Apollo 14: Mission to Fra Mauro 1971 NASA 3rd Moon Landing Alan Shepard

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• published: 05 Oct 2012
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more at http://scitech.quickfound.net/astro/project_apollo.html "Astronauts: Alan B. Shepard, Stuart A. Roosa, and Edgar D. Mitchell Launch date: January 31, 1971 Includes the early problem of docking the Command and Lunar Modules, landing on the Moon, experiments package, climb up Cone Crater, onboard experiments, scenes in the NASA JSC's Lunar Receiving Laboratory, and commentaries by noted scientists. AWARDS: Chris Certificate, Columbus Film Festival, 1971 * Golden Eagle, Council on International Nontheatrical Events (CINE), 1971" NASA film JSC-563 Public domain film from NASA, slightly cropped to remove uneven edges, with the aspect ratio corrected, and mild video noise reduction applied. The soundtrack was also processed with volume normalization, noise reduction, clipping reduction, and/or equalization (the resulting sound, though not perfect, is far less noisy than the original). PROJECT APOLLO PLAYLIST: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL7D6A4FBE35C88581 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_14 Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the United States Apollo program, and the third to land on the Moon. It was the last of the "H missions", targeted landings with two-day stays on the Moon with two lunar EVAs, or moonwalks. Commander Alan Shepard, Command Module Pilot Stuart Roosa, and Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell launched on their nine-day mission on January 31, 1971 at 4:04:02 pm local time after a 40 minute, 2 second delay due to launch site weather restrictions, the first such delay in the Apollo program. Shepard and Mitchell made their lunar landing on February 5 in the Fra Mauro formation; this had originally been the target of the aborted Apollo 13 mission. During the two lunar EVAs, 42 kilograms (93 lb) of Moon rocks were collected and several surface experiments, including seismic studies, were performed. Shepard famously hit two golf balls on the lunar surface with a makeshift club he had brought from Earth. Shepard and Mitchell spent about 33 hours on the Moon, with about 9½ hours on EVA. While Shepard and Mitchell were on the surface, Roosa remained in lunar orbit aboard the Command/Service Module, performing scientific experiments and photographing the Moon. He took several hundred seeds on the mission, many of which were germinated on return resulting in the so-called Moon trees. Shepard, Roosa, and Mitchell landed in the Pacific Ocean on February 9... Launch and flight to lunar orbit Apollo 14 launched during heavy cloud cover, and was quickly obscured by the clouds. However, NASA's long-range cameras, based 60 miles south in Vero Beach, had a clear shot of the remainder of the launch. Following the launch, Launch Control at Kennedy Space Center was visited by U.S. Vice President Spiro T. Agnew and Prince Juan Carlos of Spain. At the beginning of the mission, the CSM Kitty Hawk had difficulty achieving capture and docking with the LM Antares. Repeated attempts to dock went on for 1 hour and 42 minutes, until it was suggested that pilot Roosa hold Kitty Hawk against Antares using its thrusters, then the docking probe would be retracted out of the way, hopefully triggering the docking latches. This attempt was successful, and no further docking problems were encountered during the mission. Lunar descent After separating from the command module in lunar orbit, the LM Antares also had two serious problems. First, the LM computer began getting an ABORT signal from a faulty switch... A second problem occurred during the powered descent, when the LM radar altimeter failed to lock automatically onto the moon's surface... the unit successfully acquired a signal near 18,000 feet (5,500 m), again just in the nick of time. After landing in the Fra Mauro formation—the destination for Apollo 13—Shepard and Mitchell took two moon walks, adding new seismic studies to the by now familiar Apollo experiment package, and using the modular equipment transporter (MET), a pull cart for carrying equipment and samples, referred to as a "lunar rickshaw". Roosa, meanwhile, took pictures from on board command module Kitty Hawk in lunar orbit... Shepard smuggled on board a six iron golf club head which he could attach to the handle of a lunar excavation tool, and two golf balls, and took several one-handed swings (due to the limited flexibility of the EVA suit). He exuberantly exclaimed that the second ball went "miles and miles and miles" in the low lunar gravity, but later estimated the distance as 200 to 400 yards (180 to 370 m). Mitchell then used a lunar scoop handle as a javelin, creating the first 'Lunar Olympics'...