Spacelog Apollo 8

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

You might give me a call every now and then, Jerry, just to let me know you're still there, as we're switching antennas, or play some music or something.

Say again, Bill. You're kind of garbled.

I say you might just give me a call every now and then as we switch antennas, just to let me know you're still there, or play some music or something, just to make sure we haven't lost COMM.

Okay, Bill. Your antennas are looking good now.

Hey, Bill. If you want music, I'll have Mike sing.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Roger.

On your secondary coolant loop, looks like your back-pressure valve might be slightly open. I suggest you go to secondary coolant loop EVAP switch to the RESET position for 58 seconds. Over.

Roger. I did that again; I'll try it a third time.

Okay.

That didn't do it any good, Houston.

Roger, Bill.

Keep an eye on it, in case it starts dropping. It stabilized there right after I shut the evaporator off.

Roger. We will watch it.

What might have happened, Jim might have gotten the water control valve off before we completely had the back-pressure valve closed.

Roger. Understand Jim turned the water control valve off.

Roger. We have the secondary water EVAP control valve off, but he might have gotten it off on that return pump chart check prior to the time the evaporator back-pressure valve had completely closed, which might explain its lower-than-nominal state pressure.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

Roger, Bill. We see your secondary steam pressure coming back up slowly, and we would like to just sit and watch it for a while before doing anything else.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. I just wanted to let you know we still have voice contact, and we have the morning news for you. We can give it to you now or some time later, your choice.

How about right now?

Very good. This is the 23rd of December edition of the Interstellar Times a la Paul Haney. We would like to let you know that there are only 2 more shopping days until Christmas. He says your TV transmission was a real big hit yesterday. Mickey Herskowitz is doing double duty for the Post. He's written a couple of columns on your launch in addition to his other sports columns, and, Jim, your mom certainly appreciated that birthday greeting. Twenty-one convicts broke out of a prison in New Orleans yesterday, and President Johnson went home last night from Bethesda Naval Hospital after his bout with the flu. He sends you guys a special message—not what to do for the flu—but congratulations on the flight. Are you reading me so far okay?

You're very clear, Mike.

Good. Well, we had a big blizzard down here in the midwest; I don't know if you can see that from up there or not. And in Houston, as a matter of fact, it's getting pretty chilly, about 35 degrees. And we would like to know who you like next Sunday, Baltimore or Cleveland? Baltimore defense looked pretty tremendous yesterday. They put on great pass rush, and it sounds to CAP COM like Haney is trying to con you guys into a bet. Over.

I like Baltimore.

Are you giving points?

Negative. I don't bet.

I guess you don't if you don't give points.

Not with you anyway.

Okay. That's about the size of the news. Houston, standing by.

How are the families doing, Mike?

They are doing just great, Bill; just talking to Valerie a few minutes ago.

That was Frank.

Oh, well, likewise with Susan. I have not talked to her since last night.

Roger.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston.

Just checking in with you after about a 45 minute quiet break. Say, we notice on your high-gain antenna, if you like, you can get a little bit more use out of it by switching to it from OMNI when you have a yaw angle of 90 degrees and a pitch angle of minus 45 degrees. We are noticing that you are staying an extra 10 minutes on the OMNI, which is fine; but you could get more use out of the high gain if you use that procedure. Over.

Okay, thank you. It's a lot simpler for us, as long as the OMNI isn't working. We've got it all wrapped up here on the eight ball with the roll … pointing to an OMNI number. We just switch it; it makes it a lot easier, if it is not bothering you.

Okay. That is fine. We are presently happy with the COMM, Frank. We are just trying to be helpful.

Thank you very much. It's unusual that Mike Collins tries to be helpful, but nevertheless, thank you very much.

Good; aerospace first, Frank.

Say hello to Howard Tindall for us, will you? His procedure seemed to be working.

Sure will.

I hope that you have got everybody looking this thing over very carefully. One thing we want is a perfect spacecraft before we consider the LOI burn.

Apollo 8, Houston. We concur, and we are doing that.

Okay.

Houston, Apollo 8. The water is in the process of being chlorinated at this time.

Roger. Understand you're chlorinating the water at this time.

Roger.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

At your convenience, we would like the readout of your service module RCS propellant quantities. We haven't gotten one of those so far this flight.

Alright. Stand by. We are just about to—need to change the antenna. I'll give them to you.

Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

Go ahead, Apollo 8.

Okay. A, service module A, you ready?

Ready to copy.

The temperature is about 111, the helium pressure—Do you just want the quantity, or do you want the whole works?

Well, if you are reading, give us the whole works.

Okay. The helium pressure is about 37, the manifold is 182, and the quantity is reading 80. B has got the temperature about 112, the helium pressure about 36.5, the fuel pressure 180, and the quantity about 77. C has got the temperature of 140—incidentally, those other temperatures should have been 120 instead of 110; I was looking at the wrong calibration here. The pressure is 37, the manifold pressure is about 182, and the quantity is 80. Temperature on D is 115, pressure is 37, the manifold pressure is 181, and the quantity is about 83.

Roger, Frank. I read you loud and clear. On the temperatures, quad A and B should both be 120. Roger.

Roger.

Thank you.

I will trade all of that good information for a readout of the actual quantities. If you will give us a minute, we will go ahead and plot them up, Mike.

Roger. We will stand by until we get them for you.

Apollo 8, Houston. I have your service module RCS quantities available. Over.

Roger. We are ready to copy at 50 hours 16 minutes.

Okay. I have them both in percent and pounds; I'll give you both numbers. The pounds are slightly more accurate for plotting on your chart. Quad A 72 percent, 219 pounds; quad B 76 percent, 233 pounds; quad C 70 —

Take it a little slower, Mike; whoa, whoa, whoa whoa.

Okay.

Slow up. We just got quad A plotted. They are on separate charts.

Okay.

Okay for quad B.

Quad B 76 percent, 233 pounds.

Okay. Quad C.

Seventy-six percent, 231 pounds.

Quad D.

Seventy-six percent, 229 pounds.

Okay.

Would you give us the O₂ and H₂ as long as we are plotting?

Roger. Stand by for O₂ and H₂.

Apollo 8, Houston. We have got those numbers in a percent. We are going to switch them over to pounds, and in the meantime, we are going to be changing our ground antenna in about another 2-1/2 minutes. You can expect a COMM glitch. Over.