Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!crdgw1!uunet!sco!erics
From: erics@sco.COM (eric smith)
Newsgroups: sci.space.shuttle
Subject: Re: Apollo 13
Message-ID: <11010@scolex.sco.COM>
Date: 26 Mar 91 23:32:21 GMT
References: <346.27e39282@mbcl.rutgers.edu>
Sender: news@sco.COM
Lines: 39


friedman@mbcl.rutgers.edu writes:

>In a recent article

>Rory McLeod
>Dept of Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering (stress the latter)
>Univerisity of Virginia
> 
>worte:

>>     Apollo 13 was to be the second lunar misson.  The Saturn V
>>     was launched on 11 April 1970 and the first 55 hours and
>>     55 minutes proceeded without problems.  The spacecraft was
>>     320,000 km from the earth and still accelerating towards   

>Apollo 13 was to be the third mission to the moon.  Let us not forget Apollo 11
>and Apollo 12

Yes, and let us also not forget Apollos 8 and 10, which might also be
considered "lunar" missions, although they did not feature a landing.

I may be wrong, but I believe that, at 320,000 km, Apollo 13 had not yet
reached the point where the moon's gravity was stronger than the Earth's,
and thus was still decelerating, not "still accelerating".

The original posting has expired so I apologize if I have this wrong,
but I think it said that the LM's descent engine was fired when Apollo 13
was behind the moon to put it back on course toward the Earth. Actually,
the burn to put it back on course to Earth was made before Apollo 13
reached the moon. The burn on the far side of the moon changed the
landing zone from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific.


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| Eric Steven Smith |   "And there was no smith in all the land of Israel:    |
| erics@sco.com     |   for the Philistines said, Lest they make them         |
| uunet!sco!erics   |   swords or spears."   -   1 Samuel 13:19-20            |
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