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Apollo 15 Flight Journal - Day 12, Part 3 - P23s & More Cislunar Science
Apollo 15 Flight Journal - Day 12, Part 3 - P23s & More Cislunar Science
Apollo 15 Flight Journal - Day 12, Part 3 - P23s & More Cislunar Science
Apollo 15
Day 12, part 3: P23s & More Cislunar Science
Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 2000-2023 by W. David Woods and Frank O'Brien. All rights reserved.
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271:17:32 Parker: Apollo 15, Houston. Request S-band Aux to Science, please.
[Two switches on panel 3 allow the auxiliary channel on the S-band radio system to be switched to carry
information from 4 different sources. They are:
Mission Control want to receive data from the SIM bay at this time.]
271:17:41 Scott: Rog.
[Very long comm break.]
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control at 271 hours, 20 minutes. Shift change is underway in the Control
Center. We estimate the change of shift news briefing for 4:15 pm Central Daylight Time.
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control. At this time, we are going to replay the video only of the inflight
press conference. This will be seen in the MSC News Center.
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control. At the present time, we are replaying the video only from the
Apollo 15 inflight press conference. The change of shift press briefing is scheduled to start shortly in the MSC
News Center Briefing Room. During this press conference, we will, as is our practice, record any conversations
with the crew for playback following the change of shift press briefing.
[The following is a recording of the change of shift press briefing.]
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control at 271 hours, 51 minutes. We accumulated less than a half a
minute of tape during the change of shift briefing. We'll play back the tape conversations with the crew at this
time and then I'll leave the lines up live.
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271:54:22 Parker: And, 15, we have your torquing angles. You're Go to torque.
271:54:27 Scott: Roger; in 30 seconds.
[Very long comm break.]
[Flight Plan page 3-387.]
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272:07:49 Parker: Apollo 15, Houston. If one of you guys is free, we've got some updates we could read to you. [Long
pause.]
272:08:06 Worden: Okay, Houston; 15. Stand by one.
272:08:12 Parker: Okay, understand you're ready. What - the first thing is an Entry PAD. So you might whip out your Entry
Checklist.
[Comm break.]
272:09:26 Worden: Okay, Houston; 15. Go ahead on the Entry PAD.
272:09:30 Parker: Roger. Would you believe it, we're going to land in mid-Pacific? And after that, it's 000, 153, 000;
294:41:37, 267, plus 26.12, minus 158.10; 06.2; 36097, 6.50; 1084.8, 36179; 294:58:37; 00:29; Noun 69s are
NA; 4.00, 02:13; 00:18, 03:38, 07:44; 04, 140.3, 37.5; 213, down, 09.6, right, 4.7; lift vector, up. Comments: 1.
Use nonexit EMS pattern, 2. RET of 90K, 6 plus 06, RET of mains, 8 plus 32; landing, 13 plus 29; constant g,
roll right; Moon set time, 294:56:20. Over. [Pause.]
[The data passed up for this entry PAD is interpreted as follows:
Purpose: This is a very preliminary entry PAD, intended to give the crew something to get them home
should communications be lost. Tomorrow, prior to re-entry in 22 hours time, another entry PAD will be
read to them, then they will make a final correction to their trajectory before the final entry PAD is read to
them.
Landing target: Mid-Pacific landing site.
IMU gimbal angles required for trim at 0.05g: Roll, 000°; pitch, 153°; yaw, 000°.
Time of the horizon check: 294:41:37.
Spacecraft pitch at horizon check: 267°. This is 17 minutes before time of entry.
Splashdown point: 26.12° north latitude, 158.10° west longitude.
Maximum number of g's during entry: 6.2.
Velocity at 400,000 feet altitude (about 66 nautical miles or 122 km): 36,097 feet/second (11,002
meters/second).
Entry flight path angle at 400,000 feet: 6.50°.
Range to go to splashdown point from 0.05g event: 1,084.8 nautical miles. To set up their EMS (Entry
Monitor System) before re-entry, the crew need to know the expected distance the CM would travel from the
0.05 g event to landing. This figure will be decremented by the EMS based on signals from its own
accelerometer.
Predicted inertial velocity at 0.05g event: 36,179 feet/second (11,027 meters/second). This is another entry
for the EMS. It is entered into the unit's Delta-V counter and will be decremented based on signals from its
own accelerometer.
Time of Entry Interface (400,000 feet): 294 hours, 58 minutes, 37 seconds.
Time from Entry Interface to 0.05g event: 0:29 (seconds).
Planned drag level (deceleration or g-force) during the constant-g phase: 4.00.
Time from Entry Interface until their velocity slows sufficiently to allow a circular orbit around Earth:
2:13.
Time from Entry Interface that the communications blackout begins: 0:18.
Time from Entry Interface that the communications blackout ends: 3:38.
Time from Entry Interface that the drogue parachutes will deploy: 7:44.
Sextant star: 04 (Achernar, Alpha Eridani.)
Sextant shaft angle at Entry Interface minus 2 minutes: 140.3°.
Sextant trunnion angle at Entry Interface minus 2 minutes: 37.5°.
The next three items refer to an attitude check made using the COAS sighted on a star two minutes before Entry
Interface.
Boresight star: 213. Since this is not a recognised star number from the Apollo list, we have yet to learn
what it refers to.
Boresight Star pitch angle on COAS: Down 9.6°.
Boresight Star X position on COAS: Right 4.7°.
Lift vector at Entry Interface: Up.
The non-exit EMS pattern is to be used, that is, the entry is not expected to skip off the atmosphere and re-
enter.
Time to reach 90,000 feet (27.4 km) 6:06 after Entry Interface.
Time of main parachute deployment: 8:32 after Entry Interface.
Time of landing: 13:29 after Entry Interface.
When maneuvering to ensure a constant g force (done after the max-g portion of the entry to assure a
constant deceleration), the crew is to roll right.
Moonset: 294:56:20. This provides one more check of the entry progress.
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272:26:56 Parker: Apollo 15, Houston. If you'll give us Accept, we'll give you a very slight clock update to sync you for
entry. And be advised we will not be sending a state vector uplink at this time; your vector is still just as good as
the one on the ground.
272:27:14 Scott: Rog; understand, and you've got Accept. [Long pause.]
[If the calculations made by the onboard computer are to be relevant, its clock must match those on Earth which
are making the same calculations.]
272:28:18 Parker: 15, your computer.
272:28:22 Scott: Rog. Thank you.
[Long comm break.]
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272:37:33 Parker: 15, Houston. Request you trim back to the original attitude now.
[This is the attitude read up at 268:38:02 which they use for the contamination photography.]
272:37:40 Scott: Okay.
272:37:46 Parker: And again, if one of you has a couple of minutes, we can tell you a couple of other things.
272:37:53 Scott: Okay, in - in other words, you want us to maneuver back to the original attitude, rather than just damp
rates, huh?
272:38:01 Parker: Rog; yeah. We'd like to use the same star backgrounds; so that means going back to the original attitude
in the Flight Plan around 271:20 or so.
272:38:15 Scott: Okay.
272:38:16 Parker: Which is what you got called up.
272:38:20 Scott: No, we don't have that called up. All we have is damp rates, but we'll do that. [Realises the Flight Plan has
been updated.] Oh, what we have called up here? Yeah, okay.
[Comm break.]
[The fuel cell purge, due about now, is held off until 273 hours.]
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272:40:31 Parker: And, 15; Houston. If one of you has some time, we'd like to talk about some stowage, please.
272:40:39 Scott: Okay, go ahead.
272:40:41 Parker: Okay, we've gone over the stowage which you read down this morning, and everything's shipshape,
except we have one question on one item and that concerns the stowage of the core stems. The core stems should
be stowed in the sleep restraint that has the CMP's PGA in it. We understand that it's now stowed in the bag on
the side of A-8. I guess our first question is, how many - How long is the core stem at the present time? Did you
break it down, or is it still three sections long, which we think it is on the ground.
[While on the surface, Dave was unable to break down the six sections of the three-metre-long core stem after he
had removed it from the regolith. Three sections are still joined as a pole 1.5 metres long which is difficult to stow
in a crammed place like Endeavour's cabin. Compartment A-8 is on the right-hand side of the aft bulkhead
(against the heatshield) beneath what is normally Jim's couch position.]
272:41:16 Scott: No, it's still three sections long, and we could put it in the sleep restraint. It just seemed like a convenient
place to stick it in the bag over there to keep it tied down well.
272:41:24 Parker: Okay. Next question is, how'd you get it in the A-8 bag, which according to our measurements on the
ground is only 36 inches [92 cm] long and, therefore, apparently not long enough to hold the three lengths of core
stem?
272:41:37 Scott: Well, it's sticking out a little bit, I guess we have to admit, but it's pretty well cinched down.
272:41:42 Parker: Okay, stand by.
272:41:47 Scott: But it's no problem; we can put it any place you like. [Long pause.]
272:42:05 Parker: Okay, Dave, I guess we - I don't think it makes an awful lot of difference, but it'd probably make a lot of
other people happy if we ended up putting it in the sleep restraint. They wouldn't worry about that loose end
hanging out there - if it's not too much trouble.
272:42:20 Scott: Oh, it's no problem at all; be glad to do that.
272:42:23 Parker: Thank you.
272:42:24 Scott: You know, we know what number one priority on this spacecraft is. [Pause.]
[This is a humorous reminder from Dave of what the core stem cost to extract; in terms of time, effort and lost
exploration of other regions at Hadley Base. To him, it is a very expensive sample and worth caring for.]
272:42:34 Scott: We wouldn't - we wouldn't lose that or misplace it or get it rattled around for anything, Bob. [Pause.]
272:42:44 Parker: No comment. [Pause.]
272:42:51 Scott: And you say everything else is okay, huh?
272:42:53 Parker: Rog. Everything else is A-okay.
272:42:58 Scott: Oh boy.
[Long comm break.]
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272:46:21 Parker: And, 15, reminder or a question. Did you guys get the word that they like a pad of about 2 seconds worth
of 24 frames per second at the end of those photos to protect these things?
272:46:25 Scott: Roger; we got that, Bob. Thank you. [Long pause.]
272:46:47 Parker: And if you guys'll give me a call when you're ready to do the Mass Spec. boom test, I'll read it up to you.
272:46:54 Scott: All righty, Houston; stand by. [Long pause.]
272:47:36 Worden: Houston, 15.
272:47:37 Parker: Go ahead, 15.
272:47:41 Worden: Okay, you going to read up the procedures real time on the Mass Spec. boom?
272:47:44 Parker: Roger.
272:47:47 Worden: Okay, why don't we go ahead and do that, then, while we're finishing up the contamination photos?
272:47:52 Parker: Okay, stand by. [Pause.] Okay, 15, first step is Mass Spec. boom to Retract, talkback barber pole for 4
minutes or until gray. If talkback fully gray within 4 minutes, deploy boom and return to Flight Plan. Over.
[Pause.]
[Before Apollo 15 took the first flight example to the Moon, it was expected that the boom carrying the Mass
Spectrometer would take about 2 minutes, 40 seconds to deploy and retract. In use it has proved balky; sometimes
working perfectly, sometimes stalling before reaching full retraction.]
Panel 230
[While operating the boom from panel 230, Al has a talkback indicator to inform him of the boom's status. It
shows a striped pattern while the boom is on the move, changing to a gray flag once the limit of motion is
reached. Stalling of the motor is indicated by a half gray flag.]
[There is a suspicion that the problem is associated with the temperature of the mechanism and the cable harness
surrounding the boom. At their current attitude, the SIM bay is out of the Sun and is being chilled by facing deep
space. Mission Control want to try and retract it while cold and are giving it plenty of time to make it.]
272:48:22 Worden: Roger. Understand you want retract on the Mass Spec. boom for 4 minutes, and, if it goes gray before
then, go back to deploy and return to the Flight Plan.
272:48:32 Parker: That's affirm. And give - give us a call when you get done.
272:48:39 Worden: Roger.
[Long comm break.]
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272:52:38 Worden: Houston; 15.
272:52:41 Parker: Go ahead, 15.
272:52:43 Worden: Okay, there's 4 minutes of Retract, and it's still barber pole.
[The motor that drives the boom has stalled.]
272:52:47 Parker: Okay, if the talkback is not fully gray in 4 minutes, let's go to Mass Spec. Boom, Off, center, for one
minute. That's just to let the motor cool down.
272:52:57 Worden: Okay, it's off now.
272:52:59 Parker: Okay. [Pause.]
272:53:06 Worden: And what at the end of the one minute?
272:53:08 Parker: Okay, at the end of the one minute, we will deploy it for 20 seconds and then Off, center, and then we
will retract for 40 seconds or until the talk back is one half barber pole [stalled] or fully gray [retracted] and then
Off. Over.
272:53:25 Worden: Okay, got you. [Long pause.]
272:53:37 Worden: Okay, going to extend.
272:53:39 Parker: Okay. [Pause.]
272:53:49 Worden: And do you want to pause it off between extend and retract?
272:53:53 Parker: Stand by. Not necessary to pause between Deploy and Retract on this.
272:54:03 Worden: Okay, it's in Retract now.
272:54:05 Parker: Copy. [Long pause.]
272:54:43 Worden: Okay, Houston, that's the 40 seconds of Retract, and it's at half barber pole, and I've turned it off.
[The motor has stalled again.]
272:54:49 Parker: Okay. In that case, we'd like you to repeat the 20-second Deploy, 40-second Retract sequence twice
more and, if gray talkback is still not obtained, we'll turn it off and wait until 275 hours, at which point we'll give
you a call and we'll replay - we'll repeat that. Over.
272:55:08 Worden: Okay, fine. We'll cycle that whole thing twice more.
272:55:12 Parker: Roger.
[Comm break.]
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272:57:16 Parker: 15, Houston. We'd like to proceed with the fuel cell purges now to get those out of the way before the
P23s.
272:57:25 Worden: Roger, Houston. [Long pause.]
[About now, the fuel cells are to be purged to remove impurities in the H2 and O2 reactants by flowing these
reactants through them. Earlier, a heater for the H2 purge line was switched on to ensure that when the purge
occurs, only gaseous H2 at a high enough temperature reaches the fuel cell. The H2 is stored at temperatures
near absolute zero and it is critical that the cells are not allowed to become too cold.]
272:58:19 Worden: Houston, Mass Spec. boom has been cycled three times. All I can get out of it is a half barber pole, and
I've got it turned off right now.
272:58:28 Parker: Roger; copy, Al. We'll call you at 275 hours to repeat that, the reason for that is that presently we are sort
of sitting in a cold-soak attitude. We're going to repeat it at 275 hours when we're sort of in a hot-soak attitude.
272:58:43 Worden: Okay.
[Very long comm break.]
[At that time, Endeavour will be carrying out some more x-ray astronomy in an attitude which will face the SIM
bay towards the Sun.]
[Flight Plan page 3-389.]
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273:09:41 Parker: Apollo 15, Houston. We'd like to go to Ion Source, Off, and Mass Spec. Experiment to Standby.
273:09:52 Scott: Ion Source, Off, and Mass Spec. to Standby.
273:09:55 Parker: Roger.
[Very long comm break.]
[Al continues with the third of four P23 cislunar navigation sightings he will complete today. As before, he first
calibrates the pointing of the optics by sighting on Dnoces, a star, otherwise known as Iota Ursae Majoris but
named by the Apollo 9 crew, including Dave, after Edward White the Second, the CMP of the Apollo 1 crew as a
memorial to their dead colleagues. "Dnoces" is "second" spelled backwards.]
[For these navigation sightings, Al measures the angles between Elnath (Beta Tauri) and Earth's horizon furthest
from the star, Capella (Alpha Aurigae) and Earth's horizon furthest from the star, and, finally, Alphard (Alpha
Hydrae) and Earth's horizon nearest the star. Then, using P23, he can calculate if there needs to be any update to
the current state vector, displaying that result as a change in position and a change in velocity.]
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control. The crew has completed the program 23 midcourse navigation
exercise, aboard the spacecraft, and should be beginning their eat period - or are already into it at this time.
Before we put them to bed, they'll have one more set of navigation sightings to take on a series of stars. And we'll
put the spacecraft in a Passive Thermal Control mode. The rest period is scheduled to begin at 277 hours, 30
minutes, or about 4 hours from now. Apollo 15 at the present time is 101,214 nautical miles [187,448 km] from
the Earth, and traveling at a speed of almost 1 mile per second. We're reading 5,137 feet per second [1,566 m/s].
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273:28:48 Parker: 15, Houston. Al, we missed your last Noun 49 [change in position and change in velocity]. [Long
pause.]
273:29:08 Worden: Okay, I'll show you this one.
273:29:10 Parker: Thanks.
[Very long comm break.]
[Endeavour has been holding attitude to a ±0.5° deadband all day. Now, with the P23s out of the way, the DAP
can be reconfigured to change this to a ±5° deadband, which is less fuel hungry. This is done by entering all ones
into the registers called up by Verb 48.]
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273:39:30 Parker: 15, Houston. Looks like a good set of P23s again, Al. And your gamma, right now, on your vector, is
6.5. [Pause.]
[This means that the predicted re-entry angle, based on Al's current state vector, is 6.5°. This is considered to be
the ideal angle.]
273:39:48 Worden: It sounds like, after a while, we might get along without you, huh, Bob.
[Which, after all, is the object of the exercise.]
273:39:55 Parker: No comment.
[Dave then rubs it in.]
273:39:59 Scott: As a matter of fact, if you guys keep working on your ground [calculated] vectors, they might even
converge to the onboard vectors pretty soon.
[Very long comm break.]
[Flight Plan page 3-390.]
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control at 275 hours. Apollo 15, at the present time, is 96,347 nautical
miles [178,434 km] from Earth, and traveling at a speed of 5,342 feet per second [1,628 m/s]. A short while ago,
the recovery room here in the Control Center reported that the prime recovery ship is headed toward the target
point in the Pacific Ocean - north of Hawaii. Seas in the predicted landing point are 4 feet, clouds are 2,000 feet
and broken, and we expect to have 15-knot winds at splash time tomorrow - generally very good weather
predicted in the recovery area. The crew is scheduled to begin an eat period at this time. Following that, they have
one more set of star sightings to take - mid-course navigation. Prior to putting the spacecraft in the Passive
Thermal Control mode - after eating, rather, they'll put the spacecraft in the Passive Thermal Control mode prior
to beginning their 9-hour rest period. And on the clock that's counting down toward splashdown, we show 20
hours, 9 minutes, 40 seconds now until splashdown.
275:09:26 Irwin (onboard): I'll trade with you, Dave.
275:09:27 Scott (onboard): All right.
275:09:28 Irwin (onboard): I'll go down there.
275:09:31 Scott (onboard): Down here?
275:09:32 Irwin (onboard): Yes.
275:10:37 Irwin (onboard): This is our new garbage can down here, huh? Good.
275:10:49 Irwin (onboard): You want to get those readings now, Al, or after supper?
275:10:52 Worden (onboard): I don't care.
275:10:54 Irwin (onboard): Get them now?
275:11:03 Worden (onboard): Okay. Start out with 5-C.
275:11:13 Irwin (onboard): 5-C reading 4 - 4.2.
275:11:19 Worden (onboard): All right; 5-D?
275:11:23 Irwin (onboard): 3.9.
275:11:25 Worden (onboard): 6-A?
275:11:26 Irwin (onboard): You writing them down?
275:11:28 Worden (onboard): Yes.
275:11:30 Irwin (onboard): 6-A is 4.1.
275:11:34 Worden (onboard): Okay; 6-B?
275:11:37 Irwin (onboard): 4.2.
275:11:42 Worden (onboard): 6-C?
275:11:45 Irwin (onboard): Greater than 5.
275:11:48 Worden (onboard): No kidding. Huh. Okay...
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[The two rotary switches give access to a 'seven by four' matrix of signals allowing 28 different measurements to
be available to the crew. The outputs of the spacecraft's sensors are normalised by the Signal Conditioning
Equipment such that the required range of each sensor is expressed between zero volts and five volts. This
preparation to a standard form makes it easy to telemeter the voltages to Earth, and it allows the crew to access a
wide variety of readings using a single voltmeter without taking up precious space in the instrument panels. The
drawback is that reference must be made to spacecraft handbooks to interpret the readings. To take the first
reading, for example, at position 5-C, this setting gives the injector temperature of the secondary pitch-down
thruster on the Command Module. The full range of 0V to 5V represents a temperature range of -50° to +50°
Fahrenheit (-45.5° to +10° Celsius). The nominal value for this is greater than 28°F or a reading greater than
3.9V on the meter. In the event, all the readings read down by the crew are nominal.]
275:13:30 Irwin (onboard): Here, put it on there, I'll give you a squirt. How many do you want?
275:13:37 Scott (onboard): Is that the soup?
275:13:41 Worden (onboard): Chicken stew.
275:13:42 Irwin (onboard): How many do you want?
275:13:43 Scott (onboard): Three of them.
275:13:44 Irwin (onboard): Ready?
275:13:45 Scott (onboard): Yes.
275:14:01 Scott (onboard): Shit.
275:14:04 Irwin (onboard): Screw it in there?
275:14:05 Scott (onboard): Good.
275:14:06 Worden (onboard): [Garble].
275:14:13 Scott (onboard): Yes. Roger.
275:14:16 Worden (onboard): [Garble].
275:14:30 Irwin (onboard): Yes.
275:14:39 Scott (onboard): Well, we have a lot of drinks for breakfast.
275:14:42 Irwin (onboard): Okay, I ought to change the LiOH. Which one was it, Al?
275:14:48 Worden (onboard): Okay, 23 to B and 21 to A-5.
275:14:52 Irwin (onboard): Okay, going into B.
275:14:54 Worden (onboard): 23 into B.
275:14:56 Irwin (onboard): Okay.
275:16:22 Irwin (onboard): I wonder if any of this food is - the - the irradiated food.
275:16:26 Scott (onboard): Could be ....
275:16:33 Irwin (onboard): One way of preserving food these days is to...
275:16:37 Scott (onboard): [Garble] radiation.
275:16:39 Irwin (onboard): And it preserves it. At certain times, radiation preserves it.
275:18:01 Irwin (onboard): Okay. Canister change is complete.
275:18:03 Scott (onboard): Okay. Very good.
275:19:22 Scott (onboard): [Garble].
275:19:25 Irwin (onboard): That's wrong, Dave.
275:19:27 Scott (onboard): [Garble]...
[There is a break in the onboard recording.]
275:30:27 Scott (onboard): Al, you going to monitor comm? I'm going to get off the headset here.
275:30:29 Worden (onboard): [Garble].
275:32:09 Scott (onboard): Come forward, Al. Thank you very much. [Garble]. Just ruined the whole thing.
275:36:48 Worden (onboard): Oh - damn!
275:36:51 Scott (onboard): Oh, my God.
275:37:09 Worden (onboard): Freaking DAC won't come off.
275:37:15 Scott (onboard): You need one of these, too? That okay?
275:37:20 Worden (onboard): Okay. Okay.
275:37:27 Scott (onboard): There you go. Can I get that for you?
275:37:32 Worden (onboard): Thank you.
275:37:36 Scott (onboard): Ready for it now?
275:39:42 Scott (onboard): [Garble]. Move over some. [Garble].
275:39:52 Worden (onboard): If I were you, I'd go over to the lab and pick one up out of there - a perfect sample.
275:39:58 Scott (onboard): They don't have them.
275:39:59 Worden (onboard): They don't?
275:40:00 Scott (onboard): No.
275:40:08 Irwin (onboard): Dammit, why don't you buy a set of them? ...
275:40:14 Worden (onboard): I might buy them.
275:40:16 Irwin (onboard): Yes, but you'd be taking all that guff.
275:40:30 Irwin (onboard): Feast over his favorite rock.
275:40:34 Worden (onboard): Right.
275:40:39 Scott (onboard): [Garble].
275:40:40 Irwin (onboard): How come?
275:40:41 Worden (onboard): [Garble].
275:40:53 Worden (onboard): [Garble].
275:41:05 Worden (onboard): On the ball.
275:41:12 Scott (onboard): [Garble].
275:41:30 Worden (onboard): [Garble] to surprise [garble].
275:41:40 Scott (onboard): [Garble] 330 [garble].
275:41:49:Worden (onboard): (Clears throat) You going to do anything else down there? Are you going to do anything
down there? All right.
275:41:58 Scott (onboard): ...
275:42:02 Worden (onboard): Well, I've got a P23 to do in 3 minutes, and then we got to ... the daytime. I got to clean up
and change my long johns and take my biomed off, while I got the chance.
275:42:17 Scott (onboard): Okay.
275:42:58 Worden (onboard): Okay.
275:44:37 Irwin (onboard): Dave, I hope we're going to be able to see them unload all those rocks.
275:44:42 Scott (onboard): Yes, I think we should.
275:44:43 Irwin (onboard): Okay.
275:44:44 Scott (onboard): [Garble] time [garble].
275:44:48 Irwin (onboard): I hope so. Yes. They'll just have to hold up the - the rocks until we're there.
275:44:58 Scott (onboard): [Garble] going to have a ball [garble]. Is that why you [garble]?
275:45:07 Irwin (onboard): Yes.
275:45:12 Scott (onboard): [Garble].
275:45:15 Irwin (onboard): Yes.
275:45:19 Scott (onboard): [Garble] mind working some long hours.
275:45:29 Irwin (onboard): How long does the medical take on the ship?
275:45:33 Scott (onboard): [Garble].
275:45:34 Irwin (onboard): [Garble] ship until about what - 6 o'clock tomorrow night? We'll be taking that physical until
10 tomorrow night ?
275:45:42 Scott (onboard): Ten their time is all I know.
275:45:48 Irwin (onboard): Oh, that's right. It's 4 our time, which is...
275:45:54 Scott (onboard): On board the ship.
275:45:56 Worden (onboard): Yes. [Garble].
275:46:03 Irwin (onboard): Yes.
275:46:04 Scott (onboard): [Garble].
275:46:24 Worden (onboard): [Garble] we're laughing.
275:46:46 Scott (onboard): [Garble].
275:46:59 Scott (onboard): I think we might look [garble].
275:47:35 Irwin (onboard): I had it under control. I had it under control.
275:47:41 Scott (onboard): [Garble].
275:48:00 Worden (onboard): We're all having his.
275:48:05 Irwin (onboard): Man, we're down low. The cupboard's bare. Bacon squares.
275:48:27 Irwin (onboard): I don't know if we have enough in there for two more. Yes, I guess we do.
275:48:52 Scott (onboard): [Garble].
275:48:57 Irwin (onboard): Yes, you need a reinfo - forced toe section.
275:50:55 Worden (onboard): I'll take that and get this - Going to use the camera.
275:51:26 Irwin (onboard): Have a 9-hour rest period.
275:51:42 Irwin (onboard): Make sure I'm turned on there, will you, Dave? My power on?
275:52:00 Worden (onboard): [Garble].
275:52:02 Irwin (onboard): What? Yes, if you want to dig it out, it's in the - I put it in that bag. Dave, could you get - Dave,
could you get - There's a bag in my TSB. One of the white towel bags that has all my gear it in.
275:52:38 Irwin (onboard): Thank you. It's in here, Al.
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276:21:08 Parker: Apollo 15, Houston. We're standing by ready to copy your Noun 49s.
[Comm break.]
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276:24:16 Parker: 15, Houston. We'd like High Gain [Antenna], pitch at minus 30, yaw of 150.
276:24:29 Worden: Okay. Pitch, minus 30; and yaw, plus 5 - 150.
276:24:34 Parker: Roger.
276:24:37 Worden: And do you want us to go ahead and try and lock it up?
276:24:40 Parker: Please do.
[Very long comm break.]
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276:57:06 Parker: Apollo 15, Houston. Requesting Gamma-ray Gain Step, Shield, Off, now, please.
276:57:14 Worden: Roger. Shield, Off, now. [Long pause.]
276:58:08 Parker: That was a good mark, Al. [Pause.]
276:58:17 Worden: Yeah, and it didn't update the state vector very much.
[Very long comm break.]
[Flight Plan page 3-393.]
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control at 277 hours, 7 minutes. Al Worden is presently completing a
series of star sightings - midcourse navigation exercise, using program 23 in the onboard computer. This will be
the last major activity before the crew begins it's 9-hour rest period. After completing this, they'll go through the
presleep checklist, get the systems set up for their sleep period and put the spacecraft in its Passive Thermal
Control attitude, rotating at about the rate of 4 revolutions per hour. Apollo 15, at this time, is 89,626 nautical
miles [165,987 km] from the Earth. The spacecraft velocity is 5,646 feet per second [1,721 m/s]. And we're now
18 hours, 3 minutes away from splashdown.
a15_2771549
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277:28:52 Parker: Apollo 15, Houston. You're Go to start to spinup for PTC.
277:28:57 Worden: Okay, Bobby. Thank you. [Long pause.]
277:29:30 Parker: And, Apollo 15, we'd like you to check that the Potable Tank Inlet valve is open, please.
277:29:37 Worden: Roger; understand. Potable Tank Inlet valve, open. [Long pause.]
277:30:26 Scott: Houston, 15.
277:30:28 Parker: All right, go ahead, 15.
277:30:31 Scott: Okay. Listen, potable tank inlet valve is open and has been the whole flight. What prompted the question?
277:30:39 Parker: Stand by. [Pause.]
277:30:44 Scott: We're just curious. [Pause.]
277:30:56 Parker: 15, we saw a drop in the potable at the same time that the waste tank was staying stable, and we were -
just concerned that it might have gotten out of configuration. We certainly expected it to be open; we just wanted
to check it before you went to sleep, so we didn't have to wake you up.
277:31:11 Scott: Okay. Understand. Yeah - we're reading potable at 90 percent.
277:31:17 Parker: Roger. We're reading 94.
[Very long comm break.]
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277:43:52 Parker: Apollo 15, Houston. No need to acknowledge, but we'd like to put the DSKY to sleep before you guys
go to sleep.
[Very long comm break.]
277:38:18 Scott (onboard): Oh, 6:45 tomorrow.
277:38:22 Worden (onboard): Yes. [Garble].
277:38:26 Irwin (onboard): He didn't.
277:38:33 Scott (onboard): Cabin temp, 67.
277:38:36 Worden (onboard): [Garble].
277:44:01 Worden (onboard): Oh, shit.
[Flight Plan page 3-394.]
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control at 278 hours, 2 minutes. Flight Surgeon reports that Dave Scott,
the only crewman on whom we have biomedical data tonight, appears to be nearing sleep, at least beginning to
drop off, and we expect that he'll be sleeping shortly. During this sleep period, we don't expect any further
conversation with the crew. The Passive Thermal Control mode appears to be stable. We're watching the attitude
excursions, the movements that the spacecraft is making about its axis and it appears to be quite stable. Looks as
if it will hold throughout the sleep period. At the present time, Apollo 15 is 86,650 nautical miles [160,475 km]
from Earth. The spacecraft velocity is 5,789 feet per second [1,764 m/s]. Checking with the science support
room, we have some statistics on the temperature excursions experienced by the lunar surface experiments
packages at the Apollos 14 and Apollo 15 sites. The Apollo 14 station went through the largest temperature swing
during the eclipse. It started at 173.9° above zero Fahrenheit [78.8°C], and during the maximum point of the
eclipse, it was down to 150.6° below zero [-101.4°C], for a temperature swing of 324.5° [180.2°]. The Apollo 15
station measured a somewhat smaller swing. It started at 140° above Fahrenheit [60°C] and dropped down to
143.2° below Fahrenheit [-97.3°C]. These temperatures were measured on the top of the sun shield above the
central station on both ALSEP packages. During the crew rest period we'll take the air to ground lines down, keep
the tape recorders running and play back any conversations that we might have with the crew, should any arise.
At 278 hours, 4 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control at 278 hours, 36 minutes. At the present time, we're replaying the
video and audio from the inflight press conference today. This can be seen in the MSC News Center.
[Flight Plan page 3-395.]
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Public Affairs Officer - This is Apollo Control at 281 hours, 27 minutes. The crew of Apollo 15 asleep at this
time. Five hours and two minutes remaining until they will be wakened for preparations for entry and Earth-
landing later this afternoon. Splashdown clock showing 13 hours, 43 minutes until splash. The spacecraft, at this
time, is 74,650 nautical miles [138,252 kilometres] out in space approaching Earth. Velocity continuing to
increase; now showing 6,435 feet per second [1,961 metres per second]. Current vector on the spacecraft still
showing entry angle and Entry Interface at minus 6.5 degrees. The vacuum perigee, 21.1 nautical miles [39.1
km]. Maroon Team of flight controllers here in the control center settled in for the graveyard shift watching the
replay of yesterday's in-flight press conference. At 281 hours, 29 minutes; this is Apollo Control.
Day 12, part 2: Lunar Eclipse & Day 13, part 1: Approaching
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