Except for the first item listed below, the entire “C” Mission Rendezvous Mission Techniques meeting of March 8 was devoted to the terminal phase. Based on the very great importance FCOD is putting on proper lighting during the braking phase, a proposal is being considered for including another little tune up maneuver between NSR and…
Category: Apollo missions
C’ earth parking orbit duration is a variable
This note is just to make sure everyone is aware of the rather siginificant variation in the time between earth orbit insertion (EOI) and translunar injection (TLI) on the C’ mission, depending on day and azimuth of launch. This came as a surprise to me and may have some impact on what you are doing….
There will be no VHF ranging data collected while tracking the LM on the lunar surface
It has been suggested that, in addition to optics and rendezvous radar tracking one spacecraft of the other while the LM is on the lunar surface, we should also utilize VHF ranging. This data would certainly be useful for post-flight analysis if not in real time. I have attempted to resolve the situation with regard…
A lengthy status report on lunar point landing including some remarks about CSM DOI
It is clear that lunar point landing capability is absolutely necessary if we are to support the exploration program the scientists want. That is, mission success intrinsically depends upon it. (The current definition of “point landing” is for the LM to touchdown on the lunar surface within 1 kilometer of a point referenced to specific…
Results of “C” Mission Rendezvous Review meeting – April 22, 1968
At your request, I set up a meeting on our current “C” mission rendezvous problems with participation by all organizations interested in this activity. The attached attendee list will show you they were well represented. Our basic purpose was to determine current status of the situation and to recommend where to go from here with…
F Rendezvous Mission Techniques Clean-up
On April 5 we had what I expect is the last of the F Mission Rendezvous Techniques meetings. We resolved a number of open items which had not been covered before, or which popped up during simulations. This memo is to list them for the record. Some are trivial, some are really quite significant….
Status report on Apollo 13 Mission Techniques – or “Go for CSM DOI”
Based on the September 23 Mission Techniques meeting, it appears that the command module DOI type mission should be adopted for Apollo 13. At this meeting we reviewed all facets of this approach and could find none that would keep us from going this way; on the other hand, the advantages appeared to be substantial….
Fifth “C” Mission Rendezvous Mission Techniques meeting
We had another “C” Mission Rendezvous Mission Techniques meeting on February 23. We resolved a few things and reworked the flow charts some more at this meeting….
Spacecraft computer program names
I used to think MIT was a little odd when it came to selecting names for the spacecraft computer programs with all that weird preoccupation with the sun. But now I see they were right all the time and the rest of the world is nuts – let’s name the missions sequentially as they lift…