Spacelog Apollo 8

I wasn't reading you for a while. I read you loud and clear now.

Roger, Frank.

I wanted to know what a range sequence test was, Jerry.

I was afraid you was going to ask that. Stand by.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Roger. This range sequence is a phenomenon we get on down-voice backup; in this mode, the ranging and the voice share the same channels, so we have to periodically check and make sure that they are not interfering with each other. Over.

Thank you. These flights are very educational.

Roger. We are learning a little bit down here, too.

I hope you're not studying reentry.

No, we're fat on those, Frank.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger, Frank. We would like for you to go back into PTC now. Your helium tank temperature is still holding about the same. And we are going to try PTC to even things out. Over.

Okay.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston.

Is Jim listening?

He's off the air right now.

Roger, Frank. Let him know that we've compared his latest P37, and the state vectors have converged to—they are very, very close now.

Your state vector and our state vector are very, very close.

That's affirmative, Frank.

Is that right, Jerry? Okay. I'll tell him. Thank you.

Roger.

Don't let his head get big, though.

Houston. How do you read Apollo 8?

Apollo 8, Houston. Say again.

Hello Michael, we lost lock and Bill hit COMMAND RESET to get the lock back on again, but you're welcome to the antenna.

Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Go ahead.

Good morning, Michael.

Good morning.

Or is it afternoon?

Apollo 8, Houston. You've got a lot of background noise and about unreadable. We're trying to get a better OMNI.

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

Loud and clear.

Okay. You're loud and clear. Is this Bill?

None other.

I got a message for you while you were asleep. Valerie said to tell you that she and the kids are leaving for church about 11:30 and eagerly awaiting your return. She said presents are magically starting to appear under the Christmas tree again so it looks like a double barrel Christmas. Over.

You can't beat a deal like that. How was Christmas at your house today?

Early and busy as usual. I told Michael you guys are up there, and he said who's driving?

That's a good question. I think Isaac Newton is doing most of the driving right now.

Say again.

I think Isaac Newton is doing most of the driving right now.

Roger. We copy.

Tell Valerie and the kids a Merry Christmas for me, Mike, and tell them I'll see them there in a while.

I sure will, and you might tell Frank if he's got any messages his people are about 10 feet away.

He said “bah humbug.”

Howdy, how are you all?

You've got a whole row of smiling faces in the back room, Frank.

Very good. Will they be proud of me: I'm using the Exer-Genie right now.

Don't overdo it.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over,

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. Quad Able helium tank temperature has dropped very slightly and is looking pretty good to us now.

Thank you, Michael.

Righto, and I've got a procedure for Jim I would like to read up. It involves bringing the LM and the CSM state vectors to the earth's sphere of influence. Over.

Alright. Stand by.

Okay.

He's getting his hat on now. Whose procedure is this, Michael?

Oh, it's the summation of the opinions of all our experts down here. I got it from Mr. Colossus, Gunther Sabionski.

Very good. I want to make sure it wasn't an Aldrin special.

I'm sorry you're broken up. Don't say again. (Laughter)

Merry Christmas, Bud.

Yes, Merry Christmas up there, Jim. I've got a procedure when you are ready to copy.

Okay. I just got on my headset; just let me get a pencil and paper, and I will copy it.

Okay.

Okay, Mike.

Okay. The purpose is to bring the LM and the CSM state vectors to earth's sphere of influence. Step one: Verb 37 ENTER, 23 ENTER. Step two: At NOUN 70, at NOUN 70, load in register 1, 2, and 3 the following numbers. Register 1, 00002; register 2, five balls; register 3, 00210. Step 3: proceed on NOUN 70, NOUN 70. Step 4: proceed on NOUN 25, 25. Step 5: do not proceed on NOUN 18. Wait for 30 seconds; then do VERB 37 ENTER, 00 ENTER. End of procedure. Over.

Okay. As I understand that the reason for this procedure is to bring the LM and CSM state vectors back to the earth's sphere of influence; is that correct?

That's correct.

Okay. To do it we go VERB 37 ENTER, 23 ENTER; and at the NOUN 70, we'll load in register 1, four balls 2; register 2, all balls; and register 3, two balls 210. We'll proceed on NOUN 70 and proceed on NOUN 25. We'll not proceed on 18. We'll wait 30 seconds, and we'll do a VERB 37 ENTER, 00 ENTER.

That's affirmative. Apollo 8.

I'm just kinda curious, Mike; I thought this was done for us. I thought the computer took care of this little problem.

Roger. Normally, it is done automatically, Jim; and had you done the P23's exactly as scheduled, it would have been, but there was some doubt P23 was stopped about 7 minutes prior to the transition point and just to be absolutely sure, we included this procedure. Over.

Okay. Tell Buzz I sure could use his eye-patch.

Roger. I understand. Buzz had one on Gemini X, worked real well.

Mike, do you want me to do this procedure now?

Did you see guidance? Is the flag set?

We're set, that's right.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Thank you, Jim. We copied your DSKY work there, and it's looking just fine to us now.

Okay.

Houston, Apollo 8.

You know, one thing you can pass on to the program office—something you might try working on right away is —

Can you stand by, Apollo 8?

Apollo 8, can you stand by? We'll try to get you a better antenna; you're just about unreadable.

Alright.

Apollo 8, Houston. We are right in between antennas and if you can wait about 5 minutes with your message, we can have better COMM then.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Okay. You're loud and clear now, Frank. Go ahead and say what you were saying about the program office.

They ought to get some moving out on some way to fix these windows. The three windows, the hatch window and the two side windows, really it's a shame, in fact, that they are almost totally unusable, because they got so gummed up.

Roger. I sure agree. We copy so far on the windows that 2 and 4 are in excellent shape and 1 and 5 are sort of mediocre and 3 is just about totally unusable.

Three is totally unusable; 1 and 5 are unusable for any kind of photography.

Roger.

And, Mike, that sure puts the CMP in a bad light, you know, when you can't see where you are going.