From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Transposition, docking, and extraction (abbreviated to TD&E, often just transposition and docking) is a space rendezvous maneuver performed during the Apollo lunar missions of the 1960s and 70s. It was performed after orbit had been attained but prior to the trans lunar injection burn that placed the Apollo spacecraft on a trajectory towards the Moon.
[edit] Performing TD&E
It was performed by the Command Module pilot (although as a contingency, the Lunar Module pilot and commander were also trained to perform the maneuver), and involved separating the CSM from the Lunar Module, yawing the CSM 180° to reattach the two spacecraft, by inserting a probe on the CSM into the Lunar Module. Then, the Apollo spacecraft stack would separate from the LM container of the Saturn V, and continue on to perform TLI several hours later.
[edit] Missions
TD&E was only required on lunar landing missions, and as such was not performed on Apollo 7, 8, or 9 (although Apollo 8 was a lunar flight, it did not performing a landing nor include a Lunar Module). Apollo 10, whilst only a practice for a landing, was required to perform the maneuver since it did carry a Lunar Module. Apollo 7 and 9 both partially performed the maneuever - the transposition part - which ultimately uncovered a flaw in design.[1]
[edit] References
[edit] See also
[edit] External links
