Editing Apollo 14 (section)

=== Launch and flight to lunar orbit ===
Apollo 14 launched from Launch Complex 39-A at KSC at 4:03:02&nbsp;pm (21:03:02 UTC), January 31, 1971.<ref name = "mission overview" /> This followed a launch delay due to weather of 40 minutes and 2 seconds; the first such delay in the Apollo program. The original planned time, 3:23&nbsp;pm, was at the very start of the launch window of just under four hours; had Apollo 14 not launched during it, it could not have departed until March. Apollo 12 had launched during poor weather and twice been struck by lightning, as a result of which the rules had been tightened. Among those present to watch the launch were U.S. Vice President [[Spiro T. Agnew]] and the [[Prince of Spain]], the future King [[Juan Carlos I]].<ref name = "mission overview" /><ref name = "journal launch" /> The mission would take a faster trajectory to the Moon than planned, and thus make up the time in flight. Because it had, just over two days after launch, the mission timers would be put ahead by 40 minutes and 3 seconds so that later events would take place at the times scheduled in the flight plan.<ref name = "journal ground elapsed time">{{cite web|work=Apollo Lunar Flight Journal|url=https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap14fj/08_day03_get_update.html|title=Day 3: Ground Elapsed Time update|date=February 17, 2017|access-date=August 1, 2020|archive-date=October 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201027154127/https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap14fj/08_day03_get_update.html|url-status=dead}}</ref>

After the vehicle reached orbit, the [[S-IVB]] third stage shut down, and the astronauts performed checks of the spacecraft before restarting the stage for translunar injection (TLI), the burn that placed the vehicle on course for the Moon. After TLI, the CSM separated from the S-IVB, and Roosa performed the transposition maneuver, turning it around in order to dock with the LM before the entire spacecraft separated from the stage. Roosa, who had practiced the maneuver many times, hoped to break the record for the least amount of propellant used in docking. But when he gently brought the modules together, the docking mechanism would not activate. He made several attempts over the next two hours, as mission controllers huddled and sent advice. If the LM could not be extracted from its place on the S-IVB, no lunar landing could take place, and with consecutive failures, the Apollo program might end.{{sfn|Moseley 2011|pp=145–147}} Mission Control proposed that they try it again with the docking probe retracted, hoping the contact would trigger the latches. This worked, and within an hour the joined spacecraft had separated from the S-IVB.{{sfn|Chaikin 1995|p=354}} The stage was set on a course to impact the Moon, which it did just over three days later, causing the Apollo 12 seismometer to register vibrations for over three hours.{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=398}}

The crew settled in for its voyage to Fra Mauro. At 60:30 Ground Elapsed Time, Shepard and Mitchell entered the LM to check its systems; while there they photographed a wastewater dump from the CSM, part of a particle contamination study in preparation for [[Skylab]].{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=398}} Two midcourse corrections were performed on the translunar coast, with one burn lasting 10.19 seconds and one lasting 0.65 seconds.{{sfn|Orloff & Harland 2006|p=399}}