Spacelog Apollo 8

Okay. Plus 1197 minus 16500 12681 35608 050:46:53, GDC align north set stars, roll 068, pitch 097, yaw 356, ullage none; other: one, fast return, P37, DELTA-V equals 7900 for Indian Ocean; number 2, high-speed procedure not required; number 3, assumes no midcourse correction number 1. Over.

Roger. TLI plus 11. SPS/G&N 63330 minus 163 plus 129 013:56:47.59 minus 00489 plus 00000 plus 47250. You copy so far?

Yes. I'm with you so far.

Apollo 8, Houston. Affirmative; I'm with you.

Roll 177 144 00 NA plus 00197 47253 554 47050 12 1278 26, correction 256 023, up 265, left 18. Copy so far?

Yes, I'm with you so far, Bill; go ahead.

Plus 1197, minus 16500 12681 35608 0506, correction 050:46:53 north set 068 097 356, zero ullage. Note one: fast return, P37, DELTA-V 7900 Indian Ocean; two, high-speed procedure not required; three, PAD assumes no MCC 1. Over.

That's all correct, Bill.

Roger.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Go ahead, Apollo 8.

Roger, Mike. I'd like to give some comments on P23 data. The auto maneuver was quite accurate. Looks like we got some substellar point in the maneuver; auto optics put Canopus straight where it should be; minimum impulse control worked as advertised. At the altitudes at which I started to do the sightings, they have a definite hazy band line. The filter gives the earth a glow, sort of an orangey glow. It's very indefinite of where to put the star, but there does seem to be a solid line where you might expect the horizon to be that appears through the haze where we expect the atmosphere to be. I followed the procedure which we had done up at MIT, about two lines atop the haze layer a definite line for these sightings. In regards to the optics calibration, it was very difficult to find a star in the landmark line of sight in the venting of the S-IVB.

Roger, Apollo 8. We copied that, and we'd like for you to do that trunnion check, that calibration, prior to your next set of sightings.

Roger. Will do. Canopus just disappeared from view, and maybe when we get a little time here, I'll try to get a calibration the first time.

Roger. Understand.

And, Houston, we've rewound the tape; you can dump it at your convenience.

Roger, Bill. Thank you. Are you still picking up anything on the VHF?

Are you playing anything?

Affirmative.

No, I'm not picking anything up.

Roger. Thank you.

What's our altitude now?

Well, you're about 22 000 miles.

Okay.

Give or take a thousand feet.

I'll go ahead and turn VHF-A off and high gain.

Roger, Bill. Thank you.

It was some pretty nice music while it lasted.

Yes, I bet so.

Apollo 8, Houston,

Go ahead, Houston.

We're going to have to wait until we get the high-gain antenna locked on again to dump the tape.

Okay. And you are about ready for us to go to the PTC attitude?

Stand by one.

Okay.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

We'd like to hold off on the PTC and get some more P23 information. We'll have some more details of that for you shortly.

Alright.

Mike, what I'm doing now, I'm going over to the star Sirius …

Apollo 8, Houston. You faded out completely, Jim. I heard Frank, but it faded when you began talking. Say again.

Roger. I have switched to Sirius, the second star in the first set, to see if I can't get an optics calibration on it, at least.

Roger. That's fine. We'll have some more good words for you shortly.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Jim, on your P23, we'd like to go ahead and do the calibration and then use star number 15 and take three sets, followed by star number 16, two sets. Over.

Roger, Houston. That's what we're trying to do. I'm trying to get 15 for an optics CAL. It's been very difficult with the bright earth to find a star that we can get into the sextant. I'm trying to use the auto optics in P23 to get the star. We have that now; we're trying to maneuver the spacecraft to bring the trunnion to zero so we can get the landmark line of sight.

Roger. Understand. And I also have your PTC attitude, which is different than you have. I'll give that to you whenever you get a free moment.

Roger. We would like to hold off on the passive thermal control until 7 hours GET and, in the meantime, to get as many more P23 marks as we can, starting with the first star and doing two sets of three marks each, and then going to the second star we gave you. And concurrent with that, if possible, we would like Bill to run this high-gain antenna checkout if Lovell's attitude is compatible with that.

Okay. But they have not been to date. We are almost to the passive thermal control attitude now, and Jim is just halfway through taking his suit off.

Roger. Understand.

We'll have to hold off for a minute here.

Roger, Frank. And the reason for this is the horizon calibration requires a number of points to give you good data for the onboard NAV coming on.

Roger. We understand. We will be right back with you; just have to wait a minute here.

Roger. Thank you.

That failing to separate from the S-IVB kind of fouled us up a little.

Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

Apollo 8. Go ahead.

Roger. We are standing by. Are you about ready for the high-gain antenna trial?

Okay. Just a second; we will check on that. Then are you in a position where you can go back to the star sightings?

Well, we will be, but we can't until Jim gets ready.

Okay. We will stand, and you give us a mark on that. In just a second, I will check on the antenna. Okay. It looks like we are ready to go on the high-gain antenna check. And we can either go with commands called out from the ground, and you can monitor it, or you can be talked through it, whichever you prefer.

Well, stand by. I guess we are not quite in a proper attitude yet.

Roger.

Houston. Apollo 8.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Did you call?

Roger. There is the high-gain antenna on wide auto.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Go ahead, Apollo 8.

Are you getting the results you want from our high-gain antenna?

Apollo 8, Houston. Affirmative. We are getting your data, and we may have a beam width change, but stand by on that.

Alright. We're standing by. Jim's about ready to go back to the P23.

Roger. We have a GO until 7 hours on the start of the PTC.

Roger. Seven.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Go ahead, Apollo 8.

We're on the PTC mode now waiting for Jim, and I noticed that out my window now I can see Orion very clearly, even though the sun is bright in the other window.

Roger.

It almost pained me to say that, but it's true.

Roger.

Speaking of the windows, the number 5 window is getting pretty well obscured and the number 3 window is unusable.

Roger. Understand; number 3 is unusable and number 5 is obscured. Can you make out any definition at all, or do you have a target to look at?

Well, I can see the sun. Wait till it comes around the earth, and I'll give you a better hack on that.

Okay.

Apollo 8, Houston. We're going to go ahead and try to dump your tape right now. Circuit margins aren't too good at our present configuration. We're going to take a look at it. If it doesn't work, we may have to dump it again at a later configuration.

Houston, Apollo 8. We're maneuvering back now to do another P23.

Roger. Thank you.

Houston, this is Apollo 8. I'll do two more sets on 15, and then we'll do one set on 16.