Using the 16mm data acquisition camera, Lunar Module pilot Jack Schmitt recorded this spectacular movie of the flyover past the beautiful valley of Taurus-Littrow during Rev 12, the 12th lunar orbit after LOI (Lunar Orbit Insertion), one orbit (about 2 hours) prior landing, from an altitude of about 26 kilometers or 14 nautical miles or 85,000 ft and a horizontal velocity of 1.6 km/s or 5,350 ft/s. The video is playing about 2 times faster than the normal/real speed, it was recorded at 12 fps. The 16 mm Data Acquisition Camera offered variable modes of operation (frame rates): 1 frame per second (fps), 6 fps, 12 fps, and 24 fps. At the same time, CDR Gene Cernan took several photos with the Hasselblad camera from the left (port) window of the lunar module "Challenger"; visit the Project Apollo Image Gallery and search for Photo ID AS17-147-22465 to see one example.
Orbital inclination at this time was 159.8° in a 61.5 by 11.5 nautical miles retrograde lunar orbit. Perilune (the orbit's lowest altitude) on Rev 12 was a few degrees west of the landing site. Flyover took place at about 17:50 UTC, December 11th, 1972. The prominent crater situated on a ridge moving out of the frame at the lower right edge at 0:04 to 0:05 is crater "Maraldi 'R' " (diameter ~5 kilometers), at 0:09 the CSM (Command and Service Module) "America" (visible as a white dot) with Ron Evans aboard, passes "in front of" Bear Mountain and at 0:10 to 0:12 passes the South Massif which towers 2,300 meters or 7,500 feet above the level of the (dark) valley floor to the right/north of it where the landing site is located. Crater "Ching-Te" can be seen right behind (in direction of travel) the South Massif, still lying half in the shadow of the massif caused by the low (12° above local horizon-) sun. At 0:14 Jack Schmitt pans down for a good view of the planned landing site at 0:16, with the MOCR crater and craters Camelot, Sherlock, Cochise, Shakespeare, Lara, Nansen, the light mantle and the Lincoln Scarp clearly visible. From 0:18 till the end, the West Massif and Mons Argaeus pass below, as they are about to orbit out over the relatively flat surface of the southeastern corner of Mare Serenitatis. Spectacular!
Here's an excerpt of the Apollo 17 PAO flight transcripts of this particular event:
CHALLENGER 109: 59: 59.94.
CAPCOM That's right.
CHALLENGER Gordo, this is spectacular. It is absolutely spectacular looking at that command module, America down there coming across the surface. We're just tracking them at about a 30 degree dive angle.
CAP COM Sounds great.
CHALLENGER Okay, babe, have a good time, and go get that landmark. Don't forget TEIC in about 3 days.
CAPCOM Geno, Houston with a couple of items.
CHALLENGER Go ahead, Gordo.
CAPCOM Okay, your perilune seems to be -
CHALLENGER Hey, we got the landing site Gordo.
CAPCOM Okay, I'll hold -
CHALLENGER Gordo, we got the landing site, we're coming right over the front of it; stand by a minute, you can see the Slide, I think you can see the Great Cross.
CAP COM Roger.
CHALLENGER We'll get a picture of America coming right across it.
CAP COM All righty.
CHALLENGER Super targeting. God, we've got Family Mountain, we've got - of course, the massif. We can see the Scarp, we can see the light mantle. I've got the Great Cross, Camelot, Sherlock, believe it or not, Houston, they're all there.
CAPCOM How about that.
CHALLENGER I see possible structure - possible structure in the upper part of the South Massif, little bit east of station 2. It's subhorizontal, dipping to the southeast. Houston, I can even see Poppy, right where we're going to set this baby down.
CAP COM Very good.
CHALLENGER As a matter of fact, I can see Rudolph. I can even see the triangle: Rudolph, Frosty and Punk.
CHALLENGER Man, Gordo, this is absolutely spectacular.
CAPCOM Sure sounds like it.
CHALLENGER We can watch Ron track - we can watch Ron track right on through the landmarks, I don't know what kind of results he got, but he had a nice smooth track from here.
CAP COM Roger.
CHALLENGER Gordo, you can go ahead and update us with
those words.
CAPCOM Okay, your perilune is shifting west PDI will be a little higher than nominal: 10.7 miles or 65 000 feet; should be no problem. And from the time you first came around till we had a solid lock up on the steerable on this acquisition was about 3 minutes, we're going to try to speed that up some on the next time around. We'd like you to just keep trying the steerable until we come to you - and say stop trying. Over.
(Less)
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