This is my 'Apollo 17 Flight Plan Change A' dated November 29, 1972, belonging to Apollo 17 Flight Controller John H. Copper. Cooper used this item during the Apollo 17 mission while sitting in the Mission Operations Control Room, Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston Texas in support of his responsibilities as an Apollo 17 Flight Controller. I obtained this item on eBay for quite a hefty price from one of his relatives.
COVER
Cooper's name can be seen printed
in the upper right corner.
The below Letter of Provenance provides details about Cooper, the item, and its origin.
It appears that Cooper met an untimely death shortly after the Apollo 17 mission.
Although Cooper made some very interesting notations on a number of pages in this item, there was one page in particular that I want to share here since it relates to another item I have which is my Apollo 17 'Lunar Surface Checklist' Page 1-9, that was used on the moon's surface by Apollo 17 Astronauts Gene Cernan and Harrison Schmitt while inside the Lunar Module shortly after landing. Below can be seen Page 3-124 from the 'Apollo 17 Flight Plan' with Cooper's numerous handwritten notations.
One of Cooper's notations is as follows:
'100m from Triton (Shadow 100 ft.)'.
Similarly, as Cernan and Schmitt are in the Lunar Module just after landing on the moon's surface, one of them makes the following handwritten notation on Page 1-9 of the Apollo 17 'Lunar Surface Checklist' indicating 'Note LM Shadow Length (-100')' as can be seen in the below picture!
At Spacefest IV, I showed Cernan a photo of Page 1-9 and asked him about this notation. He wasn't too clear about who wrote 'Note LM Shadow Length (-100')' or when it was written. Cernan did verify that this page was being used by them shortly after landing on the surface and that Schmitt was making notations on it at that time. However, I was able to verify this notation was written on the Page while Cernan and Schmitt were on the moon in Lunar Module Challenger by searching through the 'Apollo 17 Technical Air-To-Ground Voice Transcription', and the 'Apollo 17 Lunar Module Onboard Voice Transcription' Based upon the transcriptions, it is clear that this was written by one of them while on the moon inside Lunar Module Challenger.
As can be seen in the below transcript page from the 'Apollo 17 Technical Air-To-Ground Voice Transcription', identified as Tape 75A/7, at 04 14 30 14 the CDR-LM (Cernan) tells Schmitt 'We're about what- about 100 meters from Trident?' The LMP-LM (Schmitt) tells Cernan ''Yes- yes, less than that, I think Trident's right here. Our shadow's about 100 feet, Geno, I think.' CDR-LM (Cernan) then tells Schmitt 'Yes, we're only about- yes, less than 100 meters then.'
On this transcript page, Cernan and Schmitt also talk about being '100 meters from Trident' and 'boulder tracks' which Cooper has also notated on Page 3-124. However, Cooper refers to 'Trident' as 'Triton'.
Sooo, think about it. Just after Cernan and Schmitt land on the moon and begin looking out the Lunar Module's windows, they are at the same time handling, and making notations on, page 1-9, one of which describes the shadow length of the Lunar Module, while concurrently, back in the Mission Operations Control Room at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, Cooper is sitting at his console listening intently to the communications from the moon and notates the same information on Page 3-124 as the Astronauts provide it in real time!!
Amazing that these two artifacts of intimately related Apollo history have been reunited in my custody!!
Reunions can be expensive!!
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