Apollo 16 Part 2 NBC News FULL Coverage of The Launch
Video from the channel zellco321 about Apollo 16, linked on its Above Ten Thousand entry. Duration: 1:13:47. Language: English. Video type: Livestream.
What's being broadcast
This is NBC News's coverage of the Apollo 16 launch (AS-511), aired on April 16, 1972, and preserved as it was broadcast. John Chancellor anchors from Cape Kennedy, Edwin Newman and Garrick Utley report from New York, and Roy Neal and Jim Hartz connect from Houston. The broadcast was sponsored by Gulf Oil. The countdown was targeting 12:54 p.m. Eastern time, from pad 39A.
Key moments
The anchors recall that the vehicle had to be rolled back to the assembly building. During a helium pressure test, a bladder ruptured inside a tank of the spacecraft's control system, delaying the launch by a month. Two issues arise during the countdown. The first is a break in the data circuits between the Goddard center in Greenbelt, Maryland, and a relay station, resolved by switching to a backup system. The second is a signal from the backup yaw gyroscope, judged to pose no risk to the mission.
The broadcast reviews the crew. Commander John Young had flown on Gemini 3 with Grissom in March 1965, on Gemini 10 in 1966, docking with an Agena, and on Apollo 10 in May 1969. Ken Mattingly had been pulled from Apollo 13 after exposure to measles. The third crew member is Charles Duke. The command module is named Casper and the lunar module, Orion. The mission plan is also explained: landing at Cayley Plains, in the Descartes highlands; three moonwalks with the lunar rover, covering about 25 miles; 73 hours on the surface; collection of about 195 pounds of samples; a spacewalk by Mattingly; and splashdown on April 28 in the Pacific, near Christmas Island.
The ascent is followed live: ignition, passage through Max Q, stage separation and launch escape tower jettison. A message from Vice President Agnew is then broadcast.
Outcome
The spacecraft reaches a parking orbit of about 95 by 90 nautical miles, and Young reports that everything worked perfectly. Once in orbit, the crew corrects a possible blockage in a cooling circuit.