Apollo 14 - Houston, we have another problem

Video from the channel kevin hughes about Apollo 14, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 9:03. Language: English. Video type: Documentary.

Reconstruction, using CAD models and telemetry data, of the docking problems between Apollo 14's command module and lunar module, which nearly forced the cancellation of the Moon landing shortly after Apollo 13's failure.

The crew consisted of Alan Shepard, Stuart Roosa and Edgar Mitchell. Shepard, the first American in space, had been grounded due to Ménière's disease and regained flight status in May 1969 after experimental surgery. The launch, on January 31, 1971, went off without incident. About three hours later, after translunar injection, Roosa attempted to dock with the lunar module, but the probe would not latch into the drogue: scratch marks indicated the capture latches remained extended, as if something were blocking the internal mechanism.

After five attempts at different speeds and thrust levels, and one more following instructions from Houston, Gene Cernan proposed maintaining thrust after contact and retracting the probe to go straight for the docking ring's latches. On the sixth attempt, after 6.9 seconds of thrust, the latches gave way and docking was completed; inside the tunnel, all were engaged and only two needed a small nudge. The probe was returned to Earth for analysis: foreign material or a jammed cam were suspected, and on later missions cleaning was reinforced, the probe head was covered before launch, and the cam was modified.