Online Encyclopedia
Apollo 14
Mission Insignia | |
---|---|
Mission Statistics | |
Mission Name: | Apollo 14 |
Call Sign: | Command module: Kitty Hawk Lunar module: Antares |
Number of Crew: |
3 |
Launch: |
January 31, 1971 21:03:02 UTC Kennedy Space Center LC 39A |
Lunar Landing: |
February 5, 1971 09:18:11 UTC 3° 38' 43.08" S - 17° 28' 16.90" W Fra Mauro |
Lunar EVA length: |
1st: 4 h 47 min 50 s 2nd: 4 h 34 min 41 s Total: 9 h 22 min 31 s |
Lunar Surface Time: |
33 h 30 min 29 s |
Lunar Sample Mass: |
42.28 kg |
Landing: |
February 9, 1971 21:05:00 UTC 27° 1' S - 172° 39' W |
Duration: | 9 d 0 h 1 min 58 s |
Number of Lunar Orbits: |
34 |
Time in Lunar Orbit: |
66 h 35 min 39.99 s |
Mass: | CSM 29,240 kg; LM 15,264 kg |
Crew Picture | |
Apollo 14 Crew |
Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the Apollo program and the third mission to land on the moon.
Contents |
Crew
- Alan Shepard (2), commander
- Stuart Roosa (1), command module pilot
- Edgar Mitchell (1), lunar module pilot
Backup Crew
- Gene Cernan, commander
- Ron Evans, command module pilot
- Joe Engle, lunar module pilot
Support Crew
Mission Parameters
- Mass: CSM 29,240 kg; LM 15,264 kg
- Perigee: 183.2 km
- Apogee: 188.9 km
- Inclination: 31.12°
- Period: 88.18 min
- Perilune: 108.2 km
- Apolune: 314.1 km
- Inclination: °
- Period: 120 min
- Landing Site: 3.64530° S - 17.47136° W http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/lunar/lunar_sites.html or
3° 38' 43.08" S - 17° 28' 16.90" W
LM - CSM Docking
- Undocked: February 5, 1971 - 04:50:43 UTC
- Docked: February 6, 1971 - 20:35:42 UTC
Moon walk
EVA 1 Start: February 5, 1971, 14:42:13 UTC
- Shepard - EVA 1
- Stepped onto moon: 14:54 UTC
- LM ingress: 19:22 UTC
- Mitchell - EVA 1
- Stepped onto moon: 14:58 UTC
- LM ingress: 19:18 UTC
EVA 1 End: February 5, 19:30:50 UTC
-
- Duration: 4 hours, 47 minutes, 50 seconds
EVA 2 Start: February 6, 1971, 08:11:15 UTC
- Shepard - EVA 2
- Stepped onto moon: 08:16 UTC
- LM ingress: 12:38 UTC
- Mitchell - EVA 2
- Stepped onto moon: 08:23 UTC
- LM ingress: 12:28 UTC
EVA 2 End: February 6, 12:45:56 UTC
-
- Duration: 4 hours, 34 minutes, 41 seconds
See also
Mission Highlights
After landing in the Fra Mauro region - the original destination for Apollo 13 - Shepard and Mitchell took two Moonwalks, adding new seismic studies to the by now familiar Apollo experiment package, and using a "lunar rickshaw" pull cart to carry their equipment. A planned rock collecting trip to the 1,000 foot (300 m) wide Cone Crater was dropped, however, when the astronauts had trouble finding their way around the lunar surface. Although later estimates showed that they had made it to within 30 meters of the crater's rim, the explorers had become disoriented in the alien landscape. Roosa, meanwhile, took pictures from on board command module "Kitty Hawk" in lunar orbit. On the way back to Earth, the crew conducted the first U.S. materials processing experiments in space. The Apollo 14 astronauts were the last lunar explorers to be quarantined on their return from the Moon.
Mission notes
- Shepard smuggled a makeshift six iron golf club and two golf balls to the moon, and took several swings. He exhuberantly, and somewhat whimsically, exclaimed that the second ball went "miles and miles and miles" in the lunar gravity, but later estimated it actually went 200 to 400 yards (200 to 400 m).
- Mitchell conducted some unauthorized extra-sensory perception experiments while en route to the Moon, with friends back on Earth; the number of matches were reportedly less than would have been obtained by random chance.
- Shepard and Mitchell used a wheeled cart to transport samples. They hiked to the rim of a large nearby crater, but were unable to distinguish landmarks easily and turned back without seeing the crater itself.
The mission's command module Kitty Hawk is displayed at the Astronaut Hall of Fame , Titusville, Florida and the lunar module Antares impacted the Moon 7 February, 1971 at 3.42 S, 19.67 W.
Statistics
- Launched: January 31, 1971 from Pad 39A
- Returned: February 9, 1971
- Crew members: Alan Shepard, commander; Stuart Roosa, command module pilot; Edgar Mitchell, lunar module pilot.
- Command module: Kitty Hawk
- Lunar module: Antares
- Landed: February 5, 1971
- Lunar landing site: 3.7 S, 17.5 W -- Fra Mauro highlands
- On surface: 1 day 9.5 hours
- Lunar EVA: 9.2 hours (4.7 + 4.5)
- Samples: 43 kg
Preceded by : Apollo 13 |
Project Apollo |
Followed by : Apollo 15 |
External link
- Map of surface activities for Apollo 14 http://astrogeology.usgs.gov/Projects/LunarAtlas/maps/images/AP14_traverseL.jpg
- Apollo 14 entry in Encyclopedia Astronautica http://www.astronautix.com/flights/apollo14.htm ~
Reference
- NASA NSSDC Master Catalog http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/sc-query.html
- APOLLO BY THE NUMBERS: A Statistical Reference by Richard W. Orloff (NASA) http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4029/Apollo_00a_Cover.htm
- The Apollo Spacecraft: A Chronology http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/History/SP-4009/cover.htm
- Apollo Program Summary Report http://history.nasa.gov/apsr/apsr.htm
- Apollo 14 Characteristics - SP-4012 NASA HISTORICAL DATA BOOK http://history.nasa.gov/SP-4012/vol3/table2.42.htm