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.

Ready to copy.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead.

Roger. We'll hold up on the high-gain check until we get out of P23.

Roger, Bill. Thank you.

You may have to delay your lunch a little bit. Are you hungry?

No.

First time I ever heard you say that.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. It looks to us like the S-IVB is behaving completely normally in regard to all the blowdowns and other sequential events that take place. It looks good.

Roger. How far away is it from us now?

We were going to ask you.

(Laughter) Okay.

Fifty miles.

Roger. Copy.

Let's make that 80 kilometers, since there are some international aspects to this flight.

Roger.

Okay, Houston. We did an optics calibration; we get zeros all the time.

Roger. Understand; optics calibration and zeros all the time. Good.

It takes a lot longer to do it, though. I had to go to a star like Sirius to finally see it.

Roger. Understand. We are real glad you got that so we can get a horizon calibration to put in the computer.

Looks like the number 5 window is starting to fog up, Houston.

Roger, Houston. Understand it's the number 5 that is fogging up.

Houston, P23 coming through with Sirius.

Roger. Thank you.

A little better, these numbers are a little better.

Houston, how do you read? Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead.

Roger. Have you been getting the downlink on the P23?

That is affirmative.

Okay. Now how much longer do you want us to hold off going to PTC?

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Roger. Are you recording all of the data from 23, or do you want some read down to you?

Stand by, Jim. We think we are getting it all. We are confirming now. That is affirmative, Jim. We are getting all that is coming down. How is it going?

It's working very nicely. I finished—one set was Sirius, three stars, and one set with Procyon, or two sightings; three sightings with Sirius and two with Procyon.

Okay, Houston. This is Apollo 8. We are ready to go to the PTC attitude.

Roger, Frank. Understand. And we understand you've completed all sets, three on one and two on another in P23. Is that right?

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger, Frank. What we are doing down here is this. We'd really like the horizon calibration. We would like a total of 15 marks; you know, three sets on one star, two on the other. On the other hand, we are balancing that with the need to go to PTC, and we are not losing sight of the fact that you want to go to PTC right away. So if you will bear with us another couple of minutes, we are trying to decide whether to ask you to go back and do some more of P23 or whether to clear you at this time to go to PTC. Over.

Okay. We started maneuvering to PTC. We are getting kind of far behind, and what I am concerned about, Mike, Jim is now taking off his pressure suit.

Roger. Understand. How about you and Bill?

Well, we are standing by till he gets through.