How Apollo Flew to the Moon, Second Edition

588 Pages·2011·31.8 MB·English

by  W. David Woods

How Apollo Flew to the Moon
(New and Expanded Edition)
Also
Compiled and edited by W. David Woods
The Apollo Flight Journal
http://history.nasa.gov/afj
W. David Woods
How Apollo Flew to
the Moon
(New and Expanded Edition)
Second Edition
Published in association with
Praxis
<f) Springer Publishing PR
Chichester, UK
W. David Woods
Editor - Apollo Flight Journal (NASA web resource)
Glasgow
UK
SPRINGER-PRAXIS BOOKS IN SPACE EXPLORATION
ISBN 978-1-4419-7178-4 e-ISBN 978-1-4419-7179-1
DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-7179-1
Springer New York Dordrecht Heidelberg London
Library of Congress Control Number: 2011921113
© Springer Science+Business Media, LLC 2011
First Edition published 2008
Reprinted 2009 and 2010
All rights reserved. This work may not be translated or copied in whole or in part without the
written permission of the publisher (Springer Science+Business Media, LLC, 233 Spring Street,
New York, NY 10013, USA), except for brief excerpts in connection with reviews or scholarly
analysis. Use in connection with any form of information storage and retrieval, electronic
adaptation, computer software, or by similar or dissimilar methodology now known or hereafter
developed is forbidden.
The use in this publication of trade names, trademarks, service marks, and similar terms, even if
they are not identified as such, is not to be taken as an expression of opinion as to whether or not
they are subject to proprietary rights.
Cover design: Stewart Ramsay and Jim Wilkie
Project copy editor: David M. Harland
Typesetting: BookEns, Royston, Herts., UK
Printed on acid-free paper
Springer is part of Springer Science+Business Media (www.springer.com)
To
Eric M. Jones
for showing us all the wonder of Apollo
and to
Eileen Lightbody (nee O'Brien)
Bletchley Park Code Breaker

Contents
Illustrations xi
Author's preface xix
Acknowledgements xxiii
Foreword xxv
1 Apollo: an extraordinary adventure 1
The meaning of Apollo 1
Dreaming of the Moon 5
The Apollo spaceship 8
Which way? 9
Lunar orbit rendezvous 11
Equipment 12
Swords to ploughshares: von Braun's rockets 19
2 The Apollo flights: a brief history 29
An alphabet of missions 29
Failure of imagination 30
Back in the saddle: Apollo 4 32
The lunar module flies: Apollo 5 33
The Saturn balks: Apollo 6 34
Testing the Block II: Apollo 7 35
Gutsy decisions: Apollo 8 36
A complete system test: Apollo 9 39
A dress rehearsal: Apollo 10 41
Task accomplished: Apollo 11 42
Lightning strikes: Apollo 12 45
The successful failure: Apollo 13 46
Try again: Apollo 14 49
Exploration at its greatest: Apollo 15 50
New knowledge: Apollo 16 53
The last hurrah: Apollo 17 54
Goodbye Apollo 58
viii Contents
3 Launch: a fiery departure 59
Preparations for launch 59
Lift-off 71
Getting through the atmosphere 83
Second stage 91
Third stage 105
4 Earth orbit and TLI 107
Settling into orbit 107
Around the world in 90 minutes 108
Coasting around Earth 114
The route to the Moon 123
5 Retrieving the lander 131
Leaving Earth 131
Transposition, docking and extraction 133
"No latch, Houston." 142
The fate of the S-IVB 147
6 Navigating to the Moon 151
Crossing cislunar space 151
Ground-based tracking 156
Navigation from the spacecraft 159
The guidance and navigation system 165
7 Coasting to the Moon 181
Three men in a submarine 181
Sustaining life 184
The personal bit 187
Cool air 201
PTC: spacecraft on a spit 207
Stirring the tanks: genesis of a failure 20 8
Communications 211
Telly from the Moon 215
Checking the lunar module 221
8 Entering lunar orbit: the LOI manoeuvre 225
The service module 225
How not to crash into the Moon 229
Lunar encounter 231
The LOI PAD: it isn't magic 234
The black void 241
Luna close up: burning LOI 245
Contents ix
9 Preparations for landing 249
Overjoyed 249
The second arrival burn 251
How not to crash into the Moon 251
The joys of lunar orbit 252
In the descent orbit 257
Entering the lunar module 261
Continuing preparations 271
Undocking 273
10 Next stop: the Moon 285
"Go for the Pro'': the landing begins 285
Slowing down: P63 289
"Hey, there it is!'': pitchover and P64 294
"Picking up some dust'': P66 30 2
11 Down in the dust 309
Postlanding 309
Suiting up 317
Going for a walk 326
The lonely world of the CMP 336
12 Exploration at its greatest 343
Luna cognita 343
Unmanned probes 347
Apollo reaches the Moon 351
Science on the Moon 352
Surface experiments 364
Science station in lunar orbit 380
The Moon after Apollo 393
13 Rendezvous and docking 395
Orbital mechanics 396
We have lift-off... from the Moon! 399
Rendezvous techniques 405
Braking and station-keeping 412
A long day 418
The role of mission control 422
Epitaph for the lunar modul e 427
14 Heading for home 429
Mission accomplished... nearly 429
Trans-Earth injection 429
Subsatellite 431
The TEI PAD: a worked example 435