Spacelog Apollo 8

People listening to the high bit rate down here say it's like sitting in your living room listening to good hi-fi.

Sounds like a good idea.

Apollo 8, Houston. Coming up on 2 minutes to LOS. We got a good reservice on the primary evaporator, and everything is still looking very good down here.

Okay. Thank you.

Apollo 8, Houston. One minute to LOS. Are you still reading us loud and clear?

Loud and clear. Loud and clear.

Okay, fine. We've been noticing a little bit of increase in our background noise as you approach backside.

Roger. We had to go off the high gain. That's why.

Roger.

Have a good backside; we'll see you next time around.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Houston, Apollo 8. Go ahead.

Roger. Read you loud and clear. Welcome back.

Roger. Looks like the evaporator—looks like the evaporator is holding okay, or at least it is trying to. It dropped the temperature down to about 32, and now it's come back up again and stabilized at about 42 degrees.

Roger. Copy you, Bill.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Roger. Houston, this is Apollo 8. What we are doing on the control point tracking—I managed to look for a CP-1 at the same time we were trying to do a CP-2 on this rev. I picked up two marks which are just as small, but more easily recognizable, than the ones that were given to me. I know that I can repeat the process and pick the same small point on the next rev. Now I can try to look for the control points that are written down, but I think that I have better control over the ones that we have.

Roger, Jim. Understand. We'll check that for you.

Roger. One more point: the control point times which you have given me are a little bit off, and I can notice by comparing these maps that these maps are not too well aligned either.

Roger. These two small points that you can repeat your marks on: will you be able to identify those precisely on a map? Over.

That's affirmative; that is why I picked them. They are both—they're both very prominent features, and they are both very small craters about the same size as the ones we are looking for, but I can pinpoint them on a map.

Roger.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Roger. One more comment: as it offered a lot of controversy at data priority meetings, it looks like 10 degrees pitch up is the best attitude to obtain the horizon so that you can follow the landmark down through the scanning telescope. If you pitch down any more, full up trunnion will not get the horizon, and the horizon is a great help in leading yourself into the control point.

Roger. Understand.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Jim, we concur with your use of the two small craters which you can repeatedly mark on and find on the map; and also if you will give us your new latitudes and longitudes, we can compute for you a time of closest approach to those points with the spacecraft 10 degrees pitched-up. Over.

Roger, Houston. CP-1 latitude minus 606269, longitude over 2, minus 78954, altitude plus 00152; for CP-2 latitude minus 09638, longitude over 2, plus 81691, altitude minus 00007. I tried to get CP-3 at the same pass, but I let it go by to get set up for this first track at the landing site.

Roger, Houston. CP-1: would you say again the latitude, and on CP-2, say again the longitude CP-2, please?

Roger. CP-1 latitude minus 06269; that is the latitude; and for longitude over 2 for CP-2, plus 81691.

Okay. We copied them. Thank you.

And it appears that resolve medium is a very good combination to track.

Roger. I understand. Resolve medium.

And it appears so far, Houston, that no spacecraft pitch motion is required to get five marks on the target in plenty of time.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger. I am about 15 minutes early with the TEI fix update and the map update. I will have them here whenever it's convenient for you to copy.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger. Bill has got his tape recorder back, and we noticed during that last dump, it was all in low bit rate. We wonder whether that was intentional or not? Over.

Roger. We didn't have much to say; we couldn't see out of the windows very well, Mike.

Roger. Understand.

It was really too bad.

Apollo 8, Houston. —

Go ahead —

Roger, Bill. This next time around into the sunlight, we do not expect any problem with the primary evaporator. If it does start drying out, we think it is best just to close the back pressure valve, and there is no need to activate the secondary boiler. Over.

Okay. I guess the 6O-degree limit will still hold then.

Stand by.

Apollo 8, Houston. We are suggesting you disregard the 60 degree limit, and let it go ahead and rise up above 60. There is no need to activate the secondary. Over.

Okay. We just don't want to boil our IMU.

Roger. Understand then. Apollo 8, you are GO for the next lunar orbit REV.

Roger, Houston.

Roger, Houston. I'll read the book this time.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8 —

Roger. We have about 4-1/2 minutes left before we have LOS; we'd like your last PRD readout. Over.

Stand by. The commander is asleep; we'll get his when he wakes up. The LMP is still 6 … 0.64, C is 9, CMP is 0.09.

Apollo 8, Houston. About 40 seconds to LOS, and everything's looking good down here.

Roger. Houston. We will give it another try here.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

Reading you very weak but—a lot of background noise. Welcome back around. How are you reading us?

Reading you fine.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead.

Roger, Houston. A few words on our optics tracking system. I used AUTO OPTICS for control points 1 and 2 on the backside, and they worked beautifully, tracked both the targets for me. And I went to the control point 3 as designated in our orbital control book to see the latitude and longitude that was given to me and used AUTO OPTICS to track that particular coordinate system, and it was very close to the actual tracking plot. I picked the mark there where I did a final marking and recorded latitude and longitude. I'm now about to come up on the landing site and using AUTO OPTICS in the coded input to see how that works.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Roger. We know you're busy so we are not going to bother you. We are watching your progress on the DSKY. You are looking good; all your systems are looking good, and we have maneuver PAD's for you any time at your convenience.

Roger. We will take them when we are doing the P52, if that's okay.

Mike, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, go ahead.

Mike, there are an awful lot of objects down on the landing site. It would just warm up Jack Schmidt's heart. The AUTO OPTICS are tracking perfectly on the target, and the two high peaks stand out beautifully. I have a beautiful view of it. The first I've seen just barely beneath the vertical now, and the second one coming up—It's just a grand view!

Roger, Jim. Glad to hear it. Jack's listening.

Jack, the information—The triangles that we see now are from the first IP, second IP, and the B-1 are just right, I think, for landing conditions. The shadows aren't too deep for you to get confused, but the land has texture to it, and there are enough shadows there to make everything stand out.

If Jack's listening, tell him that the optical may be doing all right, but the eyeball is having a little trouble looking through all this smear on the windows.

Roger. Understand the optics are doing better than the eyeballs. How about the cameras?