Summary
Apollo 12 was the fourth crewed U.S. mission to the Moon and the second to land astronauts on the lunar surface. This document is an excerpt from the Apollo 12 Technical Air-to-Ground Voice Transcription, November 1969, highlighting two periods in which astronauts reported observing unidentified phenomenon: a one hour period on the fifth day, and a two minute period on the sixth day. These transcripts contain contemporaneous observations by the flight crew reacting to unidentified phenomenon.
• Day 05, Hour 19, Minute 14, Second 58 through Day 05, Hour 20, Minute 12, Second 14:
o At 05:19:27:25, the pilot of the Lunar Module (LMP-LM), Astronaut Alan L. Bean, described observing particles and flashes of light “sailing off in space” via the onboard Alignment Optical Telescope (AOT). He characterized these phenomenon as “escaping the Moon.”
• Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 21, Second 42 through Day 06, Hour 00, Minute 23, Second 33:
o Mission Commander, Charles “Pete” Conrad, described observing floating debris outside the lunar module, which had been illuminated by the module’s onboard tracking light. At 06:00:21:51, Conrad assessed that the tracking light had burnt out because he could no longer see the debris from the module.
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05 19 14 58
05 19 16 31
05 19 16 35
05 19 16 37
05 19 16 45
05 19 20 05
05 19 20 09
05 19 20 14
05 19 20 22
05 19 20 27
05 19 21.J 31
05 19 20 36
05 19 20 53
05 19 20 59
05 19 21 10
05 19 21 20
05 19 23 14
05 19 23 20
05 19 23 39
05 19 23 52
05 19 23 57
05 19 24 05
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Tape 90/3
Page 742
That's affirmative.
We're ready for the E-MOD.
Intrepid, Houston.
Go.
If you will give us PO0 and ACCEPI', we'll give
you a CSM state vector and RLS update.
You have POO and ACCEPT.
Hello, Houston; Yankee Clipper.
Yankee Clipper, Houston.
Loud and clear.
Well, hello there, stranger.
How are you?
Morning, Dick.
We are fine.
How are you?
Well, pretty good.
I hope you would like to have
some company for a change.
Roger.
Go~ the house clean?
As a matter of fact, I Just finished that.
I
sure do; got everything in order; ready to go
towards the IM and bring back . . .
That's quite
a chore; keeping this thing clean.
Roger.
You got a couple of coal miners coming
up to see you.
That's okay. I'll be glad to see them.
Intrepid, Houston.
The computer is yours.
Break. Yankee Clipper, if you will go P00 and
ACCEPI', we have an uplink.
All yours .
Houston, you got the lift-off time for me?
Stand by.
Intrepid, Houston.
Your lift-off time is
142:03:47,
I copy 142:03:47.00.
Affirmative.
Clipper, Houston.
Computer's yours.
05 19 24 11
05 19 24 23
05 19 24 43
05 19 24 52
05 19 25 33
05 19 25 40
05 19 25 41
05 19 25 48
05 19 27 17
05 19 27 20
05 19 27 25
05 19 27 56
05 19 28 25
05 19 28 42
05 19 28 44
05 19 29 10
CMP
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Tape 90/4
Page 743
Okay.
And Jerry, will you find out what they
want to do about this battery charge, be~~use
. I'm using the bus tics during the rendezvous?
Roger.
Yankee Clipper, Houston.
Why don't you figure
on terminating the battery charge at LOS?
All right; I could let it go until I
just
before lift-off.
That way it might take it
all the way up.
Clipper, Houston.
We prefer that you terminate
at LOS on this pass.
Roger.
Roger.
That would be one less thing for us to
keep track of prior to lift-off.
Okey.
Say, Houston, Intrepid.
Intrepid, Houston. Go.
Roger.
When you look out the AOT in the dark
quadrant? You can see these lights - particles
of light. flash~s of light just seem to come
from - in this case, I'm looking in quadrant 1
which is the left one. It's coming :from behind
me, the left, and they're just sailing off in
space.
I was thinking they're dropping from my
water boiler. but it looks like some of those
things are escaping the Moon.
They really haul
out of here and just press off at the stars.
Roger.
Yankee Clipper~ Houston with a P22 tracking PAD.
Go ahead.
Roger.
Your target is LM; T1 is 139: 57:39;
T2 is 140:02:38; ~outh 05; latitude is
minus 3
Hoger.
T 112
-
05 20 08 23
05 20 09 25
05 20 09 30
05 20 09 34
05 20 10 00
05 20 10 06
05 20 10 52
05 20 10 59
)
05 20 11 03
05 20 11 32
05 20 11 37
05 20 11 39
05 20 11 56
05 20 11 59
05 20 12 01
05 20 12 08
05 20 12 11
05 20 12 14
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Tape 90/9
Page 748
_)
Clipper, Houston. We'll give that data a good
evaluation before we do anything with it.
Houston, Intrepid.
Intrepid, Houston.
GO.
Got sort of an interesting thing going on AGS
right now.
I didn't notice earlier, but it may
just be because the lights i:,.re brighter now.
I'm getting an all 81 s flash on both the address
and the information registers at about one-
fifth the brilliance of the normal numbers.
And
a - It's pulsing every second.
Roger, Al.
If I turn dmm the illumination level just a
little bit, it's not noticeable.
Hello, Houston; Intrepid.
You ready for my RCS
hot fire?
Intrepid, Houston.
Roger.
Fire aw~.
Okay.
Intrepid, Houston.
Go.
Roger, Al.
Fredo is here.
He and I have both
seen that phenomena on your DEDA during t estin:',
of most a.11 the spacecrafts up at Bethpage, and
it's probably an EMI.
That's what ve' ve been talking about, but we
thought we'd just tcucb in on it.
When you go to your roll rate, roll lef't, pitch
up -
Roger.
I think TRW's got a v0rkup on this
problem.
Okay?
Here yo~ go, Houston, with roll, pitch, and
yav.
Roger, Pete.
-~---·- ··•···•-·-------- ----
---.--·- -- -···----- -·- -··---·
..
06 00 21 42
06 co 21 51
06 00 22 11
06 00 22 22
06 00 22 26
06 00 22 27
06 00 22 28
(
06 00 22 33
06 00 22 47
. 06 00 22 53
06 00 22 59
06 00 23 11
06 00 23 19
06 00 23 26
06 00 23 33
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•
Tape 93/8
Page 778
But I don't have you in the sextant, That's
okay.
Your blinking light's Just not blinking,
that's all.
Hey, Houston. It looks like our tracking
llght's burned out. Dick hasn't been able to
find us in this sextant. And on the first
nightside pass we had little bits and pieces
floating along vith us and we could tell that
the tracking light va.; flashing on them.
And
we still have, I've presumed to think, bits
and pieces floating along and nothing' s flashing
on them, so I'm pretty sure it burned out.
Roger, Pete.
Yes, sir. Okay.
Hi, Intrepid.
Okay.
This is Houston.
How'd your sweepdown fore
and aft go?
It's getting much cleaner in here running this
way; and, also, Yankee Clipper informs me he
bas the television all set up.
When we come
around the hor~1, ·we' 11 come around with the
television on in VOX.
Roger .
Who knows, you may get to see the first
wbiffer<l.ill.
Roger, Pete. Our electrical watchers say that
the current indicates that your tracking light
is on.
Okay.
Now ve just turned it off.
How does the
current show that?
It - It sure does, Pete.
You're - they're - You're flying thr0ugh the
air b~ckward3, then, Pete, because I don't see
it.
Well, my ball tells me I'm pointed at you, Dick,
and so does my radar.