Here is a transcript of the NASA film "Mission to Fra Mauro" of Apollo 14. I've 
tried to be as faithful as possible to the original, so please forgive me if 
I've made any errors. Anything in square brackets are my comments. Anything in 
round brackets is text appearing on the screen, in double quotes is voice from 
astronauts, mission control and the scientists, and the rest is the narrator. I 
have not attempted to identify who the speakers are.

Steven S. Pietrobon, Small World Communications, 6 First Avenue
Payneham South SA 5070, Australia           fax +61 8 7117 1416
steven@sworld.com.au                  http://www.sworld.com.au/


(NASA Seal)

May fifth, 1961, Freedom 7. United States took the first small step on its
journey to the Moon. America's first man in space, Alan Shepard, rode the
Mercury capsule. Lifted to 116 miles [187 km] by the Redstone rocket's 78,000
pounds [347 kN] of thrust. Ten years later, the launch vehicle is Saturn V,
with a thrust of seven and a half million pounds [33,400 kN]. On January thirty
first, 1971, the crew of Apollo 14 would leave Earth on their mission to the
Moon. The man who began our first decade of manned spaceflight, would command
the mission that would close that decade, Alan Shepard. With him, Stuart Roosa,
who would orbit the Moon alone while Shepard and Edgar Mitchell explored its
surface. Their destination, a rugged area of Lunar highlands, called Fra Mauro.
Apollo 13, aborted as it neared the Moon, had been unable to land at this site.
Now we were trying again. But why Fra Mauro?

(Dr. Robbin Brett) [with an Australian/American accent] "What happened to the 
Moon during its first billion years? A period erased on Earth. How do the Earth 
and Moon differ in overall composition? By visiting Fra Mauro we hope to sample 
the very bedrock of the Moon, material very different from that so far 
collected. Material perhaps dating back to the beginning of the Solar System."

(Dr. Paul Gast) "How can you think of the soil being 4.5 billion years old,
when igneous rocks, which presumably underly are, are only 3.5 or 3.7 billion
years old?"

(Dr. James Arnold) "This science proposal will be dramatically refuted or
confirmed at err, at the Apollo 14 mission. When they actually visit Fra 
Mauro."

(Dr. Charles Sonett) "Most of the activity is associated with one place on the
Moon, and we have tentatively located that place in or near the crater Fra
Mauro."

(APOLLO 14, mission to FRA MAURO)

Everything went smoothly during Earth orbit, and for the burn that sent Apollo
14 toward the Moon. Then Stuart Roosa moved the Command Module Kitty Hawk to a
docking with the Lunar Module Antares, still attached to the third stage of the
booster.

"We docked." "We're unable to get a capture."

Twice they tried. Three times.

"OK Houston. I hit it pretty good and held it four seconds on contact and we 
did not latch." "Roger. We're seeing it all on TV here." "Well, we better back 
off here and ahh, think about this one Houston."

As the astronauts waited, an identical docking probe was brought into Mission
Control. This probe on the Command Module fits into a funnel-like device on the
Lunar Module, called the drogue. Tiny catches on the probe's point engage the
drogue. It was these capture latches that were not holding. In space, the
astronauts tried a fourth time. And a fifth.

"No latch." "No no, no latch." "Roger."

In space, on Earth, they searched for a solution. Then, on the sixth try...

"I believe we have a hard dock, Houston." [Hoops and whistling from Mission
Control]

As they coasted to the Moon, the crew brought the probe inside the spacecraft
for examination. On Earth, the probe was tested, and re-tested. For we had to
be sure that the probe would work for the most critical docking, as Shepard and
Mitchell returned from the Lunar surface. On February fourth, Apollo 14 went
into orbit around the Moon.

"Ohh its something. A really wild place up here."

As Apollo 14 was on its first orbit, the third stage of the booster smashed 
into the Moon, at its planned target point.

(                        SITE
  SIVB \  04/07/40/55.42  HAW
 IMPACT > 04/07/40/55.44  CRO
  TIME /  04/07/40/55.44  HSK
      TIME OF LOS
          04/07/40/55.42  SOS
 FORMAT 1   PSE   ALSEP 1     )

Its impact picked up by the seisometer left by Apollo 12. The structure of the
Moon's interior is one of the major mysteries of Lunar science. Now, another
piece was added that could help solve the puzzle. Later that day, Shepard and
Mitchell climbed into the Lunar Module Antares and undocked prior to descent.

"And we're free." "Beautiful. Very Good."

But as they checked out the Lunar Module, a problem appeared. An erroneous 
abort was being signalled onboard Antares and in Mission Control.

(  -------------
   | GY0050X-1 |
   | ABORT CMD | [dark]
   -------------
   | 931C30010 |
   | ABORT CMD | [lit up]
   -------------          )

Should this occur during the landing burn, Antares would abort automatically
and the landing would be off. The Mission Control team had two hours. The time
of one Lunar orbit, to find a solution. Flight Controller Dick Thorson 
diagnosed the trouble as a loose particle in the abort button. The burden then
came to rest on the shoulders of computer programmer Donald Eisles. Working
against time at MIT and Cambridge, Massachussetts, he reprogrammed the Lunar
Module computer to ignore the false signal. This new program was then checked
out in a simulator at Cape Kennedy. As Antares came into contact with Earth
again, the instructions were sent up to the crew.

"Antares, Houston. The computer's up." "Thankyou Houston. You did a nice job
down there." "That was beautiful."

Less then ten miles [16 km] above the Lunar surface, Shepard and Mitchell swept 
across the landing site.

"And Antares, Houston. You're go for Fra Mauro." "Its a beautiful day in the 
land of Fra Mauro."

Then, another problem. The landing radar, which could tell them their altitude
above the Lunar surface.

"Abort radar. Abort radar." "Antares, Houston. We'd like you to cycle the
landing radar breaker." "OK. Its cycled." "OK. We'd like to reset the radar."
"Reseting. Whoa, great. Great, ohh, wonderful." "OK. Monitor descent fuel."
"I'm starting the camera." "Ten seconds to go." "Hey, there's pitchover." 
"Right on the money." "And there it is." "Right on the money." "Absolutely
right on the money." "Its beautiful." "Right out the window, just like the
simulations." "Outstanding." "Antares, Houston. You're go for landing."

Cone crater. A major objective of this mission to Fra Mauro. A hole blasted in
the Moon's surface eon's ago. That could provide a scientific clue to history
of the Moon, the Earth, and the Solar System.

"Right on schedule. Right on schedule now. Going by Cone Crater right outside
to my right."

(Dr. Robbin Brett) "We think that the Fra Mauro area was formed from material
thrown out by the impact that created the Imbrium basin to the North. If this
is the case, we could get samples torn out from as deep as sixty miles [100 km]
from the Lunar crust. All in all, the Fra Mauro material should contain a great
deal of new information about the early history of the Moon and thus help us to
better understand the formation of our own Earth."

"Hand hold." "OK." "OK. I think there are a few places here that are good."
"200 feet [61 m]." "That look's good." "Five feet per second [1.5 m/s]." "That
look's good." "How 'bout over here?" "Nine percent fuel. It looks great." "OK.
It look's like you're going right over the middle of the Triplets." "170 feet
[52 m] altitude, 2 feet per second [0.6 m/s] down, eight percent fuel. You're 
looking good." "OK. You can move on forward. You're just barely crossing the
left Triplet. Barely crossing the left Triplet. You can land over here. There's
some dust Al. You're on your own." "Doing it now. Doing it now." "OK. There's
good dust. Going from there. Looking great." "OK." "Sixty seconds." "Forty feet
[12 m], three feet per second [0.9 m/s]. Thirty [9 m], three feet per second
[0.9 m/s]. Looking great. Twenty feet [6 m]. Ten [3 m]. Three feet per second
[0.9 m/s]. Contact Al!" "Full stop. Auto, auto." "We're on the surface!" "OK,
we made a good landing!" [whooping from Mission Control] "Roger, Antares."

Five and a half hours later, Shepard left the Lunar Module to begin the first 
of two explorations.

"Starting down the ladder." "Roger."

Ten years later. One hundred fourteen hours, twenty two minutes after leaving
Earth, Alan Shepard stepped onto the Moon.

"It looks like you're about on the bottom step, and on the surface. How's that
for an old man." "OK. You're right. Al is on the surface and its been a long
way, but we're here."

Four minutes later, he was joined by Ed Mitchell.

"The last one is a long one."

Following the tradition of two previous missions, Shepard and Mitchell planted
the flag in the Lunar soil.

"How's that Roose. Look OK? "Oh yeah. I think its set"

The next job was to load the MET, a rickshaw like wagon the astronauts would 
use to transport their tools of exploration and collected samples.

"One of the big factors in Lunar exploration is mobility. In Apollo 14 we had
the MET, which let us move further afield than the previous two missions. In
future missions we will use the Lunar Rover, a sort of Moon going dune buggy.
This mobility will mean less time spent in getting from here to there and more
time collecting scientific data."

"OK. I'm gonna stop here and rest for, for a minute Al. This darn thing is a 
lot heavier than I expected."

Shepard pulled the MET, while Mitchell carried the bar-bell shaped package
containing an automatic scientific station they would assemble. A station
designed to continue broadcasting data to Earth for a year after men departed
Fra Mauro.

"OK Houston. We're proceeding over a very fine regolith we described before."
"That was, that's a deep hole." "Going down in, in a depression." "Deeper. A
very deep depression compared to what it looked like." "Ahh, roger. You're ahh,
visible from ohh, about ahh, the armpits up right now." "Nothing like being
up to your armpits in Lunar dust!"

Finding a suitable site to place the scientific instruments was the next order
of business. Shepard and Mitchell now began setting up the automated scientific
laboratory. A small nuclear generator to power the array. The central station
to transmit data to Earth. A seisometer to detect and measure activity on and
within the Moon. A series of three experiments to measure charged particles
near the Lunar surface. An independent experiment to reflect laser beams from
Earth, enabling extremely precise measurements of such things as Earth-to-Moon
distance, the wobble of the Earth's axis, continental drift, and shifts of the
Earth's crust. And a morter, to be fired by a signal from Earth sometime within
the next year. The impact of its charges would be picked up by Apollo 14's
seisometer. As a final exercise, Mitchell used a thumper. A device to explode
a series of controlled shotgun-like charges. The vibrations from these 
detonations we're picked up by a series of instruments previously deployed.
With the instruments set up and operating, they headed back towards Antares,
pausing on the way to collect samples. They loaded their 44 pounds [20 kg] of
Lunar material aboard the Lunar Module and after four hours and fifty minutes
on the surface, climbed back into Antares. As Shepard and Mitchell rested,
Stuart Roosa continued his work from Lunar orbit. His photographs would have
meaning not only to the scientific community, but would have direct bearing on
the planning for coming missions.

"Hey it looks to be up. Its a sunny day again." "Yeah. Its a beautiful day here
at Fra Mauro base."

Twelve hours, forty minutes later, Shepard and Mitchell began their second
exploration period. After loading the Lunar rickshaw, Mitchell began the 
journey to Cone Crater. Shepard adjusted the television camera, then hurried to
join his partner.

"OK Houston. We're headed just about toward the spur of Cone Crater." "OK. 
Point A, Al is right in the point in the valley. Right beyond over here." "OK.
This is probably pretty good."

Point A, the first stop on the trip to Cone. Here they would collect and 
document samples, measure the local magnetic field, and take core tube samples
from beneath the surface layer.

"This is a good place for A. They have an appearance here quite often like
raindrops ahh, a very few raindrops have splattered the surface."

The quality of the scientific description by the astronauts could be termed
only by Earth based scientists only as excellent. But now, Shepard and Mitchell
pushed on. After a brief stop at a second survey site, they began their assault
on Cone Crater. A climb not only toward the summit of a Lunar mountain, but 
back through time.

"A large crater acts in many respects like a drill. Throwing out material from
deep beneath the surface. This material should be very different from any we've
collected before. Perhaps dating back to the origins of the Moon and even the
Solar System."

"And we're starting uphill now. We're fairly gentle at this point, but its
definitely uphill." "Why don't we pullup beside this big crater?" "OK." "Take a
break, get the map. See if we can find out exactly where we are."

The map they were using had been made from photography from Lunar orbit. The
summits, craters, ridges, and boulders took on a new appearance when seen from
the surface.

"The old LM looks like it got a flat over there, the way its leaning." "Ahh.
Go go to it, the LM?" "Yeah, just one second Bill." "Pretty for a wild look.
We're having a lot of fun." "And the grade is getting pretty steep." 
[Astronaut's heartbeat] "I've got the back of the MET now, we're carrying it
up. I think its heaps easier." "Boy, I tell ya, we're really gonna get a
panorama, we're gonna get a tremendous amount of area, just about ready. 
Anyway, not quite to the rim." "The rocks, boulders, getting more numerous. 
We're at the top here." [breathing] "OK, now that's probably the rim of the 
Cone over there. And ahh, we're about err, over two hours out." [breathing]
"That's at least err, thirty minutes up there." "Its gonna take longer than we
expected."

Now they were working against time, against the oxygen and water left in their
backpacks, against the alien terrain. Top a ridge, thinking its the rim of the
crater, and there's another ridge ahead of them.

"I don't think we'll have time to go up there." [breathing] "Oh, let's give it
a whirl. Gee whiz, we can't err, stop now, looking into Cone Crater." "OK. 
We'll press on a little further Houston and ahh, keep your eye on the time."
"OK, and err, right now we have a err, thirty minute err, extension." "Looks
like we'll be approaching the perimeter very shortly." [breathing] "OK err, we
better reconnoiter here. I don't see a crater yet." "I agree."

Standing in a boulder field surrounded by rocks 10 to 12 feet [3.0 to 3.7 m]
long, the astronauts made their most difficult decision. With the concurrence
of Mission Control, they stopped their climb, less than 150 feet [46 m] from
the edge, to begin the more important job of collecting samples.

"The crew had no way of realising they were so close. It was a week after the 
mission before we determined this by photographic analysis."

While they could overcome the terrain, they could not beat the steady drain of
oxygen from their backpacks. In the terms of scientific meaning, the decision
not to go to the rim meant little. In human terms, a great disappointment.

[Note on map of Cone Crater]
(Make all effort to sample white powder or collect chip at base of boulder ...
for brown ... boulder)

"One of these boulders Freddo is ahh, broken open. A really brown boulder's on
the outside and the interface that's broken is white. And there's another one,
that's most of it is white. There a, right in the same area."

"The white rock is of different composition to the Apollo 11 and 12 rocks. In
fact, the chemistry of all the rocks that had been looked at so far is 
different to those rocks. Potassium and Uranium are ten times higher which are
the sort of values we might expect if the Fra Mauro rocks represent the ancient
Lunar crust. Which of course is what we're all hoping."

Again it was time. Time to head back to the Lunar Module.

"Approaching the LM now. Coming into Fra Mauro base."

After a quick side trip to check on the science stations, they loaded the Lunar
Module with samples and data and stepped off the Lunar surface. The second
expedition had lasted four hours and thirty five minutes. A total exploration
of a record nine and one half hours. Thirty three and a half hours after they
landed, Alan Shepard and Edgar Mitchell lifted off in the silent vacuum of the
Moon.

"Ascent engine is on. Six, five, four," "Go." "three, two, one, zero, ignition.
We have ignition." "What a liftoff." "And liftoff." "Roger, ignition." "Ooh.
Pitch over." "Pitch over. Ten seconds." "Roger." "Yeah baby." "Pitch over is
good." "Really looks good Houston." "Roger, you're looking good from down here
Alan." "Coming up on one minute."

Half an hour later, Stuart Roosa watched their progress from Kitty Hawk.

"What are you doing way down there oh fearless one?" "You've lost a little 
weight since the last time I saw you." "Ahh Houston, Antares is station keeping
at about a hundred feet [30 m], closing in a little more for the visual of the
Command Module and Service Module." "OK, ahh, shall do a loop, leader." "OK.
Make it smooth." "And around we go." "Show us a little style." "Ahh you look
good." "There I was, at 240,000 [73 km] coming over the top." "Like a home
away from home." "Would you believe 360,000 [110 km]?" "Yeah." "Its nearly up,
its really a fairly smooth loop, we're sitting err, at 70 feet [21 m]. Watching
him go around. He looks very clean."

The inspection complete, Antares and Kitty Hawk move together for docking.

"Apollo 14, this is Houston. You're go for the docking." "Roger, we gotcha."
"OK, we're captured." "And we got a hard dock." "A big sigh of relief being
breathed around here."

They transferred the gear from Antares to Kitty Hawk, buttoned up the tunnel,
then jettisoned the Lunar Module. It would crash into the Moon at a pre-
determined spot. Its impact picked by their seisometer, and the seisometer left
by Apollo 12, over a year earlier. A 149 hours after they left Earth, they
performed the burn that broke them out of Lunar orbit. During the coast to 
Earth, there would be time to catch up on sleep, relax, and do all the little
things left undone. And there was one more item. A series of scientific
demonstrations in zero gravity. Demonstrations impossible to reproduce on 
Earth. These trials looked at basic physical properties of matter in zero
gravity. Studies that could lead eventually to new materials manufactured in
space for use on Earth. On February ninth, 1971, nine days after they left
Earth, the crew of Apollo 14 hit the atmosphere of their planet at a speed of
over 24,000 miles per hour [10,700 m/s]. They hurlted toward Earth, a meteor,
heading home. On board, 95 pounds [43.1 kg] of the Moon.

(Dr. Charles Sonett) "Extremely important that relates to the question of why
we, why we're fooling around, around with the Moon. Its really that the, the 
imprint of history, the Solar System history on the Earth-Moon system, is 
centered on the Moon, for the first billion years."

(Dr. Gerald Wasserburg) "What we hope to gain is, we've got a window right now,
between T equals zero at the beginning of the Solar System and when the Earth 
so totally messed up itself, that we can't look at it anymore. We'd like to
look in there, and that window is on the Moon."

(Dr. Robin Brett) "Apollo 14 has already had a very big scientific impact, and
we still have three missions left. They will be heading into even more rugged
and more interesting areas of the Moon. Beginning with Apollo 15, the Lunar
Rover will let us range further afield and collect more, and more varied
scientific samples and information. The study of the Moon, and how for instance
elements and minerals are distributed in its crust will enable us to learn
more about the process of crust formation on Earth. Leading to a better 
understanding of the way that certain elements concentrate in the crust. Will
we have had enough missions to the Moon by the end of the Apollo program?
Probably not, you can never have enough knowledge, but at least its an 
excellent beginning."

(writer/producer              DON WISEMAN)
(editor                       BRIAN D. BEASLEY)
(narrator                     JOHN FLYNN)
(production manager           WILLIAM W. ROBBINS
 production supervisor, NASA  KENNETH GRIMM)
(produced by A-V Corporation  Houston, Texas)
(NASA seal  HQ-211)