Change In Apollo Plan

Press, Volume CIX, Issue 32032, 5 July 1969, Page 13

Change In Apollo Plan

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) HOUSTON, July 4. Man hopes to take his first step on the moon five minutes earlier than expected, and double his quota of lunar soil specimens for examination on

earth, National Aero-

nautics and Space Administration scientists

announced today. The Apollo 11 astronaut Mr Neil Armstrong, is now due to step on to the moon’s surface at 6.15 P-m. New Zealand tiinp on Monday, July 21, the lunar module’s touch-down having also been advanced, by four minutes, to 8.19 a.m. that day.

Dr Donald Lind told reporters today that the Apollo 11 crew might bring as much as 1301 b of lunar rock and soil back to earth.

The original plan was for Mr Armstrong and his fellowastronauts, Colonel Edwin Aldrin and Lieutenant-Colonel Michael Collins, to return with aboutso to 601 b of moon samples. Dr Lind said the astronauts would naturally be more cramped on the return trip to earth, but the additional

weight would have little effect on the spacecraft. The actual weight of the ( samples would depend on their density. 1 The rocks and soil would be i packed into plastic bags and I placed in two metal boxes , about the size of an overnight ’ travel bag. Count-down Test The three astronauts > climbed aboard their spacecraft yesterday for what officials said later had been a ■ highly successful rehearsal of s the final count-down. - Clad in their pressurised I spacesuits, the trio sat in their s cabin on the top of the giant i Saturn 5 rocket, and went ’ through the procedures that t will send them on their way towards the moon on July 16. Yesterday’s rehearsal was > the last stage of the counti down test that began last Fril day morning. Every system of the intricate 363 ft-high rocket ■ and spacecraft has been care- . fully checked since then to set . the scene for the final count--1 down, which begins next i Thursday. i Liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen fuel that had been i locked aboard the three-stage i rocket for the first part of i the count-down test was I drained off before the astro-

nauts rode up the lift to the Apollo spacecraft perched on the rocket’s nose. After the tests, the spacemen returned to their quarters for a break before undergoing more training in simulators. Mr Armstrong and Colonel Aldrin, who hope to be the first men to set foot on the moon, practised their lunar landing and take-off in a model of the four-legged ferry craft, and Colonel Collins, who will pilot the main Apollo craft orbiting 60 miles above the moon, was in another simulator going through rendezvous manoeuvres. If anything went wrong with the lunar module, Colonel Collins would have to fly his craft close to the moon’s surface in a rescue bld. Flown Home Project officials permitted the three astronauts to fly later to the manned spacecraft centre in Houston, Texas to spend the holiday weekend with their families. Today is independence Day in America. At a news conference in Houston, project officials told reporters not to be surprised if Mr Armstrong and Colonel Aldrin did not walk on the moon for the full two hours 40 minutes now planned. “The time estimate is the best we could come up with in simulations on earth,” they said. “After that period, the astronauts tend to become tired. The chances of running more than two hours 40 minutes are slim, compared to the chances of running shorter than that.”

From Mountain View, California, it is reported that the “astrompnkey” Bonny, who has been orbiting the earth since last Saturday, now refuses to perform tasks for his food, and waits until he gets it anyway. Space scientists at the Ames Research Centre who are decoding the information radioed back from the capsule, say that Bonny cheerfully grabbed and ate several extra food pellets which were accidentally doled out by a malfunction of the dispenser which releases pellets when he pulls a lever after a green light goes on. The scientists repaired the dispenser by radio command, but have not yet announced a solution to Bonny’s tactic of waiting it out for dinner time. “Sensors on his body showed that he ate 43 food pellets without doing a lick of work,” a scientist said.