Saturday, July 18, 2009

Apollo+40: Lunar Sphere of Influence

From the PAO Transcript:

This is Apollo Control at 61 hours, 39 minutes. We've had no further conversation with the crew since our last report. Flight Surgeon says there is no indication at this time that they have begun to sleep, but we expect they'll be getting to sleep here shortly. Coming up in less than 10 seconds now, we'i1 be crossing into the sphere of influence of the moon. A computational changeover will be made here in Mission Control. At this point as the moon's gravitational force becomes the dominant effect on the spacecraft trajectory, and our displays will shift from Earth reference to moon reference. At that point, which occurred a few seconds ago, the spacecraft was at a distance of 186,437 nautical miles from Earth, and 33,822 nautical miles from the moon. The velocity with respect to the Earth was 2,990 feet per second, and with respect to the moon, about 3,272 feet per second. The passive thermal control mode that was set up for the second time by the crew appears to be holding well at this point, and all spacecraft systems are functioning normally. Mission going very smoothly. At 61 hours, 41 minutes, this is Apollo Control, Houston.

In about 14 hours, Apollo 11 will enter lunar orbit if all goes well.

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