Apollo 14

Launch, orbit & landing data: Designation  04900 / 71008A Launch date - time  31 Jan 1971 - 21:03:02 UT Launch site  KSC, LC39A Launch vehicle  Saturn V (SA-509) Payload  Apollo CSM 110 Size (m)  11.15 long - 3.91 dia Mass (kg)  44554 (CM/SM/LM) Flight Crew  Shepard, Alan (CDR) Roosa, Stuart (CMP) Mitchell, Edgar (LMP) Call Sign  Kitty Hawk/Antares Backup crew  Cernan, Engle, Evans Earth orbit on Jan 31 (21:36 UT):    - Perigee / Apogee  186 / 186 km    - Inclination  32.56°    - Period  88.07 min Orbital parameters on 1 Feb (2:24 UT):    - Perigee / Apogee  200 / 572080 km    - Inclination  33.2°    - Period  26320 min Selenocentric orbit on 4 Feb (06:57 UT): Landing date - time  9 Feb 1971 - 21:04:59 UT Landing location  27° S, 172° W near of Samoa-Island in Pacific Ocean Flight Duration (d:hr:min)  9:00:02 Nbr Earth orbits  1,5 Nbr lunar orbits

Crew:

Flight:

LM on Moon View 2 - Credit: NASA.

Lunar Module Pilot Edgar Mitchell looks at a traverse map during his EVA on the Moon. Credit: NASA

Official NASA Account of the Mission from Where No Man Has Gone Before: A History of Apollo Lunar Exploration Missions, by W. David Compton, published as NASA SP-4214 in the NASA History Series, 1989.

After mission commander Alan Shepard and lunar module pilot Edgar Mitchell had checked out Antares , command module pilot Stuart Roosa pulled Kitty Haw k away and Antares began its descent to the surface. Last-minute course corrections sent up from Houston were entered in the guidance computer and Shepard piloted the spacecraft to a routine landing about 350 miles (563 kilometers) west-southwest of the center of the moon's visible side. Antares was only 175 feet (53 meters) from its targeted landing site. Meanwhile Roosa had boosted Kitty Hawk back up into a higher, circular orbit, where he had a number of tasks to perform while his colleagues explored the Fra Mauro Formation.

The terrain on which Antares sat was gently undulating, with numerous craters but comparatively few boulders. Mitchell commented that there was "more relief [i.e., variations in elevation] than we anticipated from looking at the maps," a characteristic that would cause them some difficulty later on. Having given Houston a description of what they could see, Shepard and Mitchell put on their space suits and prepared for their first excursion.

Shepard's first words as he stepped on to the moon were inspired by his 9 years, 10 months, and 10 days of waiting from Mercury-Redstone 3, when he had been the first American in space, to the day he stepped on the moon. "It's been a long way," he said, "but we're here." Mitchell joined Shepard on the lunar surface and they unloaded the rickshaw and experiments and picked a spot some 500 feet (150 meters) west of Antares for the instruments. After laying out the geophones for the active seismic experiment, Mitchell fired the explosive charges in his hand-held "thumper" as they walked back to the lunar module. On the way Shepard stopped to collect a comprehensive sample of rocks and fine surface material from a representative area, found two "football-sized" rocks, and collected some other surface samples. After more than four and a half hours they were back in the lunar module. Houston then had half an hour's worth of questions from the scientists in the back room, and then it Was time to turn in.

Shepard and Mitchell did most of the mission's geological field work on their second traverse. Their biggest problem was in determining their location from the landmarks shown on their map. More than once they changed their minds about where they were. At the time and later, they attributed this to the rolling terrain and the relation of their line of sight to the sun: craters might be visible in one direction but not in another. Without familiar objects for reference, they found it difficult to estimate distances. A prime objective was to sample the rim of "Cone" crater, about a thousand meters (3,300 feet) from the spacecraft. By the time they got there, however, they had spent considerable time and were not positive that they were in the right place. As it turned out, they stopped just a few meters short of the rim, but at the time they were not certain they were on the slope of Cone, and Shepard was concerned with the tasks they had yet to accomplish and the time available. They turned back, completed the planned traverse, and returned to Antares after another 4 1/2-hour excursion. They had collected nearly a hundred pounds (45 kilograms) of samples and taken hundreds of photographs documenting many of the rocks, boulders, and sampling sites, including several panoramic views of the landing site. Before climbing back into the lunar module, Shepard took out of his suit pocket "a little white pellet that's familiar to millions of Americans" - a golf ball - and dropped it on the surface. Then, using the handle for the contingency sample return container, to which was attached "a genuine six-iron," he took a couple of one-handed swings. He missed with the first, but connected with the second. The ball, he reported, sailed for "miles and miles."

During the 33 1/2 hours Shepard and Mitchell were on the moon, Stuart Roosa had several important tasks to perform in Kitty Hawk . Continuing what had begun on Apollo 12, he photographed one of the remaining candidate landing areas (Descartes) and made numerous observations of prominent lunar landmarks to provide data that would improve landing accuracy on subsequent missions.

Back in Antares , Shepard and Mitchell stowed their samples and discarded their expendable equipment. Houston then passed up questions for half an hour concerning details of their visual observations, which brought out some of the difficulties they had experienced on the traverse. Geological features had been subtle, occasionally they had had too little time to observe and comment on details, and the rolling terrain had sometimes blocked their view of features only a few meters away.

Liftoff from the moon came at 1:48 p.m. EST on February 6. Mission planners had worked out a "direct" rendezvous scheme - that is, the ascent trajectory was programmed to meet the command module at its highest point, with necessary corrections being made during ascent - which they used for the first time. (On previous missions several maneuvers had been necessary to adjust the LM's orbit before bringing the spacecraft together.) Two and a half hours after liftoff, Antares and Kitty Hawk docked; three hours later, having sent the lunar module crashing to the lunar surface, Kitty Hawk headed home.

Along the way the crew performed some "inflight demonstrations" experiments exploring some zero-g techniques that might offer useful application of technology in space: electrophoresis (the migration of charged molecules in solution under the influence of an applied voltage), transfer of liquids between two containers, heat transfer, and casting of various materials from the molten state. Results were promising enough to warrant further investigation on Skylab and, later, on space shuttle missions. After finishing those demonstrations, Shepard, Mitchell, and Roosa had little to do for the rest of the mission. Kitty Hawk made a normal reentry and landed 0.6 miles (965 meters) from its targeted point in the South Pacific near the aircraft carrier U.S.S. New Orleans in the early morning light of February 9. Three days later the astronauts in their quarantine trailer arrived at the lunar receiving laboratory at MSC, where they spent 15 days in quarantine.