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From: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: apollo 13
Message-ID: <1393@ksr.com>
Date: 12 Dec 90 03:24:42 GMT
References: <90346.083237TACON019@ysub.ysu.edu>
Sender: news@ksr.com
Reply-To: clj@ksr.com (Chris Jones)
Organization: Kendall Square Research Corp
Lines: 24
In-reply-to: TACON019@ysub.ysu.edu (Fred Ullom)

In article <90346.083237TACON019@ysub.ysu.edu>, TACON019@ysub (Fred Ullom) writes:
>I just saw a documentary on the apollo 13 disaster (or success depending
>on how you look at it). They used the LEM for habitation on the return
>trip to earth when the command module was crippled and then jettisoned
>it in earth orbit before re-entry.
>
>I was just curious, is the LEM still orbiting the earth or did the orbit
>decay?
>
The LM was jettisoned, but not into earth orbit.  It destructively reentered
the earth's atmosphere (burned up).  There was some concern about where it was
aimed since there was a radioactive package which would have been used to power
the lunar experiments left on the moon.  This package was designed to survive a
launch explosion or a reentry.  I recall reading that the LM jettison was
designed to cause this package to impact somewhere in the deep Pacific, and
just before the jettison it was noticed that the crew (operating with almost no
sleep) had aligned the spacecraft exactly 90 degrees (I think) off what was
desired.  Rather than have them try to do it right, the ground cranked through
some calculations which told them this orientation was still OK, so they went
ahead and dumped it.  After the LM entered the atmosphere, contact was lost
with it, then briefly regained, and then lost forever.  The crew was sorry to
see it go.
--
Chris Jones    clj@ksr.com    {world,uunet,harvard}!ksr!clj