Apollo 14 at Forty: Crew return America to the moon

Commander Shepard stands upon the lunar surface. (NASA)

America's first man in space, Alan B. Shepard, stood on the dusty soil of the moon. His white space suit made it hard to move freely as he hopped across the plains at Fra Mauro, the landing site for Shepard and fellow moon walker Edgar Mitchell.

As the lunar journey neared its end, Shepard took his handle from a rock collection tool and fastened a six iron wedge at the end of it, dropped a small white ball onto the dry soil and made the first golf shot on another celestial surface.

The ball shot into a nearby crater, and he thought to himself, "A hole in one".

Shepard then perfected his back swing for the second and last golf ball. "There it goes... miles and miles and miles!" he exclaimed as the second ball soared and arced out into the solid black sky.

It had been a long journey for America's fifth human to reach the moon. As NASA worked to return America back to space following the Apollo One fire, the space agency's senior astronaut was loosing his hearing in his left ear and his balance. His equilibrium was gone by autumn of 1968.

A secret ear operation suggested by fellow astronaut Tom Stafford was then performed by a Los Angeles doctor which allowed the astronaut to return to flight status a year later.

He was ready to now aim for a moon flight, particularly Apollo 13 and the Fra Mauro region.

However, crew rotation by chief astronaut Deke Slayton put Shepard on board Apollo 14, and when the preceding flight aborted it's lunar landing due to a blown oxygen tank, Fourteen set it's mission sights on Fra Mauro.

Apollo 14 lifted off from the Kennedy Space Center on January 31, 1971, at 4:03:02 pm EST, forty minutes late due to rain over launch pad 39-A, to begin a nine day voyage upon the ocean of space.

Once the crew reached space and left earth orbit for the moon, they ran into a problem with the docking latches which connect the lunar module Antares with their command module Kitty Hawk.

For one hour, Kitty Hawk's pilot Stuart Roosa brought the command module in slowly to dock it perfectly on four tries, however the capture latches would not latch. Kitty Hawk's fuel was running lower than had been planned at this point in the flight as well.

If the latches could not dock the two craft together, the mission would have to be aborted.

As the crafts moved past a distance of 20,000 miles away from earth, the idea was discussed to go in at a faster rate to awake those latches and dock the module. It worked and the crew sped on toward lunar orbit.

The three day journey to lunar orbit was quiet.

Antares trip down to the lunar surface was not.

Software issues with the lunar module's landing computer, and later with the landing radar caused big concerns for both the crew and in mission control.

Once the control center sent up new commands to the computer, they were given a go for landing.

Antares single engine fired to bring the craft down and land. It was human kinds third landing upon the moon.

Landing at Fra Mauro on the eastern edge of the Ocean of Storms occurred on February 5 at 4:18:11 a.m., just 130 feet shy from the target site.

"Okay, we made a good landing," the 47-year-old Shepard said upon landing Antares.

Hours later, he became the fifth human to set foot upon the moon and radioed to mission control on what it took for him to reach this point, "Al is on the surface. It's been a long way, but we're here."

To which Slayton replied, "Not bad for an old man." Shepard would be the only Mercury astronaut to reach the moon.

Shepard and Mitchell collected nearly ninety-three pounds of lunar rocks during their nearly five hour set of two moon walks.

This week marks the fortieth anniversary of Shepard and his crew's flight aboard Apollo 14, the mission which returned America to the moon following the odyssey of the Apollo 13 flight the following spring.

In October 1995, this aerospace reporter enjoyed a candid conversation with Alan Shepard on his thoughts about the space program of the time. And, although it has been fifteen years, his words echo true in 2011 as it did then.

Charles Atkeison: How does the space program today differ from what you experienced during the 1960's and into the early 1970's? Do we still have a focus for what we want to do at NASA?

Alan Shepard: I think as far as NASA's concerned, yes. The difference as far as the general public's concerned is that the pure excitement of the early days is gone because, "so we've done that. What do we do tomorrow?", kind of routine. The fact that the public in general is excited about exploration made the lunar mission a very well recognized, well appreciated phase.

The folks that are flying today are just as dedicated as we were even knowing ahead of time that they are not going to receive the same kind of appreciation and recognition that those of us did in the early days.

Charles: Do you consider yourself the Christopher Columbus of the modern age?

Alan: I really don't. I consider myself very fortunate to have been allowed to make a couple of space flights for the United States. I recognize a few of us get a lot of attention, but literally hundreds of our close associates are the ones that did all the work. I remember saying in May of 1961 at the White House, when I received a medal from President Kennedy acknowledging that these hundreds, yes thousands of dedicated individuals on the ground are the ones to whom the accolades of the day should go. And I still feel that very strongly.

Charles: I remember the scene, Kennedy drops your medal during the presentation. What went through your head right then?

Alan: Well, we almost banged heads 'cause both of us (Shepard laughs) ... it was kind of cute. 'Cause Jack said, "Here", and Jackie (Kennedy) said, "No. No, Jack, pin it on." So then he recovered and pinned it on. So we had a lot of fun with that.

Charles: Thank-you.

During a visit to the Kennedy Space Center's Saturn V center, guests can walk up to and study Kitty Hawk.

Commander Shepard passed away while at his home in California following a two year bout with leukemia in July 1998. Crew mate Roosa past away three years earlier due to an inflammation of the pancreas; and Mitchell is now eighty and lives near West Palm Beach, Florida.

In May, America will once again recall the Christopher Columbus of the space age in Shepard, as we celebrate the fiftieth anniversary of America's first trip into space, Freedom 7.

North America treated to total lunar eclipse

The moon during Tuesday morning's eclipse in this NASA image.

Overcast skies across the Unites States forced many amateur astronomers inside to watch Tuesday morning's lunar eclipse by way of live video on the Internet.

Clouds over much of the country disappointed astronomers from watching the celestial show on this the first day of winter as the earth wedged between the Sun and the moon.

Low clouds over metro Atlanta forced many residents to give up their backyard moon parties and observations and head indoors.

Bill Sullivan of Lawrenceville, Georgia, was one resident dejected by the cloudy evening.

"My son and I had hoped to watch the eclipse, but I guess we'll just have to watch it on TV or something," he told this reported by phone.

Along the Texas Gulf Coast, residents were treated to an astronomical show as clear skies prevailed.

A total lunar eclipse occurs when the earth moves between the Sun and the moon, thus the Sun's light is blocked from reflecting off the moon's surface. The Sun's rays however do pass through the earth's atmosphere generating an orange to red light upon the moon's surface.

Just as predicted, the totality, or time when the earth's shadow fully covered the 1,060 mile wide face of the moon, began at 2:41 a.m. EST, and lasted just over seventy minutes.

The earth's dark shadow then gave way to a redish light upon the lunar surface as the Sun's light beamed through our planet's atmosphere.

Several observers in the south described the total eclipse to this reporter as looking like a "copper penny" or "copper and red".

A camera aboard the International Space Station was able to catch several dramatic views of the eclipse from 220 miles above earth.

On a historic note, the last time a lunar eclipse occurred on the first day of the winter solstice was 372 years ago -- Dec. 21, 1638. A time when Galileo de' Galilei, the father of modern astronomy, was alive and well in Italy.

The next total lunar eclipse to be visible from North America will happen again in April 2014.

Apollo 11-era Collectables bring History Home

There were a few iconic images from the Apollo 11 flight which occurred forty years ago this week. We have included a few rare internal images, as well as Apollo 11 commander Neil Armstrong's hometown newspaper's front page dated July 21, 1969.

Apollo collectibles are a great way to recapture the history surrounding the first moon landing flights of humanity. We suggest visiting flea markets or Goodwill centers for older National Geographics or other newspapers from the era.

Snoopy the dog from the Peanuts comic strip became a sort of internal mascot of a few of the Apollo missions. His exploits with the Red Baron in the newspaper allowed him to gain his astro wings on Apollo 10 as the lunar module was named for him.

Another collectible I have is a complete reprint of the Apollo 11 press kit from 1994. The book contains complete details and timelines highlighting the flight. Printed weeks before the 1969 flight, this 25th anniversary reprint outlines crew bios, meals, experiments and more in 250 pages. A great book for any library.

Another thing one can do is pickup rare NASA Apollo crew recordings from the missions via apple.com's iTunes.

For .99 cents to $2.oo each, you can download and save both video and audio to your computer's hard drive and iPod or iPhone.

James holds an actual Snoopy stuffed dog which the author's father gave to Charles in Christmas 1969.

NASA to Launch Lunar Satellites Today

NASA will launch a pair of satellites toward earth's moon late today in hopes making better maps and investigating the search for water on the Lunar surface.

A United Launch Alliance Atlas V will depart Launch Complex 41 here at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station at 5:22 pm EDT today. Two more one minute launch windows follow at 5:22 and 5:32 pm also.

Weather is only 60% forecast GO for today due to late day thunderstorm build up.

The two satellites called LRO (Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter) and LCROSS (Lunar CRater Observation & Sensing Satellite) will begin a multi month mission. LRO will map in high resolution the Lunar surface as NASA works to select a landing sight for a possible 2020 manned landing.

Meanwhile, LCROSS will haul the Atlas' centaur upper stage to Lunar orbit. For four months, LCROSS will swing around the moon before releasing centaur and allowing it to crash into a dark crater at the south pole. When the lunar dust is kicked up from the impact, LCROSS will swing through looking at the chemical make up the soil.

NASA will be looking for signs of moisture in the lunar dust which had been sitting quietly in a dark crater for millions of years.

About five minutes after centaur crashes, LCROSS will also make it's impact of the mission as it crashes into the lunar surface this October.

The two impacts will have NASA turn the newly refurbished Edwin Hubble Space Telescope and several earth based telescopes aimed at the lunar south pole to record the plume.

NASA's Ames Research Center will over see the mission, including the instrumentation.

NASA's next Lunar Missions nears Launch

NASA and America will return to the Moon in June as a pair of research satellites head for Lunar orbit for several months of detailed investigations about earth's closest neighbor.

The Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, or LRO, and the Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite, or LCROSS, are set to lift-off aboard an Atlas V-401 rocket from here at Cape Canaveral AFS at 3:51 pm EDT, on June 17th.

On Thursday, the LRO/LCROSS payloads were moved and attached a top of their rocket pedestal [right] at launch complex 41 for flight in 20 days.

It will take four days for the pair to reach lunar orbit.