Apollo 9: "We will be fine"

[Mad Bad Rabbit]

[FONT=Courier, Monospaced]...even though NASA say, "Way out of line!"

[/FONT][FONT=Courier, Monospaced]March 13th, 1969.[/FONT]
[FONT=Courier, Monospaced]Holguin Province, Cuba.[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier, Monospaced]Due to problems with the de-orbit burn, Apollo 9 doesn't splash-down in the desired target area (the open Atlantic north of Puerto Rico). Instead, they make a rather rough landing, approximately 600 nm off course, in a densely forested area of Holguin Province, Cuba.[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier, Monospaced]Alas, Cuba is not a signatory party to the UN's "Agreement on the Rescue of Astronauts, the Return of Astronauts and the Return of Objects Launched into Outer Space"; and has no diplomatic relations with the United States. Frankly, they don't much like Uncle Sam and aren't in any big hurry to return the crew or capsule (lucky for the crew, Castro is likely to appreciate the propaganda value from having them treated decently and showing them unharmed on TV, like the Soviets did with that Gary Powers guy).[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier, Monospaced]So, what concessions might Castro be able to extract from the United States for the safe return of their astronauts?[/FONT]

[FONT=Courier, Monospaced] Is it valid to assume the Nixon Administration stays chill, or
does he order a high-risk rescue mission?
[/FONT]

 

[simonbp]

Cuba is a really small target, and is nearly antipodal to the target landing spot, so probability of a landing there is next to nil. Plus, Apollo had a guided reentry system with a considerable cross-range, so even if the de-orbit burn was atrociously wrong, the crew could manually guide the vehicle to either the Florida coast or the open Caribbean.

IIRC, the biggest landing manned error was a Gemini that landed in the South China Sea. An Apollo returning from a lunar mission (Apollo 9 was earth-orbital mission, but a lunar mission would have a considerably larger landing ellipse) that landed in, say, China or Mongolia may be interesting...

Simon