I was looking at the 16 launch from the moon. I think I read there might have been a millisecond delay in one of the pyrotechnics.
This might have been the real showstopper- maybe they got close on that one. What had to happen, the umbilicals, electrical connections, and the hardware securing the ascent and descent stages together had to fire cleanly and within a split second of each other. Because once the rocket fuel starts mixing, it’s going somewhere, the question is where.
It gets “caught up” and hangs, they are fooked. Starts a flat spin or flipping end over end or remains partially attached and floppin’ like a catfish and the end up dirty side up stuck on the moon.
All of the thin panel covers were all pranged up to hell on 16, they think maybe the millisecond delay caused a backpressure “pop” on the ascent stage. Charlie Duke said the whole thing dropped about 2” and he had an “oh shit” moment in the split second it took for the engine to launch. I think they were a red nether hair to havin’ something real bad happen on that launch.
That’s amazing! Do we know if the astronauts were suited for that launch off the surface? (I can’t remember how the movie “First Man” treated the event.) Your story makes me wonder if the engineers knew there was a possibility of the ascender losing its pressure due to the explosive forces generated by the mixing of the materials.
Hmmm. Good question, I’ve no idea. At a guess I bet 11 was suited up, and by 14 or 15 they were probably in flight suits and margaritas. I could be wrong about the launch, it’s just a couple data points or whatever, but taken together point to something along those lines.
It’s pretty fun listening to the YouTube uploads of NASA 16mm film and video of Charlie Duke and John Young tooling around on the rover. Young is totally chill, at some point if he said “Hey Charlie, is there any beer left in the cooler?” it would not sound out of place. Hell maybe he brought one.
He smuggled a corned beef sandwich with him on one flight. “Where did you get that?” asks Gus.