Spacelog Apollo 8

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston.

Just checking in with you after about a 45 minute quiet break. Say, we notice on your high-gain antenna, if you like, you can get a little bit more use out of it by switching to it from OMNI when you have a yaw angle of 90 degrees and a pitch angle of minus 45 degrees. We are noticing that you are staying an extra 10 minutes on the OMNI, which is fine; but you could get more use out of the high gain if you use that procedure. Over.

Okay, thank you. It's a lot simpler for us, as long as the OMNI isn't working. We've got it all wrapped up here on the eight ball with the roll … pointing to an OMNI number. We just switch it; it makes it a lot easier, if it is not bothering you.

Okay. That is fine. We are presently happy with the COMM, Frank. We are just trying to be helpful.

Thank you very much. It's unusual that Mike Collins tries to be helpful, but nevertheless, thank you very much.

Good; aerospace first, Frank.

Say hello to Howard Tindall for us, will you? His procedure seemed to be working.

Sure will.

I hope that you have got everybody looking this thing over very carefully. One thing we want is a perfect spacecraft before we consider the LOI burn.

Apollo 8, Houston. We concur, and we are doing that.

Okay.

Houston, Apollo 8. The water is in the process of being chlorinated at this time.

Roger. Understand you're chlorinating the water at this time.

Roger.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

At your convenience, we would like the readout of your service module RCS propellant quantities. We haven't gotten one of those so far this flight.

Alright. Stand by. We are just about to—need to change the antenna. I'll give them to you.

Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

Go ahead, Apollo 8.

Okay. A, service module A, you ready?

Ready to copy.

The temperature is about 111, the helium pressure—Do you just want the quantity, or do you want the whole works?

Well, if you are reading, give us the whole works.

Okay. The helium pressure is about 37, the manifold is 182, and the quantity is reading 80. B has got the temperature about 112, the helium pressure about 36.5, the fuel pressure 180, and the quantity about 77. C has got the temperature of 140—incidentally, those other temperatures should have been 120 instead of 110; I was looking at the wrong calibration here. The pressure is 37, the manifold pressure is about 182, and the quantity is 80. Temperature on D is 115, pressure is 37, the manifold pressure is 181, and the quantity is about 83.

Roger, Frank. I read you loud and clear. On the temperatures, quad A and B should both be 120. Roger.

Roger.

Thank you.

I will trade all of that good information for a readout of the actual quantities. If you will give us a minute, we will go ahead and plot them up, Mike.

Roger. We will stand by until we get them for you.

Apollo 8, Houston. I have your service module RCS quantities available. Over.

Roger. We are ready to copy at 50 hours 16 minutes.

Okay. I have them both in percent and pounds; I'll give you both numbers. The pounds are slightly more accurate for plotting on your chart. Quad A 72 percent, 219 pounds; quad B 76 percent, 233 pounds; quad C 70 —

Take it a little slower, Mike; whoa, whoa, whoa whoa.

Okay.

Slow up. We just got quad A plotted. They are on separate charts.

Okay.

Okay for quad B.

Quad B 76 percent, 233 pounds.

Okay. Quad C.

Seventy-six percent, 231 pounds.

Quad D.

Seventy-six percent, 229 pounds.

Okay.

Would you give us the O₂ and H₂ as long as we are plotting?

Roger. Stand by for O₂ and H₂.

Apollo 8, Houston. We have got those numbers in a percent. We are going to switch them over to pounds, and in the meantime, we are going to be changing our ground antenna in about another 2-1/2 minutes. You can expect a COMM glitch. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. I have your oxygen and hydrogen quantities when you are ready to copy.

Ready.

Oxygen tank number 1 270 pounds, 270; oxygen tank 2 267, 267 pounds. Over.

Roger. Thank you.

Roger. On the hydrogen, hydrogen tank 1 19.7; hydrogen tank 2 20.1. Over.

Understand; 19.7 and 20.1.

Roger. You are a little bit low on the line on your graph due to the fact that they started out low.

Houston, how do you read? Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Loud and clear. How me? Over.

Loud and clear. I was just checking. Over.

Roger.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

Roger, Frank. Your 51-hour update of block data will be omitted. The block data you have on board is satisfactory. Over.

Understand. The block data we have aboard is satisfactory.

Right. That's for the flyby and pericynthian plus 2 hour block update. We would like also to get a current up-to-date report on all your windows. We are trying to make some alternate plans for using the center hatch window when you are in lunar orbit, and we would like to make sure we understand exactly what the condition of all five windows is. Over.

Okay. Number—window number 1 and number 5 are clouded, but they may be partially useful. The hatch window is very badly clouded. Windows number 2 and 4 are good.

Okay. Understand the hatch window is unusable, 1 and 5 are partially usable, and the rendezvous windows are both good.

Right.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger, Frank. We would like to ask you about the next few hours in the flight plan. We are inclined to let Jim go ahead and sleep and to slip the P23 that occurs at 52:15. On the other hand, we would think it would probably be a good idea if he returned more to the normal sleep rest cycle; and if you got him up nominally to do the 52:15 work, then perhaps he would be ready to go back to sleep at about 61 hours, when he nominally is expected to do so.

Okay. He's up now, eating. We are planning to go to normal procedures on the flight plan.

Okay. That—that's fine then. If—you know, there is no—it's not time critical that P23 be done at 52:15, but if you get up to do it then, that's just fine.

Well, we thought we might give it a try.

Roger.

This sleep cycle here is—we're just going to have to real time it, I guess. I'm supposed to be asleep right now but, obviously—or I'm supposed to go to sleep here shortly, but I just got up. We are going to have to play this by ear.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Go ahead, Apollo 8.

Are the stars in the flight plan proper for this next exercise of P23?

We would like to talk to Jim about it when he is ready to copy.

He's ready.

Okay.

Good morning, Mike. How are you doing?

Fine, fine, Jim. You are sounding good this morning. We would like to give you a little rundown on these stars. As you can see in the flight plan, we've got you scheduled for a number 33, Antares, number 34, Atria, and number 40, old Altair. Now, the first of those, Antares, is in plane; the second two are out of plane. As you know, we would like to get a mixture of the in and the out of plane. Antares, number 33, is close to the sun, and we expect that you are going to have difficulty getting these measurements on number 33. We would like very much for you to try, but if you are unable to do number 33, then we propose that you use number 42, which is Peacock, to the lunar far horizon. We realize Peacock isn't the greatest one available—greatest star in the sky—but it's about the only one available. Over.

Roger. Understand. I'll—we will go to Antares first and try it. You know, we tried it last time, but I got one set before I lost the moon completely in the white haze. I'll give it another try, and if it doesn't work out, we will go to Peacock and give it -

That—that is affirmative, Jim, and if neither Antares nor Peacock work, well then, we just will be happy to go with Atria and with Altair. We would like them to increase the number of sets and do three on Atria, that is, number 34, and two on Altair, number 40; but that is only in the event that you can get neither Antares nor Peacock.

Apollo 8, Houston. Did you copy?

Roger. This is 8. Copied. We'll increase the number 34 to three and the number set of 40 to two if we cannot get 33 or 42.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. We're getting low bit rate from you, rather than high, and on this P23 work, for us to get our data, you're going to have to delay the DSKY display about 10 seconds when it comes up with NOUN—NOUN 87. Over.

Roger.

Apollo 8, Houston. We are past that 87 display now. Did you write down what your trunnion bias was?