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Geology Stations F and G Preparing for Launch

 

EVA-2 Closeout and the Golf Shots

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1995 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Scan credits in the Image Library.
Video credits in the Video Library.
Except where noted, MP3 audio clips by Thomas Schwagmeier and video clips by Ken Glover.
Last revised 17 December 2015.

 

[Al and Ed have just left Station G and will do a quick sample at the rim of North Triplet on their way back to the LM. See the USGS map on which the site of the rim sample is labeled 'G1'. See, also, the segment diagram and a detail ( 0.3 Mb ) from the November 2009 LROC image.]
MP3 Audio Clip (Glover) (41 min 14 sec)

MP3 Audio Clip (Schwagmeier) (57 min 00 sec)

134:46:54 Shepard: Okay, headed for the LM. And we're probably about 10 minutes away from the LM, Houston.

134:47:05 Haise: Roger, Al. (Pause)

RealVideo Clip (14 min 11 sec)

[Note that, until Al and Ed get back to the LM, the TV picture shows an unchanging scene - except for very minor changes in shadow length as the Sun rises 0.55 degrees per hour.]
134:47:11 Shepard: Okay, everything's on so far. (Long Pause)

134:47:41 Shepard: Okay, we're...

134:47:43 Mitchell: I think we're crossing the...Al, here's the... Triplet right up ahead of us.

134:47:50 Shepard: Should be.

134:47:51 Mitchell: We'll have to do a little bit to the north to get around it, I think. (Pause) Yeah. We're approaching Triplet from the east; that's North Triplet from the east. (Pause) There's a little rock field down here; a small boulder field, Al, to get a documented sample from?

134:48:18 Shepard: Okay. (Pause) Looks good. Yeah, looks like they might have come from there (that is, from North Triplet). Oops.

134:48:30 Mitchell: Did we lose something?

134:48:32 Shepard: We lost you know what.

134:48:35 Mitchell: Oh, no. What?

134:48:38 Shepard: (Chuckles) This shiny can!

134:48:40 Mitchell: Damn SESC, huh?

134:48:44 Shepard: Okay, the shiny can is retrieved. Press on. (Pause) We're going to have to mush, Ed, right down the middle and get a documented sample there.

134:48:56 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause)

134:49:02 Shepard: Right in that pile of rocks; beautiful. Let's see, right to your left. Oh, just the right size.

134:49:10 Mitchell: Okay.

134:49:11 Shepard: Don't walk over them!

134:49:13 Mitchell: No, I'm trying to stay away from them.

134:49:14 Shepard: There you go.

134:49:15 Mitchell: Are these the ones or the ones up ahead?

134:49:17 Shepard: Yeah.

134:49:18 Mitchell: Oh, okay.

134:49:20 Shepard: Oops; God damn that thing!

134:49:23 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause) Gnomon is in place. (Pause)

[They are at Station G1 on the north rim of North Triplet as indicated on the USGS map, the segment diagram, and a detail ( 0.3 Mb ) from the November 2009 LROC image. See, also, the shaded relief map for this site.]
134:49:36 Shepard: Okay, why don't...

134:49:38 Mitchell: I'll get the...Go ahead. I'm on this side; I'll get the stereo.

134:49:44 Shepard: Okay. (I'll) get the locator. Can't really see the camera settings.

134:49:58 Mitchell: Yeah, it's got so much dirt on them. Okay, 7 foot (focus).

[Ed's cross-Sun "before" stereopair is AS14-68-9465 and 9466, while Al's down-Sun "locator" is AS14-64- 9188.]
134:50:02 Haise: Okay, Ed and Al, as soon as you wrap this one up, you're going to have to press on back to the LM, or we're going to be really tight on the closeout.

134:50:12 Mitchell: Okay.

134:50:13 Shepard: Okay. (Long Pause)

134:50:30 Shepard: (Garbled).

134:50:32 Mitchell: Yeah. God damn, it's bigger than we thought. Al, grab-sample that one; I'll get you another one here.

134:50:39 Shepard: Okay. Listen, just put it in that thing. And let's press, because we don't have the time.

134:50:44 Mitchell: All right. I'll grab it, and let me take an "after" picture here.

134:50:48 Shepard: All right. I'll grab one right here in the foreground.

134:50:52 Mitchell: Okay.

134:50:54 Shepard: Okay, bag twenty-seven Nancy.

134:51:00 Haise: Roger, Al. Twenty-seven, Nancy.

134:51:02 Mitchell: And another documented sample...Larger documented sample than we thought we were getting here, Fredo. Again, it was a buried rock; and it's too big for the sample bag; so, it'll go into a weigh bag.

134:51:15 Shepard: (Garbled) that one right there. Can you get it?

134:51:17 Mitchell: Yeah. (Long Pause)

[Ed's "after" is AS14-68- 9467.]
134:51:29 Shepard: Okay.

134:51:30 Mitchell: It has a very definite shape; I think you'll be able to sort it out.

134:51:35 Shepard: Okay.

[In principle, post-mission comparisons between the rock samples and the photographs should allow identification of the samples without the need to put each one in a separate sample bag. During the Apollo 15 mission review, Dave Scott suggested that, because crew time on the lunar surface was so limited, it might have been a better use of their time to take a before photo, collect a number of rocks from the scene, and put them all in one bag. This would certainly work with hard rocks where breakage and, therefore, shape change during transport to Houston would not be a problem. What is absolutely necessary, however, is a pre-sampling photo. A number of Apollo 12 samples could not be unambiguously identified because they did not appear in pre-sampling photos. In the case of the unbagged rock being collected at this point, it was identified in the post-mission collection as sample 14313.]
134:51:36 Mitchell: Okay, let's mush for the LM. (Pause)
[The return to the LM is shown on the USGS map, the segment diagram, and a detail ( 0.3 Mb ) from the November 2009 LROC image.]
134:51:42 Haise: Okay, Al and Ed. I guess we can skip the rim of North Crater...

134:51:45 Shepard: (Garbled)

134:51:45 Haise: ...and proceed right on back to the LM area.

134:51:52 Mitchell: Okay. That's where we are. We're at the...we are right at the rim of North Crater.

134:51:58 Haise: Okay.

[Mitchell - "They were misunderstanding. We were at the rim of North Triplet."]

[Jones - "And they'd missed that you'd moved there. Having listened to some of the other missions where there's an awful lot of conversation going on back in the Control Room, the misunderstanding is easy to understand."]

134:52:00 Mitchell: We're on the west...(Listens)

134:52:01 Haise: I think you misunderstood the message. We can proceed right on by the rim. We have the buried rock samples now, and head on back to the LM. That's to Antares.

134:52:16 Mitchell: That's right. That's where we're headed.

134:52:19 Shepard: Okay, that's where we're headed. (Pause)

134:52:27 Mitchell: Hold it. I'll get it; keep going. We lost a core tube.

134:52:34 Shepard: Okay. Got it?

134:52:36 Mitchell: I'll have it in a minute. (Pause) I got it. (Pause)

134:52:50 Shepard: Okay. (Long Pause) Everything still hanging on?

134:53:27 Mitchell: Yeah. Everything is still there.

134:53:29 Shepard: Good. (Long Pause)

134:54:02 Shepard: Okay, we're approaching the LM now. Coming in at Fra Mauro Base.

134:54:14 Haise: Roger, Al, and I guess from here, we can split up; and Ed can take the MET and proceed to the cluster of boulders he had reported earlier to the north(west) of the LM; and you can proceed out to the ALSEP.

134:54:33 LM Crew: Okay.

[The USGS map shows detail of LM/ALSEP/ Station H area, with the latter being the boulder field north of the LM. See, also, a 5x enlargement of a detail ( 0.3 Mb from the November 2009 LROC image. The segment diagram details his activities. A labeled version of AS14-66-9337 by Lennie Waugh shows Ed's path to and from Station H. Ed will take this picture out his window after the EVA. In the foreground crater, we can see the 'Javelin' Ed will throw during close out and one of Al's golf balls. Compare with AS14-68- 9486 which is a frame from Ed's Station H pan showing the tracks he made on the way out from the LM.]
134:54:35 Shepard: I'd suggest...Well, you can do it the way you want to...I guess you can do without the LM.

134:54:41 Mitchell: Without the MET, yeah; I think so.

134:54:44 Shepard: Without the MET, because there's nobody to...If anything falls off, we've lost all those goodies.

134:54:49 Haise: Okay, that's it...

134:54:50 Mitchell: I'll just take a couple of rock bags, Fredo, and my tongs and camera, and go.

134:54:54 Haise: That's a good point, Ed,...

134:54:56 Shepard: Okay, Al's on the way.

134:54:57 Haise: ...Yeah. That'll be fine.

134:55:04 Shepard: Okay. Al's on the way out to the ALSEP. (Pause)

134:55:17 Mitchell: As a matter of fact, Fredo, I'm just going to take a weigh bag and no sample bags; that way I can get more. (Pause) The size of these rocks...The sample bags are too small, anyhow.

134:55:32 Haise: Roger, Ed.

[Jones - "A little real-time crew decision?"]

[Mitchell - "Yeah. Illustrating, again, that the sample bags are great for fines and little pebbles and things. But for the size rocks they were wanting, particularly buried rocks. They wanted buried rocks, but when you looked at a buried rock you'd think it was an interesting sized rock but it turned out to be like an iceberg. You've only seen the tip of it and you'd pull the damn thing up and you had this humongous thing, after you'd gone to all the trouble of documenting it and getting the right photos et cetera, you'd pull it up and it didn't fit in anything. So you'd end up throwing it in the weigh bag, and that contaminated it...You know, it just wasn't very satisfactory that way."]

[Jones - "What was their interest in buried rocks?"]

[Mitchell - "Frankly, I don't know. I guess buried rocks would indicate that they'd been in place a lot longer, so presumably would be from an older period than those just lying on the surface."]

[Jones - "I wonder, just speculating, if things just lying on the surface might be more likely to be exotics thrown in from elsewhere."]

[Mitchell - "That could be, too. But, remember, the main thing we were looking for here was ejecta from Cone Crater. And, so, presumably, unless it was completely beneath the ejecta blanket, it should have been part of that ejecta blanket. I guess I don't really know what their rationale was, but they wanted the in-place rocks and fillets and things that seemed to be a little bit buried and, invariably when we did that, we'd pull up a lot bigger rock than it looked like on the surface."]

134:55:33 Haise: Okay, Al, the first thing when you get to the Central Station...

134:55: Shepard: Houston, (garbled)...(Listens)

134:55: Haise: ...is to verify the alignment and leveling.

134:55:50 Shepard: Okay, I'm just going to go through the same procedure.

134:55:53 Haise: Okay, and I got a change for you on the azimuth.

134:55:54 Shepard: ...on the antenna setup, that is...(Listens) All right. Let me give you a call when I get there, and when I'm aligned and level. (Long Pause)

134:56:35 Mitchell: Okay, Fredo, my plan...I'm out in the area of the boulder field. I'm going to photograph many of the boulders, the rocks, the broken ones, the big ones, what have you; and then, grab as many of the different fragments as I can around these piles of broken boulders. Now, that I'm here, I see a large number of inclusions. I can't tell whether they're crystals or not; I think that they are. And I'll grab as many of these - and give you "before" and "after" shots - as I can...of a whole weigh bag full of rocks.

134:57:09 Haise: Okay, Ed. That sounds great.

[Ed's Station H activities are summarized in the shaded relief map. Note that the direction to the LM is mislabeled in the original version. The prominent boulder now known as Turtle Rock is labelled '1401' in both the shaded relief map and the USGS map. See, also, a detail from LROC image M168319885. The locations marked on the shaded relief map showing where Ed took Hasselblad images indicate that he began by photographing and examining the boulders about 9 meters southeast of Turtle Rock. His run out to this location took about 63 seconds - 134:55:32 to 134:56:35 - and covered about 65 meters. His average speed was 3.7 km/hr.]

[Mitchell - "That's what you call a real-time crew decision. Short on time, get as many as you can, best documentation you can, and hope you can sort it out at the end when it was all over with."]

[Jones - "It's a good example of a crew taking over. There are some nice examples in 17 where (CapCom Bob) Parker simply decides that the Backroom isn't making a decision quickly enough and makes one himself and passes it up to the crew or tells them to go ahead and do what they want to do."]

[Ed starts his Station H photography with frames AS14-68- 9468 to 9476. Frame 9476 is an excellent portrait of Turtle Rock, the largest boulder in the group.]

134:57:20 Shepard: Okay, the center (means "Central Station") alignment on the ALSEP has changed very little. There'll be a slight change in the bubble level. Stand by.

134:57:32 Haise: Roger, Al. (Long Pause)

134:58:09 Shepard: Okay. We're aligned and leveled.

134:58:13 Haise: Okay, Al...

134:58:14 Shepard: What are the new readings?

134:58:16 Haise: The setting we need is actually a change in the azimuth reading to sixteen. 16.00.

134:58:32 Shepard: One six zero zero. (Pause) Okay, you're at 16.00.

134:58:39 Haise: Okay, would you verify elevation is still at 6.41?

134:58:46 Shepard: 6.41 is still elevation.

134:58:49 Haise: Okay, stand by one, Al.

134:58:51 Shepard: Standing by for your...(Listens) Okay. (Long Pause)

[Haise is finding out if the signal strength has improved.]
134:59:22 Haise: Okay, Al. You can proceed back to the vicinity of the LM; and, with the time remaining that you had for the ALSEP, shoot a few close-up pictures here. We've got about 4 minutes left.

134:59:37 Shepard: Okay. Are the ALSEP signals satisfactory?

134:59:43 Haise: That's affirmative.

134:59:47 Shepard: Okay. Heading back to the LM.

[Comm Break]
135:00:57 Haise: And, Al; Houston.

135:01:03 Shepard: Go ahead, Houston.

135:01:04 Haise: Okay, a little change in the priorities when you get back to the LM. We'd like the TV turned to look at the MESA area, so we can watch the closeout (as the) number one (priority). And then you can shoot a quick picture of the solar wind.

RealVideo Clip (3 min 41 sec)

135:01:26 Shepard: Roger, I'm going for the (TV) camera, now.

135:01:30 Haise: Okay. And we hadn't changed the settings (at the beginning of the traverse), Al; so, it should be in good shape when you turn her to the MESA. (Long Pause)

Ed's Station H Pan ( frames AS14-68- 9477 to 9491 )

135:01:56 Shepard: Okay. We'll be setting at 22. (Pause)

135:02:03 Haise: Okay. We need a little more to the right, Al.

135:02:08 Shepard: Yeah. I'm just setting it up, Fred.

135:02:11 Haise: Okay. (Pause)

135:02:16 Shepard: Okay, that's f/22. (Pause) How does that look? Well, a little more to the left. Just a minute. (Pause)

135:02:35 Shepard: I'm shooting f/22 in peak. How does that look?

135:02:43 Haise: Okay, if you can tilt it just up slightly, Al, that'll be it. That's good; you got good azimuth on it, now. (Pause)

135:02:58 Shepard: Okay. How's that?

135:02:59 Haise: Okay, that's great; and you can go shoot the solar wind, now.

135:03:07 Shepard: It (the TV camera)'s on the side of a hill; that's a problem out here.

135:03:11 Mitchell: Okay, Fredo, I'm heading back from the boulder field. I've sampled two of the larger boulders in the area. Rocks broken from them and lying on them; and I've taken a pan; and I have maybe a third of a weigh bag full of small rocks from these boulders.

135:03:28 Haise: Okay; very good, Ed. We need to proceed now with the regular program.

135:03:36 Mitchell: Okay.

135:03:39 Shepard: (Now back at the foot of the ladder) What setting would you like on that solar wind shot, Fredo?

135:03:42 Haise: Stand by. (Long Pause)

[While Al is waiting for Fred to give him an answer, he takes the camera off the RCU bracket, grabs hold of the bottom rung on the ladder, bends back, and points the camera up to take pictures of the Earth over the LM. These are AS14-64- 9189 to 9197.]

[Journal Contributor Danny Ross Lunsford notes that Al has captured Venus over Antares in all these images.]

[As Haise begins the next transmission, Ed arrives back at the MET with his weigh bag.]

135:04:35 Haise: Okay, Al. I'd go ahead and use your standard down-Sun picture if that's the direction you're shooting it in. They don't have an input here. (Pause) Okay...

135:04:47 Shepard: All right.

135:04:48 Haise: ...just got an input. They want f/11 at 1/25th (probably means 1/250th).

RealVideo Clip (3 min 21 sec)

135:04:57 Shepard: Okay. Will do. (Long Pause)

[After changing his camera settings near the ladder, Al goes out to the Solar Wind Collector, which is southwest of the spacecraft. Al's SWC pictures are AS14-64- 9198 to 9201. They are the last useful frames on the magazine.]

[Ed's final frame shows the transmitter/receiver element in the S-band antenna and is probably an accidental exposure taken during the next minute or two. They are at 3+34 in the checklists.]

135:05:34 Haise: And, Al; Houston.

135:05:39 Shepard: Go ahead.

135:05:40 Haise: Okay. They'd like for you to return your camera; so you don't have to bother removing the magazine from it. You can just put the whole camera in the ETB.

135:05:54 Shepard: Roger.

[Ed positions the MET at the MESA. Al joins him.]
135:05:56 Haise: Okay, and, I guess, so you don't get confused, that means we'll be bringing back both cameras.

135:06:05 Mitchell: Yeah, understand.

135:06:06 Shepard: (At the MESA) Okay. Al's camera's in, and magazine Lima-Lima has got a hundred and (pause) nine (frames exposed).

135:06:20 Mitchell: (Reading his checklist at the MET) Okay, Houston. I understand, now, (that) the contaminated sample under quad 3 is not to be taken.

135:06:30 Haise: That's affirm, Ed.

135:06:34 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause) Okay, I'm putting my camera in the ETB. (Long Pause as Ed removes his camera from his RCU bracket and then goes to Al's right to get to the ETB)

135:07:06 Haise: Okay, Ed; Houston.

135:07:07 Mitchell: (To Al) Let me slide on by you there just a minute. (Listens) Go ahead.

[Ed has gone behind Al, between him and the MESA to get to the left side of the MESA.]
135:07:13 Haise: I stand corrected. What they really wanted was to bring Al's camera back, instead of yours. So, we'll only be bringing one camera, the CDR's.

135:07:31 Mitchell: Okay, Houston.

135:07:37 Shepard: Ed, give me this, now. (Long Pause)

[One possible explanation for Houston's request is that Al has been having trouble with his camera handle and Houston wants to take a look at it.]
135:08:03 Mitchell: (Garbled) (At the MET) Fredo, correct me, now; Mag Kilo-Kilo has never been used. Is that correct?

RealVideo Clip (1 min 41 sec)

135:08:11 Haise: Stand by. (Pause)

MPG Clip (43 Mb)

135:08:17 Shepard: (Facing the TV) Houston, while you're looking that up, you might recognize what I have in my hand as the handle for the contingency sample return; it just so happens to have a genuine six iron on the bottom of it. In my left hand, I have a little white pellet that's familiar to millions of Americans. I'll drop it down. Unfortunately, the suit is so stiff, I can't do this with two hands, but I'm going to try a little sand-trap shot here. (Pause)

[Jones - "He topped and buried it on the first swing. I assume that the six-iron was snuck on board."]

[Mitchell - "In his suit pocket."]

[The suits each had a utility pocket on the left thigh. During the EVA, Al and Ed wore a larger, strap-on pocket on the left thigh,

135:08:53 Mitchell: You got more dirt than ball that time.

135:08:58 Shepard: Got more dirt than ball. Here we go again.

[Al's second swing pushes the ball about 2 or 3 feet, mostly along the line toward the TV camera, rather than along the line of the swing.]
135:09:01 Haise: That looked like a slice to me, Al.

135:09:03 Shepard: Here we go. Straight as a die; one more. (Long Pause)

[Al's third swing finally connects and sends the ball off-camera to the right, apparently on a fairly low trajectory. He drops a second ball, which rolls left and toward the TV camera. Al gets himself in position and connects again. The trajectory of this shot appears to be similar to the previous one.]
135:09:20 Shepard: Miles and miles and miles.

135:09:26 Haise: Very good, Al.

[With regard to Al's "miles and miles and miles", see the discussion following 135:21:50.]

[Readers should note that, while the golf-shot picture in Al's book Moonshot bears some resemblance to the TV images, it is actually a composite made up of pieces of various Hasselblad images. The only actual record of the golf shot is the TV coverage. Al and Ed had already put their Hasselblads into the ETB at about 135:06:06.]

[Not long after I bought a copy of Moonshot, Andrew Chaikin and I had a long telephone conversation about the composite and worked out - at least in general terms - how it was put together. Journal Contributor David Harland tells us that the 1994 hardback UK edition published by Virgin Books contains the composite, while Brian Lawrence tells us that the 1995 edition does not.]

[In the composite, the LM and LM shadow come from a left/right reversal of AS14-66 9276. Note the LRRR which is sitting in the footpad of the ladder strut. In reality, the LR-Cubed was deployed at the ALSEP site during the first EVA. Both of the astronaut images in the composite come from a pan Al took at the beginning of EVA-1 shortly before 114:53:34. The image of "Al" is actually a left/right reversal of Ed's image from AS14-66- 9240. In the real photograph, Ed is doing a TV pan. In the composite, the TV camera has been removed and the golf club has been added. The image of "Ed" in the composite is taken from another frame in Al's earlier pan, AS14-66- 9241. And, once again, the TV had been removed from a left-right reversal of the original images. Similarly, the image of the U.S. flag has been taken from AS14-66- 9232- or one of the other tourist pictures Al and Ed took during the flag deployment. I have not yet identified the precise images from which the MET and the S-Band were taken; but, the MET image is very similar to the one in AS14-67- 9361, which Al took at the ALSEP site at the end of the ALSEP deployment. Finally, the ball and the shadows of the S-Band legs - like the golf club - appear to have been drawn in.]

135:09:27 Haise: And (to) answer Ed's question earlier there; Kilo-Kilo was used for the window shots, Ed; so, you ought to bring it back.

RealVideo Clip (3 min 36 sec)

135:09:43 Shepard: Yeah, that's right. We got some of that to start with, didn't we?

135:09:46 Mitchell: Yeah.

135:09:49 Shepard: (Garbled). (Long Pause)

[Al removes the club head. He brought it home and it is currently on display at the US Golf Association Hall of Fame in New Jersey.]
135:10:14 Mitchell: How many films (means "frames") did we take with this (close-up camera)? Eleven, Huh?

135:10:17 Shepard: Ah. Approximately.

135:10:20 Mitchell: 17. Okay. (Pause)

[Al is putting the club head in his thigh pocket. Ed has removed the close-up camera from the MET and has placed it on the ground.]
135:10:30 Haise: Okay, Ed; Houston.

135:10:32 Mitchell: Go ahead.

135:10:33 Haise: One additional item on the return is to bring back the 100-foot tether. That should also go in the ETB.

135:10:48 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause) Okay, there's three cassettes...(correcting himself) three frames. (Long Pause)

[As per checklist, Ed advanced the film in the close-up camera three additional frames before removing the cassette. The NASA Public Affairs commentator later reports that Houston wants them to take the tether up so that it can be used to tie down the extra sample bags. A more likely explanation is that Houston is thinking about the possibility that Al and Ed may have to make an EVA transfer to Command Module in the event of a failed docking after rendezvous. The crew had trouble docking with the LM on the way out to the Moon and Houston is probably thinking about the possibility of further troubles.]
135:11:41 Mitchell: (Going to the MESA) Okay. The close-up camera cassette is removed, Fred.

135:11:47 Haise: Roger, Ed.

135:11:51 Mitchell: And stowed (in the ETB). (Pause) I'm going after the (SWC). (Pause)

[Journal Contributor Harald Kucharek calls our attention to the fact that Ed has not retrieved the 16-mm magazine from the DAC which, as per the first line on his "ETB & SRC Stowage Check" checklist page, he should have done before retrieving the SWC. As indicated in the checklist, Al and Ed planned to have three 16-mm magazines on the MET during this EVA but, as they informed Houston at 119:50:37, decided to bring out a fourth magazine, one that hadn't been used during EVA-1. This partially explains the confusion. Nonetheless, Ed should have checked the DAC. See, also, the discussion following 132:59:35 and 135:23:03.]
135:12:17 Shepard: Houston, do you read me?

135:12:19 Haise: Loud and clear, Al.

[Ed appears to be caught in one of the cables.]
135:12:21 Shepard: Yeah, okay. Okay, tell me about this (core) tube, Ed. Has this got anything in it?

135:12:26 Mitchell: No, that's one that has nothing in it.

[Al tosses the core tube toward the east to get rid of it. Most of the astronauts threw things in play, but this is just a casual toss.]
135:12:28 Mitchell: (Just as Al tosses the empty core tube away) Before you throw it, give them the number. (Heading out to get the SWC) That's the two (core tube sections out of the triple) that we didn't get anything from.

135:12:37 Shepard: Okay. (Pause) Okay. In SRC-2, Fredo, we have the organic control sample, and we have four core tubes.

135:12:56 Haise: Roger.

RealVideo Clip (3 min 27 sec)

135:13:01 Shepard: And let's see...(Pause) We have one SESC. (Pause)

[Ed has removed the SWC staff from the ground and is rolling up the foil. According to the Apollo 14 Mission Report, he gets about half of the foil collector rolled up with the spring-driven reel but has to do the remainder manually. According to the Apollo 14 Preliminary Science Report, he was able to do so without getting dust on it.]
135:13:41 Shepard: Get it in (the SRC) without dropping it again. (Long Pause) Okay. (Long Pause)
[Ed stuck the SWC staff in the ground while he finished rolling up the foil and now grabs the staff and brings it back to the MESA. Al is transferring samples from the MET to the MESA.]
135:14:25 Mitchell: Okay, where's the SWC bag?

135:14:29 Shepard: It should be in the top of the MESA, Ed. (Long Pause) (To Haise as he goes to the MESA with a weigh bag) Also in the SRC, we have...Maybe it won't fit. (Pause) One weigh bag, which is mostly documented samples.

135:15:20 Haise: Roger, Al.

135:15:22 Shepard: (To himself) This closed. (Pause) Close (garbled). (To Ed) That (SWC) supposed to go in here, too?

135:15:35 Mitchell: No, it goes in the ETB.

[In the TV, it appears that Al was trying to close the SRC. To do so, as per checklist, he would have removed the cloth skirt and Teflon seal protector. Here, he is probably just doing a trial closure, because he actually removes the skirt and seal protector at 135:17:06.]
135:15:36 Shepard: Okay. I'll get the core tubes out, maybe.

135:15:41 Mitchell: Okay.

[Ed has gone around Al to get to the ETB at the right edge of the MESA.]
135:15:42 Shepard: (So that we can) get the rocks in. (Long Pause) This baby's what's hurting us. (Pause) Take it out. (Long Pause)

RealVideo Clip (3 min 38 sec)

135:16:26 Mitchell: (At the MET) We didn't get anything in that magnetic sample container, did we?

135:16:29 Shepard: (Also at the MET) No, we did not. TDS stuff's up there.

135:16:33 Mitchell: I've got it.

135:16:34 Shepard: Good.

[The Magnetic Shield Sample Container is the MSSC on the "ETB & SRC Stowage Check" page on Ed's checklist. The sample was to have been taken at Station G "if time" was available, which was not the case.]

[Al and Ed both go to the MESA, Al on the left and Ed on the right. Al catches the TV cable with his boot and the camera moves slightly. This is the first in a series of cable pulls which will ultimately result in Al pulling the TV camera over at about 135:24:38. A detailed discussion of the cable pulls and several instances of resulting camera motions is linked here.]

135:16:39 Mitchell: Your feet are about to get tangled up in the TV cable again. Don't fall.

135:16:43 Shepard: Okay. (Long Pause)

135:16:59 Shepard: (Garbled). Try it.

135:17:06 Mitchell: Okay. (Reading) "Contaminated samples", scratched; "70-millimeter camera mags", yup; "16(-mm) Mags; close-up camera mags; SWC; TDS; magnetic sample". We didn't get a magnetic sample. "Map."

[While Ed checks the contents of the ETB, Al removes the skirt and seal protector and discardes them to the left of the MESA.]
135:17:25 Mitchell: Okay, are you going to have any weigh bags?

135:17:27 Shepard: Yeah, we'll have some weigh bags. These two. (Pause while Al closes and locks the SRC) Okay. (Pause)

135:17:46 Mitchell: Okay. You got them? (Pause) Okay.

[Ed goes to the MET.]
135:17:52 Shepard: Houston. That completes SRC-1 (means "2"); then (double checking his memory of the contents against the checklist), we have the organic control sample, 1 SESC container, four core tubes, and one bag of documented samples.

135:18:07 Haise: Roger, Al.

135:18:12 Shepard: (Joining Ed at the MET) Okay. Now, can you fit...(Pause)

135:18:22 Mitchell: (Going to the MESA) Can I fit what?

135:18:23 Shepard: This rock in this bag if we put it this way.

135:18:28 Mitchell: (At the MESA) I'll give it a try. Wait for me there, just a second, while I get these in (the ETB). (Pause)

135:18:39 Shepard: No, it won't go.

135:18:41 Mitchell: (At the MESA on the right) All right. We need the Plus Z-27 bag, right?

135:18:46 Shepard: (At the MET on the right) Yeah. Either that, or else put that in the weigh bag, and take this up with it.

[Jones - "Z-27 bag?"]

[Mitchell - "Yeah, that's an extra bag - an overflow bag that hangs from the minus-Z bulkhead (at the back of the cabin)."]

[Jones - "Did you misspeak here when you said 'plus-Z'?"]

[Mitchell - "No, it's in the rear. And that's the confusing part. (Thinking it through) The axes are measured according to the Apollo stack. So, is x-up through the (docking hatch), y is out the right window, and z is to the back."]

[Jones - "In terms of some things. But the plus-Z strut is the one with the ladder on it. I'm positive about that."]

[Mitchell - "You may be right that the struts are numbered according to a LM reference and not an Apollo Stack reference. In the stack, the LM has plus X the same way the Command Module does. Because, when the LM and the Command Module are together, the X-axis is reversed in that configuration and so the Z would go the other way. It depends on which damn reference system you're using at a particular time."]

[Jones - "So the bulkhead may be in the mated spacecraft system - in the Command Module coordinate system."]

[Mitchell - "When you're flying the Command Module, you're looking along, out the windows, as you're facing the plus x-axis. When you're in the lunar module, the plus-X axis goes through your head and you're looking along the Z-axis, and it should be you're looking along the minus-Z axis, when you're looking out. In an airplane, you're looking along the X-axis. The roll axis is the X-axis. In the Command Module, the roll axis is the X-axis. In the lunar module, the roll axis is the Z-axis, the yaw is the X-axis, and the Y is the pitch. So it gets very confusing."]

[As can be seen in the accompanying diagrams, the plus Z-27 bulkhead separates the front the cabin from the back, and is just forward of the ascent engine cover. The plus Z-27 bulkhead is also the front face of what is called the Midstep. The minus-Z bulkhead is the aft wall of the cabin. In 2006, after coming to a bit of understanding about the Z-27 bulkheads and the midstep, I believe that, prior to launch, the crews put any gear that could not otherwise be stowed in a bag that they tied to the floor at the base of the plus Z-27 bulkhead.]

135:18:56 Mitchell: Okay, I'm getting you a bag for it (out of the MESA).

135:18:58 Shepard: Okay, we'll use that one, then. Here's your two weigh bags that go in the ETB. (Going to the MESA on the left) How are you fixed for (garbled), there?

[While moving toward the MESA, Al catches the TV cable again. There is a small, initial, image-down motion of the TV image; but then a much larger image-up motion.]
135:19:10 Mitchell: I'm getting loaded. We'll only have to make two trips. (Pause)
[Ed drops what appear to be either a few empty sample bags or weigh bags.]
135:19:16 Shepard: (going around to the left side of the MESA) Okay. Let me...(put these) two babies right here, so we don't lose them. (Long Pause)
[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "A couple of things on weigh bags, sample bags, and storage. It appears to me (that) the geologists are now wanting larger and larger rocks. Rocks of any decent size at all are too big for the sample bags; and to have to search around for rocks small enough to go into the sample bags is an unnecessary time constraint. Either there are plenty of small-size rocks, or there are not. In our case, most of the interesting rocks were too large for the sample bag and, thus, didn't get put into one. When it came to stowage back in the SRC and returning the rocks we collected, there were so many large ones that we got very few of the sampled rocks into the SRCs. Most of the rocks ended up in one of the sample bags inside the LM, rather than in the SRC - which may be fine, but that's the way it was. So, most of our big rocks were unbagged; thus, we are going to have a more difficult time identifying them, I think."]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "Well, you are probably going to get some argument about that, depending on which geologist you talk to."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "That may be true."]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "There are going to be a lot of different opinions. (One geologist might say) we ought to get lots of little rocks and forget the big ones. Other guys are going to say that they would like to have more big rocks so they can pass them around. I think that is going to depend entirely upon the geologist you talk to."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "Well, my point is that you can put a little rock in a big bag, but it's sure hard to put a big rock in a little bag."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I felt a bit disappointed with the sketchy documentation we did on some of those rocks - that we couldn't do a better job of identifying (or) putting a number on a particular rock so that we could subsequently identify which rock was picked up where. It's going to be a hard job to sort it out, I'm sure."]

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "With the geologists, we may be able to sort it out very well in a matter of a day or so. We did get everything in (to the cabin) that we needed, although we made two trips with the ETB and an extra rock bag."]

[For later missions, the sample bag size was increased from 15-by-15 cm to 20-by-19 cm. Time was taken to document virtually all of the samples and, not surprisingly, rocks of all sizes were collected. Although the later crews planned to spend 20 or more hours outside the spacecraft and expected to far surpass the total amount of rocks collected on Apollo 14, each of the later crews only carried two rock boxes. Space in these was reserved for samples destined to be analyzed for volatile content. All other samples were taken up to the cabin in the large sample collection bags that replaced the weigh bags.]

RealVideo Clip (3 min 27 sec)

135:19:57 Shepard: Okay. I'll put that in the weigh bag on the next trip. Thank you.

135:20:02 Mitchell: That can just be a separate trip by itself.

135:20:04 Shepard: Oh...Yeah. Okay, you'd better hold it up.

135:20:08 Mitchell: Okay. Now, have you got everything, Al? Got all the others in here?

135:20:12 Shepard: (Going over to the MET) Yeah, let me do one more check here. See if we got some more in this bag.

135:20:18 Mitchell: These weigh bags are going to be...You're going to make a separate trip out of them, huh?

135:20:21 Shepard: I guess we'll have to, Ed. (Pause) I sure can't get it in there, now.

135:20:29 Mitchell: Okay. Fredo, how much time have we got? (Pause)

135:20:36 Shepard: We should be in pretty good shape. (Pause)

135:20:42 Mitchell: (At the MESA on the right) Houston, how much time do we have left?

135:20:47 Haise: Stand by, Ed. (Pause)

135:20:58 Shepard: (Going to the MESA on the left) That do it...

135:20:59 Haise: Okay...

135:20:59 Shepard: (Garbled under Haise).

135:21:01 Mitchell: (Garbled under Haise)

135:21:01 Haise: ...we've got about 18 minutes, now (to cabin repress).

135:21:05 Mitchell: Oh, we've got lots of time. Okay. (To Al, who has turned toward the MET. Watch your feet again.

[Al has already realized that he's snagged the TV cable and raises his right boot to free it.]
135:21:09 Shepard: Yeah, I'm watching them. Okay. (Looking at his checklist) You have the...(The) ETB's stowed, right?
[Al is asking if they have everything packed in the ETB that is called out in the checklist.]
135:21:16 Mitchell: ETB's stowed.

135:21:17 Shepard: I have the SRC stowed.

135:21:19 Mitchell: Okay.

[Ed makes his way around the MET, comes part way toward the TV camera and gets himself into position to throw the SWC staff off-camera to the right.]
135:21:20 Shepard: Now, let's see what we got left. (Pause as Ed gets set) There's the greatest javelin throw of the century!

135:21:31 Mitchell: We'll see if it is.

135:21:33 Shepard: Old Lefty, himself. (Ed makes his throw) Outstanding! Right in the middle of the crater.

135:21:39 Mitchell: Stayed up.

135:21:40 Shepard: Stabilized spin!

135:21:41 Mitchell: Wasn't bad at all.

135:21:42 Shepard: Beautiful. Beautiful! (Pause)

135:21:50 Mitchell: Okay.

[Mitchell - "Okay, stop a minute. Hand me that briefcase."]

[Jones - "That was actually a fairly credible looking throw. You took a big hop forward, right leg leading, and got your left arm moving forward reasonably well, at shoulder height."]

[Mitchell - (Handing me a print of AS14-66- 9337) "Now, see if you can spot the javelin and the golf ball."]

[Jones - "Yeah, I've got them both there in a crater off to the north. There's Turtle Rock beyond them. This picture was taken out your window after the EVA. I see some MET tracks. I see your footprints coming back from the boulder field, going around this little crater. And there's the javelin and that's the golf ball there."]

[A detail from 9337 ( 275k ) shows the crater containing the javelin and one of the golf balls. The crater is labeled in a 5x enlargement of a detail ( 0.3 Mb from the November 2009 LROC image.]

[Mitchell - "Right there. The javelin went just a hair further than the golf ball."]

[It seems likely that the golf ball in this picture is the first one Al hit. In an interview with Ottawa Golf, Al claimed that the second ball landed in the general vicinity of the ALSEP. Note that the golf balls and the javelin were traveling from east to west - right to left in the photographs.]

[Ed rejoins Al at the MET.]

135:21:51 Shepard: Okay; documented sample bag.

135:21:52 Mitchell: Okay, we missed one there, didn't we?

135:21:53 Shepard: Put that in the weigh bag. (Pause as Ed takes the sample to the MESA)

135:21:58 Haise: Okay, Ed, I didn't hear the solar wind called-off there. Did you get that one stowed?

135:22:07 Mitchell: (At the MESA on the right) Yup. (Pause) Yes, Fred. It's in the ETB, now.

135:22:19 Haise: Okay, and did...

135:22:21 Shepard: (Going to the MESA on the left) Okay. We'll just have these three weigh bags, then.

[Al snags the TV cable as he goes to the MESA. He pulls it enough that it jumps off the ground in a whipping motion and flips the cable connector into the TV field-of-view. There is quite obviously very little slack remaining. The first image motion is of large amplitude and image-up.]
135:22:24 Haise: Okay, did the 100-foot tether also get into the ETB?
[Although the supposed reason for taking the 100-foot tether back up to the cabin was for use in securing extra sample bags and the like, I asked Ed if somebody might have been thinking about the problem they had docking the two spacecraft after translunar injection and the possibility that they would have to do a spacewalk to get over to the Command Module. Had such a necessity arisen, they would have used the OPSs in purge flow, which wouldn't have left time to transfer samples, just themselves.]

[Mitchell - "It was a last ditch emergency. That's what it was for. Hadn't even thought about that. It was their idea. 'Okay, we'll take it along in case we have to do that.'"]

[Jones - "So you hauled the tether up to the crater just in case somebody wanted to belay down in; and then you may have hauled it to orbit just in case you had to use it for rendezvous. Which brings up a related question. On 17 there was a procedure - as a last ditch measure to get off the Moon - to hot-wire the ascent stage off the descent stage batteries."]

[Mitchell - "We had the same. We rehearsed it once, somewhere along the line."]

[Prior to Apollo 15, the four 400-amp-hour Descent Stage batteries were located - two in each - in Quads I and IV on either side of the ladder. For Apollos 15-17, these batteries and an added fifth battery were placed at the rear of the spacecraft.]

[In 1996, Journal Contributor Marv Hein noted that, at 136:32:17 Houston tells the crew to put the tether in one of the stowage compartments. This supports the conjecture that Houston's real purpose is to have the tether on board in the event of a docking failure.]

135:22:30 Mitchell: That's affirmative; it's there.

135:22:36 Shepard: Okay. (Both back at the MET) Okay; we'll take those along.

135:22:47 Mitchell: Yeah. How're we going to handle them?

135:22:53 Shepard: (Both back at the MESA) I'll put them in here next trip

135:22:55 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause).

[Al snags the cable again; but the result is only minor camera motion. The first motion is image-up, an indication that the cable is relatively taut. No cable motion can be seen in the recorded TV image.]
135:23:03 Haise: And, Al and Ed, I just wanted to check once again on the camera mags to make sure you got four 70's and four 16-millimeter mags. I guess one of the 70's is on a camera.

135:23:18 Mitchell: That's affirm, Fredo.

[Shepard, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "We did get everything up there (to the cabin), with the exception of one camera magazine."]

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "Outside of my own stupidity - missing that one magazine. This was complicated by the fact that, in real time (at 119:50:37, we decided to take the extra magazine we hadn't used on EVA-1 out on EVA-2, so that we had an extra magazine on the surface. In checking things off on the checklist before ingress on the second EVA, I very brightly marked off three magazines. We had three (in the ETB) indeed. There was a fourth magazine sitting there on the (16-mm) camera that we just overlooked."]

[See, also, the discussion following 132:59:35. The forgotten magazine was HH (Hotel-Hotel), which they loaded in the 16-mm camera before leaving the LM but didn't turn on until 133:47:47 as they were making their way toward Station F on the trip back to the LM.]

[The same thing happened on Apollo 12 with a Hasselblad magazine, and for much the same reason. Fortunately, there was no critical data on either magazine. See the Apollo 12 discussion at 138:33:55.]

[Jones - "You were mistaken?"]

[Mitchell - (Tongue-in-cheek) "And we lied."]

[Jones - "About four mags."]

[Mitchell - "Apparently. Somehow, there were only three 16 mms. There was one still sitting on the camera. But it's true, the (MET stowage) bag was clear, and there's nothing left in the bags. We just didn't look at the camera."]

[They both go over to the MET to look it over one last time.]

RealVideo Clip (3 min 04 sec)

135:23:21 Shepard: Yup; there's nothing left on the MET.

135:23:23 Haise: Okay.

135:23:25 Mitchell: I think we've cleaned it off. (Pause)

135:23:32 Shepard: Okay, let's press on. You want to...(Long Pause)

135:24:05 Shepard: (Both back at the MESA) Want to head on up the ladder? I'll hand you...

135:24:08 Mitchell: Yeah.

135:24:09 Shepard: ...the SRC. I believe if you just stomp your feet on the way up, it'll be as effective as the brush was yesterday.

135:24:19 Mitchell: Okay. You're probably right.

[Later crews spent considerable time brushing each other off before they climbed the ladder. They weren't able to get all of the dust off their suits, but did get enough off that the effort was deemed worthwhile. They also stomped their feet once they were up on the ladder. Note, however, that there is no significant discussion in the Apollo 14 Technical Debrief about dust in the cabin.]
135:24:22 Shepard: Okay.

135:24:23 Mitchell: (At the foot of the ladder) Did you...I saw you over here. Did you get a picture (of Earth)?

135:24:26 Shepard: I did. Of the LM in the foreground?

135:24:30 Mitchell: Yeah.

135:24:34 Shepard: Yep. Several.

135:24:35 Mitchell: Okay, you ready to go up?

135:24:37 Shepard: Sure!

135:24:38 Mitchell: All right, Fredo, I'm starting up the ladder.

135:24:40 Haise: Roger, Ed.

[Al snags the TV cable and finally pulls it hard enough to pull the camera far enough forward over the tripod base that it falls to the ground, apparently without damage.]
135:24:46 Mitchell: (Stomping his boots on the ladder) How's that doing?

135:24:47 Shepard: That's good. Shaking the heck out of the LM.

135:24:51 Mitchell: Huh?

135:24:52 Haise: Okay...

135:24:53 LM Crew: (Garbled)

135:24:53 Haise: ...someone must have got caught in the cable; we just saw the TV go over.

135:25:02 Shepard: Well, we finally did it to you; sorry.

[Jones - "Just a matter of arcane interest, when the camera falls over, it winds up with the horizon in the field-of-view, but there's quite a bit of dust on the lens."]
135:25:04 Haise: (Chuckles) Okay.

135:25:07 Shepard: Want to take it up? I'll go set it...I'll go set it back up again. Get it?

135:25:10 Mitchell: Yeah.

135:25:15 Shepard: Okay. (Exaggerated speech) Fix up the television camera. (Long Pause as Al rights the camera and uses a lens brush on it) Okay, Fredo, you're going to have a real practical problem here. Probably be able to see what the lunar dust does to a camera lens.

135:25:54 Haise: Okay.

135:25:59 Shepard: Aim it back at the LM. Do you see anything at all?

135:26:06 Haise: Yeah. I think it's a better picture. Lunar dust helps the TV picture, I guess.

135:26:10 Shepard: (Laughs) Okay, we'll see to it that all TV lenses get dusted in the future.

RealVideo Clip (3 min 10 sec)

135:26:15 Mitchell: Cuts you down four stops, Fred.

135:26:21 Haise: Yeah, that looks... You just about had it centered, there. That's good, Al.

135:26:31 Shepard: Okay.

[Ed is back down on the footpad and, once Al has the camera aimed, Ed jumps up onto the ladder. It appears that he doesn't quite make the bottom rung, but scrambles up to it by using his feet on the strut.]
135:26:34 Mitchell: Did you see that mighty leap, Fredo?
[Jones - "You're pulling with your arms?"]

[Mitchell - "Yup."]

[Jones - "You bend your knees a little bit."]

[Mitchell - "Give a push and little pull at the same time and just float up and grab on. Actually, you launch yourself off the ground, guided by your hands and kind of grab onto the ladder as you go by the step you want."]

135:26:37 Shepard: Okay, Ed, you can start on up, now.

135:26:40 Mitchell: I'm already halfway up.

135:26:41 Shepard: Okay, good show.

135:26:43 Mitchell: Rock box in one hand.

[Mitchell, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "I carried it up by myself from the ground level without any great problem at all. I just bounced up from the surface to the first rung with the rock box in my left hand."]

[Encumbered with the rock box, Ed is stepping up the ladder, rather than jumping from rung to rung.]

[As Al goes toward the MESA, he makes a football "cut" to his left to get around the MET. In two EVAs, he has developed a smooth, easy stride. Their heart rates are 108 (Al) and 114 (Ed). Figure 10-5 in the Apollo 14 Mission Report shows the crew's heart rates during EVA-2.]

135:26:49 Shepard: Okay. (Long Pause) How are you doing?

135:27:10 Mitchell: Fine. If I get some of my visors up here so I can see. (Pause as Ed hops part way down the ladder) How far back do I have to look (for Earth)?

135:27:27 Shepard: What for?

135:27:30 Mitchell: (To) look up there.

135:27:32 Shepard: Well, right about there.

[Earth is almost exactly overhead. In the TV picture, we can see Ed lean back to his right, sticking his left leg out as he tries to get tilted far enough back to see Earth.]
135:27:40 Mitchell: Oh, I'm looking the wrong way.
[Ed hops down another rung and leans way back to his left, far enough that his PLSS gets into sunlight.]
135:27:44 Shepard: Okay, shall we press on?

135:27:48 Mitchell: One second. There it is.

135:27:55 Shepard: We got two loads of the ETB.

135:27:57 Mitchell: Okay. (Garbled) go.

135:27:59 Shepard: Okay.

135:28:03 Mitchell: (Climbing up to the porch) Just had to have a quick look at Earth from the...

135:28:05 Shepard: Yeah.

135:28:06 Mitchell: ...surface.

[During the 1991 mission review, Ed and I thought he might have come down the ladder to get the ETB from Al. However, a close examination of the TV record indicates that he did not and just came down to look at Earth.]
135:28:07 Shepard: Well, I got some pictures of the LM in the foreground; so, hope it comes out all right.

135:28:13 Mitchell: Pretty small sliver left, isn't it?

135:28:15 Shepard: Yeah. Not much. (Long Pause)

135:28:51 Shepard: Okay, why don't you take the first ETB as soon as you're ready; then, we can run the tracker light thing in between. (Pause; still at the MESA) Okay, standing by. You ready for it? (Pause)

[Ed is getting into the cabin and getting himself in position to operate the LEC. Al is at the MESA attaching the ETB to the LEC hooks.]
135:28:10 Shepard: Reading me, Ed? Okay. Houston, do you read?

135:29:16 Haise: Roger, Al. Houston reads you loud and clear.

135:29:17 Mitchell: You reading me, Al?

135:29:19 Shepard: Yeah. I read you. Yeah, I read you, Al...(correcting himself) Ed.

[Al is moving toward the ladder with the ETB hanging from the LEC at helmet height.]
RealVideo Clip (3 min 07 sec)

135:29:23 Mitchell: Okay, I'm ready to bring it up.

135:29:25 Shepard: (Moving into the LM shadow to get into position directly west of the ladder) Okay, stand by. I'm going to get around a little bit more, here. Okay, let her go. (Long Pause as the ETB goes up to the cabin) Very good. (Long Pause)

[Al is standing just outside the north edge of the LM shadow, his upper body in sunlight, waiting for Ed to get the ETB off the LEC.]
135:30:41 Shepard: Fredo, is the ALSEP antenna still doing okay?

135:30:45 Haise: Stand by Ed. Roger, Al; they're getting good signal.

135:30:54 Shepard: Okay, that's good.

[Comm Break. Al stands waiting for a while and then goes over to the MESA for a few seconds before getting back into position west of the ladder. He gets there just as Ed calls down to him.]
RealVideo Clip (3 min 38 sec)

135:32:27 Mitchell: Okay, Al, bring it (the ETB) down.

135:32:29 Shepard: (Pulling the LEC strap, hand over hand) All righty, coming back down. (Long Pause) Okay, hold it there.

135:32:48 Mitchell: Okay.

[Once the ETB is over the porch lip, Al steps to his left, still pulling the strap, so that the ETB comes down on the MESA side of the ladder. He then moves closer to get the ETB.]
135:32:49 Shepard: Okay, I have it. (Taking the ETB over to the MESA and needing a little more strap) Little more...

135:32:53 Mitchell: Huh?

135:32:54 Shepard: A little more down, please.

135:32:56 Mitchell: Okay, you got it.

135:32:57 Shepard: Okay. I've got it, now. Thank you. (Pause)

135:33:05 Shepard: Okay. Hook on there. (Garbled). (Pause) Open. (Long Pause as Al puts two weigh bags in the ETB) Okay, that (third weigh) bag is so big it won't go in the ETB very well; I'll just bring it up by myself.

135:34:01 Mitchell: Okay. You ready to bring the other two up?

135:34:04 Shepard: Just a second. (Long Pause as Al closes the ETB and gets into position west of the ladder) Okay, you can take the strain now, if you like.

135:34:28 Mitchell: Okay. Here she comes. (Long Pause)

[Mitchell - "The line was really sagging; and, to be hanging that way in lunar gravity, it had to be a pretty heavy bag."]
135:34:59 Shepard: (Releasing the LEC) Okay, it's all yours.

135:35:01 Mitchell: Okay, I've got it.

135:35:05 Shepard: (Going to the MESA to get the remaining weigh bag) Don't I check the tracking light now, before I come up?

135:35:08 Mitchell: Yup. (Pause)

135:35:11 Mitchell: Got your eye bones out of the way?

135:35:13 Shepard: I'm not looking at it. Let me know when you turn it around. (Pause)

[Mitchell - "You can't look at the light when it comes on. It's a high intensity, flashing light and you don't want to look at it when it comes on. He turns around and then looks at it to see if it's flashing. But he doesn't want it to flash in his eyes unexpectedly."]

[Jones - "So you look away, turn it on and then just kind of turn your head a little bit and do a peripheral check."]

135:35:21 Mitchell: Okay, (garbled). (Garbled) track light (circuit breaker) closed. Okay, here it comes. (Pause)

135:35:39 Shepard: Okay. Let's see. (going to the foot of the ladder and looking up) Yeah, track light's working.

135:35:47 Mitchell: Okay. (Pause) Okay.

RealVideo Clip (3 min 10 sec)

135:35:52 Shepard: Okay, Houston, crew of Antares is leaving Fra Mauro Base.

135:36:00 Haise: Roger, Al, you and Ed did a great job. Don't think I could have done any better myself.

135:36:10 Mitchell: That's debatable, isn't it, Fredo?

135:36:14 Haise: Well, I guess not now, Ed. (Long Pause)

[Fred Haise and Jim Lovell were supposed to have landed at Fra Mauro on Apollo 13. Because of an oxygen tank explosion during the journey to the Moon, their landing was scrubbed. Like the crews of Apollos 15, 16, and 17, Lovell and Haise had the advantage of having trained as backups to a landing mission (Apollo 11) and, therefore, were able to devote a far greater fraction of the their training time to geology than the crews of Apollo 11, 12, and 14 who, appropriately, devoted most of their training time to spacecraft systems and flight operations. Haise's statement here is both gracious and ironic.]

[Before jumping, Al takes a moment to get himself in position. He has the weigh bag in his right hand, with which he is gripping the right-hand rail on the ladder at about head height. He grabs hold of the other rail about a foot lower and then jumps up to the bottom rung]

[Jones - "That's a pretty big bag he's got there. Yeah, he's trying to reach up higher, isn't he? He's almost up at the top of his helmet with one hand, the one with the bag."]

[Mitchell - "And then he springs up."]

[Jones - "And moves the other hand a little bit."]

135:36:33 Shepard: Okay, the dust is knocked off (of his boots). (Long Pause as he steps up the ladder, one foot at a time)

135:36:54 Shepard: (Probably on the porch) How'd you like one more bag of rocks?

135:36:57 Mitchell: Okay, if you'll take one LEC.

135:37:03 Shepard: Okay. (Pause) (Garbled) wait a minute. Let me get...

135:37:10 Mitchell: Wait a minute. I'm just about to...

135:37:13 Shepard: Okay. (Long Pause)

135:37:27 Mitchell: I'm running out of room in here, Al. Take this (LEC?) while you're at it, before you come in. (Long Pause)

135:37:58 Shepard: Okay. (Pause) Okay. The condensate tank has already been discarded, Houston.

135:38:07 Haise: Roger, Al.

[On Surface Checklist page 7-3, they are supposed to place the "PLSS Condensate Container" in the jettison bag that they will discard during their final hatch opening prior to launch. Evidently, they are getting rid of it here.]
135:38:12 Shepard: Okay, and...

135:38:14 Mitchell: Could you push it (the extra rock bag) a little further?

135:38:16 Shepard: Got it?

135:38:17 Mitchell: No. Okay. Now I've got it.

135:38:22 Shepard: (Garbled) it up on top of the pile.

135:38:24 Mitchell: Man, the pile is high in here too. Two ETB loads, an SRC, and an extra rock bag.

135:38:33 Shepard: Okay.

135:38:37 Mitchell: Okay.

[Shepard will now re-enter the LM.]
135:38:38 Shepard: If you're ready, get over behind the door...

135:38:40 Mitchell: Okay. That's all of it. I'm moving out of your way.

135:38:43 Shepard: I'm coming on in. (Pause)

135:38:50 Mitchell: There's something (that) caught the door. Okay. I see what it is. It's that...

135:38:56 Shepard: Thing down there, huh?

RealVideo Clip (4 min 53 sec)

135:38:57 Mitchell: Strap. Okay. Push it down in the detent. The helmet bag strap. Okay. And, Al, it looks like there's a piece of Velcro laying right in the door. Can you reach it before I pull the door closed? That's it. It's one of those off the MET.

135:39:20 Shepard: Yeah. (Pause)

135:39:24 Mitchell: All right, come on in.

135:39:27 Shepard: Okay. (Long Pause) We have to have more door than that, Ed.

135:39:49 Mitchell: All right, just a minute. Wait a minute; back out, Al. I've got to turn. Okay, now come on in.

135:39:57 Shepard: Beautiful.

[Jones - "Any thoughts on that business about compactness? Apparently the door wasn't open quite enough for Al to get in and you said you had to turn. Any thought about how you would have turned?"]

[Mitchell - "Well, I was probably concerned about keeping the pile of all that stuff that was stacked in the middle area (on the midstep and ascent engine cover). And I probably turned so that my knee was hitting the door. But, in order for me to turn around and back out of it, I had to get forward (that is, lean in toward the hatch) and get my PLSS turned around, so that I could (be facing forward and) lean back and get away from the circuit breaker panel. So I was probably turned with my back too far to the circuit breaker panel, in order to get out of the way of the door and get my knees out of the way of the door, I had to turn face forward in the LM, and that meant I had to close the door a little bit, lean forward, and make a turn and then back into it so that the door could come the rest of the way open."]

[Jones - "So your most compact stance, at least with regard to the door, was facing forward - or, at least with your toes forward - so that your knees weren't banging."]

[Mitchell - "Yup."]

135:40:01 Mitchell: (To Al) Okay, straight up. (Pause) Straight up; you're in.

135:40:08 Shepard: Okay.

135:40:09 Mitchell: Fine shape.

135:40:13 Shepard: All righty. (Pause) I keep hitting on something back here.

135:40:26 Mitchell: Yeah, you're hitting on the (DSKY) shelf.

135:40:30 Shepard: Okay. Now, I guess I'm clear. (Pause)

[They will now do the procedures listed on their Post-EVA Cue Card and, also, on Surface checklist page 7-1.]
135:40:39 Mitchell: Okay, Houston, the door is closed. Let's take this PLSS.

135:40:43 Shepard: Feedwater valves.

135:40:49 Mitchell: Water Valve is Closed.

135:40:51 Shepard: 'Fraid you'll have to (garbled) the suits.

135:41:00 Mitchell: The Feedwater valve (on Al's suit) is Closed.

135:41:02 Shepard: Okay, let me go down and get the forward hatch, and I'll lock it. (Pause) Okay. The forward hatch is closed and locked.

135:41:19 Mitchell: Okay. Say, can you get the dump valve while you're there?

135:41:22 Shepard: Yep. (Pause) Okay, dump valve, Auto.

135:41:31 Mitchell: And dump valve, Auto. Reset.

135:41:36 Shepard: Why don't you just check this. (Pause)

135:41:41 Mitchell: Okay.

135:41:44 Shepard: All righty.

135:41:45 Mitchell: Okay. Look out. There, you're caught again. There, you're all right.

135:41:50 Shepard: Okay.

135:41:51 Mitchell: Okay. Lighting: Annunciator/Numerics, Bright.

135:41:54 Shepard: Okay.

135:41:55 Mitchell: Cabin Repress (valve). I'm turning to get it. Turn it to Auto. (Pause)

135:42:05 LM Crew: There it is.

135:42:09 Mitchell: Cabin Repress, Auto.

135:42:11 Shepard: Okay.

135:42:12 Mitchell: Suit Press (means "Cabin Repress") circuit breaker coming closed. Cabin pressurizing. Standing by for your O2 valve.

135:42:21 Shepard: Okay, Houston. The cabin is repressured.

135:42:25 Haise: Very good, Antares. (Pause)

135:42:36 Mitchell: Okay. Press Reg A and B going to Cabin. (Garbled) PLSS oxygen off (garbled).

135:42:51 Shepard: Okay. We're at 2.5.

135:42:53 Mitchell: 2.5; PLSS O2, Off.

135:42:56 Shepard: PLSS O2's Off. (Long Pause; the sound of repressurization stops) Okay. Cabin warning light is Off.

[The Cabin warning light is one of fourteen warning lights at the top of Panel 1. As warning lights, they are all Aircraft Red when they are on. There is an array of caution lights at the top of Panel 2. All are Aircraft Yellow when illuminated.]
135:43:24 Mitchell: Okay. We're at 5 pounds.

135:43:28 Shepard: Steady at about 4.6.

135:43:31 Mitchell: (Garbled) pressurized here. (Pause)

135:43:38 Mitchell: Okay. The DET coming up. (Pause) Okay.

[They have restarted the Digital Event Timer at zero.]

 

Geology Stations F and G Apollo 14 Journal Preparing for Launch