Awaiting editorial reviewSerial 81ed0633-927a-439b-b5a5-ac008054d748
Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, Unidentified Phenomenon Excerpts, November 1969
Prepared summary.
In November 1969, during Apollo 12's fifth mission day, Lunar Module Pilot Alan L. Bean reported an "all s flash" pulsing every second on both the address and information registers of the AGS, at about one-fifth the brilliance of the normal numbers. Houston attributed the phenomenon to EMI, citing similar observations during ground testing of spacecraft at Bethpage. On the sixth day, Command Module Pilot Dick Gordon reported that the Lunar Module Intrepid's blinking tracking light had stopped blinking and he could not acquire Intrepid in the sextant.
MoonCharles 'Pete' Conrad (CDR-LM, Mission Commander)Alan L. Bean (LMP-LM, Lunar Module Pilot)Dick Gordon (CMP, Command Module Pilot)Apollo 12Light or glareParticles or fragments
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[page 1] Tape 90/3 | 05 19 14 58 | cc | That's affirmative. We're ready for the E-MOD. | |-|-|-| | 05 19 16 31 | CC | Intrepid, Houston. | | 05 19 16 35 | CDR-I.M | Go. | | 05 19 16 37 | CC | Ifyou will give us PO0 and ACCEPI', we'll give <br />you a CSM state vector and RLS update. | | 05 19 16 45 | CDR-I.M | You have POO and ACCEPT. | | 05 19 20 05 | CMP | Hello, Houston; Yankee Clipper. | | 05 19 20 09 | cc | Yankee Clipper, Houston. Loud and clear. | | 05 19 20 14 | CMP | Well, hello there, stranger. How are you? | | 05 19 20 22 | cc | Morning, Dick. We are fine. How are you? | | 05 19 20 27 | CMP | Well, pretty good. I hope you would like to have <br />some company for a change. | | 05 19 21.J 31 | cc | Roger. Go~ the house clean? | | 05 19 20 36 | CMP | As a matter of fact, I Just finished that. I <br />sure do; got everything in order; ready to go <br />towards the IM and bring back . . . That's quite <br />a chore; keeping this thing clean. | | 05 19 20 53 | cc | Roger. You got a couple of coal miners coming <br />up to see you. | | 05 19 20 59 | CMP | That's okay. I'llbe glad to see them. | | 05 19 21 10 | CC | Intrepid, Houston. The computer is yours. <br />Break. Yankee Clipper, ifyou will go P00 and <br />ACCEPI', we have an uplink. | | 05 19 21 20 | CMP | All yours . | | 05 19 23 14 | CDR-I.M | Houston, you got the lift-off time for me? | | 05 19 23 20 | CC | Stand by. | | 05 19 23 39 | cc | Intrepid, Houston. Your lift-off time is <br />142:03:47, | | 05 19 23 52 | CDR-LM | I copy 142:03:47.00. | | 05 19 23 57 | C~ | Affirmative. | | 05 19 24 05 | cc | Clipper, Houston. Computer's yours. | [page 2] Tape 90/4 | 05 19 24 11 | CMP | Okay. And Jerry, will you find out what they <br />want to do about this battery charge, be~~use <br />. I'm using the bus tics during the rendezvous? | |-|-|-| | 05 19 24 23 | cc | Roger. | | 05 19 24 43 | cc | Yankee Clipper, Houston. Why don't you figure <br />on terminating the battery charge at LOS? | | 05 19 24 52 | CMP | All right; I could let it go until I just <br />before lift-off. That way it might take it <br />all the way up. | | 05 19 25 33 | cc | Clipper, LOS Houston. We prefer that you terminate <br />at on this pass. | | 05 19 25 40 | CMP | Roger. | | 05 19 25 41 | cc | Roger. That would be one less thing for us to <br />keep track of prior to lift-off. | | 05 19 25 48 | CMP | Okey. | | 05 19 27 17 | CDR-IM | Say, Houston, Intrepid. | | 05 19 27 20 | cc | Intrepid, Houston. Go. | | 05 19 27 25 | IMP-LM | Roger. When you look out the AOT in the dark <br />quadrant? You can see these lights - particles <br />of light. flash~s of light just seem to come <br />from - in this case, I'm looking in quadrant 1 <br />which is the left one. It's coming :from behind <br />me, the left, and they're just sailing off in <br />space. I was thinking they're dropping from my <br />water boiler. but it looks like some of those <br />things are escaping the Moon. They really haul <br />out ofhere and just press off at the stars. | | 05 19 27 56 | cc | Roger. | | 05 19 28 25 | cc | Yankee Clipper~ Houston with a P22 tracking PAD. | | 05 19 28 42 | CMP | Go ahead. | | 05 19 28 44 | cc | Roger. Your target is LM; T1 is 139: 57:39; <br />T2 is 140:02:38; ~outh 05; latitude is <br />minus 3 | | 05 19 29 10 | CMP | Hoger. T 112 - | [page 3] Tape 90/9 | 05 20 08 23 | cc | Clipper, Houston. We'll give that data a good<br />evaluation before we do anything with it. | |-|-|-| | 05 20 09 25 | LMP-IM | Houston, Intrepid. | | 05 20 09 30 | cc | Intrepid, Houston. GO. | | 05 20 09 34 | IMP-1..M | Got sort of an interesting thing going on AGS <br />right now. I didn't notice earlier, but itmay<br />just be because the 81 lights i:,.re brighter now. <br />I'm getting an all s flash on both the address <br />and the information registers at about one-<br />fifth the brilliance of the normal numbers. And <br />a - It's pulsing every second. | | 05 20 10 00 | CC | Roger, Al. | | 05 20 10 06 | LMP-IM | If I turn dmm the illumination level just a <br />littlebit, it's not noticeable. | | 05 20 10 52 | LMP-LM | Hello, Houston; Intrepid. You ready for my RCS <br />hot fire? | | 05 20 10 59 | CC | Intrepid, Houston. Roger. Fire aw~. | | 05 20 11 03 | CDR-LM | Okay. | | 05 20 11 32 | CC | Intrepid, Houston. | | 05 20 11 37 | LMP-LM | Go. | | 05 20 11 39 | cc | Roger, Al. Fredo is here. He and I have both <br />seen that phenomena on your DEDA during t e stin :', <br />of most a.11 the spacecrafts up at Bethpage, and <br />it'sprobably an EMI. | | 05 20 11 56 | CDR-LM | That's what ve've been talking about, but we <br />thought we'd just tcucb in on it. | | 05 20 11 59 | IMP-IM | When you go to your roll rate, roll lef't, pitch <br />up - - | | 05 20 12 01 | cc | Roger. I think TRW's got a v0rkup on this <br />problem. | | 05 20 12 08 | CDR-IM | Okay? | | 05 20 12 11 | CDR-IM | Here yo~ go, Houston, with roll, pit ch, and <br />yav. | | 05 20 12 14 | cc | Roger, Pete. | [page 4] Tape 93/8 06 00 21 42 | 06 00 21 42 | CMP | | But I don't have you in the sextant, That's <br />okay. Your blinking light's Just not blinking, <br />that's all. | |-|-|-|-| | 06 co 21 51 | CDR-IM | | Hey, Houston. It looks like our tracking <br />llght's burned out. Dick hasn't been able to <br />find us in this sextant. And on the first <br />nightside pass we had littlebits and pieces <br />floating along vith us and we could tell that <br />the tracking light va.; flashing on them. And <br />we stillhave, I've presumed to think, bits <br />and on them, pieces so floating I'm pretty along sure and itburned nothing's out. flashing | | 06 00 22 11 | CC | | Roger, Pete. | | 06 00 22 22 | LMP-LM | | Yes, sir. Okay. | | 06 00 22 26 | CC | | Hi, Intrepid. | | 06 00 22 27 | LMP-LM | | Okay. | | 06 00 22 28 | cc | | This is Houston. How'd your sweepdown fore <br />and aft go? | | 06 00 22 33 | CDR-LM | | It's getting much cleaner in here running this <br />way; and, also, Yankee Clipper informs me he <br />bas the television all set up. When we come <br />around the hor~1, ·we' 11 come around with the <br />television on in VOX. | | 06 00 22 47 | CC | | Roger . | | . 06 00 22 53 | CDR-IM | | Who knows, you may get to see the first <br />wbiffer<l.ill. | | 06 00 22 59 | CC | | Roger, Pete. Our electrical watchers say that <br />the current indicates that your tracking light <br />is on. | | 06 00 23 11 | CDR-IM | | Okay. Now ve just turned itoff. How does the <br />current show that? | | 06 00 23 19 | cc | | It - It sure does, Pete. | | 06 00 23 26 | CMP | | You're - they're - You're flying thr0ugh the <br />air b~ckward3, then, Pete, because I don't see <br />it. | | 06 00 23 33 | CDR-LM | • | Well, my ball tells me I'm pointed at you, Dick, <br />and so does my radar. | [ ]