Apollo 16

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Mission emblem
Mission emblem Apollo 16
Mission dates
Mission: Apollo 16
COSPAR-ID : 1972-031A
Command module: CSM-113
Lunar Module: LM-11
Launcher: Saturn V ,
serial number SA-511
Call sign: CM: Casper
LM: Orion
Crew: 3
Begin: April 16, 1972, 17:54:00 UTC
JD : 2441424.2458333
Starting place: Kennedy Space Center , LC-39A
Number of EVA : 4th
Moon landing: April 21, 1972, 02:23:35 GMT
JD : 2441428.3229167
Landing place moon: Descartes -Hochplateau
8 ° 58 '22.84 "  S , 15 ° 30' 0.68"  O
Length of the lunar EVAs: 20h 17m
Time on the moon: 2d 23h 2m
Start from the moon: April 24, 1972, 01:25:47 GMT
JD : 2441431.5590278
Lunar orbits: 64
Landing: April 27, 1972, 19:45:05 UTC
JD : 2441435.3229745
Landing place: Pacific
0 ° 42 ′  S , 156 ° 13 ′  W
Flight duration: 11d 1h 51m 05s
Recovery ship: USS Ticonderoga
Team photo
Apollo 16 - v. l. No. Ken Mattingly, John Young, Charles Duke
Apollo 16 - v. l. No. Ken Mattingly , John Young , Charles Duke
◄ Before / After ►
Apollo 15
(manned) 		Apollo 17
(manned)

Apollo 16 was the penultimate mission within the American Apollo program . It was successfully completed , including the primary objective, the fifth manned landing on Earth's moon .

crew

On March 3, 1971, shortly after the flight of Apollo 14 , NASA announced the crew for the Apollo 16 mission . Space veteran John Young , who had already completed two Gemini flights and one flight to the moon with Apollo 10, was selected as the commander . The pilot of the command capsule was Ken Mattingly , who had already been nominated for Apollo 13 , but had been exchanged for Jack Swigert shortly before take-off for medical reasons (lack of immunity to rubella) . Charles Duke was nominated as the lunar module pilot .

A few months earlier, the Apollo program had been cut again. The last flight to the moon should now take place with Apollo 17 . For this reason, NASA no longer nominated young astronauts for the replacement team, who were to be promoted to the main team three flights later, but assigned already experienced astronauts. For Apollo 16, the replacement crew consisted of the commander Fred Haise , the pilot of the command module Stuart Roosa and the lunar shuttle pilot Edgar Mitchell . All three had already had an Apollo flight behind them. Had Charles Duke failed, Edgar Mitchell would have had the opportunity to become the first astronaut to land twice on the moon.

The support crew (support crew) consisted of Henry Hartsfield , Anthony England and Donald Peterson . England was a sixth selection science astronaut, Hartsfield and Peterson were among the seven astronauts who joined NASA from the US Air Force in August 1969 after the Air Force ended plans for its own manned space program ( MOL ).

preparation

The individual stages of the Saturn V rocket AS-511 were delivered to the Kennedy Space Center between July and September 1970 . The Apollo spacecraft CSM-113 was named Casper after a cartoon character . The lunar module LM-11 was named Orion , named after the constellation Orion .

The preparations again placed great emphasis on geological training, including studying the impact crater in the Nördlinger Ries in Germany .

On December 13, 1971, the rocket was brought to launch pad 39-A, but had to be examined again in the assembly building from January 27, 1972 to February 9, in order to inspect and repair leaks.

Liaison officers ( Capcom ) during the flight were the substitutes Haise, Roosa and Mitchell, the support team Hartsfield, England and Peterson, the Apollo 15 astronaut James Irwin , and Robert Overmyer and Gordon Fullerton , who were also training as astronauts with the US Air Force and moved to NASA after the Air Force abandoned plans for its own manned space program.

Flight history

Start and outbound flight

The launch took place on April 16, 1972, 17:54 UTC from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida . The navigation system failed three days after the start . The position could therefore only be determined with the help of a space sextant . In addition, shortly after the lunar module "Orion" had separated from the command module "Casper" in lunar orbit, the rotary drive of the main engine of the Apollo failed partially. The ground control found after simulations that the redundant systems were still working, so that the mission could continue as planned. Until they were cleared by ground control, both spaceships remained in lunar orbit at a short distance from each other, so that they could immediately dock and fly back in the event of a mission abort.

On the moon

The goal was the Cayley highlands , near the Descartes crater , which Young and Duke reached with almost six hours delay. This was the southernmost landing site of the program. The exit from the ferry and the astronauts' first steps on the lunar surface could not be broadcast on television for the first time because the transmitter on the lunar module had failed. Only when the system of the moon car was installed could the events be followed again. The team's scientific program on the moon included in the nuclear powered ALSEP (Apollo Lunar Surface Experiments Package):

For the first time, astronomical recordings were made using a UV camera ( spectrograph ). The film was evaluated on earth.

The LRV in action

Three major spacecraft missions (EVA) were carried out in which the moon car provided valuable services. This was a success, especially against the background of the difficulties with the Apollo 14 MET .

  • The first EVA was characterized by the installation of the scientific experiments in the vicinity of the landing site. There was also a short drive to the Flag and Ray craters. The EVA lasted 7 hours 11 minutes and covered a distance of 4.2 km.
  • The second EVA led to Cinco, Stubby and Wreck craters. A drill was used on this excursion to take core samples from a depth of three meters. The tour was 11 km long and lasted 7 hours 23 minutes.
  • The third EVA lasted 5 hours 40 minutes and was aimed at the North Ray crater. Here the crew covered 11.4 km. Originally this EVA should also have lasted around 7 hours, but had to be shortened due to the delay; in the meantime, even giving up had been considered.

Instead of the expected volcanic formations, the astronauts found mainly fragments formed by impacts, including the largest sample of the program at 11 kg. As a result of these findings, the lunar geologists revised the theory that volcanoes formed the early shape of the moon.

Another attempt was made to broadcast the start from the moon with the rover's television camera, which was better than with Apollo 15 .

Return flight

After Young and Duke had switched to the command module "Casper", the lunar module was supposed to fall on the moon in a controlled manner as usual. However, after uncoupling, the ferry began to tumble. The scheduled firing of the engines was not carried out, so the ascent stage remained in lunar orbit for about a year before it crashed in an unknown location.

Before leaving orbit , a small satellite was launched from the SIM Bay of the Apollo spacecraft. It was the same model that had put Apollo 15 into orbit. The satellite examined the phenomena of the earth's magnetosphere as well as the solar wind near the moon and its influence on the magnetic field until it shattered on the moon.

The return flight itself went off without any problems. During the return flight, Ken Mattingly carried out an outboard operation to retrieve footage from the equipment section. Overall, he was outside the capsule for 1 hour 24 minutes. According to astronaut Charles Duke, the wedding ring that Ken Mattingly had lost in the command capsule a few days earlier reappeared during the spacecraft mission: It drifted out through the open hatch of the command capsule, bounced off Ken Mattingly himself on the outside the command capsule and flew back to the hatch, where Charles Duke standing in the hatch could catch him.

Upon re-entry , the astronauts had to endure a delay of 7.19  g , the highest value measured for an Apollo mission. On April 27, 1972 at 7:45 p.m. Apollo 16 submerged in the Pacific and was recovered from the aircraft carrier USS Ticonderoga . During this mission, the crew brought 95.8 kg of lunar rock back to earth . A sample of this rock can be viewed in the Nördlinger Rieskrater Museum .

Whereabouts of the spacecraft

The "Casper" command module is now in the US Space & Rocket Center in Huntsville , Alabama .

See also

Web links

Commons : Apollo 16  album with pictures, videos and audio files