Page 15 - Aerotech News and Review, July 19, 2019

APOLLO, from 14
goodwill statements by Presidents Eisenhower, Kennedy, Johnson and Nixon, along with messages from leaders of 73 countries around the world. The disk also carries a listing of the leadership of the U.S. Congress, a listing of members of the four committees of the House and Senate responsible for the NASA legislation, and the names of NASA’s past and present top management.
After about seven hours of rest, the crew was awakened by Houston to prepare for the return flight. Two and a half hours later, at 12:54 p.m., they lifted off in Eagle’s ascent stage to rejoin Collins aboard Columbia in lunar orbit. Film taken from the LM ascent stage upon liftoff from the Moon reveals the American flag, planted some 25 feet from the descent stage, whipping violently in the exhaust of the ascent stage engine. Aldrin looked up in time to witness the flag topple: “The
ascent stage of the LM separated ... I was concentrating on the comput- ers, and Neil was studying the attitude indicator, but I looked up long enough to see the flag fall over.” Subsequent Apollo missions usually planted the American flags further from the LM to prevent them being blown over by the ascent engine exhaust.
Columbia in lunar orbit
During his day flying solo around the Moon, Collins never felt lonely. Although it has been said “not since Adam has any human known such solitude,” Collins felt very much a part of the mission. In his autobiography he wrote: “this venture has been structured for three men, and I consider my third to be as necessary as either of the other two.” In the 48 minutes of each orbit when he was out of radio contact with the Earth while Columbia passed round the far side of the Moon, the feeling he reported was not fear or loneliness, but rather “awareness, anticipation, satisfaction, confidence, almost exultation.”
One of Collins’ first tasks was to identify the lunar module on the ground. To give Collins an idea where to look, Mission Control radi- oed that they believed the lunar module landed about four miles off target. Each time he passed over the suspected lunar landing site, he tried in vain to find the module. On his first orbits on the back side of the Moon, Collins performed maintenance activities such as dumping excess water produced by the fuel cells and preparing the cabin for Armstrong and Aldrin to return.
Just before he reached the dark side on the third orbit, Mission Con- trol informed Collins that there was a problem with the temperature of the coolant. If it became too cold, parts of Columbia might freeze. Mission Control advised him to assume manual control and implement Environmental Control System Malfunction Procedure 17. Instead, Collins flicked the switch on the offending system from automatic to manual and back to automatic again, and carried on with normal housekeeping chores, while keeping an eye on the temperature. When Columbia came back around to the near side of the Moon again, he was able to report that the problem had been resolved. For the next couple of orbits, he described his time on the back side of the Moon as “relax- ing.” After Aldrin and Armstrong completed their EVA, Collins slept so he could be rested for the rendezvous. While the flight plan called for Eagle to meet up with Columbia, Collins was prepared for certain contingencies in which he would fly Columbia down to meet Eagle.
NASA photograph
The Apollo 11 crew await pickup by a helicopter from the USS Hornet, prime recovery ship for the historic lunar landing mission. The fourth man in the life raft is a United States Navy underwater demolition team swimmer. All four men are wearing biological isolation garments.
NASA photograph
On July 24, 1969, the Apollo 11 crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean. The three were quarantined after their return to earth.
Return
Eagle rendezvoused with Columbia at 4:24 p.m., CDT, on July 21, and the two docked at 4:35 p.m. Eagle’s ascent stage was jettisoned into lunar orbit at 4:41 p.m. Just before the Apollo 12 flight, it was noted that Eagle was still likely to be orbiting the Moon. Later NASA reports mentioned that Eagle’s orbit had decayed, resulting in it impact- ing in an “uncertain location” on the lunar surface.
On July 23, the last night before splashdown, the three astronauts made a television broadcast in which Collins commented:
“ ... The Saturn V rocket which put us in orbit is an incredibly complicated piece of machinery, every piece of which worked flaw- lessly ... We have always had confidence that this equipment will work properly. All this is possible only through the blood, sweat, and tears of a number of people ... All you see is the three of us, but beneath the surface are thousands and thousands of others, and to all of those, I would like to say, ‘Thank you very much.’”
Aldrin added, “This has been far more than three men on a mis- sion to the Moon; more, still, than the efforts of a government and industry team; more, even, than the efforts of one nation. We feel that this stands as a symbol of the insatiable curiosity of all mankind
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