Spacelog 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.

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.

Go ahead.

Roger. We copy Jim doing a P52, and I'm standing by with a maneuver PAD for midcourse 5 any time at your convenience.

Okay. Ready to copy, Mike.

Roger, Jim. This is midcourse maneuver number 5, and it's a RCS/G&N, and it's 31700, not applicable, not applicable. Are you with me?

With you.

Good. 103:59:52.86, minus 00050, plus all zeros, plus 00001 000 334 001 five zeros, plus 00190 00050 014 00050. Are you still with me? Over.

Still with you.

Good. 413020 183, Shaula, down 064, left 06, plus 0747, minus 16410 12988 36301 146:46:40; north set of stars, Sirius and Rigel, roll 308, pitch 209, yaw 357. Remarks: use high-speed procedure with minus MA. Over.

Roger, Houston. MCC 5, RCS/G&N—are you with me?

I'm with you, Jim.

31700, NA, NA, 103:59:52.86, minus 00050, plus all zeros, plus 00001 000 334 001, all zeros, plus 00190 00050 014 0050 413020 183, Shaula, down 064, left 06, plus 0747, minus 16410 12988 36301 146:46:40; Sirius, Rigel, 308 209 357; use high-speed procedure with minus MA.

Roger. And could you go to ACCEPT, please, and we're going to send you a P27 load consisting of a LM state vector and a target load for MCC 5.

Roger.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Roger. We'd like to dump your waste water tank down to 25 percent; we'd like to do it before the midcourse, for tracking reasons. So if it is convenient with you, if you'll start right now, we'll dump on down to 25.

Roger. We'll get right with it.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Roger. We got those loads in and verified; you can go back BLOCK at your computer. And George Low says he's working on that window problem at 6, or spacecraft 104. You just happen to have the wrong spacecraft.

That's the wrong statement; we've got the right spacecraft. I'll clue you, if it keeps going this way for 2 more days, we've got not only the right spacecraft, but we've got the best spacecraft.

It'll keep going.

Apollo 8. We're starting the dump now, Houston.

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Okay. We're starting the waste water dump now.

Okay, Bill. Thank you.

That's a blizzard.

Roger. Understand.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead, Houston.

Roger. I need a Pop Romeo Dog on all three and a status report on the LMP.

Roger. The LMP's PRD hasn't moved an inch since we took off. And that's the one the CMP did have, still 0.64. And I just had about 5-1/2 hours sleep, and I'm in the process of scarfing up a meal; and I've been drinking lots of water, feeling good, and that's about it.

Okay. And you got a PRD on the other two.

Yes. The CMP is ready to report. The CMP is reading 1.2 rem.

And the CDR: I got stuck with somebody else's, but mine reads now—my new one reads 2.02 rems. I don't know if there is a message there or not.

He's starting to glow in the dark.

Yes. You should have hung on to the one you had. It sounded a little bit better. I copy left to right 2.02, 0.12, and 0.64. Over.

Roger.

Thank you, sir.

What have they measured in our—what have they measured on that, I guess you would call it the VABABR, or VABD?

We're sending the boy to the back room to find out.

Find out what it is, or what it's reading?

First one and then the other.

Apollo 8, Houston.

Go ahead.

Bill's VA and VR reading that he requested is 0.13. Over.

Roger. Looks like you've got a little discrepancy here.