Apollo 14

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Apollo 14
Mission insignia
Mission statistics[1]
Mission name Apollo 14
Command Module CM-110
callsign Kitty Hawk
mass 29,240 kg
Service Module SM-110
Lunar Module LM-8
callsign Antares
mass 15,264 kg
Crew size 3
Booster Saturn V SA-509
Launch pad LC 39A
Kennedy Space Center
Florida, USA
Launch date January 31, 1971
21:03:02 UTC
Lunar landing
February 5, 1971   09:18:11 UTC
Fra Mauro
3° 38' 43.08" S   17° 28' 16.90" W
(based on the IAU
Mean Earth Polar Axis coordinate system)
Lunar EVA duration First 04:47:50
Second   04:34:41
Total 09:22:31
Lunar surface time 1 d 09 h 30 m 29 s
Lunar sample mass 42.28 kg (93.21 lb)
Time in lunar orbit 2 d 18 h 35 m 39 s
Landing February 9, 1971
21:05:00 UTC
27°1′S, 172°39′W
Mission duration 9 d 00 h 01 m 58 s
Crew photo
Left to right: Roosa, Shepard, Mitchell
Left to right: Roosa, Shepard, Mitchell
Related missions
Previous mission Next mission
Apollo 13 Apollo 15

Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the Apollo program and the third mission to land on the Moon, touching down on February 5, 1971.

Contents

[edit] Crew

Number in parentheses indicates number of spaceflights by each individual prior to and including this mission.

[edit] Backup crew

[edit] Support crew

[edit] Flight directors

  • Pete Frank, Orange team
  • Glynn Lunney, Black team
  • Milton Windler, Maroon team
  • Gerald Griffin, Gold team

[edit] Mission parameters

[edit] LM - CSM docking

[edit] EVAs

[edit] EVA 1 start: February 5, 1971, 14:42:13 UTC

  • Shepard - EVA 1
  • Stepped onto moon: 14:54 UTC
  • LM ingress: 19:22 UTC
  • Mitchell - EVA 1
  • Stepped onto moon: 14:58 UTC
  • LM ingress: 19:18 UTC
  • EVA 1 end: February 5, 19:30:50 UTC
    • Duration: 4 hours, 47 minutes, 50 seconds

[edit] EVA 2 start: February 6, 1971, 08:11:15 UTC

  • Shepard - EVA 2
  • Stepped onto moon: 08:16 UTC
  • LM ingress: 12:38 UTC
  • Mitchell - EVA 2
  • Stepped onto moon: 08:23 UTC
  • LM ingress: 12:28 UTC
  • EVA 2 end: February 6, 12:45:56 UTC
    • Duration: 4 hours, 34 minutes, 41 seconds

[edit] Mission highlights

Apollo 14 LM is placed in LM Adapter. (NASA)
Apollo 14 LM is placed in LM Adapter. (NASA)
Launch of Apollo 14
Launch of Apollo 14
Alan Shepard on lunar surface. (NASA)
Alan Shepard on lunar surface. (NASA)
Panoramic Assembly of Fra Mauro - Apollo 14 Landing Site (Moonpans)
Panoramic Assembly of Fra Mauro - Apollo 14 Landing Site (Moonpans)
This TV image shows Alan Shepard golfing on the Moon
This TV image shows Alan Shepard golfing on the Moon
Depiction of the plaque left on the moon by Apollo 14
Depiction of the plaque left on the moon by Apollo 14
Command Module "Kitty Hawk" on display at Astronaut Hall of Fame
Command Module "Kitty Hawk" on display at Astronaut Hall of Fame

At the beginning of the mission, the CSM Kitty Hawk had difficulty achieving a hard dock with the LM Antares. Repeated attempts to dock went on for 1 hour and 42 minutes, until it was suggested that Kitty Hawk be held against Antares using its thrusters, then the docking probe would be retracted out of the way, hopefully triggering the docking latches. This attempt was successful, and no further docking problems were encountered during the mission.

After separation from the command module, the LM "Antares" also had two serious problems. First, the LM computer began getting an ABORT signal from a faulty switch. NASA believed that the computer might be getting erroneous readings like this if a tiny ball of soldering material had shaken loose and was floating between the switch and the contact, closing the circuit. The immediate solution—tapping on the panel next to the switch—did work briefly, but the circuit soon closed again. If the problem recurred after the descent engine fired, the computer would think the signal was real and would initiate an auto-abort, causing the Ascent Stage to separate from the Descent Stage and climb back into orbit. NASA and the software teams at MIT scrambled to find a solution, and determined the fix would involve reprogramming the computer to ignore the false signal. The software modifications were transmitted to the crew via voice communication, and Mitchell manually entered the changes (amounting to over 80 keystrokes on the LM computer pad) just in time.

A second problem occurred during the powered descent, when the LM radar altimeter failed to lock automatically onto the moon's surface. This was later determined to be an unintended consequence of the software patch. After the astronauts cycled the landing radar breaker, the unit successfully acquired a signal, but again just in the nick of time. Shepard then manually landed the LM closer to its intended target than any of the other five moon landing missions.

After landing in the Fra Mauro formation - the destination for Apollo 13 - Shepard and Mitchell took two moon walks, adding new seismic studies to the by now familiar Apollo experiment package, and using a "lunar rickshaw" pull cart to carry their equipment. Roosa, meanwhile, took pictures from on board command module "Kitty Hawk" in lunar orbit.

The second moonwalk, or EVA, was intended to reach the rim of the 1,000 foot (300 m) wide Cone Crater. However, the two astronauts were not able to find the rim amid the rolling terrain of the crater's slopes. Later analysis, using the pictures that they took, determined that they had come within 65 feet of the crater's rim.

Shepard and Mitchell deployed and activated various scientific instruments and experiments and collected almost 100 pounds (45 kg) of lunar samples for return to earth. Other Apollo 14 achievements included: first use of Mobile Equipment Transporter (MET); largest payload placed in lunar orbit; longest distance traversed on the lunar surface; largest payload returned from the lunar surface; longest lunar surface stay time (33 hours); longest lunar surface EVA (9 hours and 17 minutes); first use of shortened lunar orbit rendezvous techniques; first use of color TV with new vidicon tube on lunar surface; and first extensive orbital science period conducted during CSM solo operations.

On the way back to Earth, the crew conducted the first U.S. materials processing experiments in space. The Apollo 14 astronauts were the last lunar explorers to be quarantined on their return from the Moon.

Shepard and Mitchell named their landing site Fra Mauro Base, and this designation is recognized by the International Astronomical Union (depicted in Latin on lunar maps as Statio Fra Mauro).

[edit] Mission notes

 Trivia sections are discouraged under Wikipedia guidelines.
The article could be improved by integrating relevant items and removing inappropriate ones.
  • Shepard is the only astronaut from Project Mercury (the original Mercury Seven astronauts) to reach the Moon. Another of the original seven, Gordon Cooper, had originally been scheduled to command the mission, but according to Chaikin, his casual attitude toward training, along with problems with NASA hierarchy (reaching all the way back to the Mercury-Atlas 9 flight) resulted in his relief.
  • James McDivitt, the commander of Apollo 9, who would have been either the prime crew Lunar Module Pilot or the backup crew commander was unwilling to take a secondary role in the mission.
  • Shepard brought a makeshift six iron golf club and two golf balls to the Moon, and took several swings (one-handed, due to the limited flexibility of the EVA suit). He exuberantly, and somewhat whimsically, exclaimed that the second ball went "miles and miles and miles" in the lunar gravity, but later estimated it actually went 200 to 400 yards (180 to 365 meters). Mitchell then used a lunar scoop handle as a javelin, creating the first 'Lunar Olympics'.
  • Shepard's moonwalking suit was the first to incorporate red bands on the arms and legs and a red stripe on the top of the lunar EVA sunshade "hood", so as to allow easy identification of the commander while on the surface; on the Apollo 12 pictures, it had been almost impossible to distinguish between the two crewmen, causing a great deal of confusion. This feature was on Jim Lovell's Apollo 13 suit, but because of the accident, this was not used. It was used on the remaining three Apollo flights and is used on both the U.S. and Russian spacesuits on both the Space Shuttle and International Space Station.
  • As of 2008, Mitchell is the only surviving member of the crew; Roosa died in 1994 from pancreatitis and Shepard in 1998 from leukemia.
  • Roosa, who worked in forestry in his youth, took several hundred tree seeds on the flight. These were germinated after return to earth, and widely distributed around the world as commemorative Moon Trees.
  • The mission was a personal triumph for Shepard, who had battled back from Ménière’s disease which grounded him from 1964 to 1968. He and his crew were originally scheduled to fly on Apollo 13, but in 1969 NASA Administrators switched the scheduled crews for Apollo 13 and 14. This was done to place the more experienced Apollo 8 veteran James Lovell in command of what would have been the first lunar landing attempt if both Apollo 11 and Apollo 12 had failed to successfully land.
  • The crew got some good-natured razzing in the astronaut office as the first "all-rookie" Apollo crew (Shepard's 1961 flight on Freedom 7 was a suborbital flight). However, the problems they faced with docking and landing tested them as much as any prior or subsequent Apollo crew.

[edit] Mission insignia

The oval insignia shows a gold NASA Astronaut Pin, given to U.S. astronauts upon completing their first space flight, traveling from the earth to the moon. A gold band around the edge includes the mission and astronaut names. The designer was Jean Beaulieu.

The backup crew spoofed the patch with its own version, with revised artwork showing the Road Runner cartoon character on the moon, holding a U.S. flag and a flag labeled "1st Team," as a gray-bearded (for Shepard, who was 47 at the time of the mission and the oldest man on the Moon), pot bellied (for Mitchell, who had a pudgy appearance), red furred (for Roosa's red hair) Wile E. Coyote flies in place of the astronaut pin. The flight name is replaced by "BEEP BEEP" and the backup crew's names are given. Several were left as "gotchas" on the "Kitty Hawk."

[edit] Quotations

"And it's been a long way, but we're here."
Alan B. Shepard, Jr, his first words on the moon. Unlike Apollo 11's Neil Armstrong and Apollo 12's Pete Conrad, Shepard had already gotten off the ladder and was a few meters from the LM.

"Think you're finks."
Edgar B. Mitchell. (said in response to Cmdr. Shepard's suggestion to turn back during their second EVA, where they came within 65 feet (21 m) of the rim of the 1,000­ foot (300 m) wide Cone Crater that they were looking for)

"Tell Cernan, BEEP-BEEP my ass!"
Al Shepard's response whenever one of the crew patches for the back-up crew would float out of a locker. Cernan, Evans and Engle had taken care to stash away patches in every single locker and compartment in the spacecraft.

[edit] Capsule location

The Apollo 14 Command Module "Kitty Hawk" is on display at the Astronaut Hall of Fame, Titusville, Florida.

The Lunar Module "Antares" impacted the Moon 07 February 1971 at 00:45:25.7 UT (06 February, 7:45 PM EST) 3.42 S, 19.67 W.

[edit] Media

Shepard and Mitchell erect flag on lunar surface
Shepard and Mitchell erect flag on lunar surface

[edit] Depiction in popular culture

Portions of the Apollo 14 mission are dramatized in the miniseries From the Earth to the Moon episode entitled "For Miles and Miles".

A fictional Apollo 14 lunar orbit mission was portrayed in the I Dream of Jeannie TV show episode entitled "Around the Moon in 80 Blinks".

[edit] See also

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Richard W. Orloff. Apollo by the Numbers: A Statistical Reference (SP-4029). NASA.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

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Missions of the Apollo program
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