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Only Apollo 8, 10, and 11 were flown on free return trajectories. Subsequent missions (quoting Wikipedia) > used a hybrid trajectory that launched to a highly
by frosted-flakes 5y ago
Only Apollo 8, 10, and 11 were flown on free return trajectories. Subsequent missions (quoting Wikipedia)
> used a hybrid trajectory that launched to a highly elliptical Earth orbit that fell short of the Moon with effectively a free return to the atmospheric entry corridor. They then performed a mid-course maneuver to change to a trans-Lunar trajectory that was not a free return.[5] This retained the safety characteristics of being on a free return upon launch and only departed from free return once the systems were checked out and the lunar module was docked with the command module, providing back-up maneuver capabilities. In fact, within hours after the accident, Apollo 13 used the lunar module to maneuver from its planned trajectory to a circumlunar free-return trajectory. Apollo 13 was the only Apollo mission to actually turn around the Moon in a free-return trajectory (however, two hours after perilune, propulsion was applied to speed the return to Earth by 10 hours and move the landing spot from the Indian Ocean to the Pacific Ocean).
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-return_trajectory https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free-return_trajectory
- dotancohen 5y agoThank you, I did not know the details of the corrections maneuvers. Presumably those two burns were done with the LEM decent engine on this flight? That engine was relatively powerful and had restart capability.