Spacelog Apollo 8

The next voice you hear will be that of the smiling Irishman.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

Good morning, James.

Oh, it's Michael Collins, is it? Good morning to you.

Righto. And we're looking at your pitch CDU readout down here and looks to us like you are about 25 degrees off the 180 for your PTC, and we were just wondering how come?

We've been looking at that, too. It keeps wandering off in pitch for some reason more than yaw. I was just about ready to go back to it again. I had to go back one time, and I was just seeing how far she would drift. I thought it would drift out a ways and come back by itself, but it is not doing it.

Okay.

Houston, Apollo 8. We're in the process of doing the trunnion bias check; then we will go to P23.

Roger. Thank you, Frank.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

We like to have the PTC attitude to comply with P23 requirement.

Roger, Frank. Stand by.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Any time you want to start on those P23's is just fine.

Okay. I was just checking. I just wanted to know how our thermal control was going before we left.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Your temperatures are looking good, Frank. There is still a differential temperature between quads, but nothing that would cause us in the slightest to worry about doing P23.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

Roger, Jim. We've been looking at these stars that we gave you this time for P23. It looks like the second star, number 11, has a trunnion angle right out to the limit, about 49.7 degrees. And we're thinking it might be a good idea to switch you over to star 1, which has a much smaller trunnion angle. What do you think? Star 1 is Alpheratz.

Fine with me; I would just as soon take star 1.

Okay. That will be then in place of star 11, star 1, and in place of lunar far horizon, lunar near horizon; and it remains two sets. Over.

Roger. Star 1, lunar near horizon, two sets.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. Fine. Old golden fingers there is getting so swift we missed some marks on the downlink. I wonder—if you hand recorded them, could you read us your three marks—trunnion angles, your three trunnion angles on star 2 and the last four trunnion angles on star 1. Over.

Do you read me still, Mike?

Stand by. We're not reading you good enough, so we'll wait until you get a better OMNI.

That ought to be a good one.

That is a good one. That's loud and clear.

Okay. Star 2 trunnion angle, first one 05245, second one 05243, next one 05241; last 4 trunnion angles 04133, 04133, 04132, 04132.

Thank you kindly.

Can you give me some idea on the updates from the midcourse that we might need, and all that good stuff, Mike?

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Mike.

Okay. We're predicting at the nominal time of your next midcourse, which is entry interface minus 2 hours—we're predicting 1.4 foot per second burn which changes your gamma at entry interface by a tenth of a degree. Right now with no further maneuvers, your gamma is minus 6.39 degrees, and we're going to steepen it up very slightly to hit the center of the target line, and it will be after the maneuver minus 6.51. Over.

Very good.

Anything else you want like that?

No. I just wondered—we hadn't heard whether we were going to do it or not and so on.

Yes. We'll be sending the PAD data up to you in about another 2 hours, Frank; about 132 hours GET.

Okay. We—this will be the last set of star sightings we do now nominally, and even if we lose COMM, we'll just come on in with what we got.

Okay, Frank.

Incidentally, that COMM has been fantastic. I don't know how you've heard us, but boy, it's just like you are next door even in lunar distances.

Yes. It has really been great with rare exceptions when you are on a bad OMNI right before you switch. Then we get an awful lot of background noise, but in general, it has been excellent, and boy, we are really thankful for it because reading all these updates would be bad news with bad COMM, as you know.

Right.

Say, Mike, have you noticed the confidence the Captain has in his navigator?

He hasn't called you Goldfinger yet.

No. He is disregarding anything I can do. We're coming in anyway.

I suspect he is right on that point.

Well, back to the drawing board.

As usual, we are all a little pooped. I've got Bill sleeping now, and then Jim and I will swap just as soon as we get through with these stars.

Well, you're sounding real good, and you are doing good work.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger, Frank. If you get a chance to, we'd like for you to read us down your trunnion calibration number. We missed that one on the downlink, and we have an update for your passive thermal control attitude.

Okay. The trunnion calibrations were all zeros.

Roger. Thank you, and on page 2-104 the PTC attitudes should read zero pitch and 45 degrees yaw. Over.

Zero pitch and 45 degrees at 2-104.

Roger. And we'd like some PRD readings for those of you who are up and around.

Zero pitch, 45 yaw, it is?

Roger. Thank you.

I'm asking. I wasn't sure I copied it right.

Yes. That's affirmative, Frank. Zero pitch, 45 degrees yaw.

My PRD now reads 2.85.

Apollo 8, Houston. Radio check. Over.

This is 8. Loud and clear. How us?

Roger. You're loud and clear, Jim. We'd like to get your PRD reading while we've got you up and a flight plan change we're suggesting on page 2-107 when you're ready to copy.

Roger. Stand by.

I'm the only person up, and my PRD is reading 0.15.

Roger. I understand; 0.15.

And I'll bet that Bill's is still reading 0.64.

That's okay; don't bother him with it. He's asleep.

Okay. Go ahead with your flight plan change.

Houston, Apollo 8. Go ahead with your flight plan change.

Okay, Jim. On page 2-107, we're recommending that you delete that P52 and just-stay in PTC attitude. Your platform is real good, and we don't feel that alignment's necessary. One is coming up again at 139 hours anyway. And also, on that same page, we'd like to delete the “begin cabin cold soak.” Over.

Righto. Will delete the “begin cabin cold soak,” and we'll delete the P52.

Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

Roger, Apollo 8. This is Houston. Over.

Roger. Mike. Are you still planning to send up these updates at 132 hours?

Yes; affirmative, Jim. We're getting them together now.

Roger.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Would you please go to P00 and ACCEPT, Jim, and we'll send you a P27.

We're ready for you.

Okay. Sending up a state vector to LM slot.