The change of shift press conference begins early in the morning as Milt Windler and the Maroon Team come off shift. It is relatively short; the Flight Director is tired and at times Windler is tasked with fielding questions not directly related to his primary mission of keeping the spacecraft and the mission running smoothly (at which he has done an outstanding job, along with his colleagues). The audio for the press conference is below.
[Download MP3 audio file of a recording of the change of shift press conference. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Meanwhile, Glynn Lunney's Black Team has manned the consoles for their last shift of the mission. Jerry Carr takes over as CapCom.
119:44:51 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We're handing over to Madrid in about 15 seconds. Over.
119:44:58 Lovell: Roger. And good morning, Jerry, or good afternoon, or whatever it is.
119:45:03 Carr: Morning, Jim. It's about 6:30 in the morning [of December 26]. [Long pause.]
119:45:35 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. How do you read?
119:45:40 Lovell: Loud and clear. How us?
119:45:41 Carr: Roger; the same.
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 120 hours, 18 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 at the present time; 122,637 nautical miles [227,124 km] away from Earth. Our current velocity now 5,267 feet per second [1,605 m/s] on Apollo 8 as it returns to Earth. We've had conversation with Apollo 8 and we are going to pick up that conversation now.
120:17:54 Carr: Morning, Frank. Looks like we've lost the transducer on the Primary Radiator Out temperature. We're showing an off-scale high. The rest of the loop looks real fine, though. When you get a chance, would you take a look at it. See if you're in the same position. Over.
120:18:15 Borman: Which one is it?
120:18:16 Carr: Primary Radiator Out temperature.
120:18:22 Borman: Ours is showing 100 off-scale high, also.
120:18:25 Carr: Roger.
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, all three crewmembers; Borman, Lovell, and Anders now awake and ready for business. Apollo 8 has completed its platform alignment and as you heard, the cislunar star sighting operation has begun; this matching the stars with, now at this phase of the mission, the Earth's horizon. Jim Lovell, now awake, handles these activities. Following P23, the cislunar navigation exercise, Apollo 8 will return to its Passive Thermal Control attitude. A bit earlier, we performed - just prior to the G&N exercises, put one of our Reaction Control System quads into a cold-soak briefly. The Rad Out temperature transducer, reference transducer of course, being a piece of instrumentation equipment and we wanted to cross check with the crew, as to readings. As part of today's activities, there's a period of television; this scheduled in our prior Flight Plan at 128 hours Ground Elapsed Time. We've just received a further weather update for our landing area. Weather conditions in the planned landing area, this about 900 [nautical] miles [1,670 km] southwest of Honolulu, are expected to be satisfactory at landing time, Friday morning. Weather conditions expected are partly cloudy to cloudy skies, moderate winds, seas about 4 feet and the temperature near 82 degrees [F, 28°C]. Scattered showers are also forecast for this area, which may lower ceilings to near 2,000 feet and visibility 25 miles. We've had, while we were talking here, a brief further conversation with Apollo 8, and we're going to pick up on that.
120:21:27 Anders: Houston, Apollo 8. Over. [Long pause.]
120:21:59 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go. [No answer.]
120:22:09 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.
120:22:14 Anders: Roger. About this rad outlet temp: does your telemetry show that it happened all of a sudden?
120:22:20 Carr: That's affirmative, Bill.
120:22:25 Anders: Okay. I'm on malfunction 23, step 2. It looks to me there's like that there's a small possibility we might be boiling, but I doubt it. So you just want to hop over to step 4 and consider that a closed case. [Pause.]
120:22:48 Carr: Roger. We consider it closed.
Comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
That was our final exchange with Apollo 8, the conversation with Bill Anders. And at 120 hours, 24 minutes; we'll continue to monitor. This is Apollo Control, Houston.
120:25:33 Carr: Roger. Frank, all of your primary loop temperature readings look just fine. Your Evap In temperatures are normal and indicate you're getting normal mixing.
120:27:50 Carr: Roger. For the P23 attitude that you're in right now, your quad tank temperatures are better than we expected. We're still monitoring, and it's looking good.
120:28:05 Borman: Thank you. [Pause.] After we complete this, do you want us to return to the PTC attitude? Is that correct?
120:28:15 Carr: That's affirmative, Frank.
120:28:19 Borman: Would you have someone get up the gimbal angles for us to point the X-axis at the Earth at the TV time, please?
120:28:25 Carr: Wilco. [Long pause.]
120:28:59 Borman: Also, Jerry, I'd like to know our range and velocity at that time.
120:29:05 Carr: Roger, Frank. You want the range and velocity at TV time.
120:33:39 Carr: Roger. At 128 hours, your altitude is 97,413; your velocity is...
120:33:48 Borman: Stand by just a minute.
120:33:49 Carr: Okay.
120:33:53 Borman: At 128 hours, you say?
120:33:55 Carr: Roger. That's TV time. Your altitude is 97...
120:34:01 Borman: Okay.
120:34:02 Carr: Your altitude is 97,413; velocity is 6,072; roll is 1 degree, pitch is 58, yaw 0.
120:34:25 Borman: Thank you.
120:34:26 Carr: You're welcome. [Pause.]
120:34:35 Carr: I just got a newspaper, Frank. I'll go through it and pick out some news items for you.
120:34:40 Borman: Good. That'll be great. We're just eating breakfast.
120:34:45 Carr: How are you having your eggs this morning?
120:34:50 Anders: Bacon. All except Lovell. He's having eggs Benedict, he says.
120:34:59 Carr: It figures.
120:35:05 Anders: That Timber Cove crew, you know, they...
120:35:09 Carr: That's the gourmet crowd.
120:35:17 Anders: Silk-stocking set. [Pause.]
120:35:20 Lovell: Jerry, in doing these P23s, we were just about over Africa most of the time. At least, it was in view; nice weather over there this time of year.
120:42:43 Borman: Jerry, Jim Lovell just checked the P30, P21, and says you're right, 97,800 [nautical miles, 181,100 km].
120:42:54 Carr: Roger. Thank you, Jim. [Pause.]
120:43:00 Carr: We ought to have these computers flight qualified in another couple of missions.
120:43:08 Borman: Yeah. [Long pause.]
120:43:50 Lovell: Houston, Apollo 8.
120:43:51 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.
120:43:53 Lovell: Roger. Was MCC-6 determined for exactly 122 hours, when you came up with that six-tenths of a foot per second? [Long pause.]
120:44:21 Carr: Roger. Jim, at exactly 122 we were figuring 0.5.
120:44:27 Lovell: Roger. I'll try it again now at the same time using the P37 with MA. The last time we did it, before the last sightings, I got 2 feet per second. I'm going to see what I come up with this time.
120:44:39 Carr: Roger.
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 120 hours, 43 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 at the present time; 121,351 nautical miles [224,742 km] away from Earth. Current velocity on the spacecraft; 5,302 feet per second [1,616 m/s] and accelerating. As we pick up the Apollo 8 crew, we find during the conversation that spacecraft Commander Frank Borman is interested in Apollo 8's final television appearance scheduled for this afternoon, the final appearance prior to return to Earth. We'll pick up the conversation now.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston. We repeat those altitude and velocity numbers. At 128 hours Ground Elapsed Time - that time for the final television transmission for Apollo 8 prior to return. At that time, the altitude is to be 97,413 nautical miles [180,409 km]; velocity, 6,072 feet per second [1,851 m/s]. As you heard, we do expect some news items to be passed on to the crew shortly. And so at 120 hours, 48 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
120:53:24 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. We're ready for you to start your waste water dump anytime now. And could we have a crew status report?
120:53:33 Borman: You may! We had a good night sleep. Everyone slept at least 7 hours yesterday, and we're just finished breakfast, drunk a lot of water, and I think we're in very good shape; just used the exerciser.
120:53:54 Carr: Roger, Frank.
120:53:55 Borman: What would you like to know about?
120:54:02 Carr: That's about it. You ready for some morning news?
120:54:04 Borman: Yup!
120:54:07 Carr: Okay. There's really not a whole lot in the news this morning. Things are kind of quiet. I guess the biggest news is the accident rate - the holiday deaths - which is certainly not very pleasant news, but we had 233 people killed nationally, and 9 of them were in Houston on Christmas Eve and Christmas. In the world news, the families made the news again. This is Associated Press: "The families of Apollo 8 crew sent a Christmas message to Navy Commander Lloyd Bucher, Captain of the USS Pueblo crew, released this week by North Korea. The message, addressed to Commander and Mrs. Bucher, at San Diego Navy hospital read 'You have been in our thoughts and our prayers. Your reunion has brought great joy into our heart this Christmas day. Our best to you personally and to all the families under your command.'" And it was signed "Families of the crew of Apollo 8." Space officials said that the message had been suggested and written by Mrs. Frank Borman.
120:55:15 Borman: Thank you.
120:55:16 Carr: Let see. Elsewhere in the national news, the newlyweds, David and Julie Eisenhower, came away from their secret honeymoon hideaway to have Christmas dinner with President-elect Nixon and his family. In New York city, the world's busiest harbor was reduced to almost complete inactivity Christmas day, due to a 5-day old longshoreman strike and a rare hiatus in shipping schedules. No ships arrived or left the harbor. Ferries, running on reduced holiday schedule, provided the only marine activity. [Pause.]
120:56:01 Carr: Here's an interesting little feature item that's kind of good to hear. It seems that up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they have a new youth gang. It's called the Gilnet Gang. It roams the streets of Ann Arbor, acting in secret, and sometimes bypassing the law. They call themselves the Guerrillas for Good. Some of the things they've done is, painted a bridge that was covered with obscenities. They painted it one night. A condemned house with - it's popular with neighborhood children, but dangerous, was boarded up. Downtown planters unfilled because of a debate over which group was responsible, business or government, were filled with flowers. A hedge, thought to be hampering vision, at busy intersection was trimmed, and the owner was angered. Trash along a portion of the Huron River was picked up. Members of the gang are anonymous teenagers who ask for no individual recognition. Their aim is to slice red tape, to get things - good things in their opinion - done. The organization has a faint religious overtone. It's sort of an ecumenical group, said an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who acts as an informal sounding board for the gang's ideas. The name is from St. Peter, the Fisherman's Net. And it's remote enough not to be identified with any particular church. There is a thread of Robin Hood running through this thing, said their teacher, who also prefers to remain anonymous. A lot of their activities are extra-legal. When the system bogs down, they directly administer good, rather than go through the red tape channels. The gang is made up of about 55 high-school kids, boys and girls, and there's another 40 or 50 who belonged to the gang before they graduated. The idea for the gang evolved from a trip to Detroit slum area, where a church group - youth group noted the way that street gangs operate. They were impressed with the methods of operation and decided to organize for a somewhat different reason. "It was the chance to do things for the pure sake of giving," said the gang's advisor. [Pause.]
120:58:18 Carr: That's about it as far as the world and national news and the features is concerned. On the sport page, Hank Stram of the Kansas City Chiefs was named as the AFL coach of the year. This is the second time for him in three seasons. The voting was done by an Associated Press panel of 30 sports writers and sportscasters, three from each city. And the nearest one to him was Weeb Ewbank. Other coaches that received votes were Sid Gilman of San Diego, and Lou Sabin of Denver. As for the Shriners College All Star game yesterday, the North cooled the South 3 to 0. Michigan State's Dick Berlinsky booted a 23-yard field goal in the first quarter and it was all the North needed to beat the South Wednesday, in the Shrine's College All Star football game. [Pause.] Let's see, I guess the interesting things about this are that first downs, North 19, South 16; rushing, North 214, South 169; passing was North 96, the South 109. So, all in all, it looks like they were evenly matched. Looks like Parseghian and his Notre Damers weren't as strong as ole Howard was worrying about.
120:59:52 Borman: Roger. We're dumping the water now, Jerry.
120:59:54 Carr: Okay, Frank.
120:59:59 Carr: For the big Astro Blue Bonnet game, the big basketball classic followed by the Blue Bonnet Bowl in the Dome: SMU and Oklahoma have arrived. They are getting ginned up for the big game. [Pause.] Doesn't say here, I don't believe, which are favored. I'll look that up and let you know later, if there is a favor here. The Davis Cup is underway now, down in Australia, and the US is bidding to recapture that again, and apparently we're favored to recapture the supremacy today. Another item in the news, is 0. J. Simpson; he was named player of the year in college football for the second consecutive season by the Walter Camp Football Foundation. Woody Hayes, as I told you yesterday, was named coach of the year.
121:01:01 Borman: Roger. [Pause.]
121:01:13 Carr: Well, I guess that is about it, Frank.
121:01:27 Lovell: Jerry, this is Jim. We concur on that midcourse 6. Two tenths of a foot per second is what we get.
121:01:33 Carr: Real fine, Jim. [Pause.]
121:01:41 Carr: You want to just turn off your radios and come back without us?
121:01:49 Borman: No. We can't read out the amazing erasable memory if we'd have to go into Program 01 again.
121:01:53 Carr: [Laughter.]
121:01:56 Lovell: I'd tried to get us back on the launch pad a little bit earlier.
Frank is again teasing Jim about his inadvertent call up of Program 01. Jim retorts that he was trying to get the crew home sooner, since Program 01 is intended to be run only while on the launch pad.
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 120 [means 121] hours, 3 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 spacecraft at present; 120,309 nautical miles [222,812 km] away from Earth. Its present velocity; 5,331 feet per second [1,625 m/s]. We received a status report from the crew, and Capsule Communicator Jerry Carr, a sometimes newscaster here in Mission Control, passed along the news to Apollo 8. We'll pick up at this point.
121:03:55 Carr: Frank, one other little item in the news here, I thought might be interesting is - Stand by. [Pause.]
121:04:15 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston.
121:04:18 Borman: Go ahead. You're loud and clear.
121:04:20 Carr: Okay. I got interrupted there for a minute. Bob Hope's back out in Vietnam again with his troupe, doing a great job as usual. One little name in the news story here is from the USS New Jersey. Bob Hope joked from atop a huge gun turret yesterday - or Wednesday - to delight the 1,500 men aboard the battleship New Jersey on its 20th Christmas entertaining US troops abroad. Hope and his 27-member troupe entertained the New Jersey seamen after attending a Christmas mass aboard the carrier Hancock, both off Vietnam. "This must be the biggest Chris Craft in the world," Hope told the seamen. "It looks like Wake Island with a rudder." "I think it was nice of them to take the ship out of mothballs just to give me a 21-gun salute," he said. Hope joked while standing on one of the ship's 16 inch gun turrets. The sailors were particularly impressed by a squad of long-legged girls who came aboard with Hope including actress Ann-Margret and Miss World. [Pause.]
121:05:28 Borman: Did you say that was his 20th trip over there at Christmas time, or overseas at Christmas time?
121:05:33 Carr: That's right, it's the 20th time he has been over - overseas for Christmas with the troops.
121:05:41 Borman: He's as old as Jack Benny.
121:05:43 Carr: Roger. Hey, you can turn off the water dump now.
121:05:44 Borman: We're in the process, or as we say in the aerospace business: that's in work.
121:05:58 Carr: Roger. You do good work. [Long pause.]
121:06:17 Carr: That other aviator that's going around the world, Max Conrad with his light plane. He spent Christmas day in the Antarctic, at Puento Arenes in Chili; he's waiting for good weather so he can continue his flight down to the South Pole. He hopes to get around the world. He is going around both Poles, and he's going to fly from Palmer to Byrd, from Byrd to the South Pole, and then return home to the United States by way of New Zealand, Australia, and Hawaii.
121:06:50 Borman: Brother. He'd better take some No Doze with him.
121:06:53 Lovell: I tried to talk Frank into the same trip. [Long pause.]
121:07:21 Borman: You can give him a weather report from Apollo 8. The South Pole was really clobbered - or at least it was the other day.
121:07:32 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]
121:07:44 Carr: I don't imagine there's many alternates down there.
121:07:49 Lovell: No, I don't think so.
121:07:52 Lovell: We have some pretty clear weather up here.
121:07:55 Carr: No fog, huh?
121:07:59 Lovell: Not outside. [Pause.]
121:08:06 Borman: Actually, it's snowing outside right now with that waste water dump that Bill just did.
121:08:11 Carr: Roger. Does it look a little bit like Christmas?
121:08:15 Borman: Right. [Long pause.]
121:08:29 Borman: Jerry, do you have a decision on what we're going to do about this next midcourse?
121:08:39 Carr: No, Frank. We don't need it.
121:08:44 Borman: Okay. I just wanted to make sure officially we'll scrub MCC-6?
121:08:49 Carr: Affirmative.
121:08:53 Borman: I guess - Jim says that was already official. I was sleeping at the time. I didn't hear it.
121:08:57 Carr: Okay. Frank, by the way, how do you feel about your EMS now? You feel like you've got all the answers to the little funnies you saw earlier?
121:09:08 Borman: Yeah. The answer is don't turn it into Auto, fast. It seems to be very sensitive to jerks, or separation.
121:09:16 Carr: Okay. You figure it's all pretty much just a switch throwing anomaly and if you - if you play it by the numbers and then slow and deliberate, you'll be okay?
121:09:25 Borman: Yeah. I'm getting - I'm getting razzed up here because I said it was sensitive to jerks.
121:09:33 Carr: [Laughter.] We thought of that, too, down here.
121:09:37 Borman: Yeah, I figured you did. I told Ken last night at separation after TLI, when we separated from the S-IVB, we got a nice bang out of the pyros and the EMS jumped over 100 feet per second.
121:11:20 Borman: Jerry, do you want to - I've got here in the Flight Plan to start charging battery B. Do you want that started at 100 now also?
121:11:29 Carr: Affirmative, Frank.
121:11:33 Borman: Okay. [Pause.]
121:11:38 Carr: Frank, we expect it'll take about 3 or 4 hours.
121:11:40 Borman: We're starting it.
121:11:44 Carr: Okay. [Long pause.]
121:11:58 Borman: And we're happy to report the Earth is getting larger.
121:12:01 Carr: Roger, that's comforting. Looks like you are going to make Earth instead of Venus, huh?
121:12:08 Borman: Right. [Long pause.]
121:13:08 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Your friendly guidance officer has got a LM vector update for you and a CMC time update. Over.
121:13:17 Borman: Okay. We'll go to P00. [Pause.] P00 and Accept.
121:13:29 Carr: Roger.
Long comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Apollo Control, Houston. Well, you heard Apollo 8 crew in extremely good spirits this morning. We have a well rested Apollo 8 crew. From the status report, indicated that each crew member had about 7 hours sleep; breakfast complete, the water dump in progress while you listened, and then completed. Jim Lovell confirmed that onboard numbers for midcourse corrections coincided very closely with those on the ground. And at 121 hours, 18 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; continuing to monitor, this is Apollo Control, Houston.
121:23:00 Borman: We're proceeding with the chlorination.
121:23:03 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 121 hours, 41 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8's altitude above Earth at this time; 118,346 nautical miles [219,177 km]. Present velocity reads 5,387 feet per second [1,642 m/s]. We've had only a brief conversational exchange with Apollo 8 since our last report but we'll play that for you now.
This is Apollo Control, Houston. The MCC referred to was midcourse correction number 6 and we will reaffirm again that this midcourse correction is no longer required for the Flight Plan. And at 121 hours, 42 minutes, continuing to monitor; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
121:56:45 Lovell: [Garble. May be 'Old joke' or 'Overkill'.]
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 122 hours, 13 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8's altitude at the present time; 116,650 nautical miles [216,036 km] above the Earth. Present velocity reads 5,436 feet per second [1,657 m/s]. We've had only an abbreviated contact with Apollo 8 since our last report, this requesting a biomedical switch. And we'll play that now.
Apollo Control, Houston, that's it; and so at 122 hours, 14 minutes into the flight; continuing to monitor.
122:32:45 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. We have lost all CMC data on you. The last data we had showed a high middle gimbal angle. Over.
122:32:56 Borman: No. I'm fine. How come you lost those CMC data?
122:33:01 Carr: I think maybe it was just your movement - movement out of PTC.
122:33:07 Borman: I see, fine. Thank you, it was high. I was watching it though.
122:33:11 Carr: Okay. We have data now.
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 122 hours, 47 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8's altitude above the Earth at the present time, 114,904 nautical miles [212,802 km]. Its present velocity as it's coming back to Earth; 5,487 feet per second [1,672 m/s]. Here's a replay of the last conversation that we've had with Apollo 8.
Apollo Control, Houston; and as you heard, this reading on the middle gimbal angle explained by maneuvering from - the spacecraft from a Passive Thermal Control attitude to an attitude for the star sighting that navigation the program 23. And so at 122 hours, 48 minutes into the flight; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
122:50:39 Borman: We're noticing our quad A helium tank is starting to go up again. You got any ideas on that?
122:50:45 Carr: Yeah. We're watching it to, Frank. So far, it's still okay and we're talking about it.
122:50:54 Borman: Okay. [Long pause.]
122:51:26 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston.
122:51:30 Borman: Go ahead.
122:51:31 Carr: Roger, Frank, this helium tank in quad A - it looks like we may have lathered you up unnecessarily on this thing. It appears to be no problem now, as best we can tell. We got a few of the minds together talking about it, and it's been down-rated quite a bit. Also there - the folks down here monitoring the P23 suspect that Jim is shooting on star number 22 rather than star 02, so he may be having some problems.
122:52:01 Lovell: Oh no. We've changed; we're on star 02, on the Moon.
122:52:07 Carr: Okay. [Long pause.]
122:52:25 Carr: Frank, I may have to add some names to my chicken list.
122:52:31 Borman: About what?
122:52:33 Carr: Helium tank A, quad A.
122:52:37 Borman: Rog. I just don't want to be the one that proves the fracture mechanics people are right.
122:52:45 Carr: Roger, Frank. [Pause.]
122:52:54 Borman: This attitude is going to have us right square into the Sun, too.
122:53:00 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 123 hours, 20 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 now 113,087 nautical miles [209,437 km] away from Earth, continuing on its trip home. Its present velocity; 5,542 feet per second [1,689 m/s]. We've had some conversation with Apollo 8 which we will play now.
123:22:14 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We're going to need some data from your last P23 marks. We missed some items, and so don't put it away and when you finish this next P23 we'll get it all together.
123:22:27 Borman: Okay.
123:22:28 Carr: Roger. Got some information for you on this PTC that we'll be going to, right after this next P23 exercise. We'd like you this time to try the nose north attitude, that's a pitch of 180, and a yaw of 315, and also we'd like to give another look at this mode free type of PTC and we think maybe we'll get a little bit of spin stabilization if we try it at 0.3 degrees per second on the roll rate rather than 0.1. So if you figure on doing that at 124:30 we'll see what kind of information we get out of it.
123:23:14 Borman: Okay. You know what I think of that, don't you? I'll be happy to do it, but I think it's playing games.
123:23:22 Carr: Roger. Frank, you're burning right now 1.4 pounds per hour with attitude hold in pitch and yaw. We're kind of interested to see if 0.3 degrees per second will reduce your RCS usage due to spin stabilization.
123:23:40 Borman: Yeah, I know. I predict that it will not.
123:23:45 Carr: Okay.
123:23:48 Borman: Jerry, I'm a little concerned about the temperature. We're getting kind of warm in here, and also the evaporator outlet temperature is up around 45 degrees. Do you have any trend that we're getting less efficient operation of the radiators now? [Pause.]
123:24:15 Carr: Frank, EECOM says everything looks nominal down here. You might try a change in your cabin temperature heat exchanger there.
123:24:26 Borman: No, we don't have the fans on, but what we have done is put up the window shades. That seems to help it. We've been getting a lot more sun in the cabin this way.
123:24:35 Carr: Roger. We'll keep a close eye on things and keep you posted.
123:24:40 Borman: Roger. I don't mind playing games because, you guys have been very nice in the five and a half days. If you want to play games in the next half hour, we'll play.
123:24:48 Carr: Roger, Frank. [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. Jerry Carr's reference to the chicken list - this reference brought about on the Quad A temperature - it appears now that our tolerances are even better than we had previously thought. Since our last report, we've talked with our Retrofire officer here in Mission Control, Jerry Bostick, who has passed along some preliminary entry numbers to us, both assuming no midcourse correction at Entry Interface minus 2 hours or - correction - midcourse correction at Entry Interface at minus 2 hours. We will pass along both sets of numbers and emphasize that they are preliminary. They're updated about every hour or so. Assuming no midcourse, we would be looking at a Ground Elapsed Time of Entry Interface at 146 hours, 46 minutes, 18 seconds into the flight of Apollo 8; a velocity at time of Entry Interface, 36,221 feet per second [11,040 m/s]; an entry angle of minus 6.31 degrees. Assuming a midcourse correction at Entry Interface minus 2 hours of about 2 feet per second [0.6 m/s] Delta-V, we would look at a Ground Elapsed Time of Entry Interface of 146 hours, 46 minutes, 14 seconds; with a velocity at the time of Entry Interface of 36,221 feet per second [11,040 m/s], our entry angle for this mode would be minus 6.51 degrees. So at 123 hours, 25 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8, this is Apollo Control, Houston.
123:25:09 Borman: Jim is trying this set with the eye relief optics so we can give you some information on that.
123:25:15 Carr: Okay. [Long pause.]
123:25:49 Borman: I think it would be very difficult to extrapolate anything that you're getting out of this spin business to a LM-Command Module combination, because the spacecraft handles quite a bit different just with the change of fuel load, including the difference in drifting off in roll.
123:26:07 Carr: Roger, Frank. We just got finished discussing that, too. We agree with your point of view on that one. I think this is more of a curiosity thing than anything at all.
123:26:18 Lovell: I think it's fine. No sweat. We don't have anything else to do here for about another 10 hours.
123:26:20 Carr: Okay. [Pause.]
123:26:27 Lovell: Jerry, what I'm kind of curious about is the fuel usage. Now with P23 and what we were doing, we have a lot more fuel. [Long pause.]
123:26:57 Carr: Jim, we'll take a look at that fuel usage bit. Right now, the trend looks like it is getting better as we would expect with a lighter weight. [Pause.]
123:27:10 Carr: We'll try to get a little more definitive for you here.
123:27:14 Lovell: Okay.
123:27:15 Borman: We really - we shouldn't complain about the fuel usage on that SPS engine though, because we're sure getting a lot of miles per gallon out of it. [Pause.]
123:27:27 Carr: Roger, Frank. [Pause.] Frank, we'll enter you in the Shell road test on that.
123:27:39 Borman: Yeah, but we don't have any TCP in it, or what is that, TCP? Yeah. That's the problem. If we'd had that, we would have probably used only half the fuel.
123:28:02 Borman: If you will get the people to spread out one of those banners around the target area, we'll try to break it, you know, and coast through it.
123:28:11 Carr: Okay. We'll call some of the paper companies and see if they can find a roll big enough.
123:28:17 Borman: It won't take a big roll, just about 30 feet.
123:28:21 Carr: Rog. [Pause.]
In the 1960s, the Shell company ran adverts claiming that their gasoline/petrol with 'Platformate' allowed cars to get better fuel consumption. The adverts showed a car breaking through a paper strip while other cars were left behind. TCP apparently stands for Tri-Catalytic Process. It seems that platinum catalysts were used by oil refiners to crack long-chain molecules and improve the octane rating of their fuels.
123:28:26 Lovell: Onboard nav. [Pause.]
123:28:36 Borman: You tell the doctors that we put William to sleep.
123:28:41 Carr: Roger. You won't leave any scars will you?
123:28:47 Borman: No. No, he's got his tape recorder with him. [Long pause.]
123:29:10 Borman: Bill said to call Valerie and have her to rewind the tape recorder - his tape recorder at home.
123:30:58 Carr: I hate to tell you this, Frank, because Jim probably won't even be able to wear his comm carrier anymore, but that last set of marks put your state vector right on top of the MSFN state vector.
123:31:10 Borman: Come off that, Jerry. Come on; you promised.
123:31:14 Lovell: I'll get you that bottle of brandy when I get home, Jerry.
123:31:19 Borman: Maybe we can get him to go to Program 01 again today, too.
123:31:24 Carr: Roger. That sounds good. [Long pause.]
123:32:04 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Also, on the Flight Plan for l24:30, we'd like for you to run an O2 purge on the fuel cells.
123:32:17 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 123 hours, 33 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8's altitude at this time above the Earth; 112,413 nautical miles [208,189 km]. Our current velocity; 5,563 feet per second [1,696 m/s]. Through Capsule Communicator Jerry Carr, we've had a rather healthy exchange with Apollo 8 crew. And we'll play that now.
123:33:24 Borman: Hey, Jerry. We were going over the checklist on entry here, you know?
123:33:28 Carr: Roger, Frank.
123:33:30 Borman: I've got a question. Is John Harpold around? [Pause.]
123:33:40 Carr: Roger. He's listening.
123:33:44 Borman: John, I can't remember. Is the lift vector up head-down or... [Pause.]
123:33:59 Lovell: Jerry, I'm beginning to worry up here.
123:34:03 Carr: Roger. It depends on which way your nose is pointing.
123:34:08 Borman: Touché. [Pause.]
123:34:16 Borman: Right. You might note for the people at MIT that the next series of stars will be shot by the master navigator with a space helmet on and long eye relief eyepieces.
123:34:32 Carr: Roger. That ought to cut his speed down a little bit.
123:34:36 Borman: Right. [Long pause.]
123:35:25 Carr: Frank, while you're talking about the entry checklist, this cold-soak, have you decided exactly where you want to do it there prior to entry?
123:35:37 Borman: Well, I understood that EECOM talked that over with Bill, and we do it 1 hour prior to entry. We'll do it wherever you say is the best.
123:35:43 Carr: Okay. One hour is fine. It's just a matter of finding time in the timeline to do it.
123:35:50 Borman: I think we can initiate it 1 hour before Sep.
123:35:53 Carr: Okay. Fine. Sounds like a winner.
Comm break.
123:37:06 Borman: Really got all zeroes with that helmet on.
123:37:09 Carr: Roger. We just noticed that. [Long pause.]
123:37:32 Borman: Jim's going to leave the helmet off now for the rest of them. It gets a little anoxic in there. These helmets don't have face plates, and we have a difficult time breathing with that on.
123:37:44 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. The ground readings do show that the cabin temperature is a bit on the high side. We read 79 degrees Fahrenheit [26°C], a little warmer than normal. You heard the crew make a remark about miles per gallon on the Service Propulsion System engine. The reference here, obviously to the Trans-Earth Injection burn, which put them on their path back to Earth after orbiting the Moon. We haven't had a chance to check our numbers to see what the mile-per-gallon figure might be, but we rather suspect it is a world's record. So at 123 hours, 42 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
124:02:26 Borman: Okay. Jerry, that completes the P23. Did you have something else you want us to do now? You wanted to check on something from the last Sep.
124:02:37 Carr: Roger, Frank. We need to get some numbers that we weren't able to copy down here. Stand by just one. [Pause.] Frank, on your first P23, we missed three marks on star number 2. We missed mark number 3 runnion - trunnion.
124:03:07 Borman: Okay. Three trunnion is 05650.
124:03:11 Carr: Okay, 05650. Then star number 1, mark 2. We need the trunnion on that one, too.
124:03:21 Borman: 04216.
124:03:25 Carr: And on star number 1, mark 3, the Delta-R and Delta-V.
124:03:31 Borman: Delta-R is 00006; Delta-V, 00001.
124:03:38 Carr: Roger. Four balls 6 and four balls 1. Okay. Frank, your PTC attitude is pitch 180, yaw 315, and roll rate 0.3 degrees per second. The reason for wanting to point it north is not because we are concerned at all about any changes due to venting; there's been, as far as we can tell, no effects on your trajectory by venting. They just want to try out that direction on it.
124:04:16 Borman: That's fine. We're going to stay in for about two more seconds while Jim takes the pictures through the sextant for the optics people.
124:04:24 Carr: Okay, Frank. And then, also, we're looking for a fuel cell O2 purge when you get a chance.
124:04:30 Borman: That's right. At - I got the word now; it's supposed to be at 124:30.
124:11:18 Carr: Roger. For your P37 that's coming up that you're going to run, use a midcourse 7 time of l44:46. Also just a little note here, the trajectory is looking so good, it looks like you could probably make the corridor without even making a midcourse 7.
124:13:46 Lovell: We're going to set this up for the normal PTC mode for a few minutes until Frank gets through with the - another step of the call.
124:14:01 Carr: Roger, Jim. When the time is auspicious, would you shift the Biomed switch over to left side?
124:14:09 Lovell: I think we ought to shift it over right now.
124:14:12 Carr: Okay. No, they say hold it up for a little while.
124:14:15 Lovell: So you can see the medical data... [pause] So you can see he has the same data that Dr. Berry got on me in Gemini VII is also good for Frank on Apollo 8.
124:14:33 Carr: Roger. He heard that.
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 124 hours, 19 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8's current altitude reads 109,929 nautical miles [203,589 km] above the Earth. Our current velocity reading; 5,641 feet per second [1,719 m/s]. Since our last report we've talked to the Apollo 8 spacecraft - spacecraft Commander Frank Borman and Jim Lovell on a range of subjects, and we'll pass those along.
124:21:37 Carr: Looks like you loaded the wrong time there in P37. You should load 144:46 for your midcourse time; looks like you loaded 146:46.
124:21:46 Lovell: Okay. I'm sorry. Yeah, I have it here. I wrote it down, 146:46. Okay.
124:21:55 Carr: Roger.
124:21:57 Lovell: I guess the best way to terminate this is by going back to P00, is that right?
124:22:00 Carr: Affirmative.
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 midcourse correction number 7 referred to in the conversation exchange [at 124:11:18] is that Entry Interface minus 2 hours, or 2 hours before the spacecraft is due to reenter the Earth's atmosphere. And this would [be] consistent with an Entry Interface time of 146 hours, 46 minutes - would read 144 hours, 46 minutes, so the reference to POO is program 00 aboard the computer, the onboard computer. So at 124 hours, 24 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
124:41:33 Borman: Started the fuel cell purge, and I'm going to 183:15, and I'll start that three-tenths of a degree per second roll stabilization test for you.
124:47:39 Borman: Houston, fuel cell purged to complete, O2. [Pause.]
124:47:47 Carr: Say again, Apollo 8.
124:47:51 Borman: O2 fuel cell purge complete.
124:47:53 Carr: Roger, thanks.
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 124 hours, 47 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. The altitude of Apollo 8, at this time; 108,386 nautical miles [200,731 km] above Earth. Present velocity; 5,690 feet per second [1,734 m/s]. The Apollo 8 spacecraft now returning to a Passive Thermal Control attitude, this one of three-tenths of a degree per second. We will play conversation with Apollo 8 now.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston. As you heard, the purge of the fuel cells, part of our nominal time lines in the Flight Plan, has been completed. The latest roll in the Passive Thermal Control a bit above the nominal mission plan, but is being done more to acquire additional data in this mode. The nominal mission plan being one-tenth of a degree per second, this some variance from that roll rate. Apollo 8 has passed that point in the mission, incidentally, for possibilities of an Atlantic Ocean splash or an Indian Ocean splash. Therefore, recovery in Mission Control Center is now passing along official word that recovery forces in those areas may be withdrawn. So at 124 hours, 50 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
124:50:58 Carr: Looks like you've exceeded your 15 degrees offset PTC attitude, so you can go to attitude hold in pitch and yaw.
124:51:05 Borman: Okay. I'll go back to the attitude. We didn't even get around once, did we?
124:51:09 Carr: Doesn't look like it. So much for spin stabilization.
124:51:15 Borman: Well, we tried it last night several times at 0.15 to 0.2 degree per second. [Long pause.]
124:51:51 Borman: I think there's the phenomena known as inertial coupling that has something to do with that, huh?
124:51:57 Carr: Roger. That could be.
124:52:01 Borman: Put a bigger rudder on it.
124:52:05 Carr: Need some feathers, Frank.
124:52:08 Borman: Yeah. [Long pause.]
124:52:35 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. On the P37 comparison; using the MSFN vectors, we get a minus 1.4 on that midcourse, compared to your 2.8. We ran your solutions through our computer and we also get a 2.8, so your P37 looks good. We are busy still fiddling with the vectors and comparing them and we'll keep an eye on the difference.
124:53:03 Lovell: Roger. Looks like we came up with a plus 2.8 though, and you say you came out with a minus one point something.
124:53:08 Carr: Affirmative.
124:53:12 Lovell: Still quite a bit of difference, isn't it there? Isn't it? [Long pause.]
124:53:28 Carr: Jim, that 4 feet per second difference is worth 0.28 degrees on the flight path angle.
125:07:15 Carr: Roger, Frank. How is your cabin temperature looking now?
125:07:20 Borman: It's getting cooler, thank you. We put those shades up, and that really helps.
125:07:27 Carr: Okay. The primary loop down here still looks real good, so it looks like you are in fine shape. Your battery B charge ought to be done by about 127 hours, and we think you shouldn't even try to charge battery A, since it looks like, at Entry Interface, it's going to have 38 amp-hours on it.
125:07:45 Borman: I'll tell Bill that.
125:07:47 Carr: Okay.
Comm break.
125:08:48 Borman: How is the weather down there, Jerry?
125:08:55 Carr: It's loud and clear.
125:08:55 Borman: Cold?
125:08:57 Carr: No, it's pretty balmy around here today.
125:09:01 Borman: Okay. [Long pause.]
125:09:13 Carr: Yeah, the temperature's about in the 70's here. It's a real nice day.
125:09:22 Borman: Fine. [Long pause.]
125:09:54 Borman: Say, Jerry, last night, Ken was saying something about turning on VHF Simplex A about 20,000 miles [37,000 km] out. I agree. I wrote it down, but I can't seem - I can't remember where I put it. You still want to do?
125:10:11 Carr: Roger, Frank. We've got it in the checklist here as right around 4 minutes - 4 hours before EI, right after your nominal P23, P37 onboard comparisons, page E-1.
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 125 hours, 19 minutes into the flight, Apollo 8. Apollo 8 continuing its descent, its trip back to Earth. The altitude now registering 106,615 nautical miles [197,451 km] away. Velocity now reads 5,748 feet per second [1,752 m/s]. We have had some discussions with Apollo 8, which we'll pipe up now.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Apollo Control, Houston. So there we have it. That was Capsule Communicator Jerry Carr carrying on conversations both with spacecraft Commander Frank Borman and Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell. The Passive Thermal Control test referred to, this at three-tenths of a degree per second roll, showed perhaps greater deviation in pitch and yaw than the slower rate did. We did the exercise at 0.3 versus the nominal 0.1 to see if we would get greater spin stabilization out of it. We did not. We terminated the test within 10 minutes after it started. As you heard Frank Borman reported that he had tried a slightly higher spin rate yesterday evening. The P37 referred to is the onboard computer program or return-to-Earth program. There you heard Jim Lovell comparing notes with the ground. So at 125 hours, 24 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8, this is Apollo Control, Houston.
125:30:07 Carr: Roger. We're showing some garbage on your computer. If you'll hit Error Reset, we can clear that Program Alarm so the next one can be identified. Over.
125:30:15 Borman: We don't have any Program Alarm.
125:30:18 Carr: I think this - this is a carryover from your last Program Alarm there on that P37.
125:30:41 Carr: Stand by. Okay. Thank you, Frank. That did it.
125:30:49 Borman: 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 125 hours, 51 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 now 104,816 nautical miles [194,119 km] abve the Earth. Current velocity; 5,808 feet per second [1,770 m/s]. We've only had brief contact with Apollo 8 since our last report, and we will play that for you now.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Apollo Control, Houston. As means of clarification in our conversation with Commander - Spacecraft Commander Frank Borman, just prior to this contact he did indicate that the cabin temperature was cooler, much more comfortable than they had seen a bit earlier today. And at 125 hours, 53 minutes into the flight; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston at 126 hours, 22 minutes now into the flight, Apollo 8. At the present time, the Apollo 8 spacecraft; 103,065 nautical miles [190,876 km] away from Earth. Current velocity reads 5,868 feet per second [1,789 m/s]. Since our last report, we've had only one brief contact with Apollo 8; this being a communications test, but since some 20 plus minutes have elapsed since that time, we thought we would play this tape for you.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
And that's the end of the tape. At 126 hours, 23 minutes into the flight; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
126:38:33 Carr: Roger. Your battery is full; you can terminate charging. You've got 40 amp-hours on it now, and we've got a couple of requests for data here.
126:38:41 Borman: Roger.
126:38:42 Carr: ...requests.
126:38:45 Borman: Okay. We were just talking about that. I tell Bill stop. Okay. What are your requests?
126:38:52 Carr: The first one is - the first time somebody is down in the equipment bay, we would like to get another reading on your RCS temperatures, those six temp meter readings, and the other one is of the boys in the back...
126:39:03 Borman: We just read them again.
126:39:05 Carr: Beg your pardon?
126:39:07 Borman: We just read the RCS qua - thruster temperatures again, and they're all pegged high.
126:39:14 Carr: Okay. Good deal, Frank. The other one is - the boys in the back room would like some time when everybody's awake - if you would fire up both cabin fans for about 5 minutes, they would like to see what the Delta-temperature is on the telemetry when you get the stagnation broken down and get some flow going over it. So if you can see your way clear to do that, we'd like to see it some time when everybody is up.
126:39:43 Borman: We had that running before in the flight. Did they check it then?
126:39:49 Carr: You mean early in the game, when you were cool?
126:39:52 Borman: Yep. When we were cool. Right.
126:39:55 Carr: Yeah. They got that data, and they were kind of interested in seeing what it looks like when the cabin is nice and warm and the temperature indicator is reading on the high side, to see how the Delta[-T] works in the other direction.
126:40:07 Borman: Okay. Coming on.
126:40:08 Carr: Okay. Thank you. [Long pause.]
126:40:22 Borman: What else, Jerry?
126:40:25 Carr: That's it, Frank.
126:40:30 Carr: Another thing, Frank, is we just want to remind you that there's no charge needed on A battery.
126:40:36 Borman: Hey, listen, these cabin fans - one of them sounds like it's got a bad bearing. We're going to turn it off. It's got a real squeal to it.
126:40:42 Carr: Okay, Frank.
126:40:45 Borman: Sounds like it's got something in it. [Pause.]
126:40:50 Carr: That must be Bill's teddy bear.
126:40:54 Borman: Say again.
126:40:55 Carr: That must be Bill's teddy bear.
126:40:59 Borman: I don't know, but there's something in there. [Long pause.]
126:41:46 Borman: We'll try them again, one at a time. See if we can determine which one's got the noise.
126:41:50 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]
126:42:15 Borman: Number 2 is really bad. It's got a bad bearing, and it whines like mad, so we're not going to turn it on.
126:42:22 Carr: Roger. Thank you.
126:42:26 Borman: We are not going to try number 1 either; there may have - something might have got in both of them, Jerry.
126:42:46 Borman: Sounds like that MG starter of yours. [Pause.]
126:42:55 Carr: I'm afraid to turn my starter on now. It's been so long.
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 126 hours, 52 minutes now into the flight, Apollo 8. The current altitude above the Earth of Apollo 8 now reads 101,319 nautical miles [187,643 km]. Present velocity now 5,929 feet per second [1,807 m/s]. We've had some conversation with Apollo 8 which we're going to punch up now.
Apollo Control, Houston. So Frank Borman reports a noisy cabin fan. Incidentally on the ground, we're not necessarily surprised by this report. Noisy fans have shown up in some of the earlier spacecraft. And at 126 hours, 56 minutes into the flight; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
127:14:42 Borman: Roger. We'd like to leave the PTC long enough to go orient toward the Earth for a TV shot to see if this TV thing is going off on 128. [Long pause.]
127:15:20 Carr: Roger, Frank. That is fine. Do you have the gimbal angles you need?
127:15:26 Borman: Yes, thank you. I got them earlier today.
127:15:29 Carr: Okay. [Long pause.]
127:15:43 Borman: I'd keep this kind of short because we're trying to get some sleep earlier [garble] earlier.
127:15:51 Carr: Say again, Frank. You're getting pretty garbled. [Pause.]
127:16:03 Borman: How's that antenna?
127:16:05 Carr: Loud and clear, Frank.
127:16:07 Borman: I said, will this be a short one? We're going to - we're trying to hurry things up a little bit to see if we can get as much sleep as possible.
127:16:15 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]
127:16:38 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Would you put the Biomed switch on the right side now, please?
127:16:44 Borman: Roger. [Long pause.]
127:16:50 Carr: Frank, do you intend to start your TV before 128? [Pause.]
127:17:02 Borman: Negative.
127:17:04 Carr: Roger.
127:17:05 Borman: That's what you wanted, isn't it? I thought - I thought that's when it was all squared away for.
127:17:10 Carr: Affirmative.
Comm break.
127:18:22 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Are you planning on using the wide angle lens?
127:18:28 Borman: I think that'd be best.
127:18:31 Carr: Okay. Jack says you want to be sure and use the red filter and the filter holder for that one. It takes a little darker filter.
127:18:40 Borman: Okay. [Long pause.]
127:18:57 Borman: Do you want to take both red filters on there or just the one for the filter holder? [Pause.]
127:19:10 Carr: He thinks just the red one on the filter holder will do, but might not hurt to have the other one ready, just in case. [Long pause.]
127:19:38 Borman: How about if we use the telephoto? It will be a little harder to focus, but it might end up a better picture. [Pause.]
127:19:52 Carr: Roger, Frank. If you want to use the telephoto lens, you ought to use the same combination you used going out, the 25A.
127:20:02 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 127 hours, 19 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 spacecraft, at this time, less than 100,000 nautical miles [185,000 km] away from Earth. We read 99,802 nautical miles [184,833 km], the distance that separates Apollo 8 from Earth. Current velocity; 5,983 feet per second [1,824 m/s]. We've been talking and are still talking to spacecraft Commander Frank Borman, regarding his upcoming TV pass at 128 hours GET. And we're going to switch over to that conversation now,
127:22:19 Borman: Ask your EECOM how many gallons of fuel we burned for TEI, will you?.
127:22:24 Carr: Roger. In work. [Long pause.] He's breaking out his sathometer now. [Long pause.]
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
It appears that the discussion at present is going a little slow. That was Frank Borman, reconfirming by the way, our television time at a Ground Elapsed Time of 128 hours, our... [brief interruption by CapCom]
127:23:04 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We will be handing over to Goldstone in 2 minutes. Over.
127:23:14 Borman: Roger, Jerry. [Long pause.]
Goldstone will acquire in 2 minutes. That's a prime site for this television period. We're about 37 minutes away from our time for television. Standing by, continuing to monitor; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
127:23:58 Carr: Frank, the doctors say they're not getting anything on Bill yet. He's apparently not plugged up.
127:24:07 Borman: He is down underneath the couch getting some stuff out; he doesn't have his umbilical on.
127:24:12 Carr: Okay.
127:24:17 Borman: Tell them to look at the stuff they got yesterday. He hasn't changed at all. Just as mean as ever.
127:24:30 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]
127:24:43 Carr: Hey, Frank, this simulation has really been great. What do you say after these photos we recycle back to TLI again?
127:24:54 Borman: That's fine. Bring on the backup crew.
127:24:57 Lovell: Hey, Jerry, yesterday I tried to cycle back to the pad with 01 Program but it didn't work.
127:25:05 Carr: Jim, we missed that. Say it again when you get a better antenna.
127:25:14 Borman: Don't blame your antenna problems on us [garble].
127:25:20 Lovell: Jerry, yesterday I tried to cycle [garble] 01 [garble].
127:25:29 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We are not reading you; stand by one.
Frank and Jim are in fine form today. Jim is again referring back to his accidental call-up of Program 01 and Frank is suspecting that Houston is pretending not to read him. In fact the comm is becoming increasingly worse, possibly due to the PTC and the fact that the spacecraft has not switched Omni antennas in some time.
127:26:57 Borman: I say, Bill will be ready in a minute; he is cycling back and forth under the couch trying to get the TV stuff out.
127:27:01 Carr: Okay. [Pause.]
127:27:06 Carr: Backup crew says they're ready to go.
127:27:12 Borman: Great. [Pause.] That was a fantastic voyage. [Pause.]
This seemingly casual comment by Frank Borman became oft quoted, though mistranscribed, in the weeks to come and even made its way to National Geographic as a tag line of sorts for this mission. The contemporary transcript gave the quote as, "A most fantastic voyage." However, careful listening reveals the correct quote.
127:27:24 Carr: Sure was.
127:27:27 Borman: Now we're - now we're not through yet. We've still got 100,000 [nautical] miles [185,000 km] to go. You know, we kind of feel like it was all over with TEI, but we're still a long way. [Pause.]
127:27:40 Lovell: Jerry, what I was saying before: I tried to hurry up the voyage home by - by calling up Program 01 to get us back on the pad, but it didn't work.
127:27:54 Carr: Well, that's the best excuse I've heard so far, Jim.
127:27:59 Borman: The best of many.
Very long comm break.
Audio for the following PAO announcement is not available.
Apollo Control, Houston. 127 hours, 29 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. The spacecraft is presently 99,211 [nautical] miles [183,739 km] above the Earth; its velocity, 6,005 feet per second [1,830 m/s]. We are just exceeding the 6,000 feet per second mark. We've have had further discussions with Apollo 8, Capsule Communicator Jerry Carr talking with both Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. ...
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Apollo Control, Houston. Bill Anders apparently now unstowing the television gear for the upcoming period of TV. I have some of the earlier communications on that discussion - they were a bit noisy and you may have missed an earlier comment made by Capsule Communicator Jerry Carr when he said, 'Gee, the simulation is really great. Why not recycle back to TLI?' referring, of course, to the reignition of the S-IVB which sent the Apollo 8 spacecraft to lunar distance. Apollo 8 retorted, 'Send the backup crew.' A later report indicated that the backup crew was indeed ready. So at 127 hours, 33 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8, continuing; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
127:39:41 Carr: Roger, Frank. On TEI, you burned 1,480 gallons.
127:39:47 Borman: Thank you. [Long pause.]
127:40:31 Carr: Frank, you going to need Jim's slide rule for that calculation?
127:40:36 Borman: I got 162. [Long pause.]
127:41:30 Lovell: Houston, Apollo 8.
127:41:32 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.
127:41:35 Lovell: Rog. This is one of those rare occasions where Bill left his seat and I'm now sitting in it, and for the first time, I can see the Earth. I'm looking through his monocular; it's pretty nice.
127:41:54 Carr: Roger.
127:41:55 Lovell: You had a little weather today it appears.
127:41:57 Carr: Last word from the weather guys here was that it was clear.
127:42:06 Lovell: Well, we can see South America and Florida and through the lower part of the U.S. Looks like there is a weather front going over into the central part of the United States, lot of clouds over the northwest area. Florida is clear; it looks like the east coast is pretty clear.
127:42:24 Carr: Roger. They're clear but cold. [Pause.]
127:42:30 Lovell: Lot of clouds up in Canada. [Pause.]
127:42:35 Carr: Maybe the geese'll go home. [Long pause.]
127:43:30 Borman: Jerry, we are going to turn it on and see how the picture is.
127:43:33 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]
127:43:56 Carr: Nothing yet, Frank.
127:44:00 Borman: Takes a while to warm up, I think.
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 127 hours, 44 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 spacecraft at this time; 98,361 nautical miles [182,165 km] above Earth. Its velocity exceeding 6,000 feet per second [1,830 m/s]. We have had some conversations with - further conversations with both Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, Bill Anders apparently still out of his seat - getting ready for television and we're going to pass those on now.
127:45:33 Carr: We got a picture now, Frank. It's twitching. [Long pause.]
127:46:00 Carr: The Earth is on now, Frank.
127:46:04 Borman: How's it look?
127:46:06 Carr: We are seeing about half of it. You moved in the wrong direction. Okay. It's coming back, a little more. Good, now a shade toward the terminator. [Pause.]
127:46:30 Carr: A little bit more toward the terminator and in the same direction you were moving it before. [Long pause.] Right; you have got it centered right in the middle. [Long pause.]
127:47:01 Carr: Now move it away from the terminator just a bit. [Pause.]
127:47:11 Carr: Good picture.
127:47:15 Borman: Okay. You want us to wait until 128, right?
127:47:19 Carr: Affirmative. Frank, move your camera to the right; I want to see which way the Earth moves on my screen.
127:47:30 Carr: Okay. Moving your camera to the right moves the Earth to the left on our screen. [Pause.] On our screen, the terminator is almost parallel to the horizontal direction, and the dark part is on the top.
127:47:52 Borman: Okay. We'll turn it back on at 128 then.
127:47:55 Carr: Okay, Frank. [Pause.]
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston. We've just picked up a final dress rehearsal for the actual television scheduled at 128 hours Ground Elapsed Time. We will be back in about 12 minutes with that picture.
127:48:02 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Are you on a High Gain Antenna?
127:48:05 Borman: Roger.
127:48:07 Borman: Roger. [Pause.]
127:48:14 Carr: What beam width are you on, Apollo 8? [Pause.]
127:48:19 Borman: Narrow.
127:48:21 Carr: Roger. Narrow. [Long pause.]
127:49:16 Anders: This is Apollo 8. Do you read?
127:49:18 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Loud and clear.
127:49:22 Anders: Roger. Radio check.
127:49:24 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]
127:49:34 Anders: Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read now? Over.
127:49:37 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Loud and clear.
127:49:40 Anders: Roger. We're just trying something...
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 127 hours, 51 minutes. At the present time, we're about 9 minutes away from when we have the full scale television show. You had a preview of what we might see, mainly a very good view of the Earth. We've had a few additional conversation - very limited conversation I should say, since that picture came on your screen, and we'll play that conversation now.
This is Apollo Control, Houston. Our current altitude on Apollo 8 is 97,847 nautical miles [97,847 km] above the Earth. Current velocity is 6,055 feet per second [1,846 m/s]. So at 127 hours, 53 minutes; standing by, this is Apollo Control.
127:52:59 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. You're in the scan limit right now on the High Gain Antenna; although you may have narrow beam width selected, you're in wide. To improve the situation would take a pitch down and a yaw left, and we'll have FAO check it and give you some angles if we need to change it.
127:53:22 Borman: We just got out of the scan limit by pitching up and yawing right. [Long pause.]
127:53:40 Carr: Roger. You're right, Frank.
127:53:45 Borman: Are we still in wide band, or are we in narrow band now?
127:53:49 Carr: We're checking.
Comm break.
127:55:05 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. EECOM says you're in good shape now.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
Apollo Control, Houston; 127 hours, 57 minutes. We've had some updated conversations with the crew which we're going to put on before we pick up the next television.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston. Our current altitude reading, 97,507 nautical miles [180,583 km] above Earth. Current velocity; 6,068 feet per second [1,850 m/s]. This coincides very closely with the numbers we passed up earlier to Frank Borman this morning when he asked about the television pass. It was indicated at that time at an altitude of 97,413 nautical miles [180,409 km] should be our time - should be our distance at time of acquisition, and a velocity of 6,072 feet per second [1,851 m/s]. We're very close to reaching both of those marks. We're less than a minute away now from our anticipated time for television. Goldstone will be our station acquiring. You had a preliminary dress rehearsal glimpse at what we should see. It could be described as a promo to this the sixth television transmission during Apollo 8. So we'll stand by at this time and look very closely at our television monitors to see when we acquire a picture. We should be some 15 seconds away. No picture yet, but we're waiting with some anticipation. The earlier glimpse we had indicated a very beautiful view of the Earth, one that Jim Lovell had described a few minutes earlier as he looked out Bill Anders' window. No picture yet, but we're standing by watching. Okay, we will switch over for any conversation that comes up with the crew and standing by at this time. A bit overdue at this time on our TV transmission, but we have not placed a call yet to the spacecraft. Our Capsule Communicator Jerry Carr down at his console, just as we are doing, viewing the screen. Picture coming through.
This video file is supplied to the journal courtesy of Mark Gray.
128:01:13 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We're getting television.
128:01:16 Borman: Roger. How's the picture?
128:01:21 Carr: Roger. The picture is on the lower right hand of our screen. [Pause.]
128:01:30 Carr: Camera should go down away from the terminator and to the right. [Long pause.]
128:01:50 Carr: Still down and about the same place; a little worse; now it's coming in.
128:01:59 Lovell: Are you getting it now, Jerry?
128:02:01 Carr: Roger. We've got most of it; keep moving off to the right. Good. You have it centered right now.
128:02:11 Lovell: Well, the Earth looks a little bigger to us today, not much, but it's somewhat bigger. I'm sitting over in the right hand seat now; Bill's got the TV camera; Frank's helping him out aiming it directly to hit the Earth. I hope we have a good picture. Can you see the clouds?
128:02:28 Carr: Affirmative. We sure can. Move it up toward the terminator - correction, away from the terminator just a shade.
128:02:38 Lovell: At the tip of South America, there's a great swirl of clouds down there. It looks like a great storm. I wonder if you can see it.
128:02:45 Carr: Roger. We see a large swirl just to the south of the terminator.
128:02:52 Lovell: Rog. And then up to the left hand side, or towards the north, we can see the light waters around the West Indies, and we can actually see Florida. I'm looking through Bill's monocular, and I can see the various land masses, South America and the central part and southern part of the United States.
128:03:11 Carr: Roger. Move a little bit away from the terminator now. [Pause.] Little left with the camera and a little further away from the terminator.
128:03:27 Lovell: Say again, Jerry.
128:03:30 Carr: Okay. You're moving it toward the center of the screen now, and the Earth is off on the left side of our screen.
128:03:40 Carr: Real fine. That's good. [Pause.] Hold it right there.
128:03:56 Lovell: What we're thinking about right now, Jerry, is hitting that wedge angle, about 2 degrees their limit. When we come back, the Earth looks pretty small right from here.
128:04:06 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]
128:04:10 Lovell: You got it, Bill. [Pause.]
128:04:22 Anders: As I look down on the Earth here from so far out in space, I think I must have the feeling that the travelers in the old sailing ships used to have: going on a very long voyage away from home, and now we're headed back, and I have that feeling of being proud of the trip, but still - still happy to be going back home and back to our home port. And that's - that's what you're seeing right here.
128:04:50 Carr: Roger, Bill. We'll sure be glad to get you back, too. [Pause.]
128:04:59 Borman: This is Frank Borman. We've enjoyed the television shows, and we'd like you to stay tuned in, in the future, because there'll be flights and rendezvous in Earth orbit; and then, of course, there'll be television from the lunar surface itself in the not too far distant future. So, until then, I guess this is the Apollo 8 crew signing off, and we'll see you back on the good Earth very soon.
128:05:27 Carr: Roger, Frank. Adios.
Comm break.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
That, our last television transmission before the Apollo 8 crew returns to Earth, at 128 hours, 5 minutes at the present time. And right now we show an altitude above Earth of 97,073 nautical miles [179,779 km]. The velocity as the spacecraft, Apollo 8, now on its return trip, a velocity of 6,084 feet per second [1,854 m/s]. So at 128 hours, 6 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
128:17:15 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. You're unreadable due to background noise. Over.
128:17:23 Borman: How now, Jerry?
128:17:25 Carr: Loud and clear.
128:17:27 Borman: I say we're starting to stow the spacecraft and get all squared away and then be sleeping and eating. We'll be all thinking about entry from now on.
128:17:34 Carr: Roger, Frank. And now that Bill's up, we'd like to get a redundant components check.
128:17:40 Borman: All right. He's putting helmets in the food boxes. Just a minute, I'll get him to do it for you.
128:17:45 Carr: Roger. There is no great hurry, Frank. We're...
128:17:47 Borman: What do you want it for?
128:17:49 Carr: We're mostly interested in looking at the secondary loop.
128:17:54 Borman: That's what I was going to say. I can't see any reason to check anything other than the secondary loop, can you?
128:17:58 Carr: That's affirmative. [Pause.]
128:18:08 Borman: Now in that cabin cold-soak, we won't have any cabin fans.
128:19:57 Lovell: Roger. I just got on the sextant and now looking at Texas, and the weather man is right, it looks like a pretty good day. Full of clouds down there, but not bad.
128:20:06 Carr: Real fine, Jim. Can you see the kids out in the yard waving?
128:20:14 Lovell: Would you tell Pete Conrad to get his kids off my roof?
128:20:16 Carr: Wilco. [Pause.]
128:20:22 Carr: Jim, do you see the bright spot out in the Pacific Ocean through the sextant?
128:20:31 Lovell: I'll try. We saw it, of course, through the windows and through the monocular. I'll see if I can spot it.
128:20:37 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 128 hours, 21 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 spacecraft now 96,149 nautical miles [178,068 km] above Earth. Its velocity now reading 6,119 feet per second [1,865 m/s] and accelerating as it returns at an increasing velocity towards the Earth. Among those interested viewers in Mission Control Center watching the television pass, or perhaps we should say passes, was Mrs. Marilyn Lovell, along with two children, Jay and Barbara. We've had discussions with Apollo 8 since that time. Since the time of the television transmission and we'll pass along those conversations now.
128:21:32 Lovell: Yes, Jerry, I can see the bright spot. It's - I guess it's the subsolar point. It's off of South America, it appears to me. It is a grayish spot compared to the blue waters surrounding it. It's undefined in diameter, though, I mean, it's not a clear round spot at all; it's just a raggedy one.
128:21:53 Carr: Roger. That showed up real well on the TV's picture. [Long pause.]
128:22:12 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We'd like to belay that request for a secondary loop check to a little better point as far as thrusting is concerned.
128:22:22 Borman: Fine. We can wait for a long time on that.
128:32:42 Carr: Roger. Before Bill falls asleep, we'd like to have him go ahead and do that secondary evap check now at any time at his convenience, and if we don't happen to be able to monitor it with high bit rate, just let us know when you did it.
128:32:57 Lovell: Roger. I'll tell him that evaporator check at any time.
128:40:38 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Biomed switch to the CDR. Over.
128:40:44 Lovell: Roger. In work.
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 128 hours, 46 minutes now into the flight, Apollo 8. The Apollo 8 spacecraft at this time; 94,676 nautical miles [175,340 km] above the Earth. Velocity at this time 6,176 feet per second [1,882 m/s]. We have a couple of minutes conversation with the crew that we'd like to play to you now.
128:48:14 Anders: Okay. Somebody said something about checking out the evaporator, or evaporators. What do you want to do?
128:48:20 Carr: Roger. Before we get too far along, we'd like to see, essentially with the secondary evaporator check, that we've got a redundant components check.
128:48:31 Anders: Okay. Stand by.
128:48:33 Carr: Roger. EECOM says to be sure and let it go for at least 5 minutes.
128:48:39 Anders: Roger. Now you want to check out the primary evaporator also, or did you decide it's not necessary?
128:48:46 Carr: I guess they decided it's not necessary, Bill.
128:48:52 Anders: Okay. [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 128 hours, 49 minutes into the flight. We're coming up on a change of shift here very shortly. The Black Team change of shift briefing now scheduled for 4:15 pm in the big auditorium. Participants for this news conference will include Flight Director Glynn Lunney, his Retrofire Officer Jerry Bostick, Major General Vincent G. Houston, DOD Manager for Manned Spaceflight Support Operations, and Mr. Jerome Hannick, chief of the landing and recovery division of the Manned Spacecraft Center. And this is Apollo Control, Houston.
128:49:31 Anders: Okay. Secondary glycol loops coming on the line.
128:49:34 Carr: Roger, Bill. [Long pause.]
128:49:59 Anders: And the secondary evap's coming on the line.
128:50:02 Carr: Roger.
Comm break.
128:51:07 Anders: And it's stabilized the leg, oh, for about 5 minutes.
128:53:30 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go. [No answer.]
128:53:41 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.
128:53:45 Anders: All right. What do you have in mind here in the way of activating the secondary loop prior to separation? It looks like if we do have a cabin fan problem, we won't be able to do a full-blown cold-soak. Is there anything that we can do that'll do any good?
128:54:05 Carr: Well, right now, Bill, in the checklist, we're showing this activation at about minus 1 hour. Let me check with EECOM for a minute and see if they got any more words considering the cabin fan situation.
128:54:19 Anders: Rog. [Long pause.]
128:54:59 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Looks like a good time. One hour before Sep - Entry Interface would be fine.
128:55:10 Anders: Okay. It won't do any good, then, seems to me, to fool around with these cabin temp valves. [Garble] primary and secondary [garble].
128:55:21 Carr: Bill, stand by. You're - got a lot of background noise. [Long pause.]
128:55:39 Carr: Go ahead now, Bill.
128:55:40 Anders: Read me now, Jerry?
128:55:41 Carr: Loud and clear.
128:55:45 Anders: Okay. This cold-soak is built around the premise that you've got a cabin heat exchanger, in my view; and if you haven't got a cabin heat exchanger, I'm wondering just what you can do. [Pause.]
128:56:02 Carr: He's thinking. [Long pause.]
128:56:28 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We think it'll still do a little bit of good so we'd just as soon go through with it.
128:56:39 Anders: Okay. Even bypassing the suit heat exchanger and that part of it too, huh?
128:56:44 Carr: That's affirmative.
128:56:48 Anders: Okay.
128:56:49 Carr: Also, Bill, your secondary loop is looking good.
128:56:54 Anders: Okay. We just had 5 minutes. I'll deactivate it now.
128:56:57 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 129 hours, 5 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8. Here in the Mission Control Center, the Green flight control team coming aboard very shortly. The previous shift, or our shift I should say, the members of the Black Team currently briefing their counterparts on what our status is as of this time. At the present time the Apollo 8 spacecraft, 93,527 nautical miles [173,212 km] away from Earth. Current velocity reads 6,221 feet per second [1,896 m/s] and accelerating. We'll switch now to some conversations between our Capsule Communicator Jerry Carr and the Apollo 8 spacecraft.
129:08:16 Anders: Hey, Jerry. When do you want to crank up the VHF, anyway?
129:08:26 Carr: Roger. VHF Simplex - well, we had that on the checklist for about minus 4 hours.
129:08:37 Anders: Okay. We wanted - we wanted to put it out prior to max range, don't you think? Get an idea of when we're picking it up?
129:08:50 Carr: Roger. Stand by, Bill. They're talking about it.
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. Well that's the first we've heard from Lunar Module Pilot Bill Anders for a while. He was obviously preoccupied during the television pass. And at 20 - 129 hours, 11 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
[Download MP3 audio file of PAO announcer recording. Clip courtesy John Stoll, ACR Senior Technician at NASA Johnson.]
This is Apollo Control, Houston. We are breaking shift at this time. Flight Director Clifford Charlesworth and his Green Team are now aboard. We do want to announce again that the change of shift briefing for Glynn Lunney, Flight Director, is scheduled for 4:15 pm. 4:15 pm [December 26]. And at 129 hours, 12 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Apollo Control, Houston.
