 to OFF, and 3 to AUTO.

00 08 50 09

CMP:

	Legend
	CDR: CMP: LMP: SC: MS:	Commander Eugene A. Cernan Command Module Pilot Ronald E. Evans Lunar Module Pilot Harrison P. (Jack) Scbmitt Unidentifiable Crewmember Multiple Speakers
	CC: LCC:	Capsule Communicator (CAP COMM) Launch Control Center
	...	A series of three dots (...) is used to designate those portions of the communications that could not be transcribed because of garbling
	-	One dash (-) is used to indicate a speaker's pause or a self-interruption.
	- -	Two dashes (- -) are used to indicate an interruption by another speaker or a point at which a recording was abruptly terminated.
		[Editor's notes are in square brackets and italics]