Relay-Version: version B 2.10 5/3/83; site utzoo.UUCP
Posting-Version: version B 2.10.1 6/24/83; site ut-ngp.UUCP
Path: utzoo!linus!philabs!cmcl2!floyd!harpo!seismo!ut-sally!ut-ngp!clyde
From: clyde@ut-ngp.UUCP (Clyde W. Hoover)
Newsgroups: net.space
Subject: Apollo trivia
Message-ID: <245@ut-ngp.UUCP>
Date: Fri, 20-Jan-84 10:17:18 EST
Article-I.D.: ut-ngp.245
Posted: Fri Jan 20 10:17:18 1984
Date-Received: Sat, 28-Jan-84 05:41:45 EST
Organization: Comp. Center, Univ. of Texas at Austin
Lines: 28

<<Dead Wombats eat news lines>>

Several items of Apollo trivia (I remember these things well - but
don't ask me my driver's license number).

* On Apollo 11, the pallet with the TV camera was opened
when Armstrong had climbed just past the porch heading down the
ladder.  The 'unofficial step on the moon' was testing the
step down from the last rung of the LM ladder onto the footpad
of the LM (he fooled Walter Cronkheit (sp) on that one).
The 'first step' on the moon was really that.

* On Apollo 12, Pete Conrad's comment on Armstrong's first words
was partly because that last step off the ladder is a 3-foot drop,
and Conrad is about 6" shorter than Armstrong, so it was a bigger
step for him (physically).

* On Apollos 15,16,17 the LM liftoff was shown by the TV
camera on the Lunar Rover.  Of course, there was a movie camera
running in the window of the ascent module, (there was movie
cameras running in both CM and LM for most important maneuvers).
The LM liftoff on 15 was not tracked, for Mission Control was
afraid that the camera would jam pointing upwards, and they didn't
want that.  Subsequent camera mounts had that problem fixed.
-- 
Clyde W. Hoover @ Univ. of Texas Computation Center; Austin, Texas  
(Shouter-To-Dead-Parrots)
clyde@ut-ngp.{UUCP,ARPA} clyde@ut-sally.{UUCP,ARPA} ihnp4!ut-ngp!clyde