Word: lunar
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...lunar craft must circle the moon before the astronauts can start back to earth. At the earliest, Apollo 13 will start its return trip at 9:40 p.m. tonight and splash down at 1:20 p.m. Friday afternoon if everything goes right...
Before the actual touchdown Wednesday night, Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot Haise will swoop in from the east, easily clearing an 800-ft.-high ridge at the approach to their landing area. Ahead will be a curious horseshoe-shaped feature called Weird Crater. Lovell, who has logged more time in space than any other man (572 hr. 10 min.), will probably attempt to set down between two groups of craters named Doublet and Triplet. If he overshoots his prime target, he may try for one of two nearby alternative landing sites picked by NASA planners (see chart...
Wetting the Whistle. Three hours after touchdown, Lovell will descend the LM's ladder and become the fifth man to walk the dusty surface of the moon. He will be joined by Haise 20 minutes later, and the two will proceed with the now familiar lunar routine-unfolding the umbrella-shaped S-band antenna, setting up the American flag, preparing the package of nuclear-powered experiments for deployment...
...disk. The Apollo 13 camera also is equipped with a lens cap and has a backup: a spare black-and-white model inside the cabin. Other improvements in their paraphernalia: antiglare visors, 8-oz. water pouches inside their suits ("Nice for wetting the whistle," Haise explains), backpacks to haul lunar samples (instead of the fancy Teflon bags that hooked to their sides) and even a nylon whisk broom to brush off the clinging lunar dust...
During their two lunar walks, the astronauts may stay out as long as five hours and venture nearly a mile from Aquarius. Besides the usual rock collecting and photographic chores (movies and stills), they will take several cores of moon material with a battery-powered drill that can penetrate as far as 10 ft. below the surface. But the most adventurous part of these excursions should be the climb to the 250-ft.-to-400-ft.-high lip of Cone Crater, where the astronauts hope to chip away at the car-sized boulders that may be part of the rook...