Spacelog Apollo 8

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

Thank you, Michael.

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.

Yes. And when you're sitting between two guys that won't tell you, too. (Laughter)

That's right. You think they will share a window? No soap. You might also note the optics are very good visibility; so far, no coating at all.