STS
Well-known member
Hello all,
It´s again time for another Real Time Simulation debrief, this time for Apollo 9, wich we started on January 7th and concluded on January 17th. I continue to do these debriefs as I think that they provide usable feedback for NASSP´s users and the dev team.
For Apollo 9 I considered the flight days as follows:
Flight day 1:
For the first day of the flight of Apollo 9, the following activitied were to be performed:
Procedures were started at L -3:59:13, and this time I used the Checklist MFD. I took a pitstop to the bathroom between L -3:11:00 and L -03:01:00, as I waited for the next procedure to start at L -03:00:00. Procedures were complete at L -02:56:10.
Prime crew prelaunch procedure:
Crew ingress started at L -02:39:55 and the hatch was closed by using the clickspot on the VC at L -01:39:32.
Saturn V Boost procedure:
The fourth Saturn V to fly lifted off at 11:00:00 local time. Cabin pressure decrease was observed at GET 71 seconds, "Slowly but going". Suit temperature was high already (85ºF around GET 73 seconds, not noted yet by crew). SIC inboard engine shutdown occured at GET 2 minutes 15 seconds. SIC staging occured at GET 2 minutes and 47 seconds. SII engines ignition occured at 2 minutes and 49 seconds. Tower jett was done at 3 minutes 19 seconds. Suit temperature was 88ºF at GET 3 minutes and 41 seconds. Suit temp was started to be observed by crew at GET 4 minutes. Still GO at GET 5 minutes. And 6 minutes. Suit temp was 90ºF at 6 minutes 25 seconds. GO at 7 minutes. PU shift occured at GET 00:07:32. GO at 8 minutes, crew reported concerned about the suit temp at 8 minutes, as never noted that on trainings. 90ºF at 8 minutes. GO at 9 minutes. SII staging ocurred at 00:09:07 GET. S-IVB ignition occured at 00:09:11 GET. Go at 10 minutes, MCC said "No action" on suit temperature. SECO ocurred at 00:11:22 GET. Insertion data was as follows:
Post insertion checks and config:
Steps for post-insertion were started at 00:12:45 GET. Checklist MFD was also used for these procedures. MCC came up with troubleshooting for Suit high temp at around 00:17:25 GET. GLYCOL EVAP TEMP OUT was above 50.5ºF. Suit temperature was observed decreasing at 00:19:35 GET, after doffing helmet and gloves and changing the ECS config. Said temperature stabilized at around GET 00:30:00, at 75ºF.
Transcription of launch debrief performed by crew at 01:07:30:
Pre CSM/LV sep, transposition and docking checks:
Stayed on Checklist MFD (on the previous missions, as I used the good old Word checklists now it would be the time to go to Checklist MFD)Docking probe extension occured at 01:50:15 GET. Nominal extension, two gray talkbacks. Primary Glycol Evaporator was disabled at GET 002:00:00.
Cabin purge was also terminated there. Cabin pressure was increased to 5.7 PSIA. Auto RCS switches were all set to MNB as per checklist. Crew saw two V46´s around 002:29:00 GET and was confused about that. MCC said no issue there, and crew did them. SM RCS was tested at 002:25:26 GET.
CSM/LV sep, transposition and docking:
Pyro arm for separation was performed at 002:45:09 GET. Before separation crew asked if the pitch error needle was all right. Crew was nervous and human factors related things started to kick in. Crew set the event timer to +20 seconds, to have time to synchronize with a timer I had on hand and that I would activate at the same time that I pressed the "6" key on my improvised THC. Separation ocurred on time at 002:47:02 GET but crew forgot to put EMS mode to normal. Pitch rate for pitcharound was 1.5º per second and it was started at T+38 seconds. EMS was corrected to -100.8 at T+75 seconds, but it was not clear if we were moving away from S-IVB at the planned speed of 0.8 fps. DSKY showed +00006 -00001 +00005 at T+80 seconds.
S-IVB was observed thru side hatch at 002:49:25 GET, T+ 2:26, DSKY showing -00006 -00001 +00006. SLA panels were seen jettison correctly and docking target was clear, Spider seemed to be sleeping peacefully on her nest.
Keepstation was started at T+3 minutes. Due to the EMS mistake earlier, it was harder to determine if closing in to the LM or drifting away from it during keepstation.
Approach to LM was started at T+14:14, with the GDC align 30 seconds earlier. 1 fps was the initial closure rate, applied to +X. During approach the S-IVB and LM were never outside the COAS indicator. Final approach and soft docking speed was a little bit fast. Attitude was very well aligned before capture. Translation was a little bit off to the right before capture.
Capture occured at GET 003:07:22, T+20:23. Retract commanded at T+20:48, hard dock occured at T+20:51.
State vector update and NAV CHECK PAD were received at GET 003:15:00. Nav check PAD was:
Tunnel pressure verification & equalization:
At GET 003:25:15, surge tank pressure was checked and was at around 895 PSI. At GET 003:25:57, air was started to be introduced to the LM, thus equalizing the pressure between the CM and the LM. At GET 003:28:25 Delta pressure between CM and LM was 3.1 PSI. No leaks were detected. At GET 003:31:25 pressure equalization valve was opened again. CM Repress O2 valve was opened for the first time at GET 003:33:33, and closed at 003:34:05. Second cycle of repress was between GET 003:42:20 and GET 003:43:39. Procedure was complete at GET 003:45:35. Surge tank pressure was "refilled" as last step of the procedure.
LM Power to CSM was activated at GET 003:46:42.
LM ejection:
Cabin purge was resumed at GET 003:58:10. DAP was reconfigured for CSM/LM flight and pyros were armed at GET 004:00:10. LM separation from LV occured at GET 004:08:00, and a -0.5fps was gained on the +X axis. Auto maneuver to evasive maneuver attitude was started at T+35 seconds. Evasive maneuver was performed at T +02:58, and a -0.5 fps was applied to the +X axis, firing -X for 3 seconds.
Visual contact with S-IVB was maintained without issue. At GET 004:14:00 crew estimated distance to be 70 feet. As expected, a little bit of pitch rate was required, and also a monitoring of attitude to not enter gimbal lock.
First S-IVB restart observation:
S-IVB attitude change to RPY 0,0,0 was noticeable at GET 004:26:00. S-IVB Restart was observed at GET 004:45:28 GET.
SPS-1 burn:
PAD for SPS-1 burn, wich was intended to change to a 128*113 orbit was received at GET 004:50:00. Was as follows:
Alignment check was started at GET 005:21:20, and completed at . Crew did a mistake at GET 005:24:30, by changing again CMC mode to FREE and maneuvering to a different attitude. What I wanted to do was to select another couple of stars. That caused the held burn attitude to be lost. MCC reported the problem, as crew didn´t notice it at all. P40 wanted to burn at RPY +304.86, +356.54, +000.97, because it was the attitude the spacecraft was at when calling P40. Also, P40 was called from P00, causing that, by following the checklist too correctly, an F50 25 with code 00204 was shown early, when I was to move the optics to the star check angles. Solution given was go back to P00, and V49 again to the burn attitude. Auto maneuver to burn attitude was reperformed at GET 005:40:00. After auto maneuver was complete, P40 was started again at GET 005:42:00, now with a more adequate attitude and then continued the checklist with star check, but star check failed as I was 13 minutes behind and V41 N91 was entered at the F50 25 again. As of that, another P40 reselection was done at GET 005:47:17.
Burn was performed using SPS at GET 005:59:00. Burn duration was 5.some seconds. Both banks were used. Residuals as follows:
Post SPS-1 orbit was:
Daylight star check:
Star check PAD was as follows, received at 06:15:00 GET:
G&N power down:
At GET 008:55:00 G&N was powered down for the first proper sleep cycle of the Apollo program.
Crew started an sleep cycle between GET 010:25:00 to GET 018:10:00.
It´s again time for another Real Time Simulation debrief, this time for Apollo 9, wich we started on January 7th and concluded on January 17th. I continue to do these debriefs as I think that they provide usable feedback for NASSP´s users and the dev team.
For Apollo 9 I considered the flight days as follows:
- FD1 (07/01/2023) GET -04:45:00 to GET 10:45:00
- FD2 (08/01/2023) GET 19:00:00 to GET 30:00:00
- FD3 (09/01/2023) GET 39:00:00 to GET 58:30:00
- FD4 (10/01/2023) GET 66:30:00 to GET 79:00:00
- FD5 (11/01/2023) GET 86:30:00 to GET 105:00:00
- FD6 (12/01/2023) GET 112:30:00 to GET 130:00:00
- FD7 (13/01/2023) GET 138:30:00 to GET 154:00:00
- FD8 (14/01/2023) GET 162:00:00 to GET 177:00:00
- FD9 (15/01/2023) GET 184:20:00 to GET 201:00:00
- FD10 (16/01/2023) GET 207:40:00 to GET 223:00:00
- FD11 (17/01/2023) GET 232:00:00 to [EOM]
Flight day 1:
For the first day of the flight of Apollo 9, the following activitied were to be performed:
- Startup checklist and backup crew prelaunch procedure
- Prime crew prelaunch procedure
- Saturn V Boost procedure
- Post insertion checks and config
- Pre CSM/LV sep, transposition and docking checks
- CSM/LV sep and transposition and docking
- Tunnel pressure verification & equalization
- LM ejection
- First S-IVB restart observation
- SPS-1 burn
- Daylight star check
- G&N power down
Procedures were started at L -3:59:13, and this time I used the Checklist MFD. I took a pitstop to the bathroom between L -3:11:00 and L -03:01:00, as I waited for the next procedure to start at L -03:00:00. Procedures were complete at L -02:56:10.
Prime crew prelaunch procedure:
Crew ingress started at L -02:39:55 and the hatch was closed by using the clickspot on the VC at L -01:39:32.
Saturn V Boost procedure:
The fourth Saturn V to fly lifted off at 11:00:00 local time. Cabin pressure decrease was observed at GET 71 seconds, "Slowly but going". Suit temperature was high already (85ºF around GET 73 seconds, not noted yet by crew). SIC inboard engine shutdown occured at GET 2 minutes 15 seconds. SIC staging occured at GET 2 minutes and 47 seconds. SII engines ignition occured at 2 minutes and 49 seconds. Tower jett was done at 3 minutes 19 seconds. Suit temperature was 88ºF at GET 3 minutes and 41 seconds. Suit temp was started to be observed by crew at GET 4 minutes. Still GO at GET 5 minutes. And 6 minutes. Suit temp was 90ºF at 6 minutes 25 seconds. GO at 7 minutes. PU shift occured at GET 00:07:32. GO at 8 minutes, crew reported concerned about the suit temp at 8 minutes, as never noted that on trainings. 90ºF at 8 minutes. GO at 9 minutes. SII staging ocurred at 00:09:07 GET. S-IVB ignition occured at 00:09:11 GET. Go at 10 minutes, MCC said "No action" on suit temperature. SECO ocurred at 00:11:22 GET. Insertion data was as follows:
Post insertion checks and config:
Steps for post-insertion were started at 00:12:45 GET. Checklist MFD was also used for these procedures. MCC came up with troubleshooting for Suit high temp at around 00:17:25 GET. GLYCOL EVAP TEMP OUT was above 50.5ºF. Suit temperature was observed decreasing at 00:19:35 GET, after doffing helmet and gloves and changing the ECS config. Said temperature stabilized at around GET 00:30:00, at 75ºF.
Optics dust cover jett was performed at GET 00:42:30.
Transcription of launch debrief performed by crew at 01:07:30:
Post insertion checklist was completed at 001:34:50 GET.
Pre CSM/LV sep, transposition and docking checks:
Stayed on Checklist MFD (on the previous missions, as I used the good old Word checklists now it would be the time to go to Checklist MFD)Docking probe extension occured at 01:50:15 GET. Nominal extension, two gray talkbacks. Primary Glycol Evaporator was disabled at GET 002:00:00.
Cabin purge was also terminated there. Cabin pressure was increased to 5.7 PSIA. Auto RCS switches were all set to MNB as per checklist. Crew saw two V46´s around 002:29:00 GET and was confused about that. MCC said no issue there, and crew did them. SM RCS was tested at 002:25:26 GET.
CSM/LV sep, transposition and docking:
Pyro arm for separation was performed at 002:45:09 GET. Before separation crew asked if the pitch error needle was all right. Crew was nervous and human factors related things started to kick in. Crew set the event timer to +20 seconds, to have time to synchronize with a timer I had on hand and that I would activate at the same time that I pressed the "6" key on my improvised THC. Separation ocurred on time at 002:47:02 GET but crew forgot to put EMS mode to normal. Pitch rate for pitcharound was 1.5º per second and it was started at T+38 seconds. EMS was corrected to -100.8 at T+75 seconds, but it was not clear if we were moving away from S-IVB at the planned speed of 0.8 fps. DSKY showed +00006 -00001 +00005 at T+80 seconds.
S-IVB was observed thru side hatch at 002:49:25 GET, T+ 2:26, DSKY showing -00006 -00001 +00006. SLA panels were seen jettison correctly and docking target was clear, Spider seemed to be sleeping peacefully on her nest.
Keepstation was started at T+3 minutes. Due to the EMS mistake earlier, it was harder to determine if closing in to the LM or drifting away from it during keepstation.
Approach to LM was started at T+14:14, with the GDC align 30 seconds earlier. 1 fps was the initial closure rate, applied to +X. During approach the S-IVB and LM were never outside the COAS indicator. Final approach and soft docking speed was a little bit fast. Attitude was very well aligned before capture. Translation was a little bit off to the right before capture.
Capture occured at GET 003:07:22, T+20:23. Retract commanded at T+20:48, hard dock occured at T+20:51.
State vector update and NAV CHECK PAD were received at GET 003:15:00. Nav check PAD was:
P21 agreed with NAV CHECK PAD after the state vector update.
Tunnel pressure verification & equalization:
At GET 003:25:15, surge tank pressure was checked and was at around 895 PSI. At GET 003:25:57, air was started to be introduced to the LM, thus equalizing the pressure between the CM and the LM. At GET 003:28:25 Delta pressure between CM and LM was 3.1 PSI. No leaks were detected. At GET 003:31:25 pressure equalization valve was opened again. CM Repress O2 valve was opened for the first time at GET 003:33:33, and closed at 003:34:05. Second cycle of repress was between GET 003:42:20 and GET 003:43:39. Procedure was complete at GET 003:45:35. Surge tank pressure was "refilled" as last step of the procedure.
LM Power to CSM was activated at GET 003:46:42.
LM ejection:
Cabin purge was resumed at GET 003:58:10. DAP was reconfigured for CSM/LM flight and pyros were armed at GET 004:00:10. LM separation from LV occured at GET 004:08:00, and a -0.5fps was gained on the +X axis. Auto maneuver to evasive maneuver attitude was started at T+35 seconds. Evasive maneuver was performed at T +02:58, and a -0.5 fps was applied to the +X axis, firing -X for 3 seconds.
Visual contact with S-IVB was maintained without issue. At GET 004:14:00 crew estimated distance to be 70 feet. As expected, a little bit of pitch rate was required, and also a monitoring of attitude to not enter gimbal lock.
First S-IVB restart observation:
S-IVB attitude change to RPY 0,0,0 was noticeable at GET 004:26:00. S-IVB Restart was observed at GET 004:45:28 GET.
SPS-1 burn:
PAD for SPS-1 burn, wich was intended to change to a 128*113 orbit was received at GET 004:50:00. Was as follows:
SPS-1 burn prediction was obtained at GET 004:52:23 and was:
Spacecraft control mode was set to FREE around GET 005:15:00 for the P52 option 3 realign. At GET 005:18:15 DAP config was verified with MCC, it was 21111 11111 on N46.
Alignment check was started at GET 005:21:20, and completed at . Crew did a mistake at GET 005:24:30, by changing again CMC mode to FREE and maneuvering to a different attitude. What I wanted to do was to select another couple of stars. That caused the held burn attitude to be lost. MCC reported the problem, as crew didn´t notice it at all. P40 wanted to burn at RPY +304.86, +356.54, +000.97, because it was the attitude the spacecraft was at when calling P40. Also, P40 was called from P00, causing that, by following the checklist too correctly, an F50 25 with code 00204 was shown early, when I was to move the optics to the star check angles. Solution given was go back to P00, and V49 again to the burn attitude. Auto maneuver to burn attitude was reperformed at GET 005:40:00. After auto maneuver was complete, P40 was started again at GET 005:42:00, now with a more adequate attitude and then continued the checklist with star check, but star check failed as I was 13 minutes behind and V41 N91 was entered at the F50 25 again. As of that, another P40 reselection was done at GET 005:47:17.
Burn was performed using SPS at GET 005:59:00. Burn duration was 5.some seconds. Both banks were used. Residuals as follows:
Not nulled as per mission rules.
Post SPS-1 orbit was:
SPS Oxid and fuel were 87.7% and no unballance after SPS-1. No ullage was used. SPS-1 was declared a good burn.
Daylight star check:
Star check PAD was as follows, received at 06:15:00 GET:
Most visible star was 23 (Denebola), at Sunrise, Sunrise + 5 minutes and Sunrise + 10 minutes.
G&N power down:
At GET 008:55:00 G&N was powered down for the first proper sleep cycle of the Apollo program.
Crew started an sleep cycle between GET 010:25:00 to GET 018:10:00.
