Spacelog Apollo 8

Apollo 8, Houston.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Roger, just checking with you. Hey, if you all start having ground switching problems, how about having some place that has COMM come in and tell us about it. Will you please?

Roger. Apollo 8. That's what we have been trying to do. Some of our problem seems to be getting from here to that site.

Houston. Apollo 8. How do you read?

Apollo 8, Houston. Loud and clear. How me?

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Read you loud and clear.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Roger. Go ahead Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. We read you loud and clear and copy your remarks about having our remote site talk to you. Some of our problem has been in going from MCC to the remote site. We will attempt to do that anytime we can.

That's right. Just tell them you are having problems.

Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

Apollo 8, Houston. Reading you weak but clear.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

Roger, Frank. I've got a little news and some ball scores if you want them.

Go ahead.

Okay. The big news right now, on the wires, is that all 82 crewmen of the Pueblo have been returned. They walked across the Bridge of Freedom Monday night.

Wonderful!

Said it took about 30 minutes for all 82 men to come across the Bridge of No Return and that's the one separating North and South Korea. They started across about 11:30 a.m. and were over by about noon, and they brought the body of the crewman that was killed, also.

Okay, Frank. On ball scores, did you get the word on the Baltimore and Minnesota game today?

Not the final one.

Okay. Final score was the Colts 24, Vikings 14. That gives them the western conference, so it looks like for the NFL title it's gonna be the Browns versus the Colts on the 29th.

29th?

Roger. Slow return—you'll get it.

Say again.

Roger. Come back slow return and we'll get it.

I'd rather come back fast and watch it on television.

Atta boy! Let's see, for the AFL: the big game today was Oakland and Kansas City and Oakland dumped them 41 to 6, so it's looks the AFL title game will be the Raiders and Jets.

Righto! That's hard to believe, that score.

Amen! Okay. In yesterday's game, I don't know it you got the score on that. The Cleveland Browns and the Cowboys. The Browns dumped the Cowboys 31 to 20.

Yes, we heard that.

Yes, they're crying in Dallas. Basketball scores: Houston didn't do so good this weekend. Illinois beat Houston 97 to 84. And North Carolina took the Owls. The score was 85 to 77. We had a couple of words in the paper, Frank, on the Oilers. The Oilers voted George Webster their most valuable player and—although Houston didn't make anybody on the All Offensive Team this year, they put Walt Suggs and Hoyle Granger on the second team.

Very good.

But although the Oilers didn't do so well out on the field, they did great in the box office. Bud Adams, Don Klausterman and Wally Lemm were all—real pleased with it. By the way, they were at the Cape to watch the show. Houston in 11 games—the Oilers attracted 460 628 people.

That must be a record? For them? I don't believe they ever got that many in Rice Stadium.

I think so. Let's see the regular season attendance was about half that. This includes all the exhibition games. The paper says they averaged about 40 480 for the league games.

Great!

Well, that's about it for now, Frank. We got some more news that they promised they would bring over as soon as it comes off the wire. The only thing of real interests were—particularly the Pueblo release. I think you've already been told about the—Nixon-Eisenhower wedding. And about the only other thing is the weather which is pretty clear around here. We've got high overcasts. But it is cold, good visibility, and it's beginning to feel like winter again.

Good time for Christmas, good weather for Christmas.

Who have you got up now, Frank?

The other two guys are pretty sleepy. They sacked out again. So I am holding the fort down for a while.

Okay. Thanks.

Roger. Thank you.

Frank, we had a little egg nog over at Charlie Duke's tonight.

Houston. Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

Roger. The cabin temperature is down to 60, and it's getting pretty chilly in here. Have you got any approved solutions on how to bring it up without stirring up this nice thermal balance we have?

Roger. Stand by.

Frank, do you have your cabin fans on?

Negative.

Roger.

We haven't had them on since we separated.

Okay.

Go ahead.

Roger, Frank. Midcourse number 3 looks like just a shade more than 1 foot per second, so we don't recommend that you do it. That leads us off into a midcourse 4 of only about 3 feet per second right now. Your trajectory is looking real good. Your height at pericynthian is 70 miles.

Roger. Understand. Thank you.

Roger. Roger, Frank. Little few thoughts on what is coming up now. The star sightings when Jim gets up; looks right now like we've had enough of the earth horizon, and everything looks real good; and we are ready to start on some lunar horizon sightings. So when Jim gets up, we will pass the flight plan update to him for a set of stars with the moon. Also, around 48, or after the star sightings is when we would like to see your next water dump come up. So, if you can, I recommend you get a little shuteye.

Roger. Have you got any answer about warming this place up a little bit?

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. I have got two methods for you to warm up the cabin there. The first one is a one-man job—about the best way would be to put one or both cabin fans ON and go full hot on the cabin heat exchanger. It'll be a fairly slow process of warming up, and you won't get a whole lot of heating. Your second method would be to adjust with the mixing valve your radiator OUT temperatures. This, again, is a two-man job, and you have to be pretty careful.

Roger. Well, Frank just went to bed, and Bill isn't up yet. I'll tell you what I'll do. I'll put on the fans and go HIGH on the cabin temperature and see what that does.

Okay, Jim. Remember, if you use just one fan, cover the other.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

Roger. If I use just one fan—You mentioned about covering the other one—are you sure that's true in this spacecraft?

Roger. That's affirmative.

I thought that was a BLOCK I problem.

Stand by, Jim. We'll recheck on that one.

Apollo 8, Houston. Did you get the word from Frank on the star-sighting plans?

Roger. I'll get out the flight plan if you have an update to it now, though, then we can update it right now.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger. Are you ready for that flight plan update?

Roger. Go ahead.

Okay. At 47:15, delete the P23 sightings you're shoving there; and at 45 minutes—correction, 45 hours, add one additional set of sightings to each star.

Okay. You said at 45 hours we're going to add one set of sightings to each of the three stars. Is that correct?

That's affirmative. Everybody's real pleased with the earth horizon work; and as far as we're concerned, you can knock that off, and just add one set to each one of your lunar horizon stars at about 45. This 45-hour time also is not hard. You can shift it as your—as you desire.

Roger. I see things coming up now. Jerry, we're going to get the block data around 44, and we'll do alignment around 44:30 and then we'll go into cislunar navigation.

Okay. Fine, Jim. Then remember after you do the sightings, we'll want you to go back to the PTC mode again. And a little curiosity, how's the water tasting, and how did you sleep?

Water's tasting okay; no problems. And the sleep is getting better: We find it better to sleep underneath the couch now. I was up here with Frank, and I was dozing off periodically over the last several hours. Frank's now below and Bill's below, too.