February 1, 1971

Apollo 14 Streaking Toward Moon After Trouble in Space Docking

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Photo Essay

From Liftoff to Landing: Apollo 14 Rediscovers the Lunar Landscape

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By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD

APE KENNEDY, Fla. -- Three American astronauts were cruising toward the moon early today after a harrowing two-hour struggle last night to overcome trouble with the linking apparatus between the Apollo 14 command ship and its lunar landing craft.

The astronauts were never in any physical danger. But if the two craft had failed to make a firm link-up, all plans for a landing on the moon early next Friday would have been abandoned.

	NASA
	Astronaut Alan B. Shepard stands beside a large boulder on the Moon.  Photo Essay(6 photos)

Flight directors were evaluating the problem to determine if it represented any major malfunction that could still frustrate the mission's goal of landing among the rocks and craters of the lunar highlands.

Mission Trouble Begins

"We do not yet know what the impact will be on the mission," Sigurd A. Sjoberg, director of flight operations at the Manned Spacecraft Center in Houston, said at a news conference.

The trouble arose about three hours after Capt. Alan B. Shepard Jr. and Comdr. Edgar D. Mitchell of the Navy and Maj. Stuart A. Roosa of the Air Force set out on their journey at 4:03 P.M. yesterday. This was a delay of 40 minutes and two seconds caused by rain and dark storm clouds in the launching area here.

Five Futile Attempts

At 7:11 P.M., after the spaceship rocketed out of low earth orbit, Major Roosa made the first of five futile attempts to steer the command ship's nose into the docking ring of the landing craft. The latches would not catch.

The officials said that a moon landing was still possible, but only if they were sure the docking apparatus was in good working order.

The flight controllers have until Thursday to reach that decision on a lunar landing. At that time the Apollo 14 is scheduled to rocket into orbit of the moon.

If a landing is ruled out, it would still be possible for the Apollo 14 astronauts to orbit the moon and conduct scientific experiments and photography.

"We're unable to get capture," Commander Mitchell radioed to Mission Control yesterday.

In all previous missions, the maneuver had gone without flaw. As the Apollo spaceship leaves low earth orbit, the astronauts separate the command ship, turn it around and then steer its nose into the docking collar of the lunar module.

The two vehicles must link up for the lunar module to be pulled from its attachment to the Saturn 5 rocket's third stage--the stage that was refired for the escape from low earth orbit and the beginning of the long coast to the moon.

Each time Major Roosa failed to achieve docking he backed the command ship away, discussed the problem with Mission Control and then tried again.

Alternatives Considered

Calling it a "serious problem," Mission Control considered several alternatives.

One was to have the astronauts depressurize the command ship's atmosphere, open the hatch to the docking tunnel and retrieve a key part of the apparatus for inspection and possible repairs.

The other was to have Major Roosa attempt a docking without using the command ship's "probe," which is a device that enters the lunar module's docking collar.

On the sixth attempt, Major Roosa pointed the command ship's nose at the lunar module, lining the two docking units with the probe. Then, just before contact, he retracted the probe and inched the two craft together.

The 12 cocked latches on the command module clamped on to the lip of the lunar module's docking ring.

"We got a hard dock," Major Roosa reported, bringing cheers of joy and relief at Mission Control in Houston.

"That's great. Super job, Stu," Ground Control radioed.

The docking occurred at 9 P.M. when Apollo 14 was about 23,800 miles from the earth.

Later, at 9:52 P.M., the combined command module and lunar module separated from the third stage of the Saturn rocket.

The stage will later be fired on a course taking it to an impact on the moon. This should give scientists seismic readings suggesting the nature of the lunar interior.

The launching was delayed 40 minutes and 2 seconds because of rain and dark storm clouds in the vicinity of the launching pad. At 6:31 P.M., after orbiting the earth one and a half times, an Apollo 14 rocket refired to boost the space ship on its planned 80-hour lunar course. It was shortly after that firing that the trouble began.

On the $400-million mission ride the hopes for a comeback after the nearly disastrous Apollo 13 flight last April and the expectations of scientists who await the return of rocks that may be as old as the solar system itself.

Apollo 14's primary objective is a landing in a narrow and rocky valley between the hills and ridges of the Fra Mauro region. It would be man's third landing on the moon.

For the 47-year-old Captain Shepard, the mission commander, it marked the return to space by the first American ever to ride in a spaceship.

His flight on May 5, 1961 aboard the Mercury spacecraft called Freedom 7 was a 15-minute suborbital test that provided some of the impetus for the announcement a few weeks later of the Apollo moon-landing project.

Like the six preceding manned Saturn 5 rocket firings, the Apollo 14 liftoff was a spectacle of explosive power, billowing orange smoke and a thundering shockwave rolling across the flat and sandy launching site.

For 8.9 seconds after ignition, the Saturn's five main engines roared to full thrust of nearly 8 million pounds. Only then did the four steel restraining arms retract to release the 6.5 million-pound Apollo 14 moon ship.

Ever so slowly, it struggled against earth's gravity. The rocket took eight second to clear the launching tower and begin to pick up speed as it headed into the low-hanging clouds.

In 35 seconds, it disappeared in a layer of clouds at an altitude of about 4,000 feet. High-powered tracking cameras were able to follow the flight for two more minutes and photograph the separation of the first stage and the fiery ignition of the rocket's second stage.

First Stage Separation

"Good step," captain Shepard radioed to Mission Control in Houston, which replied, "It's day's work is done."

The second stage dropped away about nine and a half minutes after liftoff. Then the third stage fired for two and a half minutes to place the spaceship into a 117-mile-high orbit.

After the third-stage engine shut off, Mission Control assured the astronauts, "Your orbit is good."

"Roger, good show," Captain Shepard replied in even, matter-of-fact tones.

Flight controllers could see no hint that the storm clouds had affected the rocket's performance. On Apollo 12, which was also launched into dark clouds, the spaceship caused two lightning discharges that briefly knocked out the main power in the command ship.

After checking the Apollo 14 spacecraft for two and a half hours, the astronauts ignited the engine in the Saturn 5 third stage, which was still attached. The six-minute firing, called trans-lunar injection, boosted the vehicle's speed to 25,000 miles and hour on its lunar course.

The beginning of the Apollo 14 moon mission came on the 13th anniversary of the nation's first satellite launching and the 10th anniversary of the flight by a chimpanzee named Ham that cleared the way for Captain Shepard's first space flight.

Start of U.S. Efforts

On Jan. 31, 1958, a 70-foot-tall Jupiter-C rocket boosted the 30.5 Explorer 1 capsule into earth orbit. The launching was the American response to the Soviet Union's Sputnik 1, which began the space age on Oct. 4, 1957.

On Jan. 31, 1961, a Redstone rocket with one-hundredth the power of the Saturn 5 lofted Ham to a 15-minute suborbital flight. The Mercury spacecraft bearing Ham, similar to the one Captain Shepard rode the following May, weighed 2,100 pounds. The combined spacecraft for the Apollo 14 flight weighs 102,000 pounds.

Countdown preparations for the Apollo 14 rocket and spaceship went smoothly all week.

The only problems were relatively minor, such as a small leak in a hydraulic unit in the rocket's second stage, some suspected trouble with the lunar module batteries and a trace of sand found while loading fuel for the spacecraft's electricity-generating system.

During the night before the launching, with the thin sliver of a new moon overhead, technicians ran the final checks on the spacecraft and then began fueling the three stages of the rocket. They pumped nearly three-quarters of a million gallons of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen into the huge tanks.

There were still no engineering problems, although concern about the weather began to mount early in the day. The storm front was moving in from the west.

A liftoff delay of nearly four hours could have been tolerated. But if storms had prevented a liftoff, it would mean a month's postponement until the moon was again in position for a landing at Fra Mauro.

By the time the astronauts awoke at 9 A.M., had breakfast and underwent brief medical examinations, the crowds were filling the beaches and streaming in, bumper-to-bumper, to the space center. Local officials estimated that there were half a million visitors, the most since the Apollo 11 launching.

Some came with knapsacks on their backs. Some arrived by motorcycle and autocamper, others by helicopter, private planes and even a chartered 747 jetliner.

Among the viewers were Vice President Agnew, Henry A. Kissinger, Presidential adviser for national security affairs; movie stars, and Prince Juan Carlos of Spain.

With three hours to go, the astronauts left the crew quarters where they had been in semi-isolation for 21 days, a precaution against colds or other illnesses that might have delayed the flight.

When they reached the 320-foot-level of the launching support tower and walked across the access arm, Gunther Wendt, the pad leader, presented Captain Shepard with a walking cane, a joking reminder to the astronaut that he is the oldest American to go into space.

Wendt closed the spacecraft hatch, a duty he also performed before Captain Shepard's first flight.

The three astronauts began checking the switch settings in their cockpit. They tested communications and emergency procedures. To Captain Shepard these final countdown minutes are the most nerve-racking.

"I don't see how anybody can stay busy enough not to feel nervous at a time like this," the Apollo 14 commander said recently. "I don't think anybody who has flown has been completely relaxed. You're relieved when it's finally under way."