entry, the crew were informed that their course was  shallowing. This was stated to be due to them being underweight  because they did not have the lunar samples that would have been  gathered if they had landed on the Moon. However at this point they  still had with them the entire Lunar Module, which would normally  have been left behind before the return from lunar orbit, so the  total mass returning to Earth at that time was considerably more,  not less, than planned.