Apollo 14 - Transposition & Docking (Full Mission 2)

Video from the channel lunarmodule5 about Apollo 14, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 2:00:25. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

The video contains the original audio of the transposition and docking maneuver of the Apollo 14 mission (AS-509), carried out after translunar injection. It combines two tracks: the public affairs office channel from mission control and the recording made aboard the spacecraft. It follows the separation of the command module Kitty Hawk from the S-IVB stage, the approach to the lunar module Antares and the repeated failed docking attempts, until the crew achieves a firm latch.

The footage was recorded during the flight itself, roughly between mission hours 3 and 5, in the cabin and at mission control in Houston, with communications handed over from the Guam station to Goldstone. The S-IVB separation occurs around flight hour 3:03, and docking is completed around flight hour 4:58, with the spacecraft about 20,700 nautical miles from Earth.

After flight director Pete Frank gives the go-ahead, Stu Roosa pilots the approach while Ed Mitchell broadcasts it on television. On several contacts the probe's capture latches fail to engage, despite checking circuit breakers, cycling the probe and maintaining +X thrust. Roosa describes scratches on Antares's receiving cone. Houston explains that, without extracting the lunar module, there would be no landing, although the crew's safety is not at risk, and that the S-IVB's lifetime is limited by its batteries; the launch vehicle systems engineer estimates it at 13 hours 18 minutes.

On the ground, a probe-and-cone model is studied with the help of backup commander Gene Cernan, John Young and mission director Chet Lee. Alan Shepard suggests putting on suits, depressurizing the cabin and checking the probe from inside. From the capcom station, Cernan proposes contacting the probe while extended, maintaining +X thrust and firing the nitrogen bottle that retracts it, so the docking latches engage directly. With that procedure, and after closing in from about 12-15 feet, the retraction responds with a 2-3 second delay and docking is achieved, met with applause in mission control. The crew then moves on to the hatch and tunnel procedures.