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If A11 had failed to land...



 
 
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  #1  
Old October 1st 12, 04:35 AM posted to sci.space.history
Jan Philips
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Default If A11 had failed to land...

If A11 had failed to land, how soon could the next attempt have been?
One month, two months, other?
  #2  
Old October 1st 12, 05:41 AM posted to sci.space.history
Alan Erskine[_3_]
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Default If A11 had failed to land...

On 1/10/2012 1:35 PM, Jan Philips wrote:
If A11 had failed to land, how soon could the next attempt have been?
One month, two months, other?


Apollo 12.
  #3  
Old October 1st 12, 08:05 AM posted to sci.space.history
Joseph Nebus
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Default If A11 had failed to land...

In Jan Philips writes:

If A11 had failed to land, how soon could the next attempt have been?
One month, two months, other?


As I understand old Henry Spencer posts on the subject, the next
possible landing opportunity would've been September, and apparently for
a while work on Apollo 12 was built around a September landing. (I don't
know just when, although, since Apollo 11 hit July 20 and Apollo 12 got
November 14, I'd guess that suggests around September 17.) But since the
mission was satisfied, taking an extra two months for training and prep
work was worth doing.

Oh, here we go. According to the Apollo Spacecraft Chronology,
as of April 18 1969 Apollo 12 was pencilled in to launch September 13,
and Apollo 13 to November 10. Apollo 12 was pushed back to November on
the 29th of July:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...4009/v4p3d.htm
http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...4009/v4p3e.htm

I'm interested but don't read too much into the July 29, 1969
tentative planning schedule putting three moon shots in 1970 and 1972
but only two in 1971. Possibly --- I'd have to check a whole different
chronology to be sure --- they were thinking that Skylab stuff would
take about a lunar mission's worth of attention in 1971. However, that
does seem to me pretty close to the reassignment of a Saturn V *to*
Skylab, so they could abandon the wet workshop idea, suggesting that
at least one of those tentatively-scheduled-flights was even then not a
possibility. Must look at that when I'm more awake.

--
http://nebusresearch.wordpress.com/ Joseph Nebus
Current Entry: The Last Ride Of A Roller Coaster http://wp.me/p1RYhY-jJ
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  #4  
Old October 1st 12, 01:40 PM posted to sci.space.history
Bob Haller
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Default If A11 had failed to land...

add for any situation where the landing couldnt occur enough time to
fix whatever prevented the landing...............

  #5  
Old October 1st 12, 03:36 PM posted to sci.space.history
Jan Philips
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Posts: 54
Default If A11 had failed to land...

On Mon, 1 Oct 2012 05:40:16 -0700 (PDT), bob haller
wrote:

add for any situation where the landing couldnt occur enough time to
fix whatever prevented the landing...............


Yes, i was assuming a non-catastrophic failure.
  #6  
Old October 1st 12, 04:06 PM posted to sci.space.history
Brian Thorn[_2_]
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Default If A11 had failed to land...

On Sun, 30 Sep 2012 23:35:13 -0400, Jan Philips
wrote:

If A11 had failed to land, how soon could the next attempt have been?
One month, two months, other?


It would have depended on what caused that failure. A major mechanical
failure would likely have taken many months to find and fix.

Apollo 12 was on the books for September 1969 and Apollo 13 for
November, so they theoretically had two more chances to meet the 1970
deadline.

Brian
  #7  
Old November 13th 12, 12:58 AM posted to sci.space.history
[email protected]
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Default If A11 had failed to land...

On Monday, October 1, 2012 2:05:44 AM UTC-5, Joseph Nebus wrote:
In Jan Philips writes:

If A11 had failed to land, how soon could the next attempt have been?
One month, two months, other?


As I understand old Henry Spencer posts on the subject


....Ah, the good old days of consulting "The Writ of Henry's Wisdom" and the ICH T-Shirts

Oh, here we go. According to the Apollo Spacecraft Chronology,
as of April 18 1969 Apollo 12 was pencilled in to launch September 13,
and Apollo 13 to November 10. Apollo 12 was pushed back to November on
the 29th of July:

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...4009/v4p3d.htm

http://www.hq.nasa.gov/office/pao/Hi...4009/v4p3e.htm

I'm interested but don't read too much into the July 29, 1969
tentative planning schedule putting three moon shots in 1970 and 1972
but only two in 1971.


....Keep in mind that a lot of that initial scheduling was based on contingency of an A11 *and* an A12 failure that prevented a landing, as well as the fact that the decade - despite popular misconceptions - technically didn't end until after midnight of December 31st, 1970. So, had A11 been forced to abort the landing, there would technically be four more missions at the least that could be flown before the deadline set in JFK's speech to Congress after Al's flight on Freedom 7.

Yeah, 97.835% of the US population still believes Kennedy's deadline was the end of 1969, but if the IAU can demote Pluto, NASA could have claimed another year's leeway on when the decade actually ended...:P

OM
 




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