Echoes-From-Apollo

Apollo 16 Vintage Manual 'Apollo 16 Flight Plan Change A' Dated March 27, 1972

 

 Here is my vintage 'Apollo 16 Flight Plan Change A' Dated March 27, 1972. No real historical significance other than it is vintage. Just one of hundreds given out at the time except that this one survived in relatively good shape. Missing back cover but otherwise appears complete. I was able to replace the back cover with a piece of card stock paper of similar color so that the item appears complete, as seen below. I included some pretty interesting pages from the item as seen below.

 The mission was crewed by Commander John Young, Lunar Module Pilot Charlie Duke, and Command Module Pilot Ken Mattingly. Launched from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida at 12:54 PM EST on 16 April 1972, the mission lasted eleven days, one hour, and fifty-one minutes, and concluded at 2:45 PM EST on 27 April 1972.

COVER

  

 

BACK REPLACEMENT COVER
WITH AGING, SHOULD BLEND IN NICELY

 

 
APOLLO 16 FILM BUDGET - CSM  

 

 

 

 

APOLLO 16 FILM BUDGET - LM 

 

 

 FLIGHT PLAN 

 PAGE 3-35

 

 

LM FLIGHT PLAN 

 PAGE 3-94  

  

 

PAGE 3-162

NOTE: 'PREP FOR EVA-2' AND  
'APPLY ANTI-FOG TO HELMETS' 

 

 

PAGE  3-210

NOTE: 'EQUIPMENT PREP FOR EVA-3' AND
'APPLY ANTI FOG TO HELMETS'

 

 

PAGE 3-232

NOTE: 'PREP FOR EQUIPMENT JETTISON',
'WEIGH BSLSS ROCK BAG & COLLECTION BAGS,
REPORT: WEIGHTS', 'WRAP & TIE LUNAR BOOTS, ARMRESTS, RCU'S, YO-YO'S',
AND 'POSITION PLSS'S FOR JETTISON'
 

 

PAGE 3-268

NOTE: AT 171:45 'LM LUNAR LIFT-OFF' AND AT 171:52:22.9 'LUNAR ORBIT INSERTION'

 

 

 

CSM FLIGHT PLAN  

PAGE 3-103

  NOTE: 'CSM LOW ALTITUDE LANDMARK TRACKING PROFILE' DIAGRAM'

   

 

PAGE 3-259

NOTE: 'CSM LANDMARK TRACKING PROFILE' DIAGRAM

 

PAGE 3-267

NOTE: 'DIRECT ASCENT RNDZ PAD' AND
'COELLIPTIC RNDZ PAD' TABLES 

 

 

FLIGHT PLAN PEN AND INK CHANGES 

 

 

 

 PEN AND INK CHANGES
TO CSM EXP/EVA CHECKLIST PROCEDURES

 

 

 

APOLLO 16 LAUNCH

 

 

APOLLO 16 ON THE MOON

 

Apollo 9 Flown Checklist 'Docking and Post Docking Leading to LM Jettison'

 

Here is my Apollo 9 flown cue card 'checklist for docking and post docking leading to Lunar Module jettison' notated by Apollo 9 Commander Jim McDivitt in his unique green style as 'Flown aboard Apollo 9'. During my meeting with him in Tucson AZ, McDivitt advised me that this 'checklist' was kept in the Command Service Module for use during the docking of 'Spider' (LM) with 'Gumdrop' (CSM), and subsequently for the jettison of 'Spider' from 'Gumdrop'. Apollo 9 was the first flight of the LM in a space environment.

 

 

Here is a picture of McDivitt holding the 'checklist' during my
meeting with him in Tucson. He was very talkative, informative,
and gracious during the meeting which lasted about an hour.

 

 

Below are the corresponding pages from the 
'Apollo 9 Flight Plan, Final'
which mirror the 'checklist'.

 

 

 

 

 

                                 

 

Below is a view of the Apollo 9 CSM from the Apollo 9 LM
during the docking maneuver.

 

Below is Table 3-I from the 'Apollo 9 PAO Mission Commentary Transcript'. This table provides the sequence of events for the LM undocking, testing, docking, and jettison phase of the Apollo 9 Mission.

 

  

Below are the Cover Page and Page 434 from the
'Apollo 9 Technical Air-To-Ground Voice Transcription'.
As can be seen on Page 434, Schweickart and McDivitt were
unable to get the rendezvous radar to 'unlock'. You can see in
the above flown 'checklist' that the RR (rendezvous radar) was
supposed to be off in preparation for the docking alignment.

   

 

 

The below is page 302/1 from the  'Apollo 9 PAO Mission Commentary Transcript'. It references preparation of the LM for the 'long burn of the ascent propulsion system' (APS) and its' 'burn to depletion'. The end of the above flown cue card references the LMs' 'APS BURN TO DEPLETION'. The Ascent Propulsion System in the LM was used to launch the LM Ascent Stage from the Lunar surface (using the Descent Stage as a launch pad) and carry it back into orbit for a rendezvous with the CSM.

  

Below is page 306/1 from the  'Apollo 9 PAO Mission Commentary Transcript'. It references CAPCOM giving the 'APS depletion PAD' and 'LM jettison attitude' to McDivitt and chweickart along with wanting to 'uplink... a state vector'. The above flown 'checklist' makes reference to the 'LM STATE VECTOR' and 'MNVR PAD' as per this transcript page. 

Below is page 308/2 from the 'Apollo 9 PAO Mission Commentary Transcript'. It references 'Rusty' (Schweickart) staying in the LM and 'configuring it for this ascent propulsion system burn to depletion'. The above flown 'checklist' references the 'LMP',  'OPEN APS INTERCONNECT', 'TRANSFER TO CSM' and 'CLOSE LM HATCH'. By this time, McDivitt had already transferred from the LM to the CSM.

 

 

Gemini VI Vintage Manual 'Project Gemini-MANNED SPACECRAFT CENTER-FLORIDA OPERATIONS-SPACECRAFT PRELAUNCH TEST PROCEDURE' Dated October 23, 1965

 

Here is my Vintage 'Project Gemini-MANNED SPACECRAFT CENTER-FLORIDA OPERATIONS-SPACECRAFT PRELAUNCH TEST PROCEDURE' Manual dated October 23, 1965. Although obviously used at the time, the graphics are still awesome as seen on the below cover. This manual was  prepared for the Gemini 6 Mission flown by Astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford. Gemini 6 was initially supposed to dock with the Agena Target Vehicle. This manual is basically a projected timeline of pre launch events.

The original Gemini 6 mission had been scheduled for launch on October 25, 1965 at 12:41 pm EDT. The mission was to include four dockings with the Agena Target Vehicle. Original mission plans also included the first live television coverage of the recovery of a U.S. spacecraft at sea by the recovery ship, the USS Wasp. The Wasp was fitted with ground station equipment by ITT to relay live television, via the Intelsat I (nicknamed the "Early Bird") satellite.

 Fifteen minutes after Schirra and Stafford boarded their Gemini 6 spacecraft in preparation for launch, the unmanned Agena Target Vehicle was launched. After a successful burn of the Atlas booster, the Agenas' secondary engines fired to separate it from the Atlas. But immediately after the Agenas' primary engine fired at the six minute mark into its' flight, telemetry was lost. A catastrophic failure apparently caused the vehicle to explode. Five separate radar targets were tracked over the Atlantic Ocean after the telemetry was lost. The Gemini 6 launch was subsequently canceled.

The rendezvous/docking objective was so critical to our incremental march to the moon that NASA subsequently decided to launch Gemini 6 while Gemini 7 was in earth orbit, using Gemini 7 as the rendezvous target. Gemini 7, manned by Commander Frank Borman and Pilot Jim Lovell, launched on December 4, 1965 and Gemini 6, manned by Schirra and Stafford, launched on December 15, 1965. As a result, Gemini 6 performed the first manned spacecraft rendezvous using Gemini 7 as the target instead of the Agena Target Vehicle, even though the two spacecraft could not actually dock.

 COVER

 

 

TITLE PAGE

 

 

PURPOSE

 

 

TOC

 

 

ABBREVIATIONS AND SYMBOLS KEY

 

 

PAGE 1

 

 

PAGE 8

Note entry 'Primary Flight Crew Begin Suit-Up' at T-165 00.

 

PAGE 10 

Note entry 'Flight Crew Ingress' at T-115 00.

 

 

PAGE 11

Note entry's 'Atlas Ignition' at T-095 04, and
'GAATV Release and Liftoff' at
T-095 00.

 

 

PAGE 13

Note entry 'Ejection Seat O Rings Unstowed' at T-030 00.

 

 

PAGE 14

Note entry 'Liftoff' at T-000 00. 

 

 

GEMINI 6 AND 7 RENDEZVOUS 

Gemini 7 in orbit, as photographed by Stafford from Gemini 6.