Apollo 16

Day 1 Part 5: Settling into Translunar Coast

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 2006 David Woods and Tim Brandt. All rights reserved.

Start of Chapter	07:03
Further discussion of LM surface damage	07:16
UV Photography	07:19
Further discussion of LM surface damage	07:46
CM transcript restarts	08:00
Further discussion of LM surface damage. CM transcript ends.	08:15
John Young and Charlie Duke enter LM to check systems.	08:30
TV of LM exterior - Problems	08:41
TV of LM exterior - Resolved	08:48
John Young and Charlie Duke back in CM	08:58
PAO Summary of surface damage	09:59
Start PTC	12:57
Flight Control Shift Change	14:02
Start of Crew rest period	14:54
End of Chapter	22:28

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 7 hours, 3 minutes. The spacecraft will shortly be manoeuvering to the proper attitude to take a series of ultraviolet photographs of Earth using the electric Hasselblad camera which is mounted in the right side window of the Command Module. We expect that as the spacecraft manoeuvers we'll lose lock with the high-gain antenna and communications will probably momentarily drop-out or become quite noisy until we reestablish [a] solid lock-on. The crew by this time should have completed their what would amount to lunch. They're coming up now on the series of ultraviolet photographs of Earth and this is an experiment which gathers ultraviolet photos both of the Earth and later of the Moon for studies of planetary atmospheres. Also prior to what will amount to their evening meal or dinner the crew will be doing a series of mid-course navigation sightings and also will be changing the lithium hydroxide canister and setting the spacecraft up in a passive thermal control mode a slow rotation of about three revolutions per hour to maintain the proper temperature equilibrium. At the present time we show Apollo 16 33,696 nautical miles [62,405 kilometres] from Earth, spacecraft velocity 10,358 feet [3,157 metres] per second.

007 04 13 Duke: Okay, Houston. You have Omni Delta.

007 04 16 Peterson: Roger. Copy Omni Delta.

007 16 29 Duke: Houston, 16. Over.

007 16 31 Peterson: Go ahead, 16.

007 16 34 Duke: Okay, Pete. I think we figured out what all this white particles that's coming off the LM. On the - the side that - of the LM that's between this omni antenna and the APS - the ascent propulsion propellant tank, there's a surface that was gray that is now - for some reason, the thing is all strip - striped looking. It's a surface that's really almost perpendicul - parallel to the plus-X [side] of the LM. And it's all tattered and torn and shredded - looks like shredded wheat, is what it reminds me of. Over.

[On the LM, the positions are identified by reference to"station"s, located on X, Y and Z axes. The X-axis is the vertical axis, with its positive direction is from the descent stage to the ascent stage, passing through the overhead hatch. The Y-axis is the lateral axis and its positive direction is from left to right across the astronauts shoulders when they are facing the windows in the LM cabin. The third axis is the Z-axis which is is perpendicular to the X and Y axes. This axis is referred to as the forward axis, because +Z-axis direction is through the forward hatch. The +Z-axis is also used as the zero reference line for all angular measurements.

Here, the crew are describing particles coming off a surface that is parallel to the plus-X (upper surface) of the LM Ascent Stage. The following excerpt from the Apollo 16 Mission Report covers the particles, which turn out to be flaking paint. In the excerpt, the Report refers to the minus-Y, (left side) of the Ascent Stage - both are actually describing the same panels.]

From the Apollo 16 Mission Report "Just prior to transposition and docking, particles were coming off the thermal shield panels on the minus Y side of the ascent stage... The paint flakes interferred with star sightings and were potential optical surface contaminants. Thermal tests conducted on specimens removed from a Lunar Module panel demonstrated that the paint on the panels starts to peel at approximately minus 120°F [49°C]. The predicted minimum temperature of the panels during the mission is minus 270°F [132°C]. Effective with the Apollo 15 spacecraft, changes were made to the vehicle to minimize the Reaction Control System propellant temperatures for the 72-hour lunar stay design case. One change was that 16 panels on the Ascent Stage were painted white. Subsequently, a more effective change was made by the addition of tank insulation. The effect of total loss of the paint on the panels results in a maximum Reaction Control System propellant temperature increase of approximately 2°F. The corrective action for Apollo 17 will be to remove the paint from the panels since the paint has little thermal value."

007 17 25 Peterson: Roger; copy.

007 17 28 Duke: And that's the only surface we have that looks like that, and we continually get particles shredding off from that.

007 17 32 Peterson: Roger; copy.

007 17 50 Peterson: Charlie, we're having a little trouble figuring out which surface you're talking about. Can you give us a little better description of what you were talking about there?

007 17 59 Duke: Okay. We - On the plus-X side - on Ken's side - the surface right below the docking target that runs parallel to the plus-X of the LM and right into the top of the APS propellant tank.

007 18 17 Peterson: Okay. Right below the docking target, and it runs right into the top of the APS propellant tank.

007 18 23 Duke: That's affirm, and that axis is almost parallel to the plus-X axis.

007 18 29 Peterson: Roger.

007 18 34 Duke: And whatever that surface was isall shredded, and - as I said, like shredded wheat, and it's continually spitting particles off.

007 18 44 Peterson: Okay. In other words, youcan see it deteriorating now, huh?

007 18 47 Duke: That's affirm. It's spitting particles off - about five or ten a second.

007 18 52 Peterson: Roger.

007 19 18 Peterson: Okay, 16. We got it, and we're going to take a look at it now.

007 19 25 Duke: Okay.

007 19 40 Peterson: And, 16, we've got acorrection to the G&C checklist, page 9-4, whenever you get ready to copy.

007 19 48 Young: Let's catch that after the UV photos.

007 19 51 Peterson: Roger. Will do.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control, at seven hours, 22 minutes. At [the] present time the LM Systems Engineer is going through the handbook to try to pinpoint the precise location that Charlie Duke was describing on the Lunar Module. Charlie said that they appeared to have found the surface that is giving off the particles that were reported earlier. He said that they can see about five to ten particles per second, shedding off of surface where the coating appears to have degraded, as best we can tell from his description. He says the surface looks like shredded wheat and it's giving off particles at the present time. We haven't pin pointed precisely what location he's talking about although we expect the LM systems expert engineer will come up with that location from the description shortly. And then the procedure will be to determine what if any effect the loss of that coating might have. Presumbly the concern if any exists would be for thermal considerations. Most of those coatings are on there to maintain the proper temperature conditions within the vehicle.

007 24 31 Peterson: 16, Houston.

007 24 34 Young: Go ahead.

007 24 36 Peterson: Roger. On panel 382, the Primary Glycol Evap(orator) Inlet Temp valve, we want to adjust it slowly to get that temp to about - to Evap out to about 45 degrees.

007 24 51 Young: You want us (garble)

007 24 52 Peterson: And you'll have to go toward them.

007 24 54 Young: You want us to go into manual and set the evaporator - you want to set the temperature - to 45 with the manual while we have the waterboiler going, is that correct?

007 25 12 Peterson: That's affirmative.

007 25 24 Peterson: 16, you can go ahead and set it. Move it toward Max, and you'll have to go pretty slow with it.

007 25 28 Young: Okay. Can we stand by just a minute?

007 25 31 Peterson: Affirmative.

007 25 32 Young: Thanks. I got to open up that panel and all that stuff.

007 25 35 Peterson: Roger.

007 34 41 Peterson: 16, Houston. Can you go Manual on the High Gain?

007 34 45 Duke: Roger.

007 34 58 Peterson: Charlie, it was in Reacq, and it was drifting around.

007 35 05 Duke: Okay, it's in Manual now.

007 35 08 Peterson: Roger. We got it.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 7 hours, 38 minutes. We appear to pin down on the diagrams a little more precisely where the thermal skins that Charlie Duke described shredded and spitting off particles are located. Perhaps the best way to describe this would be to ask you to visualize the Lunar Module as if you were looking at the Ascent Stage of the LM facing the porch - the front porch - or the part of the LM that looks like a face, and visualize the docking target, which is on an upper surface slightly behind and to the left of the commander's position. The panels extend downward from this docking target would involve several square feet of surface area downward to the bulbus tank that is underneath thermal skins and that protrude from the right side of the Lunar Module. We have very little data on the Lunar Module at the present time. The only data that we're monitoring is the amount of power being transferred from the Command Module to the Lunar Module. So we have very little information to go on in assessing what the affect might be. As I mentioned previously, the primary purpose of these skins, which are generally consist - although they vary from place to place on the LM - generally consist of layers of coated mylar capton, which are thin plastic-like materials - the sole purpose of which is to maintain the proper temperature conditions for the equipment tanks and so on that are underneath. Among the equipment underneath this section of the Lunar Module, is RCS System A, oxidizer and helium tanks - we understand also there is a water tank in that area. We are investigating or discussing the possibility that a leaking tank might have something to do with shredding of the material - I think that the primary concern at this time is what is causing the material to shred. Among the things that have been discussed are turning the TV on, getting the people on the ground a look, the response that Flight Director Pete Frank got to that suggestion was it probably wouldn't do us a great deal of good, although that one is still an open possibility. And the LM systems engineer is continuing to evaluate the situation and we'll be coming back with additional recommendations. At the present time Apollo 16 is 37,181 nautical miles [68,859 kilometres] from Earth. The spacecraft velocity is down now to 9,826 feet [2,995 metres] per second.

007 41 29 Mattingly: Houston, is that close enough on the evap temp? Looks like I can't hit 45; I can hit 43 or about 46 or 7.

007 41 42 Peterson: Affirmative, 16. That looks good enough.

007 46 26 Peterson: 16, Houston. On this panel that you were looking at that the particles are coming off of. That's not a hard piece of structure there; that's just a thermal protection covering - a standoff - that's over the top of the RCS A system tanks. And all the RCS [System] A tanks are under there, and what we're concerned about is that one of those tanks may be leaking and affecting that thermal protection blanket on top.

007 47 20 Mattingly: Okay.

007 47 24 Peterson: Okay, we are considering the possibility of taking a look ...

007 47 28 Mattingly: The - Don...

007 47 29 Peterson: ...at the tank systems.

007 47 30 Mattingly: I'm not sure. The picture that we are trying to paint here is like you had painted something and then all the paint started to peel off. It's all stripping off like an old, real - like you painted an old barn and had the paint come off of it. And it's all standing out. You can see it - kind of released from the surface. And I don't know if that fits your picture or not.

007 47 41 Peterson: Roger. I think that's the way we understand it. Are you still getting those particles coming off pretty fast there now?

007 47 48 Mattingly: They're not coming off as fast as they were awhile back, but maybe that's our Sun angle has changed, making them not quite as obvious.

007 47 55 Peterson: Roger.

Public Affairs Officer: That last description came from Ken Mattingly. Ken describing the appearance of that thermal skin as looking like an old barn in need of paint, where the paint or whatever the coating is, is lifting up and kinda peeling back.

Public Affairs Officer: And [the] systems engineer who has done a bit more digging into the nature of the skins at that portion - at that part on the LM describes it as an aluminum skin about 4 mils [0.1 millimetre] thick and painted. So that would go along with the crews description of the peeling. This, as we mentioned previously, the skins at various portions on the LM differ typically they would be the mylar type of material, but there are also skins that are aluminum.

007 51 31 Mattingly: Hey, Don. We're ready to - looks like we ought to be deactivating the primary evaporator. Did you want us to keep it on for awhile or something?

007 51 40 Peterson: Stand by a minute. Negative, Ken. You can go ahead and shut her down.

007 51 50 Mattingly: All righty.

007 53 47 Mattingly: Okay, Don. We've got the evaporator secured.

007 53 51 Peterson: Roger; copy.

007 56 24 Peterson: 16, Houston. On that Panel 382, in the manual control, the mixing valve, looks like we are going to have to play with that valve every time we change attitudes. So you might just leave that panel open or closed, for the two of the fasteners, so it will be easy to get into.

007 56 41 Mattingly: Okay. Looks like that's going to be fun around the Moon, doesn't it?

007 56 47 Peterson: Roger. We are looking at that right now, Ken.

007 56 55 Mattingly: All right.

[CM Tape transcript restarts at 008 00 58]

008 00 58 Mattingly (onboard): - - here now?

008 00 59 Young (onboard): Supposed to. Trying to get it in the (garble)

008 01 04 Mattingly (onboard): I'll get the second one up. How about a - an antenna angle of minus 85 and Yaw 153. Minus 85 -

008 01 19 Duke (onboard): Okay.

008 01 20 Mattingly (onboard): Yaw 153. Is it (garble)?

008 01 26 Duke (onboard): No. We got comm.

008 01 28 Mattingly (onboard): Oh! I bet that's what I heard.

008 01 44 Mattingly (onboard): (Sigh) Well, I can see I was wrong.

008 01 51 Duke (onboard): In what?

008 01 53 Mattingly (onboard): The only guys that don't understand space flight are not the flight planners (laughter).

008 01 59 Young (onboard): Yeah. The food people.

008 02 01 Duke (onboard): I'll say.

008 02 02 Mattingly (onboard): (Laughter) They is other folks in that operation that don't understand. Well, let's see. I guess you got to cut this thing first.

008 02 15 Young (onboard): Yeah.

008 02 16 Mattingly (onboard): Scissors, John?

008 02 17 Young (onboard): Yeah. I got them.

008 02 21 Mattingly (onboard): The old head full again?

008 02 23 Young (onboard): Yeah. Really smarts. You want me to unloosen this down here? Put it right up here.

008 02 40 Duke (onboard): Okay, I've got one of those bags back here that you can (garble) orange juice in.

008 02 54 Mattingly (onboard): Put that in the trash?

008 03 02 Young (onboard): The trash bag's done untied itself.

008 03 Oh Mattingly (onboard): Yeah, I ain't sure that's going to be an acceptable solution. I'm afraid I - Maybe we ought to use one of those TSBs after all. Let's try that.

008 03 18 Young (onboard): Avoid that one.

008 03 25 Mattingly (onboard): Oh, here come de Sun. Order in the courtroom; here come de Sun.

008 03 32 Duke (onboard): What did you get, Ken?

008 03 33 Mattingly (onboard): I got one. Okay, didn't realize you had one that was empty. Excuse me.

008 03 39 Duke (onboard): (Garble).

008 03 53 Mattingly (onboard): That is obviously not one of the bags for me to fill up and use for my other water stuff.

008 04 12 Mattingly (onboard): Thank you, sir.

008 04 19 Young (onboard): Guess we ought to tape the things. I don't know. Tape up the bags because if we throw them down in there loose, pretty soon we'll have so much stuff down in there we won't know what to do with them. What do you think?

008 04 32 Mattingly (onboard): Yeah. We ought to be able to make some kind of a lid to go over it. Tape a lid down or something? Don't you think?

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 8 hours, 5 minutes. Apollo 16 at the present time is maneuvering into the proper attitude for calibrating the optics system that will be used in a series of star sightings. These are taken routinely on the Trans-Earth and Trans-Lunar legs of the flight. The information is fed into the onboard guidance system and is used to update the onboard systems knowledge of so called state vector. The trajectory - of the vehicle is currently on and this data is then compared with the ground figures. And as the spacecraft maneuvers into this attitude we lose lock with the high gain antenna and have [a] momentary drop out in communications. Again, to reiterate the description that we have gotten from the crew what appears to be paint peeling from a portion of the lunar module thermal skins, about 45 minutes ago or [at] about seven hours and 17 minutes, Charlie Duke came on the circuit to describe the location of the lunar module from which a series of white particles that have been described earlier as drifting past the command module appeared to be emanate from. He said it was on the side of the lunar module between the Omni antenna and one of the LM tanks, And had the appearance of skin that was torn or shredded. With particles coming off at a rate of about five to ten per second. The initial reaction here in the Control Center that was one of the mylar or kaptom skins which is stretched over the lunar module surface for maintaining the thermal control proper temperatures within the vehicle had shredded and it was these particles coming off. This is very fragile material physically and since the Lunar Module does not have to withstand aerodynamic forces these surfaces can be very light weight and consequently are quite fragile. The initial concern was from what had shredded the material. Later Ken Mattingly gave us a further description and also we coupled that with information from the LM systems engineer here in the control center. Ken's description was that the material appeared to be paint peeling back from a hard surface. The LM systems engineer verified that the skins at that point on the lunar module are very thin aluminum. He said that they were four mils [0.1 millimetres] thick and are painted which would indicate that the skin itself - the aluminum structure - is not damaged, but the paint which is also on there for thermal purposes is apparently peeling back. At the present time we're continuing to evaluate what affects that might have thermally on the equipment beneath the area. The panels the thermal skins are over RCS System A - one of the two RCS systems tanks. The oxidizer tank, helium tank and also water tank was reported in that area. One of the things that has been discussed and is still under consideration is the possibility of having the crew enter the Lunar Module and power it up enough to give us a look at some of those systems and perhaps allow us to draw some further conclusions as to what might be: happening. And as we mentioned previously the only measurements that we have on the Lunar Module at the present time are the power measurements. We're monitoring the amount of power that is being supplied from the Command Module to the Lunar Module.

008 04 40 Young (onboard): Sock me a pill. Is there any left?

008 04 42 Duke (onboard): Yeah. Here's one right here.

008 04 56 Duke (onboard): Here you go.

008 04 57 Young (onboard): Okay. What do you have to do? Take it loose, or just -

008 05 02 Duke (onboard): Yeah. I guess. Take the paper off that thing?

008 05 08 Mattingly (onboard): No, no. No. Just stick it in the way it is.

008 05 10 Duke (onboard): Oh, really?

008 05 11 Mattingly (onboard): Yeah.

008 05 12 Duke (onboard): Hmm; I took the paper off.

008 05 13 Mattingly (onboard): No, you don't need to. You pull it out - just pull the thing out and stuff it in there and it'll be fine.

008 05 17 Young (onboard): It's not edible paper, huh?

008 05 21 Duke (onboard): I'm thinking about sticking a window shade in over here.

008 05 25 Mattingly (onboard): Yeah, you ought to have a little Sun. Well, it's really - ought to end up in here.

008 05 28 Duke (onboard): What?

008 05 29 Mattingly (onboard): Yeah.

008 05 30 Duke (onboard): The Sun?

008 05 31 Mattingly (onboard): Yeah. If you want to put that window shade in, it wouldn't be a - it would be an appropriate thing, I bet. Looks like we're about ready to - Well, we're on Omni B now (garble). maybe the high gain would pick up. Well, it's fluctuating back and forth.

008 06 06 Young (onboard): Just leave those bags out until we get a whole mess of them, and then we'll put them all in the cupboard and stuff them in there.

008 06 12 Duke (onboard): Yeah.

008 06 32 Mattingly (onboard): That is going to be a bright bear out there, isn't it?

008 06 34 Duke (onboard): Yeah.

008 06 35 Young (onboard): Yeah (garble). What are we doing?

008 06 38 Mattingly (onboard): We're getting ready to go - do a P23. I - You trying to close it or open it?

008 06 42 Duke (onboard): I was trying to close it.

008 06 43 Mattingly (onboard): Okay.

008 06 44 Duke (onboard): Go ahead.

008 06 45 Mattingly (onboard): I'll get it. Boy, that comm is less than optimum.

008 07 25 Mattingly (onboard): Okay, now. Looks like I'd better heat up that evaporator, huh?

008 07 31 Duke (onboard): That's falling off a little bit. See?

008 07 33 Mattingly (onboard): Okay. I hate to - (garble) if I put some Velcro on it - a little bit.

008 07 55 Young (onboard): Okay, Ken. You want to get down here and P23 your way through this thing?

008 07 59 Mattingly (onboard): Yes, sir. I'll be down there in just a second.

008 08 05 Young (onboard): Being a big manual guy, huh?

008 08 08 Mattingly (onboard): Huh?

008 08 48 Peterson: 16, Houston. Go to High Gain.

008 08 09 Young (onboard): Being a big manual person?

008 08 17 Mattingly (onboard): Okay, here's two (garble). You're gonna have to screw in this thing, it looks like. It's really bad that we have to play with that thing. Can you - did we stop it in the attitude?

008 08 31 Duke (onboard): Yeah, we're here.

008 08 32 Mattingly (onboard): Okay. Do you think we're gonna - you gonna be able to work on that food business while I'm down here?

008 08 42 Young (onboard): Yeah, maybe. I don't know.

008 08 46 Mattingly (onboard): I can probably work on this thing by myself, if I - Darned umbilicals.

008 08 53 Duke (onboard): Hey, Ken, could you put that in the jettison bag?

008 08 55 Mattingly (onboard): Yes, sir, (garble)

008 08 56 Duke (onboard): When you get a chance?

008 08 57 Mattingly (onboard): What is it?

008 08 58 Duke (onboard): It's all those screws and -

008 09 00 Mattingly (onboard): Oh, yeah. I was gonna - you got to wrap up this tape hanging down.

008 09 09 Duke (onboard): Well, you need - Here's two more that came off.

008 09 l0 Mattingly (onboard): Oh, wait - wait a minute, I'll get some tape to hold it together.

008 09 29 Young (onboard): You've got - What? Is yours off over there, too, Charlie?

008 09 33 Duke (onboard): What's off?

008 09 34 Young (onboard): Oh, just - is it just over here underneath the docking ring that it's off?

008 09 38 Duke (onboard): Yeah. Well, I can see the edge of that panel over here and over there.

008 10 26 Peterson: 16, go High Gain.

008 10 27 Young (onboard): Yeah, it looks like some more of that gray stuff come off of it.

008 10 39 Peterson: 16, Houston. Give us a High Gain Antenna.

008 10 48 Mattingly (onboard): Okay, John. I'm gonna see what I can do here. Let me see if I can find me a G&C Checklist, P23.

008 11 23 Mattingly (onboard): By golly, it's right there. Some things we do pretty well, I guess. This program has figured out how to find stars.

008 11 39 Young (onboard): Well, I'll tell you something, you guys. There may be a star out there, but I sure don't see it.

008 11 45 Mattingly (onboard): Even in the sextant?

008 11 46 Young (onboard): Oh, yeah, it's right in the middle of the sextant.

008 11 47 Mattingly (onboard): What'd you get for (garble)...

008 11 48 Young (onboard): It's (garble).

008 11 49 Duke (onboard): (Garble).

008 11 50 Young (onboard): Sure ain't in the telescope, Ken.

008 11 51 Duke (onboard): Oh...

008 11 52 Young (onboard): It's right in the sextant...

008 11 53 Duke (onboard): Oh, yeah; and it's fantastic.

008 11 54 Mattingly (onboard): But there's...

008 11 55 Duke (onboard): Oh, it's just great.

008 11 57 Mattingly (onboard): But there's just - that telescope is just useless unless you want to look at the quad or the radar.

008 12 01 Young (onboard): Yeah, but what star is it?

008 12 02 Mattingly (onboard): It's 40.

008 12 15 Young (onboard): Do you see anything leaking out over there, Charlie? Any particles coming off the LM?

008 12 20 Duke (onboard): No.

008 12 21 Young (onboard): Huh?

008 12 22 Duke (onboard): No.

008 12 23 Young (onboard): You see any particles coming off?

008 12 24 Duke (onboard): There are a few out there.

008 12 27 Young (onboard): (Garble).

008 12 29 Duke (onboard): See, you can't see -

008 12 49 Young (onboard): Yeah.

008 12 58 Young (onboard): Whatever it is, it's up in the -

008 13 14 Duke (onboard): It looks like if it had been a leak - in a propellant tank, it would have - it would have - blown up. Blown the whole thing out of there instead of shredded it.

008 13 36 Young (onboard): Okay.

008 13 44 Duke (onboard): Well, whatever it was coming out of there with full force, so it must have had some pressure behind it.

008 13 50 Young (onboard): It's still coming out of there?

008 13 56 Duke (onboard): Do you see little particles?

008 13 58 Young (onboard): Yeah.

008 14 02 Duke (onboard): Does that look like particles to you, vapor - vapor or just a -

008 14 06 Young (onboard): Yeah.

008 14 10 Duke (onboard): Is that what vapor particles look like?

008 14 11 Young (onboard): Yeah, I think.

008 14 13 Duke (onboard): Okay. Here goes.

008 14 18 Young (onboard): Houston, 16. Over.

008 14 30 Young (onboard): They reading us?

008 14 36 Young (onboard): Houston, 16. Over.

008 14 44 Duke (onboard): We've got a pretty low signal here. Let me go to the High Gain [Antenna]. Okay. You got - put it in ReAcq. There you go.

008 14 57 Young (onboard): Got them?

008 14 58 Duke (onboard): Yeah. With good signal strength.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at eight hours, 15 minutes. The LM systems engineer has -

008 15 00 Young: Houston, this is 16. Over.

008 15 02 Peterson: Roger, 16. You're loud and clearing up.

008 15 05 Young: Roger. I see something coming off of the Lunar Module now that I - I haven't seen up here looking out the window. I just noticed - it's - it's - it looks like it's coming out of a vent or something. [End of CM transcript until Day 2 at 024 53 25.] And from looking at it through the window, it is beneath this sheet that's sort of shredded off, and it's right between the - that spiral antenna and above the big APS tank. But this is definitely coming out in a stream right now, looks like, and not very many particles, but they're just being propelled away from the Lunar Module at some velocity.

008 16 00 Peterson: Roger.

008 16 01 Mattingly: Okay. Let's get in there and take a look at it.

008 16 07 Peterson: Roger. I think you're going to have to get in the LM and take a look at the RCS systems gages to tell what's going on here. Do you notice any color or anything more descriptive about that stream?

008 16 15 Young: Well, my opinion of the color is that it's a brownish material.

008 16 24 Peterson: Roger.

008 16 26 Young: And it has long - some of it has long flakes to it, and - but some of it is just little particles.

008 16 37 Peterson: Roger.

008 16 52 Peterson: 16, we would like to have a look at the LM/CM Delta-P before you start pressurizing it also.

008 17 00 Young: Okay. Do you want us to stop the P23 and go in there right now? Over.

008 17 05 Peterson: That's affirmative, 16.

008 17 10 Young: Okay.

008 17 15 Duke: Do you want us to stay in this attitude, Pete?

008 17 34 Duke: And, Pete, you might be thinking about what kind of a - where you want us to enter the checklist.

008 17 40 Peterson: Roger. I understand. We'll get back to you in a minute, Charlie.

008 17 44 Duke: Roger. The Activation Checklist, I guess.

008 17 46 Peterson: Roger.

008 18 21 Duke: We're up to 0.6 on the LM/CM Delta-P, which is what it was, due to our cab[in] pressure difference. I don't think it has leaked any.

008 18 32 Peterson: Roger. We copied; and, Charlie, we want to start on page 2-1 in the Activation Checklist.

008 18 38 Mattingly: Okay. Pete, how about if I go to a wider dead band?

008 18 53 Peterson: We want to - first of all, Ken, we want a roll to 91 degrees, and that'll boresight the aft Omni toward the Earth, and also we want the Waste Stowage Vent valve, Closed.

008 19 06 Mattingly: Okays. now. Take it a little slower here. You wanted to do a maneuver to a roll of 90. Is that affirm?

008 19 13 Peterson: A roll of 91.

008 19 15 Mattingly: Okay. Do you want the other attitudes to be the same as I have now?

008 19 18 Peterson: That's affirmative. That's affirmative, 16.

008 19 26 Mattingly: Okay, I have 91.00. And we'll use the present pitch and the present yaw, and you get the WasteVent, Closed.

008 19 38 Peterson: Roger. The Waste Stowage Vent valve, Closed.

008 19 44 Mattingly: We've done that. Okay, we're starting our manoeuvre now.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 8 hours, 20 minutes and the import of that last series of exchanges with the crew, as we are instructing them to enter the Lunar Module and we'll power it up sufficiently to look at some of the systems and try to determine from the data what, if anything out of the ordinary, is happening. The additional description that we got a minute or so ago was from John Young. John described the particles coming off as on further evaluation to have the appearence of some sort of a vent. He said that the material appeared to have a brownish color, and appeared to be propelled away from the Lunar Module with some force. He said that it was coming out in a stream, sometimes particles and sometimes as longer streams. And the main thing that we'll be looking for when the LM is powered up is the propellant pressures and temperatures particularly in that area of the Lunar Module.

008 22 10 Young: Okay, Houston. We're opening the LM pressurization valve now.

008 22 14 Peterson: Roger.

008 22 20 Young: How does it look?

Public Affairs Officer: It appears at this point that the crew is opening the LM hatch. Total time probably would be around 15 minutes from the time they started the procedures of getting into the LM until they're in and began turning on some of the switches so that we can look at those Lunar Module systems.

008 23 09 Peterson: Ken, we're also thinking about trying to get some TV looks at that venting condition, if it doesn't interfere with the activation.

008 23 19 Mattingly: Okay. I'll tell you what. We've stowed the camera aftwards. Wait until they get in the LM, and then I'll go down and get that thing out. I can do that while they're going in there.

008 23 30 Peterson: Roger; understand.

Public Affairs Officer: Both, Charlie Duke and John Young will be entering the Lunar Module. They're in the process of doing that right now, and at the present time Apollo 16 is 41,141 nautical miles [76,193 kilometres] from Earth traveling at a speed of 9,298 feet [2,834 metres] per second. We have asked Ken Mattingly to get out the TV camera and we expect that once Duke and Young are in the Lunar Module cleared out of the way so he can get to the area where it is stowed that he will get it out and we would expect to get a TV picture hopefully showing the area of the Lunar Module where the particles are coming from. And shortly after that we should also get some data from the Lunar Module which if of course the thing of greatest interest to the controllers here in mission control, particularly they are interested in looking at the propellant pressures and temperatures of RCS System A which is in the vicinity of the Lunar Module where we're seeing the materials - particles emanating.

008 29 49 Peterson: 16, can you Zero the Optics? All you have to do is hit the switch. It's within 10 degrees.

008 30 59 Duke: Okay, Houston. How far along in this activation would you like us to go?

008 31 05 Peterson: Stand by a minute, Charlie. Step 7, page 2-3; 2-3, step 7. Go to 2-3, Step 7, Charlie.

008 31 18 Duke: Okay. We start on 2-1, right?

008 31 21 Peterson: That's affirmative.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo control at 8 hours, 33 minutes and that last transmission from Charlie Duke indicates to us that Duke and Young are in the Lunar Module going through the activation checklist at the present time getting the LM partially powered up so that we can get a look at some of the critical systems and the pertinent in this case in an attempt to determine what if anything out of the ordinary is happening. And as we mentioned previously we do expect to get some television from the Command Module. Ken Mattingly advised us that he would be getting the camera unstowed and in operation as soon as possible.

008 34 44 Mattingly: Okay, Don. They're on their way into the LM now. And Charlie's in there and John's joining him, and I'll work on getting the TV camera out.

008 34 53 Peterson: Okay.

008 36 18 Young: Okay, Houston. We're going onto LM Power right now.

008 36 22 Peterson: Roger.

008 36 30 Young: Okay. We've gone to Reset and Off.

008 36 35 Peterson: Roger, 16.

008 36 36 Young: The time was 08:36:34.

008 36 38 Peterson: Roger.

008 37 00 Peterson: Ken, when you get the camera set up and ready to operate, we'll go to Medium beamwidth on the High Gain Antenna.

008 37 06 Mattingly: Okay, and it's going to be a few minutes.

008 37 09 Peterson: Roger. I understand.

008 39 02 Duke: Okay, Houston. You should have the data now, according to our checklist.

008 39 08 Peterson: Roger.

008 39 12 Duke: We're down through Step 7 on Page 23.

008 39 17 Peterson: Roger.

008 39 35 Young: Houston, can we bring up our RCS quad A and B meter and take a look at them?

008 39 42 Peterson: Stand by one.

008 40 34 Peterson: 16, I guess we don't need the - the heaters. We're looking at all the data now.

008 40 43 Young: Okay, We didn't say "heater"; we said "meter.''

008 40 50 Peterson: Roger; stand by.

008 40 56 Young: I guess we can take your word for it, that's for sure.

008 41 00 Peterson: Roger. We're - we're looking at all the data now, I think.

008 41 05 Young: Okay, fine.

008 41 19 Duke: Our - our System A RCS meter, which is not powered, is at 92 percent quantity, and B is a little over 100.

008 4l 32 Peterson: Roger.

008 41 38 Mattingly: Okay, I'm ready to give you a TV from the outside.

008 41 47 Peterson: Roger, Ken. Understand.

Public Affairs Officer: Our LM Systems Engineer's report from the data we've seen so far that everything looks good. Looks normal, no evidence of any propellent leaks or pressurazation leaks and we're standing by now for television from the Command Module.

008 42 48 Peterson: 16, based on what we're looking at, the System A pressures look okay. We don't see any problem with the tanks.

008 43 00 Young: Okay, but it - it sure is something strange coming out of that. I never saw anything like that on LM-4.

008 43 16 Young: I mean, I'm not normally a rabble-rouser; it - this just ain't - something - something funny going on here.

008 43 39 Mattingly: Would you like to have the TV beamed outside?

008 43 55 Peterson: Yeah, Ken, I guess so. We haven't had a picture yet here.

008 43 59 Mattingly: No, I was waiting for you.You said something about some high-gain things you wanted to do, and I hadn't done any of those things yet.

008 44 05 Peterson: Oh, we wanted to go to Medium beamwidth on the High Gain, and we're ready for the pictures anytime.

008 44 13 Duke: Well, if it looks okay to you ,Houston, do you want us to fire this thing down now?

008 44 22 Peterson: Stand by just a minute, will you? We're going to take one last long look here, but everything looks okay so far.

008 44 28 Duke: That's great.

008 44 54 Peterson: 16, on Panel 16 in the LM, under the PQGS display breaker, and let's push that one in and we'll take a look at quantities.

008 45 07 Mattingly: Okay, Don. And do you have a picture now? I'm not going to zoom in until - until you've got a good picture.

008 45 15 Young: Okay. That one's in, and the quantities went to 100 each.

008 45 26 Peterson: Looks like the TV's in standby, Ken.

008 45 34 Mattingly: Does that help?

008 45 36 Peterson: Roger.

Public Affairs Officer: And we are getting a black and white picture.

008 45 54 Peterson: Quantities look good, 16.

008 45 58 Young: That's affirmative; they're both 100.

008 46 02 Peterson: Okay, 16. We are ready to -to back out. You pull that breaker?

008 46 06 Young: ...back down. We'll pull the breaker first and back down. Thank you.

008 46 l0 Peterson: Roger.

008 46 12 Mattingly: Okay, Don. Can you see any picture yet?

008 46 19 Peterson: Negative, Ken.

Public Affairs Officer: At the present time we are looking at the picture in black and white waiting for the color converter to lock up.

008 47 20 Peterson: Ken, we're still not getting a picture.

008 47 30 Mattingly: Okay: I'm in Transmit. Got a good monitor this time. I got FM transmitter. I got the S-Band Aux toTV.

008 47 50 Peterson: Okay, Ken. I think the TV's okay. I think the problem is here. It will take us about another minute, I guess.

008 48 00 Mattingly: Okay, I'll stand by. I'm gonna have to show you the part we're looking at.

008 48 05 Peterson: Roger.

008 48 29 Peterson: Okay, Ken. Now we are getting a picture.

008 48 53 Mattingly: Okay. Can you see the docking target, and do you have a grid? I've got a grid on my monitor that you should be able to correlate with. Do you have that available? If you don't, I'll just try to talk you in towards the frame.

008 49 09 Peterson: Stand by just a minute.

008 49 37 Peterson: All right, Ken. I guess we don't have a grid right now.

008 49 41 Mattingly: Okay. Right now, the center of my picture is just about on the center of the docking target. Does that look like your picture?

008 49 50 Peterson: Affirmative.

008 49 54 Mattingly: Okay, I'm gonna move the camera up and there is a flat surface which is now just about on the center of my picture, and it's pointing away from me.  This is the one we can see it peeling off of.

008 50 05 Peterson: Roger.

008 50 07 Mattingly: I'm gonna try to zoom in on it, and I'll see the best monitor picture I can get, and you may have to talk me in on some of the other.

008 50 15 Peterson: Okay.

008 50 19 Young: Houston. Our Activation Checklist says leave the Cabin Repress breaker closed, but we found it Open. How do you want to play that one?

008 50 27 Peterson: Stand by me a minute, John. Okay, John. We want that one opened on the way out.

008 50 37 Young: Open on the way out. Roger.

008 50 56 Peterson: That's real good, Ken. Hold it right there.

008 51 03 Mattingly: I can't hang on (laughter) I'm stuck here; I'll get back with you.

008 51 09 Peterson: Okay. You had a real good picture there, where you were.

008 51 16 Mattingly: Okay.

008 51 43 Peterson: Yeah, Ken. We're seeing the stuff coming off of there now.

008 52 15 Peterson: Ken, while we are looking at it, we are trying to get a hack on whether or not there are any jets firing across that surface that would correlate with those particles coming off.

008 52 24 Mattingly: Yes, sir; there are. My A thruster seems to bang on it quite a bit. And we put the LM Power back to CSM at 08:52; I'd say about 15 seconds ago.

008 52 36 Peterson: Roger, copy.

008 53 18 Mattingly: Don, are you guys through with this picture, or do you need something else?

008 53 21 Peterson: Hang on just a minute, Ken.

008 53 55 Peterson: Ken, we see an occasional particle come off, but we're not seeing a stream. Do you see any streaming like John was talking about earlier?

008 54 04 Mattingly: No, sir. Well, maybe - Well, you know, we're in an entirely different Sun angle now, and it's not clear to me that we don't see different things.  Maybe John can take this thing and show you where it was ccming from, because I didn't see it.

008 54 19 Peterson: Roger.

008 54 24 Young: Yeah, I'd be glad to - I'd be only too happy to point it out.

008 54 27 Peterson: Roger.

008 56 34 Young: Okay, Houston. On our monitor, the place where the stuff was coming out is at A and 1 on the grid. Over.

008 56 41 Peterson: Understand; it's A-l?

008 56 47 Young: Roger. It's the upper right-hand corner of that square, A-1.

008 56 54 Peterson: Roger.

008 57 05 Mattingly: Okay. He's going to put it right in the middle of the picture.

008 57 09 Peterson: Okay. Let's try that.

008 57 11 Young: And, Pete, I'll tell you, that Cabin Pressure Relief valve - I mean the Cabin Repress valve in the LM will really give you apoplexy, boy!

008 57 20 Peterson: Roger.

008 57 26 Young: Okay. It's right in the middle.

008 57 30 Peterson: Okay, understand. It's right in the middle of the picture now. Okay. I think we're seeing some of  it now.

008 57 41 Young: No. No, you aren't, Pete. What you're seeing is particles that are floating off, drifting particles.

008 57 49 Peterson: Okay. Can you see the venting now?

008 57 53 Young: No, it stopped. When we manoeuvred it out of the Sun, it stopped peeling off.

008 57 59 Peterson: Roger.

008 58 05 Young: Okay, Pete. I take that back. You can see a little of it as the particles stream off. When they get out into the Sun, you can see them. And it looked like they had the same trajectory as the other ones, but it's very few right now.

008 58 20 Peterson: Roger. Kind of going out the top center, slightly right center of the picture?

008 58 28 Young: Yes, that's about right. Yes.

008 58 30 Peterson: Roger.

008 58 35 Duke: Okay, I was off comm over there. How about bringing the old LMP up to speed?

008 58 53 Peterson: Ken, can we roll to get this area back in the sunlight where we could have a better look at it?

008 59 35 Mattingly: Okay, Pete. We're just about ready to manoeuvre. We are maneuvering.

008 59 39 Peterson: Okay. I guess you'll want to go back the way you came and go back to that attitude where you had good sunlight on it.

008 59 46 Mattingly: Okay, that's the P23 attitude.

008 59 49 Peterson: Roger.

008 59 51 Young: Okay, and ever so often, I see a particle come out from that region at some accelerated velocity, like it's leading the spacecraft.

009 00 01 Peterson: Roger.

009 00 08 Duke: I can't see. For my edification, were all the - the (garble) pressures, the helium tanks looking okay on the RCS?

009 00 18 Peterson: Affirmative. They were, Charlie.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control, the picture we're getting right now is the interior of the Command Module. All three crewmen back in the Command Module, now. And after the look we got at the Lunar Module, on the telimetry data, everything appeared to be normal. We've had a group of very interested engineers and projects management people here in the control center, looking at the television picture. And can see very clearly the panel which had the shreaded appearance what Charlie Duke described earlier as appearing like shreaded wheat.

009 01 08 Peterson: Charlie, we - just as a point of verification here, did you have floodlights when you went into the LM? We didn't show any - any current drain when you went in there.

009 01 17 Duke: Yes, sir. Just like the refrigerator, it came right on, with the hatch about a quarter of the way open. And when I went to All, we had all the floodlights.

009 01 28 Peterson: Roger.

009 01 34 Duke: But you can see a lot better over here when you take your shades off.

009 01 38 Peterson: Roger (laughter).

009 01 50 Duke: And, Pete, every time the - one of the command module, service module, RCS plus-X Jets fires towards that - that one over the hatch here, it really blows that stuff off.

009 02 05 Peterson: Roger; copy.

009 03 24 Young: Okay, Houston. As of this moment, that area is completely free of particles. It wouldn't do you any good to show you any TV of it, because it's not doing anything.

009 03 33 Peterson: Roger; copy.

009 04 33 Peterson: Okay, John. I guess that's about all the data we're going to get. We're going to have to think that over for a while, so we'll go ahead and stow the TV camera and get back to the Flight Plan.

009 04 44 Young: Yes, sir. It's certainly an unusual thing; and,furthermore, it's very strange how this upper surface here has flaked off behind the - behind the - docking target, which I guess you - you can't see that on the TV. I couldn't see it on the monitor. Can you see it on the TV?

009 05 11 Peterson: We get a pretty good look at a portion of it. Looks like a lot of, like Charlie said, shredded wheat.

009 05 21 Young: Yes, it looks like about a half- a half inch or i an inch of grass growing out of the - of the surface there.

009 05 27 Peterson: Yes, we got a pretty good look at that.

009 05 32 Young: Okay.

009 05 34 Peterson: I don't think we know what it means yet, but we did get a good look at it.

009 05 38 Young: Roger.

009 05 53 Young: Charlie might say that looks Ba-a-ad.

009 05 59 Duke: You're right (laughter).

009 06 18 Duke: Did you have a TV picture of the cockpit there?

009 06 23 Peterson: Affirmative; real briefly there.

009 06 26 Duke: That's what I was afraid of (laughter).

009 06 43 Peterson: Okay, 16. We'd like to get the Waste Stowage Vent valve, Open, again now.

009 07 05 Duke: And, Pete, the Lunar Module looks very clean. There was very few particles in it, and that's just about it. Over.

009 07 15 Peterson: Roger; understand. And, Char - Charlie, we'd like to go into the Flight Plan here at 12:15 and delete closing the Vent - Waste Stowage Vent valve, and move that to 13:15.

009 07 30 Duke: Okay; we're moving it to 13:15.

009 07 34 Peterson: Roger.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 9 hours, 8 minutes. Again, to recap the situation after having the crew get in, power up the Lunar Module and taking a look at the external area where the material on the skin was shredding particles were coming out. We can find nothing obviously wrong and that's obviously reasuring to have all the data on the propellant tanks and the pressures, quantities looking normal. At the present time the thing that we're looking into is the possibility of an unusually large number of jet firings at some point from the Command Module Reaction Control System thrusters that might have perhaps degraded or burned the surface or chemically caused it to peel up the way it appeared to be in the television picture. But, I would say at this point that there is somewhat of a relaxed or at least not overly tense mood in the control center and certainly it was reasuring to see all the data looking good when we did power up the Lunar Module. Apollo 16 at the present time is 44,921 nautical miles [83,193 kilometres] from Earth and the spacecraft velocity 8,851 feet [2,698 metres] per second. And, Charlie Duke reported also that the Lunar Module looked extremely clean when they got inside no particles floating around there have been times in the past where the Lunar Module has had particles on one occasion from some docking tunnel insulation that had gotten in there and also have been occasion where when the LM was depressurized glass covers on some of the instruments had broken. But, apparently no problems of that nature as Duke reported the LM looked very clean.

Public Affairs Officer: At the point the crew will pick up their flight plan. They will be about one hour perhaps a little bit more behind where they would have been had this problem not cropped up. This is, however, a relatively slack period in the flight plan. We were expecting to be able to make up the time without a great deal of difficulty. They're scheduled to be taking some navigation sightings through the Command Module optics system. These will be used to update the onboard guidance systems knowledge of its position and trajectory.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control. As a point of interest, that entire exercise in the Lunar Module took about one hour. We reached the conclusion here in the Control Center that we were going to ask the crew to enter the LM at about 8 hours, 13 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. A couple of minutes after that John Young came up with a further report of what appeared to be particles venting from the LM which we enforced and further confirmed the decision to go into the Lunar Module. The crew Young and Duke to our best estimate were in the LM by eight hours, 30 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and spent about 16 minutes in the Lunar Module, during which time we got a good long look at all of the critical systems and could find nothing out of the ordinary. And I again repeat Charlie Duke's description the LM looked extremely clean and that does - evaluation would apply equally as well to what we saw on the ground and what the crew saw onboard.

009 19 31 Peterson: 16, for your information, we're not going to do Midcourse Correction l, and we're looking at about 12 feet per second on Midcourse Correction 2.

009 19 42 Mattingly: That's great.

Public Affairs Officer: And Capcom Don Peterson has just advised the crew that Midcourse Correction Number 1 will not be required. That opportunity for the midcourse is scheduled at 11 hours, 39 minutes and by the time we get around to the opportunity in Midcourse Correction Number 2 the amount of velocity change it appears will be required some where on the order of 12 feet per second. By dropping Midcourse Correction 1, of course, that will give the crew a bit of help in making up the time that was lost in going into the Lunar Module and we would expect they would have most of that time made up by the time their ready to begin their rest period. Apollo 16 at this time is 45,817 nautical miles [84,853 kilometres] above the Earth and traveling at a speed of 8 750 feet [2,667 metres] per second.

009 24 01 Mattingly: Don, do you anticipate any significant change in the Verb 49 maneuver angles due to our slip in time?

009 24 13 Peterson: Negative; none at all, Ken.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 9 hours, 8 minutes. We have had virtually no conversations with the crew since they have completed the exercise in checking out the Lunar Module, some 45 minutes or se ago. And it has been relatively quiet here in the Control Center. We've had no further discussions of the problem, or apparent lack of a problem with Lunar Module. The situation to recap began prior to this shift's coming on shortly after the translunar injection where the crew report of particles apparently coming off the Lunar Module. And at the time it was not known where they were coming from or what the nature of them might be. At Ground Elapsed Time of 7 hours, 17 minutes, Charlie Duke came on the circuit and reported that the white particles appeared to be coming from a portion of the Lunar Module below the docking target, and this would be on the right side of the LM as you are facing the Lunar Module looking towards the front porch and what's commonly or frequently described as the face of the Lunar Module ascent stage. He described the surface as having an appearence of paint or coating, peeling and giving the texture of shredded wheat. The immediate reaction here in the Control Center was one of concern for the possible thermal affects that this might have since the skin is on the Lunar Module, primarily to provide thermal protection to the tanks and electrical equipment so on underneath. And it was also a matter of concern as to what might have shredded the skin or coating. We had very little data from the Lunar Module at this time. The only information that we had was the amount of electrical current being provided from the Command Module to the LM. At about eight hours, 13 minutes after evaluating the possibilities and determining that the skin was over an area of the Lunar Module which contained the reaction control system thruster tankage for RCS system A. It was decided here in the Control Center to recommend to the crew that they enter the Lunar Module, power it up and let us take a look on the telemetry ac the pertinent tanks, pressures, temperatures, and so on. It was also decided to request that Ken Mattingly unstow the television and give us a look at the exterior of the LM. And shortly after this at eight hours, 15 minutes John Young gave us a further report which perhaps increased the level of concern here in the Control Center a bit. Young reported that the particles did appear to represent venting. He said he could see them coming out with some force in a stream as if they were being propelled away from the LM. At this time we passed up to the crew the request that they get into the Lunar Module and power it up partially to let us take a look the other telemetry at those systems. About 15 minutes later, at about eight hours, 30 minutes, Young and Duke were in the Lunar Module and reported that they had switched over to LM power, and shortly thereafter we got a good solid look at the telemetry data. And we know that everything looked fine - all of the tank pressures were normal, the quantities were normal, and the temperatures were also normal. And we looked at the telemetry long enough to assure the LM systems engineers that we had had no leaks and that there were no leaks in progress, and there was nothing to indicate any problem whatsoever. Charlie Duke on coming out of the Lunar Module reported that everything inside looked very clean, and at about that time we also got the television picture from the Command Module camera which Ken Mattingly was operating and could see here in the Control Center a very clear picture of the few square feet of panels that were invclved on the Lunar Module. These are aluminum skins about 4/1000 of an inch [0.1 millimetre] thick, and they are painted. And the description that Charlie Duke gave appeared to be very accurate. The TV picture we saw here in the Control Center indeed looked very much like shredded wheat. The surface had the paint curling up as if it had grass growing on it, or shreds of shredded wheat on the surface scattered around on what should have been a smooth relatively shiny surface. I'm seeing nothing to explain the problem. The last thought that was discussed here in the Control Center was the possibility that some affect from one of the reaction control systems thrusters on the Command Module had caused the surface to degrade - possibly heat or chemical components, or something of that nature, and there appeared to be no problem associated with it. There has been no further discussion since that time, and there appears to be no further concern at the moment over what could have been a problem. The crew is presently involved in a series of star sitings, using the optical equipment, the sextant on the Command Module. Ken Mattingly is performing this exercise, taking sitings on a series of four stars, and then marking, pushing a button which enters the information into the Command Module guidance system.

010 04 27 Peterson: Affirmative. Still with you.

010 04 30 Mattingly: Okay. Hey, let me give you a couple of comments here in real time so you can write them down. Yes,one of the things that had been mentioned was this business about the reflections in the sextant when you're doing P23s, and I've got a - gee it's a beautiful picture of the Earth horizon; the optics are just super, and we've got a- got a -what looks like an inverted - sort of like a mirror image -in the opposite side away from the horizon. It's really quite obvious...

010 05 06 Peterson: That's in the ...

010 05 07 Mattingly: And you can just see the bright areas.

010 05 10 Peterson: Roger. That's in the sextant.

010 0511 Mattingly: And it's about - yes, it's just in the sextant, and it's about - oh, I don't know how to give you a percentage of the intensity, but it is much less intense than - than the thing in the Earth. That's - that's very bright. And the star is - gee, the match between the Earth horizon as seen through the fixed line of sight and the star line of sight is just perfect. It's really nice. The only thing I can't see as well as I'd like is the crosshairs, and with the illumination turned up to full bright, they just don't stand out when the old Earth is in the field of view. When I get them down against the Earth itself, then I can see the dark: line, but when I get it out in the sky beyond the Earth's horizon, I just don't see it as well as I'd like.

010 06 03 Peterson: Roger. Copy.

010 06 06 Mattingly: And, as you probably noticed there, we used that little adaptive short P23 erasable program, which is really swift; that thing just fires these things off, and I don't feel like in any way we're having to take short cuts on the pointing accuracy. The only time it takes now is to dress up the substellar point on initial acquisition. That's what we're doing now, and it seems to take quite a while.

010 06 37 Peterson: Roger.

Public Affairs Officer: That was Ken Mattingly.

010 07 16 Mattingly: Next time we design a spacecraft, Don, we should remember not to put the optics in the kitchen.

010 07 23 Peterson: Roger. Understand.

Public Affairs Officer: That was Ken Mattingly giving a subjective evaluation of the optics and of the program used in computing these mid course navigations. Mattingly noted that there was a reflection in the CSM sextant the optical device that he was looking through in lining up a star in this case over the Earth horizon. Once the star is lined up in the proper position Mattingly pushes a button and the computer automatically notes the time and the angle between the star and the Earth horizon. And from this computes and updates its knowledge of the spacecraft position's trajectory. Mattingly noted that the - there did appear to be some somewhat of a reflection in the optics and he said it's primary affect was that it tended to wash out the cross hairs but that this was not particularly a problem. He said it was not as clean as he would like it, but we can verify it from the results that he's getting which we're watching here on the ground, but he is indeed having no problems, the flight activities officer who is watching the entries that are made into the computer said that the data that Mattingly is getting is better than was expected preflight.

010 16 38 Young: That's the first Mark, isn't it? I think he cycled on it.

010 17 03 Young: Yes, he's been taking a little bit longer each one.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control. Ken Mattingly is still involved in taking the midcourse sightings through the CSM sextant. On completing that activity the flight plan becomes relatively unencumbered. We don't have very many additional scheduled activities and we expect that the crew will be able to make up the hour that was lost in getting into the Lunar Module and checking - checking out what appeared to be a possible problem resulting from that the - one of the skins on the Lunar Module was peeling and the material flaking off and the possibility that something was underneath - one of the tanks or something connected with the LM thrusters and reaction control system was possibly ventin g and as we mentioned previously on getting into the Lunar Module checking things out everything appeared to be normal. The - one thing that we did notice when we had the television on the area of the LM which was affected one of the aluminum panels several square feet in area was that when one of the thrusters on the CSM was firing and in particular forward firing service module thruster that the material which had flaked off appeared to be disturbed and this would cause it to float off or to be propolled away from the Lunar Module. Flight Director Pete Frank feels that the most likely affect of the thruster is in disturbing the degraded surface and he feels that it is less likely that the thruster impinging on the surface itself actually caused the problem, although at this point any any hypothesis as to what what caused the degradation of this thermal skin is purely speculative and we've seen nothing in the data to indicate any problem; however, the skin does appear abnormal and we have no explanation for it at this point. The midcourse correction maneuver which was in the flight plan the opportunity for that midcourse correction at 11 hours, 39 minutes will not be required. The spacecraft is very close to the prelanned trajectory the Flight Dynamics Officer reported that a maneuver of only about 8 feet per second would be required. This is so small that it will not be performed at this opportunity, but will be allowed to continue until the second midcourse correction opportunity at which time the amount of change in velocity that would be required would have grown to only about 12 feet per second. By deleting this midcourse correction that reduces the amount of things that the crew has to accomplish before their rest period which is scheduled to begin about four and a half hours from now and makes it appear quite likely that they will back on the normal flight plan by that time. At 100 or rather 10 hours, 27 minutes this is Apollo Control, Houston.

010 59 26 Peterson: 16, Houston.

010 59 29 Young: Go ahead, Don.

010 59 30 Peterson: Roger; we are going to dilute - delete that maneuver to thermal attitude that's coming up in the Flight Plan at about 9:30 - in the Flight Plan. Also, when you get a chance, we want you to zero Noun 26, because there's a possibility that if you hit a Noun 30 with what you got in Noun 26 now, you'll get a transfer to a wrong place in the program.

010 59 58 Young: Understand. Zero Noun 26.

011 00 02 Peterson: Roger.

011 00 32 Young: Boy, you guys are reading our minds up there, or down there.

011 00 43 Young: What do you want to do, Just go right into PTC?

011 00 48 Peterson: Negative; we're going to do the P52 that's at - down around 10:40 in the Flight Plan.

011 00 55 Young: Understand. And then go to PTC, huh?

011 01 03 Peterson: Negative; we got some UV photos at 12:20 that have to be done at 12:20.

011 01 22 Young: Oh, yeah.

011 13 41 Peterson: 16, you can go ahead and torque them.

011 16 56 Peterson: 16, we got a state vector update, if you'll go to Accept.

011 17 06 Mattingly: Roger; you've got P00 and Accept.

011 17 07 Peterson: Roger. And, also if you can copy, we've got a change to the G&C Checklist, Page 9-4.

011 17 36 Mattingly: Okay, I'm on Page 9-4, Don.

011 17 39 Peterson: Roger; under Baker, column Baker, line 4, change from 11522 to 13353, and, on line 5, change 13000 to 00041.

011 18 05 Mattingly: Okay, I'm on Page G/9-4, column Bravo, line 04 is 13353; that replaces 11522. Line 05, 00041 replacing 13000.

011 18 28 Peterson: That's affirmative, Ken.

011 18 32 Mattingly: All right, sir.

011 19 00 Peterson: And, 16, you can have the computer.

011 19 08 Mattingly: Okay, we are back to Block.

011 19 13 Peterson: Roger.

011 19 45 Mattingly: Don, you folks ready for a little fuel cell purge?

011 19 50 Peterson: I believe we're ready.

011 21 09 Mattingly: Don, fuel - Fuel Cell 1 purge, O2 purge is in progress.

011 21 15 Peterson: Roger; copy.

011 25 19 Peterson: 16, Houston. We're looking at an O2 flow of less than one pound per hour, and we'd like to know if you have closed the waste storage vent valve.

011 25 32 Mattingly: Negative.

011 25 34 Peterson: Roger; understand negative.

011 29 22 Mattingly: Houston, do you want us to dump the waste water down to about 107

011 29 29 Peterson: It's already 60.

011 29 32 Mattingly: Okay, ten percent it'll be.

011 29 34 Peterson: Roger.

011 40 17 Peterson: 16, let's terminate the charge on Battery Bravo.

011 40 25 Young: Roger.

011 40 32 Mattingly: Okay, we're showing about 29 percent on our waste water, Don. How does that look with what you all have on the ground?

011 40 40 Peterson: Well, we're looking at about 30.5 percent now.

011 40 45 Mattingly: Okay, so you want us to terminate ours at l0 percent; our gage reading of l0 percent will be good enough?

011 40 54 Peterson: That's affirmative, 16.

011 40 57 Mattingly: Okay.

011 43 30 Young: Okay, we've terminated the waste dump.

011 43 34 Peterson: Roger.

011 47 47 Young: Houston, we vented the batteries and it went to 0.4, looks - maybe 0.2 now.

011 47 54 Peterson: Roger.

011 48 28 Peterson: Charlie, did you get a reading on that battery before you vented it?

011 48 37 Duke: Roger. 0.9.

011 48 41 Peterson: Charlie, was that 0.9?

011 48 46 Duke: Affirmative.

011 48 47 Peterson: Roger.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 11 hours, 59 minutes and its continued rather quiet here at Mission Control. We've had relatively few conversations with the crew aboard Apollo 16 in the last 45 or 50 minutes. The activities aboard the spacecraft have been primarily bousekeeping sorts of things. Dumping the waste water. These tanks gradually fill up from excess water produced by the fuel cells and at a given level, they are dumped back down to about ten percent of their capacity. The crew has aligned the guidance platform used as a reference for attitude. They'll be changing out the lithium hydroxide canister that -- one of the canisters that removes carbon dioxide from the spacecraft atmosphere. They also purged the fuel cells, running oxygen through the fuel cell is at a high flow rate to remove any impurities and they are scheduled to be taking another series of ultra violet photographs of Earth prior to beginning their rest period. They will also set the spacecraft up in the so called Passive Thermal Control mode where the entire vehicle is rotated about its longitudinal axis ac the rate of about three revolutions per hour to maintain the proper temperature equilibrium. And they are scheduled to begin their sleep period in about three hours. At the present time, Apollo 16 is 58,133 nautical miles [107,662 kilometres] from Earth and traveling at a speed of 7,604 feet [2,318 metres] per second.

012 01 14 Peterson: 16, could you give us a reading on LM/CM Delta-P?

012 01 39 Mattingly: Roger. LM/CM Delta-P is 0.2, which is what it was in tlhe altitude chamber, and that apparently zero on our gage.

012 01 48 Peterson: Roger; understand.

012 02 04 Mattingly: And the pressure equalization valve is verified closed.

012 02 10 Peterson: Roger.

012 10 06 Peterson: 16, Houston. On this UV photography, we want to be sure we go Mode, Free. I think last time, we didn't get that.

012 10 20 Mattingly: No, we did get it last time.

012 10 33 Mattingly: Pete, on the last sequence, we did go Free.

012 10 39 Peterson: Say again.

012 10 44 Mattingly: I said, on that first UV sequence we had, we did go Free.

012 10 48 Peterson: Roger.

012 17 12 Peterson: 16, go Omni Delta.

012 22 13 Peterson: 16, when you finish the UV photos, we'd like you to go on and start the PTC right away if you concur with it.

012 22 25 Young: Be glad to.

012 22 29 Peterson: Roger; and, in connection with that, we'll ask you to stow the high gain prior to going into PTC.

012 22 46 Young: Okay. We'll stow it.

012 22 49 Peterson: Roger.

012 32 04 Mattingly: Hey, Don, you really can get some pretty stable initial conditions.

012 32 09 Peterson: Good deal.

012 40 45 Mattingly: Say, Houston; Casper.

012 40 48 Peterson: Go ahead, Casper.

012 40 51 Mattingly: It looks - it looks to me like we've used a - a lot :more RCS propellant than I would have guessed. Is it just our onboard readings or is that a fact?

012 41 10 Peterson: We're seeing apparently some biases in the P - in the RCS sensors up there. Stand by - wait one. We'll get you some readings, Ken.

012 41 23 Mattingly: Okay; thank you.

012 44 59 Peterson: Omni Alfa, 16.

012 45 08 Young: Omni Alfa.

012 47 54 Peterson: 16, prior to entering PTC, go Manual and Wide on the High Gain and minus 52 and 270.

012 48 10 Young: Okay.

012 48 51 Young: Okay; you got Manual and Wide, minus 52 and 270.

012 48 56 Peterson: Roger; thank you.

012 53 25 Peterson: 16, Houston. We're going to have to delay going into the PTC until after we close the Waste Stowage Vent valve at 13:50.

012 53 41 Duke: Okay. We're supposed to wait 20 minutes for the rates to damp anyhow, huh?

012 53 49 Peterson: Sounds right.

012 54 40 Peterson: Ken, on the RCS quantities, I've got some numbers for you here.

012 54 52 Mattingly: Go ahead.

012 54 54 Peterson: Roger. The - Quad A is reading 1.5 low; all the rest of them are - are reading high. Quad Bravo is 0.6, Charlie is 5.7, and Delta is 5.6. And our Delta on the Flight Plan is a plus 5 total right now.

012 55 42 Mattingly: Okay, is that - is that pounds, or percent, or degrees, or what? Over.

012 55 49 Peterson: The - the total of 5 pounds is pounds.

012 55 55 Mattingly: Okay. Thank you.

012 55 56 Peterson: Roger.

012 56 52 Peterson: 16, Houston. We're starting to see a high temperature in the subsatellite battery in the SIM bay, so what we'd like to do is go ahead and close the Waste Stowage Vent valve now and get into PTC as soon as we can.

012 57 11 Mattingly: Roger. Waste Stowage Vent going Closed now.

012 57 29 Mattingly: Houston, how do the rates look to you for going into PTC now?

012 57 34 Peterson: Stand by one, and we'll take a look.

012 57 47 Peterson: The rates look good and you can go ahead into PTC.

012 57 51 Mattingly: Roger.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 13 hours. Apollo 16 will shortly be going into its Passive Thermal Control mode with the spacecraft rotating at about the rate of three revolutions per hour to maintain proper temperatures and we do have from the flight dynamics officer now a preliminary estimate on the time and location that the Saturn 3rd stage, the S-IVB will impact the Moon. This event is tentatively now expected to occur at 75 hours, 6 minutes, 28 seconds. And the preliminary target point - we expect that this will change somewhat as we get additional tracking on the Saturn stage - is lattitude 1 degree, 12 minutes north; 22 degrees, 38 minutes west. This is about seven and a half degrees off of the planned target point, 30 degrees west was the nominal impact point for of S-IVB as I said, we expect that these coordinates will be updated as we get additional tracking on the vehicle. We're now essentially back on the flight plan and having made up the approximately one hour that was lost in going into the Lunar Module earlier to check the lunar module after it was noted that paint was flecking from one of the thermal control panels - one of the aluminum skins on the lunar module and we essentially now made up that time with the crew back on the regular flight plan.

013 02 11 Peterson: 16, we're going to let you get in - well into the PTC here. And monitor - the primary loop rad out temps and let it stabilize· and then it may be necessary to go down to Panel 382 and adjust it again to try to keep that temperature at about 45 degrees Fahrenheit.

013 02 30 Mattingly: Okay.

013 02 33 Peterson: And, Ken, if we have to do that, we'd suggest you mark a place down there so that, during the subsequent PTCs you can just set the thing to that mark.

013 04 30 Peterson: 16, go Omni Bravo and we'll take over switching it for you.

013 04 40 Young: You've got Omni Bravo.

013 04 43 Peterson: Roger; thank you.

013 10 51 Duke: Hey, Don.

013 10 53 Peterson: Go.

013 10 58 Peterson: Go ahead, Duke.

013 11 03 Duke: You would really love this sight. We're - as we rotate around now, we've got the Earth out the window Number l, and it's about - oh, almost - not quite down to half. And you can see India and the continent, and it's covered with clouds, and no photograph can ever describe the way it looks. It's really super.

013 11 27 Peterson: It really sounds fantastic. Wish I were there.

013 11 31 Duke: Yes, sir. You would love it.

013 11 36 Young: You can see all of Australia, too. It's really something else.

013 11 41 Peterson: About what size does the Earth look from where you are?

013 11 55 Young: Looks like it's about - it's approximately 4000 miles in radius.

013 12 00 Peterson: Hey, that's a pretty good estimate.

013 12 04 Duke: No, it's - it didn't quite fill the window. Well, I'm not - I'm about - I'm about three - my eyes are about three feet from the window, and it didn't quite fill it.

013 12 15 Peterson: Roger.

013 12 25 Duke: You know, a sight like that goes a long ways to make tomato soup taste good.

013 12 30 Peterson: Yeah, that's what I've heard.

013 13 00 Mattingly: I hate - Don, I hate to belabor the point, but I would appreciate it if the guys that are working Page 68 on the RCS budgeting and all could take a look and - and see if they could determine if there was any place where we were going over more than what they might have expected for that phase.

013 13 22 Peterson: Okay; we'll have them take a look.

013 13 44 Peterson: Okay, Ken; for your info, they said you were slightly ahead following LM extraction and apparently we used a little excess during the P23s.

013 13 56 Mattingly: Okay; that - that stands to reason; that not being able to see the reticle on there is a real nuisance. You can do it, and it's - I guess there is also a certain amount of getting used to the knack of flying that thing around. It's - for some reason, it seems a little bit different to find the attitude than it was in the simulator; but the biggest nuisance was the inability to see the reticle, but if that's where we used our extra, that's fine.

013 14 26 Peterson: Okay.

013 22 50 Peterson: And, 16, I've got P37 block data for about four different times for you when you're ready to copy.

013 23 12 Young: Okay; we'll get it in a few minutes.

013 23 14 Peterson: Right.

013 59 21 Peterson: 16, Houston. We're standing by on this P37 block data PAD anytime you're ready.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 14 hours and we're in the process of a shift handover here in Mission Control. Flight Director Jerry Griffin and his team of flight controllers coming on now to relieve Pete Frank's team. And we do expect to have a change of shifts press briefing. That will begin in about 15 minutes and will be held in the MSC News Center Briefing room. Apollo 16 at the present time is 66,450 nautical miles [123,065 kilometres] from Earth and the spacecraft velocity is 6,990 feet [2,130 metres] per second.

014 02 34 Mattingly: Hello, Don. You still there?

[Shift Change]

014 02 41 Hartsfield: Hello, 16; Houston.

014 02 47 Mattingly: Ah, it's a new face.

014 02 48 Hartsfield: Roger. We just changed over down here. How're things going?

014 02 52 Mattingly: Ah, this is really a ball, Henry. Hey - as much as I hate to say it, this PTC doesn't look so red hot to us. Can you give us any clues whether it's gonna hack it or not?

014 03 ll Hartsfield: Okay. Stand by.

014 03 36 Hartsfield: 16, Houston. We don't see anything down here that's causing it divert - to diverge, but it does look marginal. We're gonna keep an eye on it.

014 03 50 Mattingly: Okay.

014 08 34 Mattingly: Houston, Apollo 16. Over.

014 08 35 Hartsfield: Apollo 16, Houston. Go ahead.

014 08 55 Hartsfield: Apollo 16, Houston. Go ahead.

014 09 16 Mattingly: Houston, Apollo 16; over.

014 09 18 Hartsfield: Apollo 16, Houston; go ahead.

014 09 21 Mattingly: Roger. We just cycled the H₂ fans as per presleep checklist. And Fan number 3 was still in Auto. Do you want to leave it in Auto tonight? Over.

014 09 36 Hartsfield: That is affirmative. Leave it in Auto.

014 09 41 Mattingly: Okay.

014 10 24 Hartsfield: Apollo 16, Houston. The block data - P37 block data for the updates book whenever you're ready.

014 10 34 Mattingly: Oh, yeah; wait one.

014 12 23 Mattingly: Okay, Hank; go ahead.

014 12 30 Hartsfield: Okay, that's four - four blocks. I'll just read them in succession: 025:00, 4907, minus 165, 070:45; 035:00, 7454, minus 165, 070:13; 045:00, 5857, minus 165, 094:31; 055:00, 4879, minus 165, 118:41 and these all assume no Mid-Course 2.

014 14 07 Mattingly: Roger. 025:00, 4907, minus 165, 070:45, 035:00, 7454, minus 165, 070:13; 045:00, 5857, minus 165, 094:31, 055:00, 4879, minus 165, 118:45.

014 14 44 Hartsfield: Roger. That last number was 11841.

014 14 55 Mattingly: Okay; 11841.

014 15 50 Hartsfield: Apollo 16, Houston. We want to still keep working on this SPS gaging problem. We'd like to get a readout if we could on your SPS fuel and oxidizer pressures.

014 16 06 Young: Okay, stand by.

014 16 46 Young: Okay, that fuel pressure is reading right now 168. Oxidizer pressure is in the green, and it's reading - 186 or 87.

014 17 07 Hartsfield: Roger. Understand, 168 and 186.

014 17 14 Young: That's affirm, isn't it? And we were told this morning before launch that that was nominal.

014 17 22 Hartsfield: Roger.

014 17 24 Young: Because - because of a bias in the gage. So we're probably gonna need some kind of a - another Delta-P figure to go on our LOI card - I mean our midcourse card.

014 17 40 Hartsfield: That's affirmative, and it's in work.

014 17 43 Young: Yes, sir.

014 17 48 Mattingly: And I think I show we have just at 15 percent waste water, but we are gonna go ahead and chlorinate unless you think the EECOM's don't want that.

014 18 04 Hartsfield: Stand by, Ken.

014 18 33 Hartsfield: 16, Houston. We're - we're not sure we understand your question here. If you're asking if it's okay to chlorinate the potable, that's - that's good.

014 18 42 Mattingly: Okay. Just wanted to make sure if you ever need a waterboiler, people don't like to put the chlorine in there, so I Just thought I'd check with you before I did it.

014 18 55 Hartsfield: Okay, I copy now. They say still press ahead, Ken.

014 30 21 Duke: Okay, Houston. We'll run the cabin pressure up to 57 as per this presleep checklist.

014 30 29 Hartsfield: Roger. Copy.

014 30 44 Hartsfield: 16, Houston. When you changed the lithium hydroxide canister, we noted a small drop in the suit compressor Delta-P down here. Did you change any of the configuration in the suit loop at the time you did that?

014 31 07 Mattingly: Well, Henry, sometime back there during the day, I opened up the flow line to my hoses that had been turned off and laid them around to try and get some better ventilation in here. But I don't remember whether that was about the same time or not.

014 31 26 Hartsfield: Okay. We're not concerned; we're just trying to answer the question. That's probably what it was.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control. The change of shift press briefing momentarily to begin in the small briefing room in the News Center; any air-to-ground conversation from Apollo 16 will be recorded for playback at the conclusion of the Press Conference. At 14 hours, 32 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

014 38 50 Mattingly: Thank you, folks. Ready for a Verb 74?

014 38 54 Hartsfield: Stand by.

014 38 59 Hartsfield: Okay. We're ready, Ken.

014 39 08 Mattingly: Zap.

014 42 46 Hartsfield: Apollo 16, Houston. We're showing your cabin pressure up around 59. Recheck your 0₂ flow.

014 42 55 Duke: Roger. It's off.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control. During the - just completed press conference some minute and half of tape from the air-ground from Apollo 16 was accumulated. We'll play back that tape at this time and rejoin any subsequent conversation prior to the time the crew goes into their eight hour rest period. At 14 hours, 43 minutes playing back tape and going live this is Apollo Control.

014 48 08 Duke: Houston, 16. Over.

014 48 11 Hartsfield: Go ahead.

014 48 12 Duke: Roger. We gonna turn the voice off - per the presleep checklist. Okay?

014 48 20 Hartsfield: Will you stand by just a minute, 16?

014 48 30 Hartsfield: 16, Houston. Do you have your 0₂ heaters configured?

014 48 38 Duke: That's affirm; 1 and 2 is [sic] Off, 3 is in Auto, and the - H₂ Heaters are both in Auto.

014 48 50 Hartsfield: Roger.

014 49 31 Hartsfield: Apollo 16, Houston. This is for Ken. Do you have anything to report on your film status?

014 49 41 Mattingly: That's in work, Henry.

014 49 43 Hartsfield: Okay.

014 50 24 Mattingly: Gee, Henry, I'm 16-millimeter magazine Alfa Alfa. We have approximately 20 percent remaining.

014 50 36 Hartsfield: Copy.

014 50 56 Mattingly: On magazine November November, that's a 70 millimeter, we're up to frame 33.

014 51 09 Hartsfield: Okay.

014 51 20 Mattingly: And on Oscar Oscar, it's frame 18.

014 51 29 Hartsfield: Roger, 18.

014 51 54 Mattingly: And, Henry, we are going without (garble) what do you think about PTC?

014 52 03 Hartsfield: Roger. The - your first part of your transmission was blocked out. We had a antenna switch. However, on the PTC, guess he thinks it will go throughout the sleep period, and then we'll reinitialize after you wake up. But he doesn't think it'll go a full 16 hours, but it's good for the sleep period.

014 52 25 Mattingly: Okay. The first thing ycu said was we'll go without the tone booster. We'll go with normal comm delay.

014 52 36 Hartsfield: Okay.

014 52 38 Mattingly: That's for caution and warning part.

014 53 03 Hartsfield: And, Ken, did you use anything out of mag Juliett Juliett?

014 53 07 Mattingly: That's negative.

014 53 10 Hartsfield: Roger,

014 54 02 Mattingly: Okay, Henry. Are there any onboard read-outs that you folks would like to have?

014 54 10 Hartsfield: Negative, Ken, I think we're all in good shape here.  Everything looks good at this point. You got anything else for us?

014 54 20 Mattingly: No, I'm just looking ahead, and I've got five and a half minutes to go to sleep.

014 54 29 Hartsfield: Roger. Why don't you take that? Y'all did a real good day's work. Only two things left to do are those two comm switches, the Squelch and the Normal Mode Voice. Get a good night's sleep, and we'll see you tomorrow.

014 54 44 Mattingly: Yes, sir. This is - this doesn't come under work category.

Public Affairs Officer: And the communications officer here in Mission Control is reported that the crew has indeed turned off the voice switch onboard the spacecraft - are settling in for a nights sleep. The spacecraft analysis status report dated at 14 hours ground elapsed time, less than an hour ago. Most of the entries state no change or performance is normal. For example, in propellant usage in the CSM reaction control system propellants, they are now 349 pounds over the predicted budget for this time in the flight. Fuel cells are working normally. Ail the cryogenic tankage in are normal condition. The S-band high gain antenna was stowed at 12 hours 48 minutes prior to the time they set up the rotisserie or passive thermal control barbecue mode in which they spin at about 3 revolutions per hour to stabilize the thermal response of the spacecraft. Although their quantities of hydrogen and oxygen are well within predicted limits, batteries are all up operating normally, with the required amp hours loaded. About a half hour ago, there was a brief discussion of a change - a slight change or drop noted in the suit compressor delta P or differential pressure when they changed the lithium hydroxide canister. These lithium hydroxide canisters scrub the carbon dioxide from the cabin atmosphere. There was no concern voiced however, by the flight control team and it was merely a matter of curiosity. Apollo 16 now 70,213 nautical miles [130,034 kilometres] out from Earth, velocity 6,744 feet [2,055 metres] per second, crew is signed off for the night and unless some reason arises to talk either back to Mission Control or for the flight control team to contact the crew, we shouldn't hear from them for the next eight hours. At 14 hours, 58 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control, 16 hours and one minute Ground Elapsed Time. The crew of Apollo 16 having some six hours, 58 minutes remaining in their programmed sleep period. About 20 minutes ago, the Flight Surgeon reported that from his biomedical telemetry none of the crew was asleep at that time and that apparently Mattingly, because of a somewhat higher heart rate, was probably doing some exercising. For those persons who are interested in numbers and statistics, the half-way point in distance for Apollo 16, that is from surface to surface, Earth-Moon, will take place at a ground elapsed time of 25 hours; 20 minutes, when the distance to both bodies, Earth and the Moon, will be 104,676 miles [193,859 kilometres]. The half-way point in time between lift-off and lunar orbit insertion will be at 37 hours, 14 minutes and 18 seconds, at which time the spacecraft will be 135,502 miles [250,949 kilometres] from Earth and 78,778 miles [145,896 kilometres] from the Moon. The so-called sphere crossing, where the Spacecraft leaves the Earth's influence and enters into the Moon's gravitational influence - this is an arbitrary point in space, actually, where the displays here in the Control Center become Moon referenced - will take place at 59 hours, 13 minutes 26 seconds, and the distance from the Earth will be 178,646 miles [330,852 kilometres]; from the Moon, 33,820 [62,634 kilometres]. Midcourse Correction burn Number 1 was not done, and the present predicted change of velocity for Midcourse 2, should the option be exercised for a maneuver at this time, would be 12.7 feet [3.9 metres] per second, a two second burn with the SPS. This would be at 30 hours, 39 minutes; however, no decision on Midcourse 2 has been made and probably won't be for many hours to come. Apollo 16 presently is 74,420 nautical miles [137,825 kilometres] out from Earth, continuing to decelerate. Velocity now is 6,487 feet [1,977 metres] per second. And at 16 hours, four minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 17 hours, one minute Ground Elapsed Time; slightly under six hours remaining now in the Apollo 16 crew rest period. The spacecraft is now 77,898 nautical miles [144,267 kilometres] out from Earth, velocity now 6,288 feet [1,916 metres] per second. In in a continuing refinement of the predicted S-IVB impact statistics, we We have yet another set of numbers, the lastest predicted impact for the S-IVB stage on the lunar surface is at .93 north latitude by 22.35 west longitude at a Ground Elapsed Time of 75 hours, 6 minutes, 22 seconds. These figures likely will be updated as more tracking is obtained and processed on the S-IVB. Apollo 16 continuing passive thermal control mode, PTC barbeque roll. No further communications from the crew of Apollo 16 since they signed off sometime ago, and at 17 hours, 3 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control, 19 hours and 1 minute Ground Elapsed Time into the mission of Apollo 16. Apollo 16 presently 84,895 nautical miles [157,225 kilometres] out from Earth. Velocity 5,920 feet [1,804 metres] per second, continuing to decellerate. While it may be a little premature the spaceflight meteorology group here in Mission Control is already forecasting that the splashdown weather conditions some 12 days away here are going to be good. Possibly a few rain showers in the area near Christmas Island, some four hours remaining in the crews sleep period. Spacecraft still in the Passive Thermal Control mode, and will be in that Bar-B-Que role for a total of about 16 hours. At 19 hours, 2 minutes, Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control, 20 hours, 1 minute Ground Elapsed Time in the mission of Apollo 16. Some three hours remaining in the scheduled sleep period for the crew. Spacecraft now some 88,262 nautical miles [163,461 kilometres] distant from earth. Velocity now 5,755 feet [1,754 metres] per second. The numbers for the predicted S-IVB impact continue to vary as the tracking is further refined. The latest numbers from the Flight Dynamics Officer give an estimate of impact at 2 degrees 16 minutes north latitude by 23 degrees 11 minutes west longitude, with an impact time of 75 hours, 7 minutes and 4 seconds Ground Elapsed Time. And this will likely change several more times before the actual impact. At 20 hours, 2 minutes Ground Elapsed Time this is Apollo Control.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control at 21 hours, 1 minute Ground Elapsed Time into the mission of Apollo 16. The Apollo 16 spacecraft is now 91 524 nautical miles [169,502 kilometres] out from Earth. Velocity now 5,602 feet [1,707 metres] per second. Apollo 16 crew at this time apparently all sleeping rather well. They signed off just before 3 AM CST for the scheduled eight-hour sleep period. According to flight surgeon Dr. Sam Pool, Young and Mattingly were awake for perhaps an hour past the signoff time and Duke still one hour beyond that. Only two of: the crewmen are hooked up to the biomedical telemetry, but as Dr. Pool mentioned apparently all three are asleep. But it's not too easy to determine the quality of sleep from the telemetry that he sees on the flight surgeon's console. The best description of the quality of the sleep is from the crewmen themselves after they wake up. And at 21 hours, 2 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control. 22 hours, 1 minute Ground Elapsed Time in the flight of Apollo 16. Here in Mission Control, the flight control team of Gene Kranz is being briefed for the next eight hour shift, as Gerry Griffin's Gold Team plans to, makes preparations for retiring until tomorrow morning. There will not be a change of shift press briefing with the Gold Team Flight Director and as much as the entire shift with the exception of about the first 30 minutes have been, consisted of the crew being asleep. Distance at this time, Apollo 16 is 94,738 nautical miles [175,455 kilometres] out from Earth approaching the moon at 5,458 feet [1,663 metres] per second. Total spacecraft weight 103,078 pounds [46755 kilograms]. At 22 hours, 2 minutes Ground Elapsed Time, this is Apollo Control.

Public Affairs Officer: This is Apollo Control, Houston at 22 hours and 28 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. The handover in Mission Control between the two Flight Control teams has been completed. The team of Flight Controllers headed by Gene Kranz are all now onboard. Our CapCom for this shift will be astronaut Tony England. We presently show Apollo 16 at an altitude of 96 103 nautical miles [177,982 kilometres] from Earth and travelling at a velocity of 5399 feet [1,646 metres] per second. Our clock in Mission Control shows that we're approximately 31 minutes away from time of crew wakeup. At 22 hours and 28 minutes ccntinuing to monitor, this is Apollo Control, Houston.

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