Spacelog Apollo 8

Roger. Did that gas station call wake you up?

Man, I've been all eyeballs and elbows here for the last several hours.

I'll bet. If you've got nothing else to do, I do have two charts in your LOI table that I need to give you some update numbers on.

Standby.

We'll get our LOI tables man on the line here, Houston. Stand by.

Roger.

Okay, Houston, CMP here. I understand you have some updates for me.

Yes, sir; I've got a couple of charts in your chart book under LOI, and I have some numbers to fill in, one of them being the chart of LOI DELTA-V magnitude versus abort DELTA-V.

Okay. Stand by, and I'll get it out.

Roger.

Okay, I have the chart out. Go ahead.

Alright. Mode 1, 5 hours, roll 1.38, pitch 7.89, yaw 357.37. Mode 1, 15 minutes, roll 180.73, pitch 29.46, yaw 1.65. Over.

Roger. The new attitudes for the Mode 1, 5 hour Mode 15 minute are as follows: roll—for the Mode 1, 5 hour, roll 1.38, pitch 7.89, yaw 357.37; Mode 1, 15 minute, roll 180.73, pitch 29.46, yaw 1.65.

Okay. That is correct. Now I also have to give you a couple of points to plot on that curve. The present curve you have drawn is based on a 60-mile perigee or perilune, and you right now have a 62-mile pericynthian; and the reason that your target is for 62 miles is to pass over the landing site, so I have five sets of coordinates for you to copy.

Is this to go on the same chart to redraw the curve?

That is affirmative.

Okay. Go ahead.

I've got it plotted.

2800 LOI, abort DELTA-V 4700. Over.

Roger. I have that one plotted, too.

Alright. The last one is LOI DELTA-V 2990, abort DELTA-V 5114. That is almost directly into the end of the present curve, 5114.

Say again the LOI DELTA-V magnitude, please.

Okay. LOI DELTA-V 2990.

Roger. 2990. Okay. I have it plotted.

Alright. And on the next one, you should have a chart (number 10), and we have three numbers to go in there for a Mode 3 gimbal angle.

Roger. Go ahead with the Mode 3 gimbal angles.

Roll 180.87, pitch 42.31, yaw 1.65.

Mode 3 gimbal angles are as follows: roll 180.87, pitch 42.31, yaw 1.65.

Roger. That is correct.

Could you please send up a French curve for me?

Roger.

Send up a couple.

The only one I have is about 6 foot.

Houston, could you give us some gimbal angles to point at the moon? I never have seen it the whole trip, and I'm wondering which way it is from us now.

Houston, Apollo 8. Radio check.

Roger. Loud and clear.

Roger.

We are getting ready to give you a rundown on your systems. We're going over all the final steps, and we will tell you what we see in the way of trajectory and systems information. And once again, Dr. Joe Kerwin has brought over all the latest news, and we can read that up to you a little bit at a time if you aren't going to sleep.

What's he going to do, read out of the AMA Journal?

Roger.

Go ahead. We are all ears.

Okay. Here is one: the previously scheduled 72-hour cease fire by the Viet Cong went into effect today, 17 hours before the 24 hour allied truce was to begin.

You lost us on the numbers there. What was that again?

The gist of it was that the VC went into a cease fire earlier than the truce that we had planned on, as a Christmas holiday type.