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THE WEIRD
DOCKING&UNDOCKING
OF THE LEM







In the "APOLLO OPERATIONS HANDBOOK" part of the Apollo journal, there is a chapter about "Docking and Transfer" which describes the docking&undocking operations.
Given the impressing number of incoherences I have already found in the journal, I figured it was worth having a serious look in this chapter, especially since I immediately spotted something which was looking abnormal.
I here show the conclusions of my study














These three pictures describe the way the CSM separates from the third stage of the rocket and docks to the LEM.





The lateral reactor I circled in red is shown as firing; but this reactor makes the CSM turn around the axis I represented in red.





But, given the orientation of the CSM, it's not around this axis that the CSM should turn, but around the axis I represented in green...but to make the CSM turn around this axis, it's the lateral reactor I circled in green which should be firing instead!





The lateral reactor which is shown firing is thence incoherent, it's the wrong reactor which is firing!










This photo shows the CSM extracting the LEM from the third stage.






But, for the CSM to extract the LEM from the third stage, the CSM should fire its lateral reactors, and we don't see them firing on this picture.






This is what they normally should have shown us.










This photo shows the couple CSM/LEM during the sealing of the LEM before the undocking operation.





I have circled in red two sets of lateral reactors we can see on the LEM.
We can see that one of them is largely oversized relatively to the other one (or it is the other one which is undersized relatively to the first one).
And it's not because the first one is much closer to the point of view from which this view is represented, their respective distance to this point of view is not very different.











This picture represents the undocking of the LEM from the CSM before departing for the moon.





A detail has attracted my eye; I have circled it in red; I could not find it on any description of the LEM.











This picture shows the ascent stage of the LEM leaving the moon to go back to the CSM.






There is a detail of the ascent stage of the LEM (I have circled in red) which is abnormal and should not be here.










This picture represents the LEM as it docks to the CSM after returning back from the moon.






There is a detail of the LEM (I have circled in red) which looks obviously abnormal.






This stereoscopic view shows the LEM of this picture (on the left) compared with the theoretical appearance of it (on the right).
I have circled in red the part which is obviously abnormal on the LEM docking to the CSM.











This picture shows the LEM leaving the CSM before being abandoned in space.






We can see that the LEM is still in the lengthwise direction of the CSM, which means that the CSM has not turned yet.
But we can also see that the LEM is seen in oblique, which means that it has turned since it has left the CSM.
Yet, the LEM should not turn, because it is now unoccupied, and there is nobody to fire its lateral reactors; thence it should keep the same orientation since it left the CSM, and it should not have turned.












This picture shows the CSM firing its main reactor to start its journey back to the earth.






The smoke that we can see behind the CSM's reactor is abnormal, there's no way we could see such a smoke in the void of space; only in the earth's atmosphere it could happen.