Extraordinary flown 10.5 x 8 page from the final Apollo 11 Flight Plan carried into lunar orbit aboard the Command Module 'Columbia' during the first lunar landing mission, signed and flight-certified in blue ballpoint, “Carried to the Moon on Apollo XI, Buzz Aldrin.” The page, which is labeled as “Figure 9.2-3.-Scanning telescope-PTC attitude-(g.e.t. = 12:00:00),” was inserted just after page 3-10 and 3-11 of the manual, and contains six different star pattern views that were visible through the crew’s scanning telescope. In fine condition.
Accompanied by a detailed letter of provenance signed by Buzz Aldrin, in part: "Our flight plan scheduled a possible MCC1 or Mid Course Correction engine burn number 1 at about 12 hours into the mission. Burns of this type were planned to refine our trajectory to and from the Moon. Our long Translunar Injection (TLI) burn with the Saturn rocket third stage was accurate enough to allow cancellation of the MCC1 burn. Mission Control informed us of the cancellation a few hours before it was scheduled.
Since we had a bit of open time, we transmitted an unscheduled television broadcast starting around 10 hours and 30 minutes into the mission. We were able to show the western coast of the United States, then parts of Central and South America. Mission Control could not see this TV live, but recorded it at the Goldstone tracking station for later playback. We were able to broadcast for about 20 minutes.
This sheet illustrates six different star pattern views that were visible through our scanning telescope at 12 hours Ground Elapsed Time (GET) while we were docked in PTC or Passive Thermal Control. PTC was simply a rotation of our docked CSM/LM combination along a common axis to keep an even distribution of temperatures on our vehicles which were being heated by the sun. These star chart patterns allowed Neil Armstrong, Mike Collins, and myself to verify our lunar trajectory and update our guidance computer if necessary at the time.
The flight plan was probably the single most important document related to the success of our mission. It provided a time schedule of crew activities and spacecraft maneuvers to accomplish the first lunar landing. This page has been in my private collection since 1969. I have written: ‘Carried to the Moon on Apollo XI’ and signed it along the bottom of the page. Additionally, a copy of the flight plan is included.”
This item is Pre-Certified by STEVE ZARELLI
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