Spacelog Apollo 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.