Spacelog Apollo 8

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Are you eating dinner?

Negative. We'll have breakfast in a little while here.

Roger.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. When you go into the dark in about 7 or 8 minutes, I have some words for you on the filters for the wide-angle lens, for your TV camera. Over.

We are in the dark now.

Roger. Let me know when you are ready to copy.

Apollo 8, Houston. Any words on earthshine? Over.

Earthshine is about as expected, Houston. Not as much detail, of course, as in the sunlight, but you can see the large craters quite distinctly, and you can see the albedo contacts quite distinctly. And, also, the—there's a good three-dimensional view of the rims of the larger craters.

Roger, Bill.

I think our high-speed film will be able to pick some of this stuff up quite well.

Go ahead with your information on the filter, Houston.

Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. We recommend you use a wide-angle lens on this particular TV run. You can use a telephoto lens with the same setup as yesterday's TV show. However, we recommend a wide-angle lens. Step number 1, tape the single red filter to the red filter on the red/blue 0 filter holder; do it so that the filter slide still functions. Over.

Go ahead.

Roger. Step number 2, attach the filter holder to the lens with the tape on the top and bottom; do this with the slide forward. Over.

Go ahead.

Roger. Then at the end of your second REV TV pass, or on request from here, we would like you to remove that red filter from the holder and transmit briefly with it that way, then slide it over the blue side for your final transmission. Over.

We got you.

Okay, Frank.

Houston, Apollo 8. Standing by to record TEI 1 and TEI 2.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Your TEI 1 and TEI 2 PAD's you received last pass are still good. Using these PAD's, your next midcourse will be less than 20 feet per second. Over.

Roger. Understand.

Apollo 8, Houston. We have all the SPS experts looking at your data now. The preliminary look is very good, and we will give you some final words later.

Roger. We could feel the chug when we threw in BANK B, not a chug, but we could feel additional thrust.

Roger. Copy.

Houston, be advised on this red/blue filter technique on the TV. You cannot slide the two filters out of the way with them taped onto the TV camera; so I suggest we do red, blue, and then take them off.

Roger. We concur, but make sure the little red filter is taped over the big one. Over.

Alright, you don't want the red fil—you want the blue by itself. Is that correct?

That's affirmative, Bill.

Bill, we'd like you to use the double red filter for the first transmission. Over.

Roger. It worked.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. If you should decide that you want to roll heads up on REV 2, one thing to remember, be sure you yaw 45 degrees right in order to maintain your high-gain antenna COMM. Over.

We will not do that; we're going to stick with the flight plan, and make the best we can here.

Roger, Frank.

As usual, in the real world, the flight plan looks a lot fuller than it did in Florida.

Apollo 8, Houston. We need an O₂ purge now.

Roger. And we're standing by for a map update.

Roger.

Houston, Apollo 8. Just for your information, after we completed P52, I acquired the earth in the sextant. Quite a sight from here.

Roger. Bet it is.

Row are the systems experts on the SPS coming, Jerry?

They are still working, Frank; another 5 or 10 minutes.

Roger.

Apollo 8, Houston. Your SPS data looks real good. It is just a matter of getting it all in from the site and getting it looked at.

Thank you.

So far, everything looks copacetic.

Apollo 8, Houston. We would like to take about 5 minutes of high bit rate. Over.

Roger. Five minutes of high bit rate coming on.

Roger.

You've got it.

Apollo 8, Houston with a map update.

Stand by one.

Go ahead with the map update.

Roger, Frank. Map update: REV 1/2, no change; the REV 2/3 follows: 73:04:57, 73:09:37, 73:19:01, 73:48:53, 74:24:23; remarks: Bravo 1 [03:02:16:24|74:16:24]. Over.

Roger. Copy.

Roger. We show you 23 minutes to LOS.

Roger. Are you going to dump the tape?

Apollo 8, this is Houston. You are GO for REV 2; all systems are GO. SPS evaluation is still underway and looking good. Over.

Understand; GO for REV 2. Thank you.

Roger, Apollo 8. We're still using the tape recorder. We will dump it in a little bit.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. The recorder is yours. You can go to low bit rate.

Apollo 8, Houston. Request BIOMED switch center.

Three, two, one -

MARK.

Apollo 8, Houston. Put your TELEMETRY INPUT switch to LOW. Over.

Roger. GO in LOW.

Houston, Apollo 8. We're in the process of preparing meal 4, day—correction: day 4, meal A.

Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

Are you going to be able to dump that tape prior to LOS?

Roger. Bill, they say they have already dumped the tape, and it's almost totally clean.