Newsgroups: sci.space
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Apollo Ascent Modules
Message-ID: <1989Jul19.231125.28208@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <8907160317.AA01918@crash.cts.com> <1480@xn.LL.MIT.EDU>
Date: Wed, 19 Jul 89 23:11:25 GMT

In article <1480@xn.LL.MIT.EDU> wjc@XN.LL.MIT.EDU (Bill Chiarchiaro) writes:
>I checked the NASA Satellite Situation Report, Vol. 28, No. 4, Dec.
>31, 1988 for non-booster Apollo items still in orbit...

Does it state the basis for assuming this hardware is still in orbit?
I greatly doubt that it is possible to track the things in lunar orbit;
that's difficult even in Clarke orbit unless there's a transponder aboard.

>Glaringly absent, however, was any listing of the Apollo 13 LM.
>According to one text I have, that LM was never staged (the ascent and
>descent stages were kept together) and was jettisoned 18,000 km from
>earth.

Right.  It went into the Pacific as the CM reentered.  There wasn't any
alternative, since the LM was needed to maneuver the CM into a proper
reentry trajectory with the SM dead.
-- 
$10 million equals 18 PM       |     Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
(Pentagon-Minutes). -Tom Neff  | uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu