Apollo 15 Lunar Surface Journal

 

The Hammer and the Feather Return to Orbit

 

Post-EVA-3 Activities

Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 1996 by Eric M. Jones.
All rights reserved.
Last revised 17 June 2011.

 

MP3 Audio Clip ( 16 min 52 sec ) by David Shaffer

168:09:52 Scott: (Reading Surface 11-1) "Verify EVA circuit breaker configuration." If you can move forward, I can get in there and verify mine.

168:09:58 Irwin: Stand by.

168:09:59 Scott: Are you trying to get your O2 off?

168:10:00 Irwin: Yeah. Okay; it's off.

168:10:04 Scott: Good. Okay. (Pause)

168:10:18 Irwin: Okay, my circuit breakers are okay except Fan 2 to Suit Fan Delta-P, which we'll pick up (in just a few seconds).

168:10:25 Scott: Yeah. Check mine here. Okay. Mine are okay. Let's see. "CB(16) ECS: Suit Fan 2, close."

168:10:39 Irwin: Okay, closed.

168:10:41 Scott: "Suit Fan Delta-P, close."

168:10:42 Irwin: Closed.

168:10:43 Scott: Okay; "doff the gloves and stow on the comm panel."

168:10:47 Irwin: Wait. I didn't depress. I'm going to have to use the purge valve.

168:10:50 Scott: Oh, you didn't, huh? Oh. Okay. Can you get it, okay?

168:10:56 Irwin: Yeah. Stand by. (Long Pause)

168:11:14 Irwin: No, I can't, Dave. I'll turn around.

168:11:16 Scott: Okay. Let me get out of your way. (Pause) Okay, come on around.

168:11:23 Irwin: It (meaning the suit pressure)'s coming down, but very slowly.

168:11:25 Scott: Okay; come on around. (Pause) Okay; put you in high (purge valve) flow, here. There you go.

168:11:40 Irwin: Okay.

168:11:43 Scott: Okay; let's take off your gloves. When you get down (in pressure). (Long Pause) I'll "verify the safety" (on the forward dump valve), here. Auto. Safety's on the dump valve. Next thing is to remove purge valves, anyway. "Descent Water valve, Open", when you get to it, Jim.

168:12:56 Irwin: Okay; in just a moment. Back up a little bit. (Pause) Okay, Descent Water is coming open.

168:13:07 Scott: Okay. (Long Pause)

168:13:25 Irwin: What's next?

168:13:26 Scott: Okay; "pull the purge valve out". You did it. "Disconnect OPS O2 hose." (Pause)

168:13:33 Irwin: In work. (Long Pause) Okay; mine's out.

168:13:57 Scott: Okay; and the next thing is "connect the LM O2 hoses; red to red and blue to blue".

168:14:03 Irwin: Red to red and blue to blue.

168:14:05 Scott: Yeah, we've got to do a dump.

168:14:07 Irwin: Yeah. (Long Pause)

[Once they doff the PLSSs and check the OPSs, they will depressurize the cabin, open the hatch, and jettison the PLSSs and a jettison bag.]
168:14:48 Scott: We better make sure we got them (the LM hoses) under the OPS (hose)...(correcting himself) PLSS (hose). Okay. Okay; I go to Suit Flow. (Garbled) Phew! (Pause)

168:15:25 Irwin: Doesn't look like my prime water is off.

168:15:28 Scott: Say again?

168:15:29 Irwin: Doesn't feel like the prime water is off.

168:15:30 Scott: I've got bare hands, now, when I get back here. (Garbled)

168:15:36 Irwin: Getting water in the suit.

168:15:37 Scott: I know it. There, it's off. It was off, and you must have bumped it, maybe. (Pause) It was off, but you are getting water, all right.

168:15:53 Irwin: I feel it running down my leg.

168:15:54 Scott: Yeah. I can't understand that. It was off. I mean it wasn't off then, but I remember turning it off, and it went off.

168:16:03 Irwin: Yeah, it's probably catching up on something, Dave, just like it did yesterday...

168:16:06 Scott: Yeah.

168:16:07 Irwin: When I turn around. Okay. My O2 hose is disconnected, and going to Suit Flow.

168:16:11 Scott: Okay. Then "Suit Isolation (Valve to) Suit Flow; PLSS Pump, Off".

168:16:15 Irwin: PLSS Pump, Off.

168:16:16 Scott: Fan, Off. (Pause)

168:16:19 Irwin: Fan, Off.

168:16:20 Scott: Okay. "Disconnect PLSS water from PGA and connect LM water to PGA."

168:16:26 Irwin: In work. (Long Pause) Okay; water's connected. How about a little (LM) LCG pump action?

168:17:06 Scott: Yes, sir.

168:17:07 Irwin: Is it called for?

168:17:08 Scott: Not yet. Let's press on down here.

168:17:12 Irwin: Okay.

168:17:13 Scott: Your (LM oxygen) flow ought to cool you there; it's cooling me pretty good.

168:17:15 Irwin: Yeah.

[They have completed Surface 11-1 and are about to start 11-2.]
168:17:16 Scott: Okay. "PLSS Mode, both to O. Audio circuit-breaker, open, and connect to LM comm."

168:17:20 Irwin: Okay. (Long Pause)

168:17:44 Scott: Okay; you back on (LM comm)? (No answer; Pause) Back on, Jim? (No answer; Pause) Back on, Jim? (Long Pause)

168:18:41 Irwin: Okay?

168:18:42 Scott: Yeah, that's better. Okay, Audio panels for both of us, "VHF A to Receive and B to..."

168:18:56 Irwin: Back over here.

168:18:57 Scott: "B to Off. Mode, ICS/PTT, and Relay, Off."

[Comm Break]
168:21:48 Mitchell: Hadley Base, Houston. Do you read?

168:21:54 Scott: Rog, Houston. Hadley Base. Go.

168:21:56 Mitchell: Okay; could we have the Power Amp, On, please.

168:22:06 Scott: Power Amp coming on.

[Very Long Comm Break]

[Scott - "Ed Mitchell has come on as CapCom because he's the expert in the rendezvous. We would normally have a new CapCom for launch; but the CapCom is specially Ed Mitchell because Ed really understands the rendezvous - just like Joe Allen really understood the geology. Ed did the direct rendezvous on 14, so I wanted Ed Mitchell there. I shouldn't downplay rendezvous. It's not trivial. It's got to be done very carefully. Aviation, like the sea, is not inherently dangerous; but it is terribly unforgiving of any carelessness, incapacity, or neglect. So you want your best guy on. And we thought Ed was - as you well know - very good. So, if things get off nominal, you've got the A Squad down there taking care of you. It's important. That relaxes us, you know, to know we've got a good guy."]

[Jones - "Thanks for putting that in here."]

[Scott - "Well, it's a team kind of thing, and when you get all the A players in there, you win the game, right?"]

xxx:xx:xx Irwin: Houston; this is Hadley Base with a weight report for today (as per Surface 11-3).

xxx:xx:xx Mitchell: Okay, Hadley Base. We're ready to copy.

xxx:xx:xx Irwin: Okay, Ed; the BSLSS bag was 25 (terrestrial pounds); bag (SCB) number 7 was 24; and bag (SCB) number 2 was 23. For a total of 72.

xxx:xx:xx Mitchell: Okay, we copy. Do you have a bag 8 number?

xxx:xx:xx Irwin: We do, but we don't have any rocks in it.

xxx:xx:xx Mitchell: Okay, we have no weight for that. Roger, and Jim...

xxx:xx:xx Irwin: Yeah, we shuffled the contents of...(Stops to listen)

xxx:xx:xx Mitchell: The only thing we need to advise you before you go on here is to tape the caps on your long core stem - both ends of it - before you depress.

xxx:xx:xx Irwin: Okay, we understand.

[When they brought to cores into the cabin, the cores contained no gas. After cabin repressurization, cabin pressure would presumably kept the caps sealed and prevented any cabin oxygen from leaking in. However, by taping the caps, they are reducing the chances of the caps coming loose at depress if any cabin oxygen had leaked into the stems.]
xxx:xx:xx Irwin: And Ed, we took the contents out of bag 8 and consolidated it into bag 7.

xxx:xx:xx Mitchell: Okay, bag 8 went into bag 7. Thank you. And be advised that we are going to delete your P22 to give you a little more time. We're a little bit pressed on lift-off time now.

xxx:xx:xx Irwin: Okay.

[P22 is a rendezvous radar check planned for the last Command Module pass over the landing site prior to launch.]

[Scott, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "We skipped a P22 with the Command Module because we were somewhat behind time, there, and that didn't seem to be too necessary anyway. With that elimination, we were pretty much right on the timeline all the way up to lift-off, and everything went as per schedule. I think we had run this a number of times in the simulator and felt pretty comfortable with it, even though I remember commenting that that was probably the fastest two hours we spent in the whole flight."]

[Very Long Comm Break]

xxx:xx:xx Mitchell: Hadley Base; Houston. (We) observe you doing your pressure integrity check. We'd like your cuff gauge readout, please.

xxx:xx:xx Scott: Okay; 3.7 to 3.6 in a minute.

xxx:xx:xx Mitchell: Very good; thank you.

xxx:xx:xx Scott: Roger.

[Comm Break]
xxx:xx:xx Scott: Okay. Houston; Hadley Base standing by for a Go for depress (as per Surface 11-4).

xxx:xx:xx Mitchell: Okay, Hadley Base. You're Go for depress.

xxx:xx:xx Scott: Okay. Thank you.

[Comm Break]
xxx:xx:xx Irwin: Houston, are you ready for the battery reconfiguration (as per the right-hand column of Surface 12-1)?

xxx:xx:xx Mitchell: Okay; let's have it.

xxx:xx:xx Irwin: Okay.

[Comm Break]
MP3 Audio Clip ( 6 min 46 sec ) by David Shaffer

169:15:56 Mitchell: Okay, Falcon. We observe the batteries coming on; and I have a lift-off time when you're ready.

169:16:02 Irwin: Stand by. (Pause) Okay, Ed. I'm ready to copy the LM ascent PAD (as per Surface 12-4).

169:16:17 Mitchell: Okay; I don't have an ascent PAD for you, but I have the lift-off time. It's 171:37:22.36.

169:16:33 Irwin: Okay. Copied 171:37:22.36.

169:16:38 Mitchell: I think I heard that. Let me read it back: 171:37:22.36. And I have some star changes for the P57.

169:16:50 Irwin: Okay; go ahead.

[In Program 57, they re-align the inertial platform using star sightings made with the Alignment Optical Telescope (AOT). The P57 procedures are on Surface 12-2.]
169:16:52 Mitchell: Rog. For the P57 coming up right now, let's use star 5 (Polaris) and detent 3 and you should find it at a cursor of 182.2 and the spiral of 284.0.

169:17:13 Irwin: Roger; I copied that. (Long Pause)

169:18:03 Mitchell: And, Falcon, when you get around to it, how about an ED batt, check, please (as per Surface 12-1)?

169:18:12 Irwin: Roger, Ed. 37 on both.

169:18:14 Mitchell: Thank you.

169:18:19 Scott: And, Ed, an E(rasable)-memory dump coming down (as per Surface 12-1).

169:18:22 Mitchell: Okay; we're ready. Let her come. (Pause)

169:18:29 Scott: On the way.

[Comm Break]
169:19:39 Mitchell: Okay. Hadley Base, Houston. We got your E-mod. We're ready to give you an uplink (as per Surface 12-2) if we can have P00 (Program Zero-Zero) and Data. (Pause)

169:19:55 Scott: All righty, P00 and Data. You got it.

[Comm Break. Here, Houston is updating the LM computer's memory.]
169:22:45 Mitchell: Falcon, Houston. Looks like we need to do a Verb 96. You're going through an integration loop.

169:22:55 Scott: Yeah. I thought that P00 and Data might get you in trouble. (Pause) Okay; how's that?

169:23:07 Mitchell: Okay; we'll try again. (Pause)

169:26:15 Mitchell: Falcon, the computer is yours.

169:26:19 Scott: Rog; thank you.

[Comm Break]
169:30:42 Mitchell: Endeavour and Falcon, Houston. We're going to delete the VHF check at this pass just to give you a little more time.

169:30:54 Irwin: Roger.

169:31:04 Mitchell: That's fine. We just won't bother the LM with it.

[Long Comm Break]
169:37:37 Irwin: Houston, Falcon. Do you have the torquing angles?

169:37:43 Mitchell: Okay, you can torque.

169:37:47 Irwin: Roger; torque at 38.

[Dave and Jim are performing the platform alignment on Surface 12-2. Houston has looked at the star-sighting measurements they have fed into the computer and has decided that they are consistent with the other available information.]

[Very Long Comm Break]

[As per Surface 12-3, once Dave and Jim finish the platform alignment, they will stow the film magazines, samples and other EVA-related items. At some point during this interval, Dave takes a color CDR window pan and then Jim takes an LMP window pan (assembly by David Harland). Dave Byrne has created a composite window pan.]

[At some point, Jim takes two 500-mm pans of the North Complex. The first consists of frames AS15-82-11204 to 11217. The second consists of frames AS15-90-12249 to 12256.]

[Jim also took a three-frame portrait of Hill 305. The frames are AS15-90-12259 to 12261.]

[Finally, Dave took a partial portrait of Mt. Hadley Delta. The frames are AS15-90-12262 to 12265.

170:01:30 Mitchell: Falcon, Houston. How do you read?

170:01:37 Irwin: Go ahead, Houston. 5 by.

170:01:48 Mitchell: Roger. How are you coming with your stowage (as per Surface 12-3)? We have these locations available still, if you're not too well stowed up yet.

170:01:55 Scott: Well, we were just mushing along with it by the checklist here, and why don't you go through what you have in mind? I'm sorry. We're pressing on. We'll take a listen to what you got here.

170:02:07 Mitchell: Okay. What we were expecting was bags 4 and 6 in the ISA (Interim Stowage Assembly); bag 3 behind the aft engine; and 2 and 7 in the right- and left-hand stowage compartments with 7 in the left-hand, 2 in the right-hand.

170:02:33 Irwin: Ed, let me tell you where we have them.

170:02:37 Mitchell: Okay.

170:02:42 Irwin: The aft engine cover is bag 3. The left-hand midsection is bag 2. The right-hand side is bag 7. (Pause) And the one remaining bag, we figured we'd put in the ISA.

170:03:17 Mitchell: Okay, Jim. That would either be bag 4 or 6, and we seem to have both of them indicated for the ISA. (Pause)

170:03:32 Irwin: Okay, in other words, you'd like bags 4 and 6 in the ISA. That would work out fine.

170:03:38 Mitchell: That's great, and it sounds like the rest of it's as per plan.

[Irwin, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "We could have saved some mental activity if we had let the ground tell us where to put the bags. They came up with a plan and I did not know that they were going to do that."]

[Scott, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "That is right. The pre-flight plan was to take the checklist we had on board - and the limitations on the weights - and stow according to that checklist. After we got all stowed, the ground called up with a plan and said 'here is where we think you ought to stow everything'. I guess we just read them our stowage from the checklist, and they accepted that."]

[Irwin, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "It turned out to be very close to what they had, but it could have saved some time."]

[Scott, from the 1971 Technical Debrief - "It sure would have. Once we got back in after EVA-3, they could have said, 'stow this here, and here, and there'. We would not have had to figure it out. That would have saved some time. But, I thought, in general, the post-EVA-3 timeline went right down the money all the way. I think we were within probably 5 or 10 minutes of every event."]

170:03:41 Mitchell: And be advised we're showing total weight of slightly in excess of 230 pounds, which is a little over what we expected. However, by deleting a plane change, we're going to have plenty of fuel for it.

170:03:57 Irwin: Roger; thank you.

[Scott - "You were asking about extending the EVA two hours; and here's a comment by Mitchell: 'We have a little bit more weight than we expected, in terms of rocks,' he says, 'however, by deleting a plane change we're going to have plenty of fuel. See, we had a margin built for a plane change (by the LM), which we can now use for rocks. Al Worden has done that plane change (as scheduled with the Command Module), so we're not taking something away that we might need later on."]

[Jones - "It's padding that's suddenly become available because everything has gone 'bing, bing'."]

[Very Long Comm Break]

[During this comm break, Dave and Jim complete the cabin clean-up on Surface 12-3. They then skipped over the P22 on Surface 12-4 and, as indicated in their next conversation with Ed, reconfigured the circuit-breaker panels as per Surface 12-5, 12-6, and 12-7.]

MP3 Audio Clip ( 1 min 53 sec ) by David Shaffer

170:27:12 Mitchell: Falcon, Houston.

170:27:19 Irwin: Go ahead, Ed.

170:27:20 Mitchell: Give us a little bit of idea of where you are, Jim. We're starting to worry about time a little bit.

170:27:28 Irwin: We're just configuring circuit breakers, right now.

170:27:30 Mitchell: Okay. One thing we do need. Did you weigh your ISA? And we need a weight on it, please.

170:27:44 Irwin: It's all weighed and stowed.

170:27:47 Mitchell: Okay. Have you got a weight that we can have? (Pause)

170:28:00 Irwin: Stand by one.

170:28:01 Mitchell: If it's too much trouble, ignore it, Jim; but if you have it real handy, I'll take it.

170:28:11 Irwin: We'll give you a weight here shortly.

170:28:13 Mitchell: Okay; thank you.

[Long Comm Break]

 

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