Spacelog Apollo 8

Steam pressure is coming up.

Roger, Bill.

Step 15.

Roger. Concur.

Very good.

EVAP TEMP's coming down.

Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. We concur.

Okay. Houston, keep a good eye on it.

Roger. We're watching.

Okay. Nice job on the malfunction procedures.

Roger, Bill. Thanks.

You, too.

Give us a call when you think we ought to stop the secondary boiler, Houston.

Apollo 8, Houston. Wilco.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

Roger. For information, we're passing over just to the side of the crater Langrenus at this time going into the Sea of Fertility.

Apollo 8, Houston. Roger.

Apollo 8, Houston. What does the ole moon look like from 60 miles? Over.

Okay, Houston. The moon is essentially gray, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish deep sand. We can see quite a bit of detail. The Sea of Fertility doesn't stand out as well here as it does back on earth. There's not as much contrast between that and the surrounding craters. The craters are all rounded off. There's quite a few of them; some of them are newer. Many of them look like—especially the round ones—look like hits by meteorites or projectiles of some sort. Langrenus is quite a huge crater; it's got a central cone to it. The walls of the crater are terraced, about six or seven different terraces on the way down.

Roger. Understand.

And coming up now, the Sea of Fertility are the old friends Messier and Pickering that I looked about so much on earth.

Roger.

And I can see the rays coming out of blaze Pickering. We're coming up now near our P-1 initial site which I'm going to try and see. Be advised the round window, the hatch window, is completely iced over; we can't use it; Bill and I are sharing the rendezvous window.

Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. Got any more information on those rays? Over.

Roger. The rays out of Pickering are quite faint from here; there are two different groups going to the left. They don't appear to have any depth to them at all, just rays coming out.

Roger.

They look like just changes in the color of the mare.

Bill, if you can tear yourself away from that window, we'd like you to turn off the secondary evaporator. Over.

Roger. Going OFF.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. You can leave that secondary pump on for just a few minutes. Over.

Stand by.

Roger.

Okay. Over to my right are the Pyrenees Mountains coming up, and we're just about over Messier and Pickering right now. Our first initial point is easily seen from our altitude. We're getting quite a bit of contrast as we appear—as we approach the terminator. The view appears to be good, no reflection of the sun back to our eyes; it appears that visibility at this particular spot is excellent. It's very easy to pick out our first initial point; and over this mountain chain, we can see the second initial point, the Triangular Mountain.

And we're coming upon the craters Colombo and Gutenberg. Very good detail visible. We can see the long parallel faults or grabens, and they run through the Mare material right into the highland material.

We're directly over our first initial point now for P-1. It's almost impossible to miss, very easy to pick out, and we can look right over into the second initial point.

Roger, Jim.

I can see very clearly the five crater star formation which we had on our lunar chart —

Roger.

— And right now, I'm trying to pick out visually P-1.

Roger, Jim. Bill, you can turn off the secondary EVAP pump now.

Houston, this is Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

Roger. How about giving us a system status, please?

Roger.

Okay. I've got P-1 in sight now, Houston.

Roger, Jim.

It's very easy to spot. You can see the entire rims of the craters from here with, of course, the white crescent on the far side where the sun is shining on it. The shadows are quite lengthy now. Maskelyne B (Marsh of Sleep) has quite a few shadows off of it, but it can be recognized. Just west of the Maskelyne B, we start going to the terminator. The terminator is actually quite sharp over the Pyrenees, and it's—I can't see anything in earthshine at this present time. Bill says that he can see things out the side window when he's not looking down on the sunshine on the moon.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. All systems are GO. We're evaluating the strip charts on your SPS burn, and we'll give you a readout on that shortly. Over.

Roger.

Well, we're just about over Maskelyne B (Marsh Of Sleep) now, and our target is just directly below us.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. If you want the recorder now, it's yours.

Roger. Thank you.

Apollo 8, Houston. MSFN tracking is comparing very well with your onboard NAV.

Roger.

Houston, for your information, we lost radio contact at the exact second you predicted.

Roger. We concur.

Are you sure you didn't turn off the transmitters at that time?

Honest Injun, we didn't.

While these other guys are looking at the moon, I want to make sure we have a good SPS. How about giving me that report when you can?

Sure will, Frank.

We want a GO for every REV please; otherwise, we'll burn in TEI 1 at your direction.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Are you eating?

Say again.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Are you eating dinner?

Negative. We'll have breakfast in a little while here.

Roger.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. When you go into the dark in about 7 or 8 minutes, I have some words for you on the filters for the wide-angle lens, for your TV camera. Over.

We are in the dark now.

Roger. Let me know when you are ready to copy.

Apollo 8, Houston. Any words on earthshine? Over.

Earthshine is about as expected, Houston. Not as much detail, of course, as in the sunlight, but you can see the large craters quite distinctly, and you can see the albedo contacts quite distinctly. And, also, the—there's a good three-dimensional view of the rims of the larger craters.

Roger, Bill.

I think our high-speed film will be able to pick some of this stuff up quite well.

Go ahead with your information on the filter, Houston.

Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. We recommend you use a wide-angle lens on this particular TV run. You can use a telephoto lens with the same setup as yesterday's TV show. However, we recommend a wide-angle lens. Step number 1, tape the single red filter to the red filter on the red/blue 0 filter holder; do it so that the filter slide still functions. Over.

Go ahead.

Roger. Step number 2, attach the filter holder to the lens with the tape on the top and bottom; do this with the slide forward. Over.

Go ahead.

Roger. Then at the end of your second REV TV pass, or on request from here, we would like you to remove that red filter from the holder and transmit briefly with it that way, then slide it over the blue side for your final transmission. Over.

We got you.

Okay, Frank.

Houston, Apollo 8. Standing by to record TEI 1 and TEI 2.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Your TEI 1 and TEI 2 PAD's you received last pass are still good. Using these PAD's, your next midcourse will be less than 20 feet per second. Over.

Roger. Understand.

Apollo 8, Houston. We have all the SPS experts looking at your data now. The preliminary look is very good, and we will give you some final words later.

Roger. We could feel the chug when we threw in BANK B, not a chug, but we could feel additional thrust.

Roger. Copy.

Houston, be advised on this red/blue filter technique on the TV. You cannot slide the two filters out of the way with them taped onto the TV camera; so I suggest we do red, blue, and then take them off.

Roger. We concur, but make sure the little red filter is taped over the big one. Over.

Alright, you don't want the red fil—you want the blue by itself. Is that correct?

That's affirmative, Bill.

Bill, we'd like you to use the double red filter for the first transmission. Over.

Roger. It worked.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.