Apolo 14: Misión a Fra Mauro

Video from the channel GAZMaracaibo about Apollo 14, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 28:29. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

A documentary film about the Apollo 14 mission that follows the complete flight, from the launch aboard the Saturn V on January 31, 1971, to reentry on February 9. It covers the six attempts needed to dock the command module Kitty Hawk with the lunar module Antares, the erroneous abort signal that mission control resolved by reprogramming the lunar module's computer, the landing radar failure, and the descent to the Fra Mauro region. On the surface, Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell are seen setting up the automated scientific station (nuclear generator, seismometer, charged-particle experiments, laser retroreflector, and a mortar to be fired from Earth), using the MET hand cart, and climbing toward Cone crater, while Stuart Roosa photographs the Moon from orbit.

It combines footage of the flight, the lunar surface and orbit, audio of communications with Houston, mission control scenes, and statements from scientists. The narration mentions the three Apollo missions still remaining, which places the production in 1971, shortly after the return and before Apollo 15. This copy keeps the original English audio, with Spanish subtitles.

The film links the flight to Shepard's own flight aboard Freedom 7, on May 5, 1961, and to Apollo 13, which failed to land at this same destination. It explains the interest in Fra Mauro: material ejected by the impact that formed the Imbrium basin, which could have come from as deep as 60 miles (about 97 km) in the crust. The second moonwalk stopped less than 150 feet (about 46 m) from the rim of Cone crater due to the oxygen consumption of the backpacks; only later photographic analysis showed how close they had come. The two moonwalks totaled about nine and a half hours, and the crew brought back about 95 pounds (about 43 kg) of samples, whose rocks showed potassium and uranium levels ten times higher than those from Apollo 11 and Apollo 12.