MSC-07631 04. Earth orbit and systems checkout

Cernan

Evaluation of insertion parameters - We got a good onboard orbit. Ground gave us a GO for orbit. The postinsertion systems configuration systems checkout and the complete spacecraft and booster preparation for TLI went extremely smooth and extremely rapid. By the time we came back over the States on the first pass, we were ready and the spacecraft was ready, and we were configured and could have gone on a TLI-0 without any hurrying and scurrying whatsoever. From that point on, when we got our GO on the booster and a GO for TLI-1, it was an Earth-orbit, an extra Earth-orbit ride to sit back and just monitor our systems in the spacecraft and see what we could see from Earth orbit in terms of viewing. It was an extra 90 minutes of the flight that, if you really had to do without, you could have. And it was not hurried. It was very comfortable, even progressing toward the TLI-0.

Schmitt

Let me add just a couple of things. One thing that we had because of the later launch was a number of LOS/AOS updates to plot which did not interfere with our getting through the checklist. The checklist, I had a feeling, went more slowly than it ever had. But, as Gene says, still with plenty of time to meet the zero up time and to have essentially a whole daylight pass to just relax and look at the Earth. We had one note here. I didn't even remember until I read it here that in the ECS checks the hydrogen pressure indicators, or part of the indicators, were reading about 10 percent lower than we expected. But, as I recall, it may have been expected.

Evans

The optics cover jettison worked as advertised. We jettisoned the optics cover in the daylight and you could see the two covers flipping off straight down the optics path.

Cernan

I think everyone reacted normally to weightlessness. There was no feeling of disorientation or vertigo or any other disturbances at that point. The CMP is the only one who left the couch prior to TLI and that was for his P52.

Evans

I didn't get that fullness in the head at that point at all. That wasn't until we'd been up there for 5 or 6 hours.

Cernan

Launching at night, we just had a somewhat different view of the Earth than most other flights have had. The first real view we got of being in orbit at that point was pretty spectacular because it happened to be Earth sunrise and that's a very intriguing and interesting way to get your first indoctrination to Earth orbit.

Schmitt

The transcript contains some descriptions, by all three of us, of sequences of that sunrise which, in the color banding, may be of some significance for other people.

Edits and errors by Eric Hartwell are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license. The original NASA material is copyright-free.