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Author Topic: 122:18:04 Attempt to track CSM with LM rendezvous radar  (Read 1910 times)

Offline Naraht

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122:18:04 Attempt to track CSM with LM rendezvous radar
« on: June 08, 2020, 01:49:39 am »
https://apolloinrealtime.org/11/?t=122:18:04&ch=21

Really enjoyed this GUIDO-eye view of the attempt to locate the LM on the lunar surface by using a P22 to track the CSM with the LM's rendezvous radar. I've given a time tag that offers a little bit of the lead-up – it kicks into being a mad scramble about three minutes later, with Steve Bales nearly failing to give Buzz Aldrin permission to hit "proceed"; Aldrin requesting to do a Verb 83 and being told no; the AGS getting mis-initialized; and finally Jack Garman announcing at 122:25:11 that they can't lock on again because "that vehicle's GONE! We saw it go overhead."

It all sounds far more exciting from the ground than it does on the air-to-ground loop.

There is some good background information from the top of the relevant page on the Apollo Lunar Surface Journal: https://www.hq.nasa.gov/alsj/a11/a11.launch.html

It quotes Buzz Aldrin from the Technical Debrief: "I don't think we had our AGS configured (properly) and the ground was not as helpful as they might have been had we run this sort of thing previously in simulations and had a bit more training on it."
« Last Edit: June 08, 2020, 06:17:51 am by Naraht »