Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-14-2016 09:58 PM
From the Apollo 14 mission report:
The flight crew remained aboard the New Orleans in the mobile quarantine facility until they were flown to Pago Pago, Samoa, where they transferred to a second mobile quarantine facility aboard a C-141 aircraft. The crew was flown to Ellington Air Force Base, with a stop at Norton Air Force Base, California, where the aircraft was refueled.
The Apollo 14 Mobile Quarantine Facility on the USS New Orleans was MQF-004. Which MQF did the Apollo 14 crew use between Samoa and Houston?
moorouge Member
Posts: 2486 From: U.K. Registered: Jul 2009
posted 09-17-2016 03:58 AM
It would seem that this information was not recorded.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-17-2016 09:47 AM
My guess would be MQF-001 which would have been used by the Apollo 13 crew.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-17-2016 08:35 PM
Photo S69-40152 shows MQF-003 with the Apollo 11 crew inside arriving at Ellington AFB in Houston.
Notice the three CM-shaped "Project Apollo Recovery Team" stickers around the MQF door that were not there on the USS Hornet. There was one sticker on the MQF door too. The Apollo 14 MQF in Samoa had stickers in those four locations.
There is another recovery sticker under the right side window of Apollo 11 MQF. The Apollo 14 MQF that arrived at Ellington with the crew inside had a recovery sticker under the right side window also.
It doesn't look like the Apollo 12 MQF-002 on display has stickers around the door. At Ellington, it did have a recovery sticker just to the left of the right side window.
moonguyron Member
Posts: 191 From: Trinity, FL USA Registered: Jan 2011
posted 09-18-2016 04:46 PM
I attended a dedication of a MQF on the USS Hornet on March 16, 2001 in Oakland CA. with Apollo astronaut Ed Mitchell. It was used on Apollo 14. So which one was that?
moorouge Member
Posts: 2486 From: U.K. Registered: Jul 2009
posted 09-19-2016 02:23 PM
It might well be MQF-004, which is currently in the USS Hornet museum, Alameda, California.
quote:Originally posted by LM-12: ...recovery sticker under the right side window also.
You may well be correct. However, a word of caution from my contacts at the former Landing and Recovery Division:
I appreciate your effort to identify the MQF's by the "Project Apollo Recovery Team" stickers, but unfortunately those stickers came and went since they were peel and stick and wouldn't be a reliable way to identify MQFs.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-19-2016 09:28 PM
I'll give it another shot. Would what looks like identical marks above the right side window near the rivets be a better indicator?
Compare Apollo 11 photo S69-40147 at Ellington with Apollo 14 photo S71-19508 also at Ellington.
moorouge Member
Posts: 2486 From: U.K. Registered: Jul 2009
posted 09-20-2016 09:56 AM
Again - you are probably correct providing none of the other three MQFs did not have similar distinctive marking.
schnappsicle Member
Posts: 410 From: Houston, TX, USA Registered: Jan 2012
posted 09-21-2016 07:39 AM
I'm with LM-12. When I look at the two photos, I don't see "similar distinctive markings." What I see are the exact same flaking marks above the window in both photographs.
The number of peelings (or whatever they are) in each photo are exact, as are the shapes of each of those markings. The odds of two separate vehicles having identical random markings are virtually infinite.
moorouge Member
Posts: 2486 From: U.K. Registered: Jul 2009
posted 09-21-2016 08:39 AM
Just for the record - I didn't say LM-12 was wrong, just that some caution might be needed.
It's worth recording also that none of those actually associated with the Apollo 14 recovery and who are still available to ask can remember which MQF was used on the Samoa to Ellington leg. And I have asked.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-22-2016 05:46 AM
Interesting how the wives in the Apollo 11 photo are standing just far enough apart to see all the marks and make a comparison with the Apollo 14 photo.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-23-2016 01:09 PM
Here is some AP archive footage of the Apollo 14 MQF at Ellington Air Force Base.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-24-2016 09:39 PM
In the Apollo 14 photo, what does the "Zero In For Safety" sign refer to?
oly Member
Posts: 1460 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2015
posted 09-24-2016 10:02 PM
Zero in On Safety was a safety campaign with NASA in the early 70's. The slogan has been used by many safety campaigns worldwide over the years. There are examples of the Snoopy Zero in on Safety decals on the web from 1971 and 1973.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-24-2016 10:23 PM
The sign is located at what is called a "patch panel" in one MQF drawing.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-26-2016 07:05 AM
MQF-003 on display at the Smithsonian is missing the letter "R" in "CENTER" on the left side. The "R" was there on the Hornet.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 09-28-2016 10:25 AM
Notice the covered windows in photo S69-33818. Maybe that is tape residue above the MQF-003 window in the Apollo 11 and Apollo 14 photos.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 11-05-2016 12:22 AM
Apparently, it was a little crowded in the MQF on the USS New Orleans. This is from the Apollo 14 debrief:
SHEPARD: I'm glad we decided to get out of the MQF the way we did. By the time we were ready to get out of that, it was a mess. We had the probe and the Hycon in there ...
MITCHELL: And 108 pounds of rock.
SHEPARD: And 108 pounds of extra rocks. There just wasn't room for anything else in there. By the time we got out, I was tickled to death to leave it.
ROOSA: The MQF is designed for four, five, or six people to live in; and that's not the case when you're on board ship. You've that many people living in it, but you have at least two people just working all the time. They have to bring all those samples in and there's no place to work except right in the aisle. You're all over each other in there.
MITCHELL: In all due fairness, the two guys that were in there with us did one whale of a job.
SHEPARD: Yes.
MITCHELL: They did their job and let us get some sleep.
ROOSA: They did a magnificent job.
SLAYTON: What if you had to spend 7 more days in there?
ROOSA: Oh, that would have been so bad!
SHEPARD: Yes. There's no way they could have air locked out the probe and the camera. It was like having one extra person in there. Fortunately, we had the tunnel between the trailer and the spacecraft. We could walk out there during the day.
MITCHELL: It helped to break the routine.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 07-09-2018 10:13 AM
Here is the view from inside the Mobile Quarantine Facility (MQF-003) when the Apollo 11 astronauts entered. The order looks like Collins, Armstrong and then Aldrin.
oly Member
Posts: 1460 From: Perth, Western Australia Registered: Apr 2015
posted 07-09-2018 10:59 AM
An interesting view, filmed from the other side from where this more widely viewed shot.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 07-09-2018 02:30 PM
Armstrong bumped his head inside the doorway.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 11-28-2021 06:11 PM
What were the Apollo 14 astronauts wearing around their waists when they boarded a Navy helicopter for the trip from the first MQF on the USS New Orleans to the second MQF in Samoa?
Aboard the U.S.S. New Orleans, Apollo 14 astronauts Alan B. Shepard, left, Stuart B. Roosa (partially hidden behind Shepard), and Mitchell, along with Flight Surgeon Dr. William R. Carpentier and engineer Ralph Culbertson, prepare to board a helicopter for the flight to Pago Pago, American Samoa.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 12-09-2021 06:00 PM
They were not wearing those pouches when they exited the helicopter and walked to the MQF in Samoa.
NavyPilot Member
Posts: 95 From: USA Registered: Nov 2015
posted 12-11-2021 08:06 AM
I would assume personal flotation of some type.
Under most circumstances, gear like this is required (and advisable) on a Navy helo flight. Once safe on deck, it could have been removed and left onboard the helo.
ejectr Member
Posts: 1979 From: Killingly, CT Registered: Mar 2002
posted 12-11-2021 10:33 AM
They're inflatable life vests, in case you have to go into the water. You unsnapped them and a deflated life preserver unrolled up over your head.
They were filled with air, either buy a tube you could blow into or a C02 cyclinder that you activated by pulling that white cord you see. You could also replace lost air by blowing into the tube.
I have two from when I decommissioned a ship I was aboard in 1972.
LM-12 Member
Posts: 3843 From: Ontario, Canada Registered: Oct 2010
posted 10-25-2023 11:38 AM
The MQF serial number is located on an ID plate next to the side door. It can be seen in this photo of MQF-003 found on the American Spacecraft website.
posted 09-14-2016 09:58 PM
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