
Tag Archives: Trans Lunar Injection
14 November 1969, 19:15:13 UTC, T plus 2:53:13.94

14 November 1969: At 19:09:22 UTC, the Apollo 12 S-IVB third stage engine reignited for the Trans Lunar Injection maneuver.
One of the necessary features of the Rocketdyne J-2 engine was its ability to restart a second time. The third stage was first used to place the Apollo 12 spacecraft into Earth orbit and was then shutdown. When the mission was ready to proceed toward the Moon, the J-2 was re-started. Using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for propellant, Apollo 12’s S-IVB burned for 5 minutes, 41 seconds. The engine was shut down at 19:15:03 UTC. Trans Lunar Injection was at T plus 2 hours, 53 minutes, 13.94 seconds.
© 2016, Bryan R. Swopes
16 July 1969, 16:16:16 UTC, T + 02:44:16.2

16 July 1969: At 16:16:16 UTC, T+02:44:16.2, the Apollo 11 S-IVB third stage engine reignited for the Trans Lunar Injection maneuver.
One of the necessary features of the Rocketdyne J-2 engine was its ability to restart. The third stage was first used to place the Apollo 11 spacecraft into Earth orbit and was then shutdown. When the mission was ready to proceed toward the Moon, the J-2 was re-started. Using liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for propellant, Apollo 11′s S-IVB burned for 5 minutes, 41.01 seconds, with the spacecraft reaching a maximum 1.45 Gs just before engine cut off. The engine was shut down at T+02:50:03.03. Trans Lunar Injection was at 16:22:13 UTC.
© 2015, Bryan R. Swopes
4 April 1968: 12:00:01.38 UTC, T plus 00:00:00.38

At T+2:05 the Saturn V experienced a severe “pogo” oscillation, but no structural damage occurred. Next, several structural panels from the lunar module adaptor section were lost due to a manufacturing defect. Finally, during the second stage burn, two of the five Rocketdyne J-2 engines shut down prematurely. Because of this, the planned circular orbit at 175 kilometers altitude was not achieved, instead, the spacecraft entered a 106.9 × 138.6 miles (172.1 × 223.1 kilometers) orbit, circling Earth in 89.8 minutes.
After two orbits, it was planned to send Apollo 6 to the Trans Lunar Injection point, but the third stage engine would not fire. The Service Module engine was used to boost the spacecraft to a peak altitude of 13,810.2 miles (22,225.4 kilometers) and a planned lunar re-entry simulation was carried out. Apollo 6 reached 22,385 miles per hour (36,025 kilometers per hour) as it reentered the atmosphere. 9 hours, 57 minutes, 20 seconds after launch, Apollo 6 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean north of Hawaii and was recovered by USS Okinawa (LPH-3).
Eighteen Saturn V rockets were built. They were the most powerful machines ever built by man.
¹ The five Rocketdyne F-1 engines of the AS-502 S-IC first stage produced a combined thrust of 7,567,000 pounds (33,660 kilonewtons), 15,000 pounds (67 kilonewtons) less than predicted.
© 2018, Bryan R. Swopes