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Apollo 14

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Apollo 14
Mission Insignia
Apollo 14 insignia
Mission Statistics
Mission Name: Apollo 14
Call Sign: Command module:
Kitty Hawk
Lunar module:
Antares
Number of
Crew:
3
Launch: January 31, 1971
21:03:02 UTC
Kennedy Space Center
LC 39A
Lunar Landing: February 5, 1971
09:18:11 UTC
3° 38' 43.08" S - 17° 28' 16.90" W
Fra Mauro
Lunar EVA
length:
1st: 4 h 47 min 50 s
2nd: 4 h 34 min 41 s
Total: 9 h 22 min 31 s
Lunar Surface
Time:
33 h 30 min 29 s
Lunar Sample
Mass:
42.28 kg
Landing: February 9, 1971
21:05:00 UTC
27° 1' S - 172° 39' W
Duration: 216 h 1 min 58 s
Number of
Lunar Orbits:
34
Time in
Lunar Orbit:
66 h 35 min 39.99 s
Mass: CSM 29,240 kg;
LM 15,264 kg
Crew Picture
File:GPN-2000-001168.jpg
Apollo 14 crew portrait (L-R: Roosa, Shepard, and Mitchell)
Apollo 14 Crew

Apollo 14 was the eighth manned mission in the Apollo program and the third mission to land on the moon.

Crew

Mission Parameters

See also

Mission Highlights

After landing in the Fra Mauro region-the original destination for Apollo 13-Shepard and Mitchell took two Moon­walks, adding new seismic studies to the by now familiar Apollo experiment package, and using a "lunar rickshaw" pull cart to carry their equipment. A planned rock collecting trip to the 1,000­ foot (300 m) wide Cone Crater was dropped, however, when the astronauts had trouble finding their way around the lunar surface. Although later estimates showed that they had made it to within 30 meters of the crater's rim, the explorers had become disoriented in the alien landscape. Roosa, meanwhile, took pictures from on board command module "Kitty Hawk" in lunar orbit. On the way back to Earth, the crew conducted the first U.S. materials processing experiments in space. The Apollo 14 astronauts were the last lunar explorers to be quarantined on their return from the Moon.

Mission notes

  • Shepard smuggled a makeshift six iron golf club and two golf balls to the moon, and took several swings. He claimed the second ball went "miles and miles and miles" in the lunar gravity, but later estimated it actually went 200 to 400 yards (200 to 400 m).
  • Mitchell conducted some unauthorized extra-sensory perception experiments while en route to the Moon, with friends back on Earth; the number of correct guesses were reportedly less than would have been obtained by random chance.
  • Shepard and Mitchell used a wheeled cart to transport samples. They hiked to the rim of a large nearby crater, but were unable to distinguish landmarks easily and turned back without seeing the crater itself.

The mission's command module Kitty "Legs Spread Open" Hawk is displayed at the Astronaut Hall of Fame, Titusville, Florida and the lunar module Antares impacted the Moon 7 February, 1971 at 3.42 S, 19.67 W.

Statistics

Launched: January 31, 1971 from Pad 39A
Returned: February 9, 1971
Crew members: Alan Shepard, commander; Stuart Roosa, command module pilot; Edgar Mitchell, lunar module pilot.
Command module: Kitty Hawk
Lunar module: Antares
Landed: February 5, 1971
Lunar landing site: 3.7 S, 17.5 W -- Fra Mauro highlands
On surface: 1 day 9.5 hours
Lunar EVA: 9.2 hours (4.7 + 4.5)
Samples: 43 kg


File:As14-66-9232.jpg
Alan Shepard on lunar surface. (NASA)


Preceded by :
Apollo 13
Apollo program Followed by :
Apollo 15

Reference