Path: utzoo!utgpu!watserv1!watmath!att!occrsh!uokmax!apple!usc!wuarchive!uunet!world!ksr!clj@ksr.com From: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones) Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle Subject: Re: Lost Apollo 12? Message-ID: <799@ksr.com> Date: 11 Sep 90 13:08:40 GMT References: <794@ksr.com> <1990Sep8.231127.22737@zoo.toronto.edu> <796@ksr.com> Sender: news@ksr.com Reply-To: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones) Organization: Kendall Square Research Corp Lines: 55 In-reply-to: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones) In article <796@ksr.com>, clj@ksr (that's me) writes: > the book _Apollo_ goes into this event in some detail. The book is by Charles Murray and Catherine Bly Cox. Apollo 12 is discussed in Chapter 26, "I think we need to do a little more all-weather testing". This launch was the launch director's first launch since replacing the previous director. President Nixon was in the VIP room at the launch room. Right on schedule, the Saturn lifted off from Pad 39A. Thirty-six seconds into the mission, static drowned out all communications with the CSM (the Saturn continued to return data), and it wasn't until twenty-six seconds later that communication was restored. "Then came Conrad's next message: 'I got three fuel cell lights, an A.C. bus light, a fuel cell disconnect, A.C. bus overload, 1 and 2, main bus A and B out.' Conrad's voice was calm but strained. He was reporting that, for all practical purposes, the spacecraft was inoperative: all electrical power was down except for the emergency batteries ordinarily were used only for entry." The launch director asked John Aaron, his EECOM (electrical, environmental, and communication controller) what to do. "He fully expected Aaron to come back with a recommendation to abort. ... He [Aaron] turned quickly to his screens. The screens hadn't gone blank, nor had the numbers turned to zeros.... The hundred-odd parameters on the two screens still showed values, but values that didn't make any sense.... Aaron saw a pattern in the numbers, and the pattern was somehow familiar.... About a year earlier ... the test was proceeding normally when the parameters on Aaron's screens suddenly changed to a strange pattern ... then the numbers returned to normal. The morning after the test ... the Cape ... disclosed ... that a test conductor had accidentally dropped the power system on the C.S.M to unusually low voltages. Aaron went looking for one of the instrumentation specialist at M.S.C., trying to find out why the screen had reacted in such a peculiar way under low voltage. They spend hours on it. ... 'You know,' the insturmentation guy told Aaron, 'that signal-conditioning equipment had tripped off because you were in primary. Now, if you'd gone to auxiliary, you would have wiped this circuit out and you would have got your readings back.' Aaron thought that was interesting. ... Aaron ... punched up the Flight loop. 'Flight, EECOM. Try S.C.E to Aux.' ... 'Say again. S.C.E. to "Off"?' ... 'Aux' ... 'S.C.E. to Aux.' ... 'Auxiliary, Flight.' ... Pete Conrad, riding on top of a Saturn V in a spacecraft whose alarm panel was lit up like a pinball machine, seemed as mystified by the instruction as Carr and Griffin [CAPCOM and flight director] had been. ... Al Bean, the lunar module pilot, knew where the S.C.E. switch was, and clicked it to the position labeled 'Auxiliary.' ... 'We got it back, Flight,' Aaron said laconically... A minute and fifty seconds had passed since launch; thirty seconds since Conrad had first reported his status. ...The onboard tapes reveal that Conrad, Gordon, and Bean laughed the rest of the way into orbit, making jokes about the way every alarm in the spacecraft had gone off at once." The crew then had to bring the fuel cells back on line and realign the guidance platform, and check out the spacecraft. From there, it was next stop, moon. It was later determined that the CSM had been twice hit by lightning, 36.5 and 52 seconds after launch. -- Chris Jones clj@ksr.com {world,uunet,harvard}!ksr!clj