Apollo 8 is established on a trajctory back to Earth. The crew are tired and have requested that Jim's navigation exercise (known as P23 after the computer program he uses) has been curtailed at Frank's request to let some sleep be gained.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control. At the present time here in Mission Control, we're involved in a change of shift. Flight Director Glynn Lunney is coming on to replace Milton Windler and his team of flight controllers. And Lunney, at present, is consulting with the - his team of flight controllers, getting status report - getting up to date on the status of spacecraft and mission. At 92 hours, 14 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8, this is Mission Control, Houston.
A change of shift press conference takes place as the Maroon Team comes off duty. The time is 4:00 am on December 25. The conference begins with Flight Director Milt Windler declaring "whoopee!!" to describe the mood after TEI. Otherwise, this proves to be a somewhat short and reserved affair. Windler's greatest challenges come when he is faced with questions regarding Christmas meals, Christmas Carols and who wrote the poem read up by Jack Schmitt.
[Download MP3 audio file of change of shift press conference recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
092:22:22 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston in the blind. Select Omni Charlie. Over. [No answer.]
Comm break.
092:24:29 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Apollo 8, Houston in the blind. We've lost all data on you and request you select us a good Omni antenna; try Charlie. Over. [No answer.]
Long comm break.
092:28:09 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston in the blind. Your yaw is 42 degrees. Recommend you set pitch and yaw to Attitude Hold for PTC Over. [No answer.]
Comm break.
092:29:58 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, this is Houston in the blind. Switch to antenna Alpha. Over. Antenna Alpha. [No answer.]
Comm break.
092:32:56 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, Houston in the blind. Select antenna Alpha, antenna Alpha. Over. [No answer.]
Comm break.
092:35:13 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:35:34 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
Comm break.
092:37:37 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:37:56 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
Comm break.
092:39:04 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:39:22 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
Comm break.
092:41:24 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, this is Houston, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:41:45 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, this is Houston, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:42:24 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, Houston, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:43:20 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
Long comm break.
092:52:46 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:53:22 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, this is Houston, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:53:38 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, this is Houston, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:54:01 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, this is Houston, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
Comm break.
092:55:27 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, this is Houston, Houston. Over. [No answer.]
092:57:30 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. How do you read?
092:57:36 Anders: I read you loud and clear; my comm here must have come unconnected.
092:57:42 Carr: Roger, Bill. We lost data on you for about 15 minutes and voice comm for about 45 and were beginning to get a little itchy. Is your PTC set up for Rate Command attitude hold? [Pause.]
"Itchy" is strong language for NASA, and the PAO in his next announcement will be quick to downgrade this situation from "dramatic" to a "matter of curiosity". As it happens, Anders apparently disconnected his Comm by accident.
092:58:05 Anders: Roger. Pitch and roll is in PTC
092:58:09 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]
092:58:18 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Set up Omni Charlie. Over. [Long pause.]
092:59:41 Anders: Roger. It's been deadband right around there the whole time. [Long pause.]
093:00:38 Anders: You can take command P00, also, if you want to. You might have to use it again.
093:00:44 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Say again. [Pause.]
093:00:59 Carr: Apollo 8, Apollo 8, Houston. Say again.
093:01:08 Anders: You can take over command P00; you might have to use it again.
093:01:14 Carr: Roger, Bill. [Pause.]
093:01:23 Anders: I'm trying to be quiet so the other guys can sleep, Jerry.
093:01:28 Carr: Roger, Bill.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 93 hours, 2 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 now 11,290 nautical miles [20,909 km] away from the Moon, Current velocity, 5,110 feet per second [1,558 m/s]. We placed several calls in the blind to Apollo 8 and it took a while before we got a response from Bill Anders, and we're going to play that sequence for you now.
Apollo Control, Houston. This sequence, somewhat dramatic sounding, was more a matter of curiosity than concern here in Mission Control since we were and are getting in good to the spacecraft with commands, and receiving solid telemetry. The curiosity, quite frankly, we didn't know for sure if Bill Anders had dozed briefly or if he had gone to the Lower Equipment Bay, or just what. The solution, as Bill himself explained, he had a loose connector. So, at 93 hours, 6 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8, continuing to monitor; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
093:32:58 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Looks like we're getting pretty far off in both pitch and yaw. Showing about 50 degrees in pitch and about 25 in yaw.
093:33:13 Anders: Roger. I get that.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston; at 93 hours, 49 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 now 13,635 nautical miles [25,252 km] out from the Moon on its trip home. Current velocity; 5,037.4 feet per second [1,535.4 m/s]. We've had brief conversations with Bill Anders aboard the Apollo 8 spacecraft and we're going to play those for you now.
Apollo Control, Houston. As you heard, the conversations dealt primarily with communications procedural matters. At the present time, our Apollo 8 spacecraft, by the way, considerably lighter than on the trip out, current weight reading 31,739 pounds [14,397 kg], this reflecting the two major Service Propulsion System engine burns on this day of lunar orbit. I should say yesterday's day of lunar orbit, since this is Christmas Day and we're past midnight, So, at 93 hours, 52 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
094:13:08 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. All systems looking good. Over.
094:13:15 Anders: Apollo 8. Roger.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 94 hours, 29 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 now 19,662 nautical miles [36,414 km] away from the Moon, and it's heading back towards Earth. Current velocity stands at 4,056 feet per second [1,236 m/s]. Since our last report, we've only had a very brief exchange with the crew. I believe some 7 seconds in duration. A systems check, and we're going to play that.
This is Apollo Control, Houston. The acknowledgment from Bill Anders was at - was in response to a quest - a statement that all systems looked good. Perhaps we should qualify our last remark about two major SPS burns around the Moon. Since the Service Propulsion System engine was certainly fired 3 times. LOI-2 was indeed a major burn as a mission event but expended considerably less Delta-V than the Lunar Orbit Insertion burn number 1 and the TEI burns did. So at 94 hours, 30 minutes; it's quite peaceful is perhaps the best terminology, calm in Mission Control Center on this early Christmas morning. And we will continue to monitor any future conversations. But at this time we'll sign off. This is Apollo Control, Houston.
094:54:18 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Your systems are all looking good. Got a Flight Plan update for you: at time 96, you can delete P52. Your drift rates are real small. [Pause.]
094:54:36 Anders: Roger. And I'd like to do the chlorination at about 95:30 if I could.
094:55:59 Anders: We're on - we're on Charlie now.
094:56:03 Carr: Roger. Understand you're on Charlie. Break. Verify your Up TLM switch is - Command Reset is at Normal. Over. [Pause.]
094:56:16 Anders: Roger. It's in Normal. I've had it Command Reset since we broke lock there, and I had to get back and control the omnis, so why don't you go command it over to Dog. Then give it back, and I'll set the other one on Bravo.
094:56:30 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]
094:56:56 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We have you on Delta; you can go to Bravo. Break. Give us a call when you've finished your chlorination. Over.
094:57:06 Anders: Okay. Everybody seems to be stirring around now, so we'll probably just do it on time.
095:05:41 Borman: Roger. We're - we're up and on the job; Bill's going to sleep; just thought I'd let you know.
095:05:46 Carr: Roger, Frank. Good morning.
095:05:51 Borman: Good morning.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 95 hours, 7 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Although the Apollo 8 spacecraft won't enter the Earth's sphere of influence until it's at an altitude of 175,528 nautical miles [325,078 km] above the Earth, our displays here in Mission Control have now switched to an Earth-reference system. At the present time, relative to the Earth, we read an altitude of 189,133 nautical miles. Our velocity reading, relative to the Earth, currently reads 4,055.9 feet per second [1,236.2 m/s]. As we pick up conversation with the crew, we find that spacecraft Commander Frank Borman and Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell are just waking up and Bill Anders is tucking in for the night or we should say early morning. And we'll pick up that conversation now.
095:09:56 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. I have a little feature news and sports news for you if you'd like to hear it. [Long pause.]
095:10:40 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston.
095:10:44 Borman: Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.
095:10:47 Carr: Roger, Frank. I have some feature page and sports page news if you'd like it.
095:10:54 Borman: Roger.
095:10:56 Carr: Roger. First of all, Frank, the guys down here on the consoles want to spread their appreciation for a beautiful television job done. [Pause.]
095:11:10 Borman: Thank you.
095:11:12 Carr: Roger. We'll start out with the sports news. Los Angeles Dodger pitcher, Sandy Koufax, and Ann Widmark, 23-year-old daughter of actor Richard Widmark, plan to marry sometime in the near future. Koufax said Tuesday that no date for the wedding was set, but he and Miss Widmark have been dating for some time. At Springfield...
095:11:40 Lovell: [Garble] again.
095:11:44 Carr: Say again. [Pause.]
095:11:49 Lovell: Morning. How do you read?
095:11:51 Carr: Morning, Jim. [Pause.]
095:11:55 Carr: Let's see. In Springfield, Missouri, Mickey Owen, the old-time catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers who made the record books by dropping a third strike that led the New York Yankees to a victory over the Dodgers in the '41 World Series, decided that he would be remembered by more than just his sports record. Forty-five boys and girls have been the recipients of ponies that he offered. These youngsters were requested to send letters in telling him how they would care of a pony. When the letters poured in, he added five ponies to the 20 he already offered; and other donors pitched in 20 more. And said Mickey Owen, "I thought I'd have about 45 letters, but I ended up with about 900." Now on the feature page: Wellington, New Zealand, about fifty men sat down to the traditional turkey and cranberry sauce at the South Pole today, but the Christmas dinner had an Oriental flavor, as well. It included Sukiyaki cooked by members of a Japanese party who are crossing the Antarctic continent and stopped for the day at the U.S. Navy Polar base. [Pause.] In San Diego, California, the crewmen of the captured intelligence ship Pueblo donated their first paychecks to the workers at San Diego's Balboa Naval Hospital. They had all been given twenty dollars each, and - when they landed in San Diego - and they felt that this was a good demonstration of their feelings for those who had done so much to make her welcome here. [Long pause.]
095:14:11 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We read your antenna change. You still reading us?
095:14:18 Borman: Roger. This is Apollo 8, Houston.
095:14:20 Carr: Roger.
095:14:21 Borman: We just now changed antennas, or you must have.
095:14:24 Carr: Okay.
095:14:26 Borman: You lost...
095:14:30 Carr: In Reno, Nevada... [Pause.] Oh, that's affirmative, Frank. We changed the antenna from here.
095:14:41 Borman: Thank you.
095:14:43 Carr: In Reno, Nevada, because there's no fireplace in his home, [garble] a little boy wrote Santa Claus in care of the local newspaper and suggested, "Would you please use the front door. You'll have to kick the bottom a little bit because it sticks." In Little Rock, Arkansas, babies born at St. Vincent Infirmary during the week before Christmas and through Christmas Day are being released to their mothers at discharge time in huge red Christmas stockings. [Pause.] Here's one in ecumenical cooperation. In Indio, California, the Chief of Police was armed, Christmas Day, with a prayer book. Rabbi Phillip H. Wienburg took over as Chief for a day so the real Police Chief, Homer Hunt, a Methodist, could spend the holiday with his family. This is the third straight Christmas the Rabbi has filled in for Hunt, The previous 6 years, Rabbi Weinburg did the same for the Roman Catholic Police Chief of Reno, Nevada. [Long pause.]
095:16:00 Carr: From the Associated Press, Americans watch Pope Paul celebrate Christmas Mass in Italy, and Europeans viewed a Christmas greeting from Apollo 8 via the most powerful communications satellite yet sent aloft. The views of Pope Paul and the Apollo 8 crew Tuesday night were the first to be relayed across the Atlantic commercially by Intelsat III, which was launched from Cape Kennedy last Wednesday. That's the one we saw go.
095:16:37 Borman: Roger. I remember that.
095:16:40 Carr: Intelsat is a 63-nation international communications consortium; provides a start on the first global communications network. The new satellite is scheduled to begin full commercial service on January 2nd, initially serving North and South America and Europe. Further coverage of the Apollo 8 mission is to be relayed to Europe this week. [Pause.]
095:17:15 Carr: From Washington: "This Christmas, the world is brightened with the hope of peace. When it comes, when hope turns to substance and the guns are quiet once again, it will come because you have pursued it with courage and skill." This was a message from President Johnson to the Armed Forces on Christmas [Pause.]
095:17:46 Carr: Here's a feature by Harry Rosenthal of Associated Press. It says: from Houston. Two Santas brighten the Christmas Eve for 2-year-old Jeffrey Lovell. The first one knocked on his front door and brought presents. The second started his daddy home from the Moon. The first wore a red suit and a white beard and ho, ho'd, loud enough to be heard down the block. The second was a huge engine spitting flame behind the Moon, and thousands of people are awaiting - were awaiting word that it had fired. "Please be informed that there is a Santa Claus." were the first words from Apollo 8 as it emerged from radio silence to inform an anxious world, 15 minutes after the fact, that the engine had performed its critical burn. "None of us expect to ever have a better Christmas present than this one." said Ken Mattingly at Mission Control. "Thank everyone on the ground for us. You know we couldn't have done it without you," came the reply from Col, Frank Borman, the spacecraft commander. At this point, a Christmas the tree came aglow in front of the consoles in Mission Control, and Astronaut Harrison Schmitt read a space version of "A visit from Saint Nicholas" to the crew. "'Twas the night before Christmas, and way out in space, the Apollo 8 crew had just won the Moon race," it began. The Mission Control crew had delayed its celebration until Jeffrey's daddy, Navy Captain James Lovell, along with Air Force Major William A. Anders and Col. Borman were safely on their way home. Any other Christmas Eve, the families of the three astronauts would have been in church for Christmas services, but this year they were all glued to their television sets. The homes all near the Manned Spacecraft Center were decorated. The lawn around the Lovell home and throughout his community of Timber Cove was lined with Mexican-style luminarios, and the four Lovell children came out to light them atabout 7:30. They were just in time. At 8:00, a car drove up carrying a tall Santa Claus with a large sack on his back. He ho ho'd up to the door and knocked loudly. It opened, and there stood Jeffrey Lovell, who will be 3 on January 14th. Jeffrey recoiled at the sight. His mother held him up. Jeffrey clung to her, still shying away. "Last year he ran away crying," saying his 15-year-old sister Barbara. Earlier, she had to run after him to prevent his blowing out all the luminarios. The other Lovell children, 13-year-old James and 10-year-old Susan watched with great amusement. Finally, the Santa and the children disappeared inside; the presents were put under the tree; not to be opened until today. Mrs. Lovell prepared eggnog and cookies for the guests, and they watched a 25-minute televised tour of the Moon conducted by the three astronauts. Later, friends took Mrs. Lovell, Barbara, and Jeffrey on a tour of the neighborhood, brightly lighted for Christmas. Above them in a clear sky, the quarter Moon shone brightly, and the three astronauts, who more than any other men have seen the fruits of creation, pause in their scientific exploration there to beam to the Earth the majestic word; from Genesis. "And God created the firmament heavens, and God called the dry land, Earth, and God saw that it was good." [Pause.]
095:21:22 Lovell: Thank you, Jerry.
095:21:25 Carr: Roger. We have a newspaper coming in after a while; and we'll give you a little more news later.
095:22:02 Borman: Jerry, we have chlorinated the water. We're changing the canister now.
095:22:06 Carr: Roger, Frank. Copy.
Comm break.
095:23:13 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Would you put the Biomed switch to the left, and we'd like a crew...
095:23:17 Borman: Roger.
095:23:22 Carr: ...status report on Jim and Frank when you get a chance. [Long pause.]
095:24:04 Lovell: Houston, both Frank and myself had a meal before bed last night, and I believe we had about 20 clicks of water, and a good night's rest. Just getting up.
095:24:19 Carr: Roger, Jim. Thank you.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Apollo Control, Houston. As you heard, Bill Anders, just before retiring, had requested and received permission to take a short-acting sleeping pill. Borman and Lovell now up, listened to their early morning deep space newscast. After Jerry Carr completed his newscast to the crew, Flight Director Glynn Lunney grinned and said, quote, there's a new item on the wire, Jerry, they want you to take a job in New York as a newscaster. And so at 95 hours, 27 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
095:29:01 Borman: Jerry, this is Frank. Do you have any later word on our trajectory and how the charging looks?
095:29:08 Carr: Roger. Stand by, Frank. We'll give you an update. [Long pause.]
095:30:07 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We're looking at a midcourse correction at 104 hours of about 5 feet per second. Your tracking is real good. We got you in the center of the corridor and on target.
095:30:24 Borman: Understand; 5 feet per second at 104 hours.
095:30:27 Carr: That's affirm. [Long pause.]
095:30:50 Carr: Frank, did you get the word that we deleted the P52 at 96 (hours)?
095:30:57 Borman: Roger. Do you mind if we go ahead and do it now?
095:31:02 Carr: Negative; we've deleted it. Your drift rates are so small that you don't even need to unless you want to do it.
095:51:37 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. If you don't need the computer, we'd like to have you call up Verb 64 Enter so that we can do the B-D antenna switching from the ground. Over. [Long pause.]
095:52:17 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston.
095:52:22 Lovell: Go ahead.
095:52:24 Carr: Jim, if you don't need the computer, would you call up Verb 64 Enter, and we'll take care of the antenna B-D switching down here. Over.
095:52:36 Lovell: Roger.
095:52:37 Borman: We just did an automatic maneuver and then get on back to PTC attitude.
095:52:42 Carr: Roger.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 96 hours into the flight of Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 spacecraft at this time is 187,043 nautical miles [346,404 km] away from Earth. Its velocity, relative to Earth, now reads 4,063 feet per second [1,238 m/s]. During the past 20-some odd minutes, we've had a couple of conversations with the Apollo 8 crew and we're going to pass those on to you now.
This is Apollo Control, Houston. This 5-feet-per-second midcourse correction at 104 hours is performed perpendicular to the radius vector or roughly this would be perpendicular to the flight path. So at 96 hours, 4 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8, this is Apollo Control, Houston.
096:26:15 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. All your systems looking good. Over.
096:26:22 Borman: Thank you, Houston. Apollo 8.
096:26:24 Carr: Roger, Frank. I got some more newspaper you if would like to hear it.
096:26:31 Borman: We would enjoy it.
096:26:32 Carr: Roger. We'll start out with the world news. On page 1 of the Houston Post: praise for America's Apollo 8 astronauts and hopes for international cooperation in space exploration with the worldwide Christmas Eve messages as the tiny spaceship orbited the Moon. Even in the Communist world, there was enthusiasm for man's first voyage to the Moon. In Moscow, Soviet scientist Anatoly Besaranov recalled his country and the United States had shared space knowledge before and predicted the Apollo 8 flight would lead to more cooperation. In Cuba, Radio Havana rebroadcast the Voice of America program to tell its listeners of the Apollo 8 speech. Voice officials said it was the first time that any of the U.S. agencies' programs had been carried by Havana radio. Czechoslovakia saw the Moon flight through extensive television coverage; and in Budapest, Hungary, people talk of little else on the trains and buses. In the non-Communist world, office workers and Christmas shoppers held their breath as the spacecraft was readied for the blast toward Earth. Frenchmen in the street praised American know-how and the space feat, and some viewers watch television lunar photos cheer "Magnifique!". In London, swarms of Christmas shoppers crowded into shops and pubs to watch television photographs of the Moon's craters. Britain's foremost space astronomer, Sir Bernard Lovell, who a few weeks ago criticized the Apollo 8 project on the grounds that the instruments could do the job without risking astronauts' lives, made it clear that he was deeply impressed by the Moon flight. Pope Paul IV said honor to those pioneers of the extension of man's intellect and activity. There were only a few scrooges to "pooh-pooh" the Christmas voyage, however. The most notable was Samual Shenton, secretary of London's Flat Earth Society, who said the public are being balihooed, taken for a ride. [Pause.] How does that grab you, Frank?
096:29:00 Borman: It doesn't look too flat from here, but I don't know; maybe something is wrong with our vision.
096:29:07 Carr: Roger. Elsewhere in the world news, the Pueblo crew landed at NAS Miramar yesterday afternoon at 14:00, and they'll spend a few days there in Balboa Hospital with their families celebrating Christmas. On the local scene here, the - on the local scene, the Retail Merchants' Association has announced that its Christmas gift exchange policy was going to be the same this year as it was last year; that is, very liberal. Fellows, we'll be glad to replace any broken items that you might bring back, too; but, sorry, there won't be any cash refunds.
096:30:54 Borman: Okay.
096:30:57 Carr: Another little bit of local news: the County Court House at Huntsville burned down before dawn yesterday, so, looks like they're going to go into the construction business there again. On the feature page: got a little bit about the waiting families. This one is by Ann James, Post reporter. "We rest on the backside of the Moon," said Valerie Anders on Christmas Eve, as she and her family waited for Apollo 8 to get out of the Moon orbit and head back toward home. Mrs. Anders had been up since 2:00 am Tuesday, and neighbors had just collected all the youngsters so the family could get some rest while the spacecraft was behind the Moon and out of communication. Colonel Frank Borman's home is decorated with four big evergreen wreaths outdoors, sprinkled with powdery snow and decked with red bows. A tree in the den awaits his safe return, and his pretty blonde wife Sue and husky sons, Frederick and Edwin, plan to stay home for the midnight blast out of Moon orbit. Ordinarily, they would attend midnight services at St. Christopher's Episcopal Church. The plans were for the family to go to the Christmas Day service at 7:00 am. Since there are no young children in the Borman home, family Christmas gift giving will simply wait until Colonel Borman comes back with his fantastic holiday gift of a flight to the Moon and back. Marilyn Lovell's four youngsters will have an absolutely normal Christmas as far as the kids are concerned, the busy wife of Captain Lovell reported; but talking about presents was out because two of them were sitting right there next to her. "I haven't even had time to change my clothes that I wore last night," Mrs. Lovell said. Adult-to-adult gifts, however, and the Christmas tree will soon be right there when Lovell - will still be right there when Lovell comes home. [Pause.] Here's a good one on the Action Line. There's a little letter to the Action editor. It says, "We intended to pay you Earthlings a surprise visit by a flying saucer last night. We got scared off by some crazy antics of a fat man and a sleigh and three guys in a rocket-powered bucket drag racing around the Moon. Is that any way to run a planet?" Signed the boys from Mars. [Pause.] Frank, it looks like about the only people around here who aren't impressed by Apollo 8 is the stock market. Its 30 industrials are down 1.43.
096:32:43 Borman: Neil will be crying.
096:32:45 Carr: (Laughter) You bet. On the sports page, not too much activity. UCLA is tops in both basketball polls. If you got any - any particular one you want to ask about, let me know, and I'll tell you if it's in the top ten on either poll. As far as the North - the college All Star game that's going to be played tomorrow is concerned, the North is a slight favorite over the South. Ara Parsegian is the coach of the North team, and he's got six of the Notre Dame troops working for him, so they ought to be pretty tough. The coach of the South team is Frank Howard of Clemson. He says it ain't easy, he quipped, to build a team in 4 days to play Notre Dame. Another little item of interest in the sports page is Woody Hayes from Ohio State was named Coach of the Year by the Football Writers' Association. Well, that's about it. Any questions?
096:33:49 Borman: No. Thank you very much, Jerry.
096:33:51 Carr: Okay, Frank.
096:33:52 Lovell: Jerry, you can do this every Sunday.
096:33:56 Carr: Do you want me to read you the funnies?
096:34:02 Lovell: No, thanks. [Long pause.]
096:34:17 Carr: Hey, Frank, did you get the word that - that Fred made all-district football team?
096:34:26 Borman: Yes, thank you. I heard about that before - before the lift-off.
096:34:30 Carr: Yeah. I thought you'd heard about that. Now, back to the workaday; we need a cryo fan cycle from you. [Pause.]
096:34:43 Borman: We're starting it right now.
096:34:44 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 96 hours, 35 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 now 185,675 nautical miles [343,870 km] away from Earth. Its velocity relative to Earth now reading 4,071 feet per second [1,241 m/s]. During the past several minutes, Jerry Carr has been passing along the second edition of the deep space news round-up. That, along with some earlier conversation, we'll play to you now.
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 96 hours, 45 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8.
096:35:17 Lovell: Houston, Apollo 8.
096:35:21 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.
096:35:25 Lovell: Jerry, in a little while, I'd like to try out a little P37 exercise based on the minus MA. I'll just run one through, and maybe we can get a solution from the ground and see how they compare.
096:35:38 Carr: Okay, Jim. [Long pause.]
096:35:55 Carr: Retro says they are ready to copy.
096:36:02 Borman: Roger. [Pause.]
096:36:11 Borman: That performance at LOI was absolutely fantastic. You all really hit it on the money; I just couldn't believe it. [Pause.]
096:53:29 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston with a battery status report.
096:53:36 Borman: Go ahead. We were just talking about the batteries.
096:53:39 Carr: Roger. At 96 hours GET, 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.
097:02:12 Borman: We'll give you back Verb 64, Houston. [Long pause.]
097:02:39 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Say again.
097:02:45 Lovell: We gave you back Verb 64. And I wonder if you could have Guidance figure out a corridor correction at 114 hours for us, with a minus 6.48 gamma.
097:03:03 Carr: Okay, Jim. We copy, and we see we've got the Verb 64 back. We'll be back with you in a minute.
097:03:12 Lovell: Roger.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 97 hours, 20 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 spacecraft, now 183,882 nautical miles [340,549 km] away from Earth. At the present time, the velocity of Apollo 8, relative to Earth, reads 4,085 feet per second [1,245 m/s]. Although Apollo 8 won't reach the lunar - reach the Earth's sphere of influence until it's 175,528 nautical miles [325,078 km] away, our displays here in the Mission Control Center, and this includes the world map, are referenced to the Earth. The velocity, for example, while decreasing relative to the Moon, is shown on our display as increasing relative to the Earth, but it's a creeping increase, we must admit. At this point about 1 nautical mile (means feet per second) every 3 minutes. At present, aboard Apollo 8, Jim Lovell has been exercising the G&N computer and Program 37, this being the return-to-Earth onboard program, and what he's been doing here is working with the onboard system and figuring midcourses for return home. The Manned Space Flight Network, of course, is the prime, and the actual numbers used. We've had some conversation with Apollo 8 over the past 20 minutes or so, and we'll play that back.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Apollo Control, Houston. Right now, aboard Apollo 8, cabin temperature reads 78 degrees [Fahrenheit, 26°C], which is a bit warmer than on the trip out to the Moon. Also, we've just been handed our first weather advisory for the prime recovery area, and this reads as follows: that the spaceflight meteorology group advises that weather conditions in the planned landing areas are expected to be satisfactory for the next 3 days. Both ocean areas should have partly cloudy skies, moderate winds, seas 3 to 4 feet and the temperature from 78 to 82 degrees. Scattered showers are forecast for the Pacific area. So at 97 hours, 24 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
097:29:15 Carr: Roger. We have a comparison now on your P37. [Pause.]
097:29:24 Lovell: Roger.
097:29:26 Carr: Okay. Based on your vector, the CMC vector, the ground computes 15.3 feet per second on the midcourse, VEI of 36221, a gammaEI 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 gammaEI 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.
097:30:11 Lovell: Roger. How valuable do you think that the lunar sightings we did just after TEI are, as compared to your MSFN tracking [garble]?
097:30:46 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Repeat your question, please.
097:30:52 Lovell: Roger. I was getting curious of the value of onboard tracking in the P23 close to the Moon, in regards to the MSFN tracking that close to the Moon. I think there might be a trade-off for onboard navigation, and I think it might be a little bit better than MSFN [garble].
097:33:06 Carr: Roger. I guess the experts would say that the MSFN data was probably best based on the number of sightings that you've taken. However, that's going to be the subject of quite a bit of evaluation, I think, after the mission. Over.
097:33:24 Lovell: [Garble.]
097:33:27 Carr: Roger, Jim. Be advised that we are beginning to read you very weak, and with a rather loud background noise.
097:33:38 Lovell: Understand. I think we ought to [garble]. [Long pause.]
097:33:59 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. How do you read now?
097:34:04 Lovell: I'm reading - I'm reading you loud and clear.
097:34:06 Carr: Roger. Still reading you weak but clearer.
097:54:55 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. You can turn off the battery charger. Over.
097:55:02 Lovell: Roger. Will do.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 98 hours into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8, at the present time, is 182,270 nautical miles [337,564 km] away from Earth. Current velocity relative to Earth now reads 4,100 feet per second [1,250 m/s]. We've had some conversation with the Apollo 8 spacecraft, specifically with Jim Lovell and we'll pass that along now.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston. What you heard was the ground, via Jerry Carr, talking to Jim Lovell aboard the spacecraft Apollo 8 critiquing the P37 return-to-Earth onboard computer program. Meanwhile, here in Mission Control, we have switched our space digitals display to reference the Moon again. Relative to the Moon, our altitude shows that we're 26,049 nautical miles [48,243 km] away from the Moon, at the present time. And our velocity - this is velocity relative to the Moon - reads 4,871.6 feet per second [1,484.9 m/s]. And 98 hours, 5 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8, this is Apollo Control Houston.
098:04:36 Carr: Roger, Jim. Christmas morning around your house was kinda quiet, says Marilyn. She said that they're all thankful that 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.
098:04:58 Lovell: Hey, that sounds good, Jerry - good old roast beef and Yorkshire pudding.
098:05:02 Carr: Yeah, man. Is Frank listening?
098:05:04 Lovell: Say hello to them for me, will you?
098:05:05 Carr: Sure will. Is Frank listening?
098:05:06 Lovell: Frank's not on the - Frank's not on the line yet; he'll be shortly.
098:05:12 Carr: Okay. How about Bill? Is he still asleep?
098:05:18 Lovell: Bill's still asleep.
098:05:20 Carr: Okay. Have Frank give me a holler when he's ready. I've got a message for him, too.
098:05:28 Lovell: Okay. Sounds good. How's your Christmas, Jerry?
098:05:31 Carr: Real good, Jim. Santa Claus struck last night before I came in here on the shift, and I guess we'll finish off the unwrapping this morning when I get back.
098:05:45 Lovell: Right. He was looking for a chimney on (spacecraft) 103 here, but he didn't see any.
098:05:50 Carr: [Laughter.] You could have left the hatch unlocked for him. [Pause.]
098:06:08 Lovell: I'll think about that one.
098:06:10 Carr: Think real hard, Jim. [Long pause.] EECOM says he could have slid down the steam duct. [Pause.]
098:06:37 Lovell: Sounds good. About that time, Bill would have been boiling water. [Long pause.]
098:06:53 Borman: Hi, Jerry, this is Frank. What's up?
098:06:55 Carr: 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.
098:07:11 Borman: Okay. Thank you. Please reciprocate for me.
098:07:16 Carr: Sure will, Frank. [Pause.]
098:07:27 Carr: Frank, when Bill wakes up, give me a holler. I've got a message for him, too.
098:15:31 Lovell: Roger. Are the Guidance boys busy this morning? [Pause.]
098:15:41 Carr: They say they are. [Pause.]
098:15:49 Lovell: I just worked out an answer to move my landing longitude 30 degrees east, and 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 needed a 600-foot-per-second Delta-VC burn plus, and my Delta-VX changes from a minus 11.6 feet per second. I'd like to have them verify that if I could.
098:16:29 Carr: Roger Jim. Stand by, and I'll see if they copied all that. [Long pause.]
098:17:30 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston.
098:17:34 Lovell: Go ahead.
098:17:35 Carr: 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 transmissions from you and then repeat it. Would you, please?
098:17:54 Lovell: Will do.
098:17:55 Carr: Okay.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 98 hours, 21 minutes now into the flight, Apollo 8. Our space digital displays now again referenced to the Earth - are referenced to the Earth. Our distance away for Apollo 8, distance away from the Earth at this time; 181,428 nautical miles [336,005 km]. Current velocity relative to the Earth, 4,108.5 feet per second [1,252.3 m/s]. Capsule Communicator Jerry Carr has just passed along family Christmas messages to two of the Apollo 8 crew members, Jim Lovell and Frank Borman, and we'll let you listen.
098:22:55 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. How do you read? Over.
098:23:00 Borman: Loud and clear.
098:23:01 Carr: 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.
098:23:21 Lovell: Roger. Wait one. The GERU at TIG was plus 07972.
098:25:07 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. We're ready to copy your data. Over.
098:25:14 Lovell: 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-VX burn of a minus 11.6 and a Delta-VC of plus 600, Delta-VY 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.
098:26:15 Carr: Roger, Jim. We copy and we'll run it through the mill and give you an answer.
098:49:42 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston with a Flight Plan update.
098:49:48 Borman: Go ahead.
098:49:50 Carr: Roger. At 100 hours, 30 minutes, change star number 02 from one set to two sets. Over.
098:50:05 Borman: Roger. Star 02 from one set to two sets.
098:50:08 Carr: Roger. Also, set number 2, set number 2, change star number 11 to star 7. Over.
098:50:21 Borman: Roger. Eleven to Seven.
098:50:23 Carr: Roger. Then after star set number 3, initiate PTC again; pitch, 10; yaw, 45. Over.
098:50:36 Borman: Pitch, 10; yaw, 45.
098:50:38 Carr: Roger. Then at 101 hours, 30 minutes; delete the Earth horizon settings. Over. [Pause.]
098:50:53 Borman: 101:30, delete the Earth horizon sightings.
098:50:57 Carr: That's affirmative. The folks here are evaluating the thermal situation. Looks like you'll be out of PTC for a rather extended period of time. That's the reason why we have you initiating PTC again there around 101 as soon as you finish those three star sightings. We're still working on the - about the next 10 hours after 100 hours, we're looking at the thermal situation, and the star sighting situation, and we'll be giving you more updates later on. Over.
098:51:32 Borman: Roger. We don't have a thermal problem at all now, do we? All our indications here are normal in here.
098:51:40 Carr: Roger. Everything looks okay. I think they're just kinda trying to look down the track aways.
098:51:47 Borman: I'm all for keeping it that way.
098:57:00 Carr: Roger. Frank, I'd like to talk to you for a minute or two about the auto optics funnies that you've been seeing throughout the mission. Over.
098:57:11 Borman: Go ahead. [Garble, perhaps 'Jim's listening.']
098:57:13 Carr: Roger. The problems you've run into so far are due to some unknown source, probably EMI (Electro-Magnetic Interference) or the like loading your CMC trunnion cell which is now 91, so that it doesn't really represent your true trunnion angle. Now this loading problem, we don't feel implies any decrease in the reliability in your CMC at all. We think that the best way to circumvent the problem is to cycle the Optics Zero switch first to Off and then On prior to using the optics for any purpose. And with that procedure, I think you probably won't have any more problem. Over.
098:58:01 Lovell: Roger, Jerry. Understand. I do notice one difference. We did two preferred REFSMMATs. The first one we had trouble with; the last one worked out as expected. And I noticed that for the first one that when the option came up, it was for a nominal option, whereas for the very same procedure for this last REFSMMAT change, we got the preferred REFSMMAT option when we called up the program.
098:58:27 Carr: Roger, Jim. Copy.
Comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 98 hours, 57 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 spacecraft now 179,989 nautical miles [333,340 km] away from Earth. Current velocity relative to Earth, 4,124.3 feet per second [1,257.1]. Capsule Communicator Jerry Carr has passed along some Flight Plan update information to Apollo 8, and we'll listen to that now.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Apollo Control, Houston. Apollo 8 now a bit over 4,000 nautical miles [1,200 km] away from that point in the flight path where it will be recaptured by the Earth's sphere of influence. So at 99 hours, 1 minute into the flight; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
099:00:56 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston with a comeback on your entry navigation calculations. Over.
099:01:05 Borman: Go ahead.
099:01:07 Carr: Roger. We went through the charts and got exactly the same answer as you got. It looks like your procedure is very good; looks like it was real good head. You remembered to average out the velocity. We also went ahead and computed the problem to verify the chart and got a good solution. Over.
099:01:30 Lovell: Roger.
099:01:33 Borman: Thank you very much.
099:01:35 Carr: You're welcome.
099:01:40 Lovell: Now if we can get our state vectors to agree, we'll be in business.
099:20:08 Carr: Roger. On your question about the option: Program 40 fits the preferred flag such that the next P52 will come up option 1, subsequent alignments after that come up option 2. Over.
099:20:27 Lovell: Rog. Understand. So 40 set up with the TEI burn, put in an option 1 for us.
099:20:34 Carr: Roger. Now concerning your restart that happened in lunar orbit, for the peace of mind of the computer people and the MIT folks, we have a question. Did Verb 34 Enter to a flashing Verb 51 in P22 cause your restart? Over.
099:20:56 Lovell: Yeah. That sounds like it was it.
099:20:59 Carr: Roger. Thank you, Jim.
099:21:03 Lovell: That must be a "no, no".
099:21:08 Carr: Yes, Yes. That's a "no, no".
099:21:14 Borman: That almost caused an unscheduled EVA, too.
That is, Frank briefly considered kicking Jim out of the spacecraft. In reality, there is a sense of relief in the spacecraft as well as on the ground that the consequences of Lovell's inadvertent restart have been overcome.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 99 hours, 33 minutes into the flight, Apollo 8. Apollo 8 now 178,529 nautical miles [330,636 km] away from Earth. Its current velocity, relative to Earth, now reading 4,141 feet per second [1,262 m/s]. We've had some conversation with Apollo 8, since our last report and we'll play that now.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Apollo Control, Houston. You heard conversation exchanges between Jerry Carr here in the Mission Control Center and both Jim Lovell and spacecraft Commander Frank Borman. Bill Anders apparently still in a rest period. So at 99 hours, 36 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
099:51:06 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. It's about time for us to start keeping track of some Command Module RCS temperatures; so when you get a chance, we'd like a reading now, and we'll try to repeat it about every 8 hours or so.
099:51:22 Borman: Okay. We'll get them for you right now.
099:51:24 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]
099:51:32 Borman: You want the motor off the test meter, right?
099:51:37 Carr: That's affirmative. [Pause.]
099:51:48 Borman: The 5C is pegged high.
099:51:55 Carr: Roger. 5C pegged high.
099:51:56 Borman: 5D is pegged high.
099:51:58 Carr: Roger. D, high.
099:52:00 Borman: So's 5D. [Long pause.] 6A is high; 6B is high; 6C is 5 volts; 6D is pegged high.
099:52:27 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. Understand. 5C and 5D are pegged high; 6A and 6B are pegged high; 6 Charlie is 5 volts; and 6 Delta pegged high. Over.
099:55:03 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We're showing quad A running a little bit warmer than the other quads. If you remember, I mentioned before that we were coming into a period of time here where we were going to spend a lot of time with no PTC going. We'd like you to try to favor quad A if you can in the shade, and do whatever you can to keep that temperature from getting out of hand. Over.
099:55:31 Borman: Roger. I'm only reading 121 on quad A.
099:55:35 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]
099:55:44 Borman: Quad C is the highest temperature we have; it's 142. [Long pause.]
099:56:01 Carr: Roger, Frank. We're more interested in the tank temperatures than the quad temperatures. Over.
099:56:10 Borman: Roger. I understand. Now listen, if you think it is that important, let's just keep PTC-ing it and not even do anything.
099:56:17 Carr: Negative. There's no sweat right now. We're watching it, and we just wanted to let you know that this thing is being - being looked at. If we get anywhere near a situation where we feel we ought to change, we'll go back to PTC or cool it.
099:56:33 Borman: Okay. Thank you. We'll do our best, but it is kind of hard, though. You are sort of subject of spatial geometry: wherever the stars and the Moon happens to be, that's where you point.
099:56:44 Carr: Roger. We understand. We're going to keep an eye on it down here, and we'll keep you appraised.
100:03:41 Carr: Roger. Pass the word to Jim that on these marks that are coming up, pretty important that he remember to record his Delta-R and Delta-V and trunnion. We're working low bit rate down here, and so we're not going to be able to record that data from here. Over.
100:04:02 Borman: We're recording them all. [Long pause.]
100:04:16 Borman: Houston, Apollo 8. Did you read that we are recording all the Delta-R, Delta-V and trunnion [garble].
100:04:21 Carr: Roger, Frank. Thanks.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 100 hours, 12 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 now 176,966 nautical miles [327,741 km] away from Earth. Our current velocity reading relative to Earth is 4,161 feet per second [1,268 m/s]. Let's harken back to one of our earlier air/ground discussions, an earlier reference to restart an unscheduled EVA involved a bit of banter on the part of spacecraft Commander Frank Borman. Apparently, yesterday in lunar orbit, Jim Lovell, working with his computer, got one of his verbs or nouns a bit twisted. The computer reacted predictably by giving a restart. This came as an unexpected event to the crew. Frank's inference, in a jesting manner, indicated that they thought a moment or two about tossing Jim out. We've had additional conversation with the crew since our last report and we'll play that now.
100:14:03 Borman: As luck would have it, we got the Sun almost directly on top of us here.
100:14:10 Carr: Roger. We understand, but that tank temperature is holding steady, so we're all right.
100:14:19 Borman: Okay.
Very long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston. The reference to quads there dealt with the Reaction Control Subsystem engine quads. From the ground we had a reading, or have a reading on quad A which indicates it's a bit above the temperature level of the other quads, some 7 degrees. And we will be watching this and taking steps to balance the temperatures. So at 100 hours, 17 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
100:31:05 Carr: Roger, Frank. The helium tank temperature that we're watching on quad A has only gone up 1 degree in all this work that you're doing, so we don't consider it to be too terribly serious. What we'd like to do, as soon as you've finish this P23 work, is rather than go back into PTC, let's just roll her over 180 degrees and put quad A on the cool side, and hold it that way until your next activity comes up, which is around 102:30. Over.
100:50:21 Borman: It should be getting cool now, Jerry.
100:50:26 Carr: Roger, Frank. So far we haven't seen the temperature start back down again. We expect to see it, though. [Long pause.]
100:51:25 Borman: Houston, Apollo 8.
100:51:27 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.
100:51:31 Borman: Roger. Give us the word if you want us to maneuver back here before that time, will you please.
100:51:38 Carr: Wilco.
100:51:41 Borman: Thank you.
Comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 100 hours, 54 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 spacecraft at this time, 175,220 nautical miles [324,507 km] away from Earth. At 100 hours, 47 minutes, 47 seconds, the Apollo 8 spacecraft with its crew passed back into the Earth's sphere of influence. Its current velocity relative to the Earth currently reads 4,184 feet per second [1,275 m/s]. At this time, we're in the process of undergoing a change of shift. Cliff Charlesworth and his team now coming aboard. Since our last report, we have had several transmissions from the crew and we're going to play those for you now.
100:53:54 Carr: Roger, Frank. We have some data that was missed on your P23. We'd like you to read it down to us if you have time.
100:54:04 Borman: Roger. We will in just a minute.
100:54:06 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]
100:54:13 Borman: Go ahead. What do you want?
100:54:15 Carr: Roger. On star number 2, the sixth mark, we missed Delta-R and Delta-V.
100:54:25 Borman: Sixth mark, that's [pause]. Did Lovell tell you to do this? Come on, Carr; come clean. Did he ask you to ask for this?
100:54:43 Carr: Who?
100:54:46 Borman: Jim Lovell.
100:54:48 Carr: Negative. Uh-uh. We really missed it.
100:54:53 Borman: It's all zeros, and all zeros.
The friendly rivalry between Frank and Jim dates back to the Gemini era. Here, Frank is being forced to report that Jim's P23 readings were perfect, and he suggests that Jim is behind the request. Of course Houston would never make this request if it was not legitimate, as Frank well knows.
100:54:58 Carr: Roger. All zeros, all zeros. Okay. On star number 7, we missed the trunnion on marks 1, 2, and 3.
100:55:13 Borman: On 1, the trunnion was 03235; on 2, it was 03240; and on 3, it was 03241.
100:55:31 Carr: Okay, Frank. And then the last one is on star number 1; we missed the trunnion on mark 5.
100:55:41 Borman: 04064.
100:55:46 Carr: Roger, 04064.
100:55:53 Borman: Righto.
100:55:55 Carr: Thank you, Frank.
100:55:58 Borman: You're welcome, Jerry.
100:56:00 Carr: That Lovell's getting pretty proficient.
101:03:10 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. You're back under our influence again. Over.
101:03:16 Borman: Very good. Things should start speeding up now, huh?
101:03:21 Carr: Roger. You've been in for about 20 minutes.
101:03:26 Borman: Very good.
101:03:29 Lovell: Jerry, this is Jim.
101:03:31 Carr: Go ahead, Jim.
101:03:35 Lovell: Find out from the Guidance troops if a midcourse maneuver of minus 4.8 to access [garble] at 14 hours would be better than the 15.2 I came up with first.
101:03:47 Carr: Okay. Minus 4.8.
101:03:52 Lovell: Right.
101:03:54 Carr: We've already started checking it, Jim. I bet you thought you sneaked that P37 past us.
101:04:06 Lovell: Big brother is watching.
101:04:09 Carr: Affirm.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Now this is Apollo Control, Houston. Since the Black shift is shortly leaving duty, we thought at this time, that we would summarize the activities that we saw during this 9-hour period. When Glynn Lunney's Black Watch came aboard, we were very pleased to see a Christmas tree, a lighted Christmas tree here in the Mission Control Center which we understood was placed up sometime following the Trans-Earth Injection burn. The shift itself was one of relative quiet. When the Black Team of controllers took over, Bill Anders was awake. The - during most of the period, the spacecraft was flying in Passive Thermal Control attitudes. Shortly after taking over, we placed several calls in the blind to the spacecraft, This was not a matter of concern. In fact, it was more a matter of curiosity since we were receiving telemetry solid and getting to the spacecraft very easily with commands. The solution came when the ground reached Bill Anders and it turned out that the situation was probably one of a loose connector. Shortly thereafter, spacecraft Commander Frank Borman and Jim Lovell awoke. And Anders took a short-acting sleeping pill and retired. We passed along a Flight Plan update to the crew that put the mid - first midcourse correction - or the midcourse correction at 104 hours with a Delta-V of 5 feet per second. This burn of a very short delta - a very small Delta-V, we should say - is prformed perpendicular to the radius vector. This would make it roughly perpendicular to the flight path itself. A little later, Jerry Carr, our Capsule Communicator, tried his hand again as a newscaster and, in fact, passed up a couple of newscasts during the period of little activity; one based on wire service copy, the other based on a copy of the Houston Post. Then Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell exercised a computer program, computer program number 37, the return-to-Earth program on board to practice onboard computations for midcourses. There was considerable conversation played back and forth between the Mission Control Center and the spacecraft regarding this activity. A little later, Jerry Carr relayed family Christmas messages to Frank Borman and Jim Lovell who were awake at the time. Bill Anders undoubtedly will receive one later when it's established that he is awake. We - as we mentioned earlier, reached the Earth's sphere of influence at 100 hours, 47 minutes, 47 seconds; only a short while ago. Although this event took place only a short while ago, most of the morning, as we viewed our space digitals display, we were reading them in terms of Earth reference. And the latter part of our shift, Jim Lovell worked again with the computer - on the onboard guidance and navigation system, we should say rather - in program 23, the cislunar navigation program. As you heard toward the latter part of the shift, we started looking at temperatures on quad A of the Reaction Control System. And the temperatures in the Service Module Reaction Control System quad A have been running about 10-plus degrees warmer than in the other three quads. In order to maintain balanced temperatures between quads and to avoid reaching any thermal limits in the propellant tanks - propellants - the spacecraft just at the - just shortly before our flight control team went off duty, it was maneuvered to place quad A on the shady side. When - it will be maintained in this attitude until our next period of work activity emerges, So, at this point, with no news conference or change of shift schedule, change of shift briefing scheduled, Flight Director Glynn Lunney would like to extend to all visiting newsmen from all parts of the country a very Merry Christmas. And at 101 hours, 5 minutes, 2 seconds into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
101:12:32 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.[No answer.]
101:12:43 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.
101:12:47 Borman: Roger. I just wondered how the temperature on quad A tank is doing.
101:12:54 Carr: We've seen no improvement as yet, Frank.
101:13:00 Borman: How hot is it?
101:13:03 Carr: 86 degrees [F, 30°C].
101:13:07 Borman: Right.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston; at 101 hours, 17 minutes into the flight, and the Green Team has taken over here in the Control Center. In the last few minutes we have noted down here on the ground that the temperature of quad A, the Reaction Control System 4-way motor on the Service Module called Quad A is showing a slight rise in temperature. It's about 10 degrees above where it should be. The other quads are running 70 to 75 degrees [F, 21 to 24°C]. Quad A is presently reading 86 degrees F [30°C]. So we asked Frank to roll the spacecraft around and put Quad A in the shade for a while. Trying to bring that temperature down. We're going to watch it. As yet it has not dropped. Here's some conversation that we've had with the crew.
101:28:13 Borman: Hello, Houston. Apollo 8. How do you read?
101:28:16 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Loud and clear. [Long pause.]
101:29:11 Borman: Houston, how do you read? Apollo 8.
101:29:14 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Loud and clear. How me?
101:29:19 Borman: I wasn't reading you for a while. I read you loud and clear now.
101:29:22 Carr: Roger, Frank. [Pause.]
101:29:28 Borman: I wanted to know what a range sequence test was, Jerry.
101:29:35 Carr: I was afraid you'd ask that. Stand by.
Comm break.
101:30:53 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston.
101:30:57 Borman: Go ahead.
101:30:59 Carr: Roger. This range sequence thing is - is a phenomenon we get on down-voice backup; in this mode, the ranging and the voice share the same channel, so we have to periodically check to make sure that they're not interfering with each other. Over.
101:31:16 Borman: Thank you. These flights are very educational.
101:31:28 Carr: Roger. We are learning a little bit down here, too.
101:31:38 Borman: I hope you're not studying re-entry.
101:39:18 Carr: Roger, Frank. We'd 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.
101:39:32 Borman: Okay.
Comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 101 hours, 40 minutes. The next television transmission is scheduled for 104 hours and 15 minutes, about 2½ hours from now. Should make it about 3 o'clock Houston time. That's pretty close, and we'll refine that a little later. The rise in quad A, that we noted earlier, is - is not - it's no panic situation at all. It's about 10 degrees above where we plot that it should be. We've rotated the spacecraft around, held it on the dark side for a while. And now the - the crew has been advised to go back to Passive Thermal Control, that gently rolling, barbequeing kind of motion, to see what effect that has on the - on Quad A which is still running about 85 to 86 degrees [F, 29.4 to 30°C]. Here's the conversation which has developed over the last few minutes.
101:41:01 Carr: Roger, Frank. Let him know that we've compared his latest P37, and the state vectors have converged to - they're very, very close now.
101:41:13 Borman: Your state vector and our state vector are very, very close.
101:41:16 Carr: That's affirmative, Frank.
101:41:18 Borman: Is that right, Jerry? Okay. I'll tell him. Thank you.
101:41:21 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]
101:41:27 Carr: Don't let his head get big, though.
101:41:32 Borman: You guys are making it impossible to live with him. It always was pretty hard.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
And this is Apollo Control, Houston again. All caught up. A little quiet period here. Let's run through some of the charts this morning - or this afternoon. The cabin temperature - the cabin pressure is 4.9 pounds per square inch. We're looking at a cabin temperature of 78 degrees [F, 25.5°C]. Yesterday I think we ran between 79 and 77 [F, 25 and 26°C]. Showing presently 29 pounds [13 kg] of waste water aboard. Have 37 pounds [17 kg] of drinking water which means a full tank. And our oxygen quantities are well up there. Oxygen quantity tank 1 is 68 percent, and oxygen quantity in tank 2 is 68 percent. Hydrogen quantity is 52 percent in tank 1 and remaining 54 percent in tank 2. Great shape there. Temperatures on the cryogenic oxygen is minus 174 [F, -114°C], tank 1; minus 187 [F, -122°C], tank 2. And then hydrogen tank 1, the temperature is minus 413 degrees Fahrenheit [-247°C]; tank 2, minus 414 degrees [-248°C]. In the weight department, Apollo 8 continues to lose weight at a rather dramatic pace, 'cause before we went into lunar orbit just prior to our Lunar Orbit Insertion burn, we weighed something on the order of 63,000 pounds [28,500 kg]. While orbiting the Moon yesterday, we were down to 45,000 pounds [20,400 kg]. Today after our Trans-Earth Injection burn, we're down to 31,739 pounds [14,397 kg]. And we'll continue to see that reduce as we get closer to home, and particularly when we drop that Service Module, just prior to re-entry. So all in all, at 101 hours, 47 minutes; this is - that's our status. This is Apollo Control, Houston.
