Spacelog Apollo 8

You bet.

Lovell is snoring already.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

We have 1 minute to LOS, Frank. You can terminate stirring up your cryos any time, and we agree with all your flight plan changes. Have a beautiful backside, and we will see you next time out.

Thank you.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, loud and clear.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger, Apollo 8. Couple of notes for you: on the P52 you are coming up to on this REV, we've looked at your state vectors and all your information. The platform looks good, and it appears that it is your option if you would like to by-pass this P52, your platform will still be good at the following TEI pass. And we would like to have your PRD reading, and I guess we are behind the sleep summary. Over.

Okay. Jim and Bill are both resting now. I had about 3 or 4 hours earlier today.

Roger. COPY.

This PRD now reads 144.

Copy, 144. And we have an update ready to go into your computer for the state vector if you want to go to P00 and ACCEPT.

P00 and ACCEPT.

Jerry, I'm standing by to copy the TEI 9 PAD.

Okay, Apollo 8. We have completed with the computer. You can use the VERB 47 to transfer, and I have the TEI 9 PAD.

That's Ken isn't it? Just a minute, and I'll take care of it.

Roger.

Okay. I went to P00 and then VERB 47, and I'm ready to copy.

Okay. Do you have it in BLOCK?

Say again.

I say, do you have the UP TELEMETRY in BLOCK?

Roger.

Roger. Thank you.

TEI 9, SPS/G&N: 45597, minus 040, plus 157 087:19:18.20, plus 34188, minus 01353, plus 00780 180 008 001, NA, plus 00187 34223 313 34021 42 0898 253 033, down 131, left 28, plus 0758, minus 16500 12987, plus—or 36277 146:48:16; and that's Sirius and Rigel 129 155 010, four jet, 15 seconds, 1.2 degrees on the window at T minus 3, high speed minus MA, engine 3.7 seconds longer than given.

That's affirmative, Apollo 8. And when you get around to it, if you would like for us to dump your tape, we can do that when you get on the high gain.

Roger.

Okay. Should have it on the high gain now, Houston.

Roger. And we're going to go ahead and dump the tape.

Roger.

Ken, will we get the real TEI PAD the next time around now?

Apollo 8, we'll have one for you the next time around, and we'll update it if necessary on the following REV.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Go ahead.

Do you have any idea why quad B seems so much lower in quantity than the other three quads?

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Okay. It looks to us like, although we're reading out the same thing you are on the quad quantity, using the computer program and all of the correction factors that are in there, it looks like all four of your quads are very close. In pounds, it looks like you have, for example, 193 pounds in quad A and 189 in B, 200 in C, and 190 in Delta. And the difference that you read on the gage is attributed to the fact that you don't have all of the correction factors in there. This ground calculation has an accuracy of about plus or minus 6 percent, and the best you can do on board, even using your chart, is plus or minus 10 percent. Over.

Apollo 8, Houston. The tape recorder is back to you.

Go ahead.

Okay. We've just finished looking at all your systems and all the trajectory information, and you have a GO for another REV.

Thank you.

I understand we're GO for REV 9.

That's affirmative, 8.

How's the weather down there, Ken?

It's really beautiful; loud and clear and just right in temperature.

How about the recovery area?

That's looking real good.

Very good.

Yes. They told us that there is a beautiful moon out there.

Now I was just saying that there's a beautiful earth out there.

It depends on your point of view.

Yes.

If you're looking for things to do up there, Frank, you might hit that BIOMED switch over to the left position.

Okay.

Are you ready?

All set.

Five, four, three—say again.

We've got the computers waiting.

Ken, are you ready? Five, four, three, two, one.

Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

I'm reading you weak but clear, Frank.

How about this antenna? Is that any better?

It's a little louder.

Hey, Ken; how did you pull duty on Christmas Eve? It happens to bachelors every time, doesn't it?

Ken, how's the … tracking on this lunar orbit coming out?

Okay. Frank, it's looking like it's coming right down the pike. It's doing just what it is supposed to, and apparently, all our computer programs have got the right numbers in them because they're predicting where you're going.

Have they covered any of these anomalies due to high spots?

Roger. They're detectable, but they're not changing, things enough to be anything more than—of interest.

Fine. Hope they are as good with the corridor as they were with the LOI. That was beautiful.

It sure was. That's—that is textbook all the way.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Okay. We're about—inside 10 minutes till LOS. We'll be picking you up again at 85:40, and we'll have all of the TV types' information standing by. In the event that the situation develops again, for pointing accuracies, if I see anything that looks like a terminator or anything of that nature, I'm going to call the dark side of it 12 o'clock, and use that as a reference system, and we'll try that. If that doesn't dope out any problems with camera pointing, why I may try—call for a plus pitch, and then I'll just correct what I see to account for it.

Roger. We're not going to use the telephoto lens. I don't believe we'll be able to get a picture of the earth. It's going to have to be the terminator, the lunar surface. I'm looking at the earth right now; and we won't see it again during that period.

Okay. Real fine then. And next time around, why, we'll take an extra special look at all of the parameters; we'll have our TEI PAD for you. And we'll use the last REV for a real good hack on all systems. I'll give you a rundown by system of all things we see and where they stand.

Apollo 8, Houston. We're approaching 4 minutes to LOS. All systems are GO.

Houston.

Loud and clear and an initial look at your systems are good.

Houston, Apollo 8. Over.