Quote:
Originally Posted by gary
Hi Dennis,
As they were on free-return trajectories, it would have meant their lunar
orbital insertions were approximately along the Earth-Moon plane.
As you will recollect, mascons came as a surprise to Apollo planners
during the Lunar Orbiter missions between 1966 and 1967. It increased
the error radius of the Apollo landing sites if they weren't accounted for.
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Thanks Gary, I remember that Apollo 11 was a little long on the planned descent line, as the LM was travelling a little faster than expected.
I think that subsequent Apollo Missions had the CSM fire its thrusters when the CSM and LM separated in lunar orbit, whereas on Apollo 11, the LM fired its thrusters at separation which "might" have accounted for the slight increase in approach speed.
Cheers
Dennis
Cheers
Dennis