ABC News Coverage of the Apollo 12 rocket launch aftermath (November 14th, 1969)

justed to look out our window here and note that the skies are getting somewhat lighter it appears that part of the storm is passed it's still raining moderately heavy here and uh as you started to indicate there there's just no way of knowing the way this thing is going to go it'll be another 30 minutes I predict before mission control and Conrad bean and Gordon really know whether the use of the platform can be regained whether their instruments can be trusted for a lunar Mission and it may very well be that if the platform's use isn't regained matter of fact it will be that if the platform's use isn't regained and highly accurately that uh the mission the lunar part of the mission would be aborted they would continue in an Earth orbit mission for perhaps 7 to 10 days or as long as they can safely do it provided there's no further degradation Frank or deterioration of their instruments and guidance system but uh the words we've been hearing from Mission Control sound reasonably cautiously optimistic that they computer pro programs to regain the use of the platform are beginning to work well that's very good news that's very good news I but it's going to be 30 minutes to an hour more I think Frank before we really know uh whether the platform is regained and whether its use can be trusted well how how can that be determined Jules you mean they just have to run some tests on it after uh after they get it back in they're inserting computer programs uh into the Apollo Command Module computer that gives the platform steering commands and guidance commands and seeing how the platform responds seeing whether they can stabilize it and get accurate course measurements out of it uh M fact Bob Ron can show us more of that Frank if we can get back to him and tell us tell us more exactly how that's done that's one of his Specialties but that's basically what mission control is doing they're giving Conrad bean and Gordon directions to re-erect the platform to reset it up to see how to test it in effect with that program poo you heard referred to uh to see how accurately the platform will function well this is uh of course causing a change in their onboard schedule what would they be doing right now if if they weren't worrying about all this now here's the president well they'd be moving on yes there is the president he's inside the VB there isn't he uh I was told a minute ago that he had gone inside I I did not see the monitors at that point Frank he may have moved into the VAB or launch control center at this point uh some 33 minutes into the flight they're over coming up on the Indian Ocean though uh and moving on uh out over the Pacific shortly and really what they're supposed to be doing at this point is getting their instruments squared away getting set up unsto the television camera the color TV Camera aboard verifying their checklists and systems for the translunar burn that's scheduled in about 2 hours and 15 minutes if they do it the president is in the firing room uh Jules that's what we just were told right there is here shaking hands with some of the uh launch uh directors and launch people there we're all the VIPs including the president aware of uh that slight difficulty where they uh you know were the loudspeakers relaying the commands out around the vi area there right we could hear we could see we were watching the expression on the president's face uh Frank as a matter of fact and uh it went from uh one of reasonable happiness I would say where the flight seem to be going well to obvious concern the Deep concern when he heard over the loudspeakers there at the VIP site which is around 3/4 of a mile from our ABC space headquarters here when he heard about the trouble and he heard Conrad say we've lost the platform I think we've been hit by lightning uh obviously the president was was concerned but unable to understand all the technicalities of it as indeed most of us are unable to understand it but he's there in Mission In launch control we should say uh and I think we'll stay there a bit uh until he finds out what happens he had his schedule calls for him to uh leave here very quickly after launch the original schedule and head directly back to Washington it's unfortunate that because of the uh miserable weather the president and everybody else down there today was denied the opportunity to watch the great Saturn lift up uh into that high arc all the cape and you know over the ocean another interesting point Frank is that Mr Nixon is the first US president to ever witness a launch as far as I can recall while he was still in office and and the reason always given by the White House for not having the president here was so as not to endanger the Pres The Prestige of the president in case something went wrong with a launch and here President Nixon comes down and though nothing directly went wrong with a launch uh Pete Conrad Allen bean and Dick Gordon are having their problems well yes but you know a strong case can be made for having the president there too because it does demonstrate confidence in the uh personnel there at Cape Kennedy in their ability to carry out the launch successfully the amazing thing about Conrad is he was joking about it as Master alarm lights were going on uh to audio tone warnings were going on uh it looked like the Christmas tree you spoke of and after they've been hit by the lightning if that was it yes Jules the uh AP is moving a story here saying that observers saw two lightning bolts flash shortly after launch you're one of those observers you see anything like that uh I'd like to know where The Observers were who saw two lightning bolts during launch well one of The Observers was one of our cameramen just Auto that he saw it perhaps I should have my 2012 Vision checked because I was looking up control I did not see any lightning bolts I saw a brilliant Cloud reflectivity uh from the engines of the Saturn 5 as it entered the clouds at about 1,700 ft altitude uh we're watching the President of course um back in launch controller and Mrs Nixon shaking hands uh I don't doubt that observers did see the lightning Frank we did not see it ourselves yes well Conrad pretty good authority indicated that he still feels that that is uh that is what happened as you can say there going to be plenty of uh yes Frank plenty of reconsiderations in thees Ron Ogo our producer here at Cape Kennedy who deserted me in my moment of need and went outside confirms he saw the lightning and indeed it would almost have to be lightning Frank that would knock out all those instruments no other kind of failure aboard the spacecraft could do it so I think there's very little question that there was lightning well the president is making The Grand Tour there of the firing room right if he's going to have anything to say there right he's being escorted by Colonel Frank Borman Captain Jim lble the spacecraft Commander for Apollo 13 is in there don't know if you can quite see him yet and a lot of other astronauts in fact about half the astronaut core is there to greet the president well the big job of course for the men among whom the president is moving right now is all over isn't it everything is switched to Houston control has switched to Houston indeed when the bird clears the tower at about 300 ft altitude control automatically switches to Houston which indeed is nervously nervously waiting word on uh how that platform realignment went how well the IMU system is functioning that's Dr Payne the left center of our picture there and Dr Divas the head of the Kennedy Space Center shaking hands with the president Dr Payne just to his left and Walt Capri in in the right center of the uh launch director here the new launch director succeeding Roco Patron who took General Sam Phillips's place as Apollo program director you know from NASA's point of view if you think of NASA in terms of uh one government agency competing for funds with a lot of other government agencies it's very desirable to have the president of the United States the man who must make the ultimate decisions there to actually witness a launch because it is of course an overpowering awesome Majestic site and I suppose today's was too even though the spacecraft disappeared from sight rather quickly right uh one minor note though it did disappear quickly Frank our prediction of uh the noise and Thunder from the rocket proved to be quite true the clouds did mightily reflect the mighty Saturn 5's engine exhaust sound down here and shook the whole Cape as never before by the way you could feel it huh oh you could feel it it can shake um some of the uh arthritic elements out of your blood vessels or whatever have the president of the United States the Mr President the crew down here at Kennedy has asked me to present to you one of the stones from the caller way the first three miles of the trip to the moon is taken right here at Cape Kennedy this is one of the stones that the big transporter rolled over in the way out we'd like you to have that as a momento of this very successful launch today but Dr Payne what did they and all of you here at Cape Kennedy for this occasion I do want to say that it's been a very great privilege to be here and speaking for Mrs Nixon and my daughter who are here with me uh we think this trip our trip from Washington to here was definitely worthwhile uh when I announced uh earlier in the week that I was trying to arrange my schedule to come down there were those who said well why can't you see it all on television and it is true that I have seen some previous Launches on television but I thought I would share with you the experience of one who has never seen a launch live before and what the differences and I perhaps if I may use the analogy of sports I really believe while I like to go to a football game uh live and to feel the crowd and the rest I really believe that you can sit in home and see a football game on television probably see it as well or even better than you can see it by being there because the camera will watch that T formation quarterback and I'll be sure you watching the ball rather than the fake but while that is true in the field of sports of football and baseball it simply is not true in the case of what we have just seen a few moments ago here it's a sense of not just the sight and the picture but of feeling it feeling the great experience and all that has gone into it and I would add to that by saying that coming here and and coming to this room uh brings an extra Dimension to this great space launch that we've seen a moment ago Dr Payne and Frank Borman and Colonel Stafford and a lot of my friends in this uh activity have often told me that remember that the three who were up there couldn't be there except for tens of thousands on the ground uh tens of thousands of people and who sometimes may seem to be and you may feel you're faceless just numbers and just like these computers that we see in front of you I do want you to know that I realize that except for what you are doing here they couldn't be there and they would not make this Mission successful and I think that you can be proud of the fact and we're proud of the fact that every one of our astronauts when they've come to the White House and I've had the privilege of entertaining several of them every one of them makes the point that those those on the ground the engineers and the technicians and the scientists