Apollo 15 - Rentrée atmosphérique, amerrissage et récupération (50e anniversaire 1971-2021)

Video from the channel lunarmodule5 about Apollo 15, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 1:11:40. Language: English. Video type: Archive footage.

The video reproduces the special ABC network coverage of Apollo 15's return, as it was broadcast, including period commercials (Tang, 3M, Bufferin). From New York, Frank Reynolds presents, joined by astronaut Frank Borman and science writer Jules Bergman. The broadcast opens with the hammer-and-feather demonstration performed on the lunar surface. It then follows the mission's final phase: the crew's wake-up, reentry into the atmosphere, splashdown and recovery of the astronauts.

This is period footage: the television broadcast on the day of the return, aired from the New York studio and combined with audio and images from the recovery area. Splashdown was planned about 315 miles north of Oahu, in the Pacific. The recovery ship was the USS Okinawa, an 18,000-ton LPH, supported by helicopters from squadron HS-1 based at Imperial Beach.

Capcom Joe Allen woke the crew — Scott, Irwin and Worden — with a Hawaiian chant. Thanks to a course correction, maneuver 7 of about 6 feet per second, the capsule did not land some 60 miles short of the ship. During the wait, Bergman explains the ablative heat shield, a resin in a honeycomb structure. Borman describes the deceleration, with peaks of about 8 g, and how the capsule's lift is controlled. Reentry began over Australia at about 35,710 feet per second, while a Soviet tugboat tracked the recovery. After the radio blackout, one of the three main parachutes failed and the capsule hit the water at 32 feet per second, instead of the planned 28. The crew came out unharmed and, unlike earlier missions, did not go into quarantine. Splashdown occurred 6.5 miles from the ship. Robert Gilruth welcomed them aboard. Medical checks followed, along with the transfer to Hickam and then to Houston. The three astronauts publicly thanked the recovery teams for their work.