APOLLO’S RETURN Fine weather in area

Press, Volume CXII, Issue 32902, 28 April 1972, Page 9

APOLLO’S RETURN Fine weather in area

(N.Z.P.A.-Reuter—Copyright) HOUSTON, April 27. Apollo 16 speeded up as it neared the Earth and a Pacific splashdown today after a mission in which men landed on the Moon for the fifth time.

As Captain John Young, Lieutenant-Colonel Charles Duke and Lieutenant-Com-mander Ken Mattingly prepared the spacecraft for its scorching re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere, the weather was reported fine in the splash-down area. The aircraft carrier Ticonderoga also said that the

seas were calm with only a slight swell 16 hours before splashdown. Steps have been taken to prevent a recurrence of the collapse of a parachute which caused some anxious moments when the previous Moon mission spacecraft, Apollo 15, splashed down last August 7. The recovery operation this time will be the most

complicated yet. Shortly after Apollo 16 hits the water 10 frogmen will jump in to retrieve both the crewmen and the three main parachutes. The parachutes will go back to the space agency where scientists will see if they can find any clue to why the Apollo 15 chute failed. Usually only three or four frogmen are involved in the procedure and their main job is to get the crewmen out and put a flotation collar on the craft. The space agency has narrowed to two possible faults the failure of the Apollo 15 parachute. Both have been remedied. Tests showed that the routine expulsion of fuel by the spacecraft as it came down could have caused flames which could cut through some of the parachute lines. Some flaws were also detected in steel harr ess links

. on the one parachute 1 recovered from Apollo 15. A ■ new metal now is being used. The Apollo spacecraft can 1 land with two parachutes if > necessary and the third pro- ’ vides an extra safety margin, i If two failed the crewmen could probably be injured, ■ space agency officials said. > During its last full day in i space, Apollo 16 was pulled • increasingly faster through space by the earth’s gravity. i Early this morning its s speed was up to more than i 5000 miles an hour and by ; the time it hits the earth’s 5 atmosphere at 400,000 feet it , will be travelling at 24,545 t miles an hour. Shortly before re-entry the i astronauts will make a t minute correction to their

course and cast adrift the service module containing their main propulsion engine and scientific instrument bay. Yesterday the astronauts, heading home with a record haul of 2121 b of stones, did some experiments and answered 15 questions prepared by journalists covering the flight at the manned spacecraft centre in Houston. During the televised conference they admitted all three had serious doubts whether they would be able to make their Moon landing last Thursday because of a malfunction in the back-up guidance system. They suffered a momentary problem with their main guidance system yesterday. But it- was so minute that they could not even find the reason for it in spite of extensive checks. The snace agency said last night that the astronauts’ health was perfect and they were “not fatigued at all.”