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Buzz Aldrin: American Icon

View full screen - View 1 of Lot 13. FLOWN Apollo 11 Command Module "SIVB TLI - Nominal First Opportunity" Data Card.

Property from the Buzz Aldrin Family Trust

[Apollo 11]

FLOWN Apollo 11 Command Module "SIVB TLI - Nominal First Opportunity" Data Card

Auction Closed

July 26, 06:15 PM GMT

Estimate

3,000 - 5,000 USD

Lot Details

Description

[APOLLO 11]


FLOWN Command Module "SIVB TLI — Nominal First Opportunity" Data Card. SIVB TLI - NOMINAL E, July 16, 1969 AZ 72°, First Opportunity, part of the Data Card Kit, SEB32100025-301. [Houston, Texas: NASA, Manned Spacecraft Center, 1969.]


5 by 2 7/8 inches, printed to recto of heavy card stock. Strip of Velcro (5 x 1 in.) affixed to verso running length of card, smaller Velcro rectangle (1 x 3/4 in.) affixed to verso at top right corner. WITH REALTIME MISSION NOTATION IN MICHAEL COLLINS' HAND in black felt-tip pen to recto, and additional notation in black ballpoint pen in MICHAEL COLLINS' hand to verso. This lot will be accompanied by a Typed Letter Signed from BUZZ ALDRIN.


Inscribed "Flown to the Moon on Apollo XI," and SIGNED "BUZZ ALDRIN" to recto

Directly from the Personal Collection of Apollo 11 Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin

INFORMATION ON THE FIRST ATTEMPT AT TRANSLUNAR INJECTION—DETAILING THE FUNCTIONING OF THE FIRST ATTEMPT TO FIRE THE ENGINE


BUZZ ALDRIN'S provenance letters reads, in part: "This SIVB TLI – Nominal First Opportunity data card gave us information on how the Translunar Injection (TLI) burn would function on the first attempt at firing the SIVB rocket engine. If this first attempt at TLI failed, we would have another orbit to figure out the problem and try again. We would only have two attempts before the hydrogen fuel boiled away in the Sun's heat and the 3rd stage would not have enough fuel to complete the TLI burn by the time of a third try.


This data card was attached to the Command Module cockpit panel during the first attempt at firing the 3rd stage (SIVB) of the Saturn V launch vehicle. The heading of the card states that it is the SIVB (3rd stage of the Saturn V launch vehicle) and the pre-printed numbers on the card reflect what would be a normal attempt at Translunar Injection. The TLI firing would occur the day of the launch, July 16, 1969, with a launch azimuth of 72° (or northeast of the launch site). This allowed for TLI to take place at what was deemed the proper location in orbit...Note that at the end of the burn, the predicted velocity was 35,563 feet per second. Command Module Pilot Michael Collins crossed out the predicted velocity and wrote in the actual velocity of 35,575 feet per second. The burn started at an altitude above earth of 107 nautical miles and was expected to reach an altitude of 174 nautical miles. The actual altitude at the end of Apollo 11's TLI burn was 177 nautical miles, which corresponded to the slight increase in velocity."


REFERENCES:

NASA. Apollo 11 Stowage List. Mission AS 506 CM 107/LM-5. Houston, Texas: NASA, Manned Spacecraft Center, July 15, 1969, pp. 5 & 85 (as part of the Data Card Kit)


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