Spacelog Apollo 8

Houston, we are going to have to hold up on the cislunar navigation until after this next little maneuver.

Roger, Jim. We understand.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead now, Mike.

Can you give us an updated readout of your gimbal angles. When your plus X-axis is pointed toward the booster, please?

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston.

Could you give us those gimbal angles, Frank, when you have a chance?

I'm getting the COAS right on it now so it will be accurate.

Thank you.

Okay. With the COAS right on the S-IVB, the roll reads 105, the pitch is 275, and the yaw is about 325.

Roger. Copy roll 105, pitch 275, and yaw 325.

Roger. That should be 115 for the roll.

Thank you. 115 roll.

Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead.

Roger. If it will help you any, Mike, the earth is plus Y about 45 degrees in a minus X. I can see it out my side window, and it's a beautiful view with numerous cloud vortex.

Roger, Bill. Thank you. Understand; plus X 45 degrees halfway between plus Y and plus Z and slightly minus X.

Negative. It's 45 degrees in the plus Y, in the XY plane towards minus X. Over.

Roger. Understand in the XY plane, toward X 45 degrees.

Forty-five degrees from plus Y to minus X.

Roger. Thank you.

It's behind us to the right, if that will help.

Roger.

I can still see the Cape and isthmus of Central America.

Roger. Understand. Frank, what we want on this burn is 8 feet per second now, 8 feet per second. We want it radially upward, and we want you to use whatever thrusters are required to burn radially upward at 8 feet per second.

Why do you want to use—do so much, Mike?

Because of the separation distance we would like to achieve between now and the time of S-IVB blowdown.

Okay.

Mike, do you want me to go ahead and try to do this, or are you going to give me some gimbal angles?

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead and do it without gimbal angles, if you can do that. Over.

Okay. I don't understand why you want so many feet per second on it, but I think I can—with just a little maneuvering, I can get away from it a lot simpler than that.

Well, we would like the radial upward for trajectory reasons, and the magnitude we'd like because of the separation distance which we're predicting you will have at S-IVB blowdown.

Okay.

VHF sounds good.

Roger. On the VHF.

OMNI B.

Understand; OMNI B Baker.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. About 12 minutes before your big blowdown, there is a small continuous vent which opens at a GET of 04:55:55. You may notice that on the booster, 12- or 15-pound thrust.

Okay.

And, Apollo 8, could you give us your burn information whenever you have it?

Roger. We are maneuvering to the attitude now.

Okay.

Okay, Houston. I understand you want 8 feet per second burn, is that right?

Right. Eight feet per second, radially upward.

Read you loud and clear. Did you get the information?

That's affirmative. I say again, we copied plus X 7.7, one-tenth in Y, no Z; roll, pitch, and yaw, 180, 310, and 020.

Roger. The burn was made at—initiated at 04:45.

Roger. Copy 04:45 —

Okay. Do you want us to transfer that to the CS—to the LM state vector or just leave it alone? You —

Affirmative, Frank. We would like you to transfer from the CSM to the LM state vector.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

How is that booster looking now? Is it drifting away rapidly, or how does it look?

Bill is the only one that can see it. Just a minute

We're 90 degrees from its X-axis, and we must be out 1000 feet and moving out.

Roger. Understand; 90 degrees from its X-axis and about 1000 feet and separating.

Plus or minus a couple of thousand.

Understand.

Houston, this is Apollo 8. I think we've got clearance now; we got a little behind on our P23's, but I suggest we go ahead and start those now.

Roger. Stand by.

We're well clear of the S-IVB now, Houston.

Roger, Bill. Thank you, and at your convenience, could you give us the PRD reading? And as far as the P23 goes, that's just fine to get started with it. It looks like your first star, which is number 14, should be good until about 05:15 GET. Over.

Roger. We'll start P23.

Houston, Apollo 8 with a PRD reading.

Go ahead.

Roger. At 4 hours 4 minutes, Commander is 0, CMP 0.64, LMP 0.02.

Got that. Copy left to right: 0, 0.64, and 0.02 at 4 hours and 4 minutes. Thank you.

Roger. At 04:53, it was 0.01, 0.64, 0.03, and negligible on the survey meter.

Roger. Thank you.

I have a beautiful view of the S-IVB and the earth here on one. I'll try and get a picture for you.

Hope so.

Apollo 8, Houston. We've got you about a minute away from the continuous vent open and 14 minutes away from the big dump, and we would like an estimate on your distance now if you can give it.

Stand by. Our distance is about 3000 feet we would estimate.

Thank you.

And we can see the vent.

Apollo 8. Houston. Say again.

We can see the vent.

Roger. Thank you.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Go ahead, Jim.

Boy, it's really hard to describe what this earth looks like. I'm looking out my center window, which is a round window, and the window is bigger than the earth is right now. I can clearly see the terminator. I can see most of South America, all the way up to Central America, Yucatan, and the peninsula of Florida. There is a big swirling motion just off the east coast, and then going on over toward the east, I can still see West Africa, which has a few clouds right now. We can see all the way down to Cape Horn in South America.

Good grief, that must be quite a view.

Yes. Tell the people in Tierra Del Fuego to put on their raincoats; looks like a storm is out there.

Roger. Will do. Do you care to give them a 24-hour forecast?

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead.