Spacelog Apollo 8

Pitch 242, yaw 020. Copy.

Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

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.

Well, I would prefer to do that, but we will —

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

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.