Spacelog Apollo 8

If you can switch it down there without VERB 64, well, go ahead and do it.

We'll give it a whirl, Frank.

Okay.

… are all … of the earth.

Houston. … pitch and yaw of 10 and 45, aren't you?

Apollo 8, this is Houston with a battery status report.

Go ahead. We were just talking about the batteries.

Roger. At 96 hours EEP, battery A has 38.95 amp-hours; battery B has 36.35 amp-hours; battery C has 38.46 amp-hours. Your total, 113.76 amp-hours. At 97 plus 50, battery A will be fully charged and will have 40 amp-hours, and you can terminate charge at that time. Over.

At 97:50.

We'll give you back VERB 64, Houston..

Apollo 8, Houston. Say again.

We gave you back VERB 64. I wonder if you could have Guidance figure out a corridor correction at 114 hours for us with a minus 648 cabin.

Okay, Jim. We copy, and now we see we've got VERB 64 back. We'll be back with you in a minute.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger. We have a comparison now on your P37.

Roger.

Okay. Based on your vector, the CMC vector, the ground computes 15.3 feet per second on the midcourse, VEI of 36221, a gamma EI of minus 6.51 so it looks like your P37 program is pretty good. Applying your P37 solution to our MSFN vector, however, we get a gamma EI of minus 10.32. We expect these two solutions to converge with a little more tracking and after you get some earth horizon sightings. Over.

Roger. How valuable do you think that the lunar we did just after TPIR as compared to your MSFN tracking? Go ahead, Houston.

Apollo 8, Houston. Repeat your question, please.

Roger. I was getting curious of the value of onboard tracking in the P23 course close to the moon, in regards to the MSFN tracking that close to the moon. I think there might be a trail-off for onboard navigation, and I think it might be a little bit better than MSFN tracking.

Roger. Stand by.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Roger. I guess the experts would say that the MSFN data was probably best based or the number of sightings that you have taken. However, that's going to be the subject of quite a bit of evaluation, I think, after the mission. Over.

…

Roger, Jim. Be advised that we are beginning to read you very weak, and with a rather loud background noise.

Understand. …

I'm reading—I'm reading you loud and clear.

Roger. Still reading you weak but clearer.

Apollo 8, Houston. You can turn off the battery charger. Over.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger. Is this Jim?

Roger.

Roger, Jim. Christmas morning around your house was kinda quiet, says Marilyn. She said that they are all thankful the mission has gone so great. They missed having you around the tree this morning, but they wanted to reassure you that your presents are waiting, and the roast beef and Yorkshire pudding will be on the table when you get home.

Hey, that sounds good, Jerry—good old roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.

Yeah, man. Is Frank listening?

Say hello to them for me, will you?

Sure will. Is Frank listening?

Frank's not on the line yet; he will be shortly.

Okay. How about Bill? Is he still asleep?

Right. He was looking for a chimney on 103 here, but he didn't see any.

(Laughter) You could have left the hatch unlocked for him.

I'll think about that one.

Think real hard, Jim. EECOM says he could have slid down the steam duct.

Sounds good. About that time, Bill would have been boiling water.

Hey, Jerry, this is Frank. What's up?

Hi, Frank. Christmas morning has come at the Borman house. And the boys and Susan and your Mom and Dad all send their love. They say for you to stay in there and pitch. Over.

Okay. Thank you. Please reciprocate for me.

Sure will, Frank.

Frank, when Bill wakes up, give me a holler. I've got a message for him, too.

Houston, Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

Roger. Are the Guidance boys busy this morning?

They say they are.

I just worked out an answer to move my landing longitude 6 degrees east. I just want to compare with what they've got based on the same burn time of 114 hours, based on the bias impact longitude determined from the P37 which is wrong. I've indicated that I need 600 foot per second DELTA-V_C burn plus, and my DELTA-V_X changes from a minus 11.6 feet per second. I'd like to have them verify that if I could.

Roger Jim. Standby, and I'll see if they copied all that.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

The voice isn't too great right now, and the Guidance troops didn't get all of that. How about waiting about 2 or 3 minutes? We'll swap OMNI antennas, and then we should get good voice transmission from you and then repeat it. Would you, please?

Roger.

Apollo 8, Houston. How do you read? Over.

Loud and clear.

Roger. We're reading you much better now. Jim can go ahead with his transmission to the guidance troops. They have one question before he starts. They would like to know what his GERU was at TIG, 114 hours. Over.

Roger. Wait one. The GERU at TIG was plus 07972.

Roger. Plus 07972.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. We are ready to copy your data. Over.

Okay, Houston. Based on the P37 with minus MA solution, I got an impact longitude of minus 160.95. I biased it to get an impact latitude—longitude of 163.75. I wanted to change my impact point 30 degrees to the east, and I tried to determine what my P30 burn parameters would be to do this, and I got a DELTA-V_X burn of minus 11.6 and a DELTA-V_C of plus 600, DELTA-V_{Y of zero. Now that changed my previous DELTA-VX burn from minus 50.2. I just want to know whether that meets with their approval.}

Roger, Jim. We copy and will run it through the mill and give you an answer.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Apollo 8, this is Houston with a flight plan update.

Go ahead.

Roger. At 100 hours 30 minutes, change star number 02 from one set to two set. Over.

Roger. Star 02 from one set to two set.

Roger. Also, set number 2, set number 2, change star number 11 to star number 7. Over.

Roger. Eleven to 7.

Roger. Then after star set number 3, initiate PTC again; pitch 10, yaw 45. Over.

Pitch 10, yaw 45.

Roger. Then at 101 hours 30 minutes, delete the earth horizon settings. Over.

101:30, delete the earth horizons sightings.

That's affirmative. The folks here are evaluating the thermal situation. Looks like you will be out of PTC rather at an extended period of time. That's the reason we have you initiating PTC again there around 101 as soon as you finish those three star sightings. We are still working on the—about the next 10 hours after 100 hours. We are looking at the thermal situation, and the star sighting situation, and we will be giving you more updates later on. Over.

Roger. We don't have a thermal problem at all now, do we? All our indications here are normal in here.

Roger. Everything looks okay. I think they're just kinda trying to look down the track aways.

I'm all for keeping it that way.

Roger.