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Apollo 8

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Corrected Transcript and Commentary Copyright © 2003 by W. David Woods and Frank O'Brien. All rights reserved.

[Apollo 8 has reached another historic milestone in its voyage as its crew of Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders become the first humans to be captured by an gravitational field other than the Earth's. Having passed behind the Moon, they fired the spacecraft's large engine for a little over four minutes, slowing them down enough to stay in lunar orbit. The maneuver complete, they have just reappeared to the antennae of Earth and a highly relieved Mission Control are talking to them and looking at the telemetry that the spacecraft is sending down.]

[In 2004, Mike Dinn, who helped run the Earth station at Honeysuckle in Australia donated a set of tapes recorded at the time by his colleague Bernie Scrivener. These tapes included eight extra lines of air/ground communication.]

069:32:39 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

069:32:54 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

069:33:12 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

069:33:25 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

069:33:47 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

069:33:56 Lovell: Go ahead, Houston. This is Apollo 8. Burn complete. Our orbit is 160.9 by 60.5 - 169.1 by 60.5.

069:34:09 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Roger. 169.1 by 60.5. [Garble.]

[This is the end of additional communication made available by the Honeysuckle tapes.]

069:34:14 Borman (onboard): Are we on the High Gain, Jim? Bill?

069:34:18 Anders (onboard): Give me a Verb 64, Frank.

[Verb 64 is called up on the DSKY (Display and Keyboard) which brings up a routine to operate their High Gain Antenna and properly acquire a link with Earth.]

069:34:42 Lovell (onboard): I think I'm talking to myself.

[Jim doesn’t think that Houston is reading them yet.]

069:34:49 Anders (onboard): Okay, that's - Let me go into High Gain.

069:35:24 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Verify your evaporator water control [is] in Automatic. Over. [Long pause.]

[Environmental Control System experts in the back room at Mission Control are noticing that the cooling radiator temperatures are higher than normal. Normally, this would cause a water evaporator system to come online, and provide additional cooling by the sublimation of water. Houston suspects that the system has either “dried out”, or is manual mode. Normally, the system is in Automatic mode, and support crews need to confirm this.]

069:35:43 Lovell (onboard): You taking that at one frame per second?

[A 16-mm movie camera is aimed, we believe, out the left-hand rendezvous window. The Flight Plan calls for a frame rate of one frame per second. When replayed on Earth usually at the standard 24 frames-per-second, the effect will be to apparently speed up the motion across the lunar surface. One reason for the slow rate is to maximise the capture of photographic data with the minimum expenditure of scarce film.]

069:35:51 Borman (onboard): I hear - They're reading us now.

069:35:56 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]

069:35:57 Lovell (onboard): There we go. Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

069:36:08 Borman (onboard): Are we hooked on with the High Gain?

069:36:10 Lovell (onboard): Yes, sir.

069:36:09 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]

069:36:14 Lovell (onboard): They came through at one time, didn't they?

069:36:16 Borman (onboard): Yes.

069:36:24 Carr: Apollo 8. Apollo 8. This is Houston, Houston. Over.

069:36:30 Lovell (onboard): Okay.

069:36:32 Borman: Roger, Houston. We read you loud and clear. How do you read us?

069:36:35 Carr: Apollo 8, This is Houston. Reading you loud and clear now. And verify your evaporator water control panel switch to the Auto position. Over. [Long pause.]

069:36:48 Lovell (onboard): Is it?

069:36:49 Borman (onboard): It is in Auto.

069:36:50 Lovell (onboard): Roger...

069:36:51 Borman: Roger. I am sure it is in Auto.

069:36:53 Borman (onboard): Go ahead, Jim, with it.

069:36:54 Carr: Roger.

069:36:58 Borman (onboard): Well, look here - this DSKY is way up.

[Though the transcript mentions the DSKY, this may be a reference to one of the meters on panel 2 that monitors the spacecraft's cooling systems.

As will become apparent, the evaporator is prone to drying out. At this time of high activity in the spacecraft, many systems have been powered up for the LOI burn and the evaporator ought to be helping to remove the extra heat generated. If it has dried out, we would expect the temperatures at its outlet to rise. Bill will have to service the evaporator to restore its function.]

069:37:45 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. The burn on time. Burn time of 4:06.5. V_GX is minus 1.4. [Long pause.]

069:38:05 Borman (onboard): Bill, how come this is so high here now?

069:38:08 Anders (onboard): [Garble.]

069:38:10 Borman (onboard): Huh?

069:38:12 Anders (onboard): I'm checking the fan out.

069:38:13 Borman (onboard): Is it alright?

069:38:14 Anders (onboard): I'll let you know.

069:38:19 Carr: Apollo 8. Houston. Verify your Evap. water control on panel 382 is Auto. Your Evap. Out temperature is high. Over.

[On the left-hand side of the spacecraft is a blank panel that covers panel 382. Behind that are controls for the ECS (Environmental Control System).

The two controls near the bottom are those for the evaporators.]

068:38:40 Anders: Houston. Apollo 8. Roger. Primary Evap. is Auto. H₂ flow Auto. Do you recommend activating the secondary water boiler?

069:38:51 Carr: Roger. Copy. Stand by. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Apollo Control Houston. The conversation taking place is with Bill Anders aboard the spacecraft."

069:38:57 Borman (onboard): Now, Jim, let's get this problem squared away here, or we won't be going anywhere.

069:39:03 Borman (onboard): We're not boiling, Ji - Bill?

[The crew tend to refer to the evaporators as 'boilers' because that is essentially what they do. Readers should be aware that this does not mean they operate at 100°C. The vacuum in which they operate means that the water boils at a low temperature, cold enough to form ice. This was a worry in the Command Module evaporators because if the water supply were to ice up, it could crack the pipes within the ECS unit and breach the spacecraft's pressure integrity.]

069:39:10 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Re-verify manual valve on panel 382, Evaporator water control, Automatic. Over.

069:39:22 Anders: Roger. Verified. [Long pause.]

069:39:25 Lovell (onboard): Any help down here?

069:39:26 Anders (onboard): Well, you might reverify it again. It's the one next to the secondary one that you had turned on.

069:39:32 Lovell (onboard): Okay.

069:39:36 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Recommend you activate your secondary water evaporator. [Long pause.]

069:39:54 Anders: Secondary Evap. coming online.

[Since the primary water evaporator isn’t working, Houston is recommending that the secondary cooling system be turned on. This will certainly take care of their immediate cooling problems, but the long term solution is to get the primary evaporator working again. The secondary system has it's own evaporator which is entirely automatic.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Apollo Control, Houston. Ground data closely coincides with that aboard the spacecraft."

069:40:01 Lovell (onboard): Secondary evaporator is in Auto.

069:40:03 Anders (onboard): Primary is the main one.

069:40:05 Lovell (onboard): In Auto.

069:40:07 Borman (onboard): It [the primary evaporator] dried up.

069:40:09 Lovell (onboard): Can you get water to it?

069:40:21 Borman (onboard): How's the secondary one - primary one doing - secondary one doing, Bill?

069:40:25 Anders (onboard): Secondary one is doing great.

069:40:27 Borman (onboard): It's operating?

069:40:40 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Turn off your DSE and we'll go to high bit rate. Over.

069:40:49 Anders: Roger.

069:40:52 Carr: Apollo 8. This is Houston. I'll continue my readback of the burn status report. Copied V_GX, zero; V_GY, zero; V_GZ, 1.2; Delta-V Charlie, minus 20.2. Over. [Pause.]

069:41:15 Anders: Stand by; he's getting the chart out again.

069:41:21 Lovell: Delta-V_GZ was 0.2.

069:41:26 Carr: Roger. Understand; 0.2 on V_GZ. [Long pause.]

069:41:53 Anders: Houston. This is Apollo 8. We're on malfunction 1 of 6, going through step 1 to step 2. Over.

069:42:02 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. Copy.

069:42:08 Anders: Correction. That's to step 4.

069:42:10 Carr: Roger. Copy. To step 4. [Long pause.]

069:42:41 Anders: Now to step 13.

069:42:44 Carr: Roger. Step 13. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Apollo Control, Houston. What you are hearing here is checkout procedure of the Environmental Control System. The voice principally from the spacecraft, that of Bill Anders, the systems engineer member of the team aboard."

069:43:14 Anders: Now to step 14.

069:43:18 Carr: Houston, Roger. [Pause.]

069:43:25 Anders: Looks like the boiler dried out somewhere along the line.

[Ground crews had noticed the tendency of this evaporator to dry out. Their conclusion, stated during the Flight Readiness Review of 19 November 1968 was that it wasn't a problem because the crew could always reservice the unit.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Apollo Control, Houston. Our ground readings on this orbit; 168 nautical miles apolune, perilune of 60.4 nautical miles [311.1 by 111.9 km]."

[This determination of their orbit made by analysis of their range and Doppler effect as measured by the Earth stations agrees very closely with the on-board solution.]

069:44:26 Carr: Apollo 8.

069:44:27 Borman: Apogee, 169.1; perigee, 60.5.

069:44:36 Carr: Apollo 8. This is Houston. Roger. I'll read back again. The burn was on time, 4 minutes and 6½ seconds; V_GX, minus 1.4; trim nominal; V_GY, 0; V_GZ, minus 0.2; Delta-V Charlie, minus 20.2. Over.

069:45:05 Borman: That's Roger.

069:45:06 Carr: Roger. We copy your apogee and perigee. [Long pause.]

069:45:24 Anders: Steam pressure's coming up.

[Bill is looking at the pressure generated by the water evaporation process. Technically, it is correct to say that the water vapor created is "steam", but this is not the hot, 100 degree C we think of when we say steam. Rather, it is cold water vapor, under very slight pressure (under 0.2 psi).]

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Apollo Control, Houston. So you've had the first status report from an Apollo crew in lunar orbit. The unmanned Lunar Orbiter spacecraft traversed the Moon, perhaps 10,000 times but this is the first man aboard, in this case Frank Borman, reported to his compatriots here on Earth."

069:46:37 Anders: Step 15.

069:46:39 Carr: Roger. Concur.

069:46:41 Anders: Very good. [Long pause.]

[At times when the crew are not talking directly to Earth, their onboard conversation can be heard breaking through onto the comm circuit. Though highly distorted, occasional words can sometimes be discerned, Bill's reply here being an example.]

069:47:04 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. We concur. [Long pause.]

069:47:20 Anders: Okay. Houston, keep a good eye on it.

069:47:23 Carr: Roger, we're watching.

069:47:28 Anders: Okay. Nice job on the malfunction procedures.

069:47:32 Carr: Roger, Bill. Thanks. [Pause.]

069:47:39 Anders: You, too.

[Comm break.]

069:49:06 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Wilco. [Long pause.]

069:49:40 Lovell: Houston, Apollo 8.

069:49:41 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

069:49:47 Lovell: Roger. For information, we're passing over just to the side of the crater Langrenus at this time, going into the Sea of Fertility.

069:49:57 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Roger.

[Comm break.]

[Langrenus is a striking, large crater on the southeastern shore of Mare Fecunditatis (Sea of Fertility).

Click to see larger image.

This photo, taken by the author (Woods), shows Langrenus with the Sun shining from the west to show the complex topography of the crater. Being sited near the eastern limb of the Moon, for Apollo 8, the Sun is already quite high over Langrenus, making its topography more difficult to distinguish. It is 132 kilometres in diameter, has a collection of central peaks and a complex system of terraces inside its rim, the result of large-scale slumping of its walls soon after its formation. The crater carries the latinised name of Michel Florent van Langren (circa 1600 - 1675), a Flemish mapmaker who pioneered the production of lunar maps.]

069:51:04 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. What does the ole Moon look like from 60 miles? Over. [Pause.]

069:51:16 Lovell: Okay, Houston. The Moon is essentially grey, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand. We can see quite a bit of detail. The Sea of Fertility doesn't stand out as well here as it does back on Earth. There's not as much contrast between that and the surrounding craters. [Pause.] The craters are all rounded off. There's quite a few of them, some of them are newer. Many of them look like - especially the round ones - look like hit by meteorites or projectiles of some sort. [Pause.] Langrenus is quite a huge crater; it's got a central cone to it. [Long pause.] The walls of the crater are terraced, about six or seven different terraces on the way down. [Long pause.]

[Jim's impressions of what he sees have been replayed many times on documentary films of the Apollo program, especially his first sentence. Though his words are honest, they predate NASA's emphasis on science and geology that led to later commanders, Jim included, becoming accomplished field geologists themselves and enthusiasts of what the Moon's landscape has to offer. Perhaps as a consequence, his portrayal of the lunar surface as grey and colourless set a tone for the public's subsequent perception of the Moon as uninteresting.]

069:52:40 Lovell: And coming up now (in) the Sea of Fertility are the old friends Messier and Pickering that I looked about so much on Earth.

[Crater Pickering has since been renamed Messier A. It and Messier are a distinctive pair of craters in the middle of Mare Fecunditatis. Both are elongated with their long axis roughly aligned. A striking pair of rays splay across the mare surface to the west while fainter rays are cast north and south at right angles to these. The curious geometry of this pair have led to a range of formation scenarios, the most popular of which invokes a bouncing impactor. This holds that an object hit at an extremely shallow angle, travelling east to west. It gouged out Messier, flew a further 25 kilometres before forming Messier A. The craters are named after Charles Messier (1730-1817) who was a prolific discoverer of comets. To aid his work, he compiled a catalogue of fuzzy celestial objects for which he is now far better known.]

069:52:50 Lovell: And I can see the rays coming out of blaze [?] Pickering. We're coming up now near our P-1 initial site which I'm going to try and see. Be advised the round window, the hatch window, is completely iced over; we cannot use it. Bill and I are sharing the rendezvous window. [Long pause.]

[The hatch window is not literally iced over. Rather, an outgassing of fumes from the sealant materials around the large windows is fogging them up.]

[One of the tasks assigned to Apollo 8 is to take a close look at one of the favoured sites for a future Apollo landing. Apollo site selection was, by this time, constraining the number of suitable sites to just five, two of which were smooth areas to the east of the Moon's near side. The easternmost site, east of the crater Maskelyne and near the southern shore of Mare Tranquillitatis, is the prime target for Apollo 8 even to the extent that the time of launch from Earth was chosen so that the lighting at the site would be similar to that expected on a real landing mission.]

[The second site in Mare Tranquillitatis was originally selected to be 12° further west from P-1, this being the distance the Moon's terminator moves in an Earth-day. Then, if the launch of a landing mission had to be postponed for a day, the lighting conditions would be repeated further west. In seven months, Apollo 11 would land at this second, more westerly site.]

069:53:24 Lovell: Roger. The rays out of Pickering are quite faint from here; there are two different groups coming - going to the left, they don't appear to be - have any depth to them at all, just rays coming out.

069:53:42 Carr: Roger.

069:53:45 Lovell: They look like just changes in the color of the mare. [Long pause.]

[The rays coming from the Messier craters, like most rays on the Moon, are caused by shock-fractured rock being sprayed out over the mare. The fracturing exposes crystalline surfaces that catch the sunlight. Lovell seems to have been looking out for the rays adding a hummocky topography to the mare surface. Instead, he observes that they add only a thin veneer.]

[Coolant temperatures have now lowered to a point where the backup radiators are no longer needed.]

069:54:45 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. You can leave that secondary pump on for just a few minutes. Over.

069:54:54 Borman: Stand...

069:54:54 Anders: Roger. Remind us. [Long pause.]

069:55:28 Lovell: Okay over to my right are the Pyrenees Mountains coming up and we're just about over Messier and Pickering [Messier A] right now. Our first initial point is easily seen from our altitude. We're getting quite a bit of contrast as we appear - as we approach the terminator. [Pause.] The view appears to be good, no reflection of the Sun back to our eyes; it appears that visibility at this particular spot is excellent. It's very easy to pick out our first initial point; and over this mountain chain we can see the second initial point, the Triangular Mountain. [Pause.]

[Jim is looking towards the southern side of their current ground track, and as they pass across the centre of Mare Fecunditatis, he can see the mountain range that borders the eastern shore of Mare Nectaris.]

[The approaches to the landing sites included a couple of recognisable points the crews could use to check the timings of a landing trajectory. Jim has just called the second one of these the Triangular Mountain but later in the mission, he will label it Mount Marilyn after his wife. Though not official, it is a name that is likely to stick, especially having been included in the storyline of the 1995 movie Apollo 13.]

Public Affairs Officer - "The principal speaker that you've heard during most of this discourse has been Jim Lovell but that last voice was that of Bill Anders."

[The Mission Report includes a list of all the Target of Opportunity Bill has been tasked to photograph if possible.

Click to see larger image.

Target of Opportunity 72 is a cluster of craters east of the crater Colombo, or to its left in this photograph composited from AS08-13-2215 to 2227 using low-resolution index scans. Colombo and Gutenberg are two large craters between Mare Fecunditatis and Montes Pyrenaeus. Also of note in this area is Goclenius. Gaudibert is beyond these three. Note that perspective effects mean that the top and bottom of this pan will have large geometric distortions. The target is the cluster of craters beyond and including Crozier. These craters all have a similar size yet have different floor morphologies. To the right of Crozier is one of only a handful of "doughnut craters" on the Moon. It is far from clear how these unusual crater-within-a-crater features formed. They all have a similar shape and size and both the outer and inner crater seem to have been formed together.

Click to see larger image.

This image, AS08-13-2225, is part of the sequence in the earlier composite image. Note the impressive rille system can be seen within Goclenius. There are many of these large 'fractured floor' craters on the Moon but Goclenius stands out because it also straddles a set of graben-type rilles that border Mare Fecunditatis. By the fact that at least one of these rilles is superimposed on the crater floor, rim and surrounding mare shows how relative ages can be determined from this photograph. The crater itself is the earliest feature here followed by the smooth mare surface that surrounds it and laps against its exterior wall. The interior of Goclenius and the rilles that cross its surface probably also formed around this time. Finally, the immense weight of the dense basalts of Mare Fecunditatis caused the centre of the mare to sink. This stretched the landscape at the shore, forming the large arcuate grabens that now cut across Goclenius.]

[Goclenius is the latinised name of Rudolf Gockel (1572-1621), a German scientist. The crater, Colombo is named after the seafarer, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) who discovered America in 1492. Johann Gutenburg (1398-1468) was the German inventor of movable type and the printing press, and Francis Crozier (1796-1848) was a polar explorer.]

069:57:56 Carr: Roger, Jim. [Pause.]

069:58:04 Lovell: I can see very clearly the five crater star formation which we had on our lunar charts.

069:58:14 Carr: Roger.

069:58:18 Lovell: And right now, I'm trying to pick out visually B-1. [Pause.]

069:58:28 Carr: Roger Jim. Bill, you can turn off the secondary Evap. pump now. [Pause.]

069:58:40 Borman: Houston, this is Apollo 8.

069:58:43 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

069:58:47 Borman: Roger. How about giving us a system status, please?

069:58:51 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]

069:59:19 Lovell: Okay. I've got B-1 in sight now, Houston.

Public Affairs Officer - "The reference to B-1 is a landmark, a landmark which relates to a projected landing site."

069:58:30 Carr: Roger, Jim.

069:59:32 Lovell: It's very easy to spot. You can see the entire rims of the craters from here with, of course, the white crescent on the far side were the Sun is shining on it. The shadows are quite lengthy now. Maskelyne B has quite a few shadows off of it, but could be recognized. Just to the west of Maskelyne B, we start going to the terminator. The terminator is actually quite sharp over the Pyrenees, and it's - I can't see anything in Earthshine at this present time. Bill says that he can see things out the side window since he's not looking down on sunshine on the Moon. [Long pause.]

[Maskelyne B is a 9.2-km crater about 20 km west of Maskelyne itself. At this time it is virtually on the terminator and since it is about 6° west of Apollo Landing Site 1 (P-1), the landing site is illuminated with a 6° Sun, close to what would be expected on a landing mission.]

070:00:50 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. All systems are Go. We're evaluating the strip charts on your SPS burn and we'll give you a read-out on that shortly. Over.

[In today’s world of real-time computer displays, it is often surprising that data in Apollo was usually recorded with pens writing on long strips of paper. Rather than seeming archaic, this was considered a reasonable way of recording data, which allowed engineers to look at data in real-time, as well as making a permanent record of the data.]

070:01:15 Carr: Roger. We'd like high bit rate. We have dumped your DSE, and we'd like to stick with high bit rate for a while.

[Ground controllers still want to take a look at the data in more detail.]

070:01:45 Lovell: Well, we're just about over Maskelyne B now, and our target is just directly below us. [Long pause.]

070:02:32 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. If you want the recorder now, it's yours. [Pause.]

070:02:41 Anders: Roger. Thank you. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Apollo Control, Houston. Our tracking data from the ground still compares very well with the guidance and navigation computer on the spacecraft."

070:02:58 Anders (onboard): We completed target 72 strip and target 90 strip and the terminator photography to the south.

[Target of Opportunity 90 is a 49-km crater Capella within the Montes Pyrenaeum range for which Bill took frames AS08-13-2228 to AS08-13-2237.

Click to see larger image.

Most of these frames have been composited together to produce the above montage. The view looks right across the terminator towards the Capella. The low lighting shows the topography of the area well, especially the raised rims of the craters and the lines of the various rilles that make up Rimae Gutenburg.The crater was named after a fifth century lawyer who postulated that Venus and Mercury orbited the Sun.]

[Bill finishes his photography with mag E on this rev with three frames, AS08-13-2241 to 2243, that look over Capella, across Mare Nectaris towards Fracastorius. The near wall of this large, 124-km walled plain is missing and the lavas within open out onto Nectaris. Being right on the terminator, only its rim is illuminated. The spacecraft is now flying over the night-time side of the Moon though they are still in sunlight.]

070:03:17 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. MSFN [Manned Spaceflight Tracking Network] tracking is comparing very well with your onboard nav.

070:03:26 Borman: Roger. [Pause.]

070:03:29 Anders (onboard): Can I have the other lunar flight plan there, Jim?

070:03:31 Borman: Houston, for your information,...

070:03:33 Lovell (onboard): Yes.

070:03:34 Borman: ...we lost radio contact at the exact second you predicted.

070:03:40 Carr: Roger. We concur. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "The reference there was to Loss Of Signal as they went over the back side of the Moon."

070:03:47 Borman: Are you sure you didn't turn off the transmitters at that time?

[Frank had been amazed at the accuracy of the predictions by Mission Control, eliciting a joke from Bill that their boss had probably ordered the signal to be cut so as not to worry the crew if there was a slight error.]

070:04:00 Borman: While these other guys are all looking at the Moon I want to make sure we got a good SPS. How about giving me that report when you can?

070:04:06 Carr: Sure will, Frank. [Pause.]

070:04:14 Borman: And we want a Go for every rev, please; or otherwise, we'll burn in TEI-1 at your direction.

[Writer Robert Zimmerman, in his book Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8, ascribes Frank's exhortation to a desire to ensure Mission Control are concentrating on the state of the spacecraft and the mission. Frank will return to Earth if there is any reason to doubt the integrity of CSM-103 and Mission Control must actively agree to allow each orbit to commence. There is no doubt who is in control of the spacecraft. TEI-1 is the next opportunity to return to Earth, and there is less than one hour to LOS. Frank is exercising is prerogative as commander of the mission to come home early if the spacecraft is not in perfect shape.]

[Comm break.]

070:05:58 Anders (onboard): Those two strips and the terminator photography on camera I were taken on magazine E which is now reading 29 exposures.

[Bill is providing a running commentary of his photographic work on the voice recorder that was presumably meant to help researchers determine the context of the images. It certainly helps us in correlating the photographic index with the historic record.]

070:07:04 Anders (onboard): Now we're going to change - take off magazine A.

[The photographic index shows the first 29 frames of magazine A were used taking pictures of the Earth during their outward coast. The next nine frames are marked as being dark with six images of Langrenus among them. These images are not currently available from the Apollo 8 index.]

070:07:18 Anders (onboard): Okay, what I meant for you to do [garble].

070:07:22 Carr: Apollo 8. This is Houston. Are you eating?

070:07:28 Borman: Negative. [Pause.]

070:07:35 Lovell (onboard): Okay, we have [garble].

070:07:39 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Are you eating dinner?

070:07:45 Borman Negative. We'll have breakfast in a little while here.

070:07:49 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]

070:08:00 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. When you go into the dark in about 7 or 8 minutes, I have some words for you on the filters for the wide-angle lens, for your TV camera. Over.

070:08:19 Borman: We're in the dark now.

070:08:23 Borman (onboard): Well, it looks - sure looks that way.

070:08:23 Carr: Roger. Let me know when you are ready to copy. [Long pause.]

070:08:33 Lovell (onboard): 13. Capella.

[Jim is carrying out another realignment of the spaceceaft's guidance platform, known as a P52 after the program used for the operation. Capella is one of two stars Jim is sighting on as part of the realignment, the other being Regulus, the dominant star in Leo.]

[It is planned to complete one of these realignments during the dark pass of every orbit in case the crew have to leave the Moon's vicinity in a hurry. That way they will have an accurately aligned platform ready for the subsequent burn of their SPS (Service Propulsion System) engine. During coasting flight to and from the Moon, realignments are carried out at about 8 hour intervals and it is interesting to note that the figures given for platform drift are roughly the same for 2-hour or 8-hour intervals.]

070:08:48 Borman (onboard): What was it, Bill?

070:08:50 Anders (onboard): Capella.

070:08:53 Lovell (onboard): Okay.

070:09:01 Borman (onboard): Have you charged these batteries, Bill?

070:09:03 Anders (onboard): Never did [garble].

070:09:06 Lovell (onboard): Okay, I'll [garble] lights out [garble] I could just mark them without even...

070:09:13 Anders: Earthshine is about as expected, Houston. Not as much detail, of course, as in the sunlight, but you can see the light craters quite distinctly, and you can see the albedo contacts quite distinctly. And, also, the - there's a good three-dimensional view of the rims of the larger craters.

070:09:42 Lovell (onboard): [Garble]. Wait a minute.

070:09:43 Carr: Roger. Bill. [Pause.]

070:09:54 Anders: I think our high-speed film will be able to pick some of this stuff up quite well.

070:09:58 Carr: Roger.

[Comm break.]

070:10:43 Lovell (onboard): Okay. Minus 0077, plus 0017, Plus 0065.

[Jim's sighting on the stars has been very accurate as the computer has displayed five zeros (five balls) as being the star angle difference. In other words, the angle Jim measured between the two selected stars is identical to the known angle between them.]

[Jim has also read out the torquing angles from the P52. The gimbals that support the platform must be moved through these angles to restore perfect alignment. They are -0.077°, +0.017° and +0.065°.]

070:11:21 Anders (onboard): [Garble] are okay, Frank?

[Bill is making a check of the spacecraft's systems per the note in his column of the Flight Plan at 070:14.]

070:12:35 Borman (onboard): Not too long.

Public Affairs Officer - "Apollo Control, Houston. (As) Apollo 8 passes over the night portion of the Moon, the guidance and navigation - the platform is to be aligned. This during period of darkness, as the spacecraft remains in an inertially fixed attitude for this procedure. This leaves lunar daylight periods for maneuverability needed for photography and visual observations. At 70 hours, 12 minutes; continuing to monitor. This is Apollo Control, Houston."

070:12:44 Borman: Go ahead with your information on the filter, Houston.

070:12:49 Lovell (onboard): Boy, that...

070:12:47 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. We recommend you use a wide-angle lens on this particular TV run. You can use a telephoto lens with the same setup as yesterday's TV show. However, we recommend a wide-angle lens. Step number 1, tape the single red filter to the red filter on the red/blue filter holder; do it so that the filter slide still functions. Over. [Long pause.]

[Based on the bright results they had with an earlier TV transmission, it seems likely the red filter is being added simply to reduce the light levels going into the lens.]

070:13:40 Carr: Roger. Step number 2, attach the filter holder to the lens with tape on the top and bottom. Do this with the slide forward. Over. [Long pause.]

070:14:04 Borman: Go ahead.

070:14:05 Carr: Roger. Then at the end of your second rev TV pass, or on request from here, we would like you to remove that red filter from the holder and transmit briefly with it that way, then slide it over the blue side for your final transmission. Over.

070:14:27 Borman: We got you.

070:14:28 Carr: Okay, Frank.

[Comm break.]

[About now, Apollo 8 moves into the Moon's shadow, to reappear at about 71 hours GET.]

070:14:47 Lovell (onboard): Well, ought to use that wide angle. Then you could really...

[The telephoto lens has a narrow, 9° field of view. This makes it particularly difficult to aim accurately at an object that is also photographically significant. With the wide-angle lens, a large vista can be imaged for the audiences on Earth.]

070:15:35 Borman: Houston, Apollo 8. Standing by to record TEI-1 and TEI-2.

070:15:40 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Your TEI-1 and -2 PADs you received last pass are still good. Using these PADs, your next midcourse will be less than 20 feet per second. Over.

070:15:56 Borman: Roger. Understand. [Long pause.]

[At 067:35:29, before they entered lunar orbit, two PADs were read up that included the information that would allow the crew to return home after the first and second orbits have been completed. These are the TEI-1 and -2 PADs and would only be used in the event of an emergency. Their burn to enter lunar orbit is close enough to what was planned that the original TEI abort PADs are still valid.]

070:16:15 Lovell (onboard): Yes, I got it.

070:16:14 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We have all the SPS experts looking at your data now. The preliminary look is very good, and we'll give you some final words later.

070:16:28 Borman: Roger. We could feel the chug when we threw in bank B - not a chug, but we could feel additional thrust.

[The SPS engine has two independent systems for injecting propellants into the combustion chamber. The A bank was brought in first while the B bank was manually started a few seconds later. The engine does not achieve its full thrust until both banks are operating.]

070:16:37 Carr: Roger. Copy. [Pause.]

070:16:44 Anders: Houston, be advised on this red/blue filter technique on the TV. You cannot slide the two filters out of the way with them taped onto the TV camera. So I suggest we do red, blue, and then take them off. [Pause.]

070:17:06 Carr: Roger. We concur, but make sure that the little red filter is taped over the big one. Over. [Pause.]

070:17:14 Lovell (onboard): Did you use 83?

070:17:16 Borman (onboard): Huh?

070:17:17 Lovell (onboard): Did you use Verb 83?

[Verb 83 brings up numbers on the DSKY relating to parameters used during rendezvous, something that will not be happening on this mission. In this context, one number in particular is of interest as it gives the crew their angle relative to the local horizontal, known as theta. This is required to give the ORDEAL an appropriate starting point for displaying their local attitude on the FDAI (Flight Director Attitude Indicator) or "8-ball".]

070:17:25 Carr: That's affirmative, Bill. [Pause.]

070:17:33 Carr: Bill, we'd like you to use the double red filter for the first transmission. Over. [Pause.]

070:17:43 Anders: Roger. In work. [Long pause.]

070:17:45 Anders (onboard): Tape, Jim, please.

070:17:46 Lovell (onboard): Tape?

070:18:02 Lovell (onboard): You got enough there?

070:18:11 Anders (onboard): Now give me an [garble].

070:18:19 Lovell (onboard): Here - I got [garble].

070:18:28 Anders (onboard): Frank, what else have you got, [garble].

070:18:38 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston.

070:18:43 Anders: Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

070:18:45 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. If you should decide that you want to roll heads up on rev 2, one thing to remember, be sure you yaw 45 degrees right in order to maintain your High Gain Antenna comm. Over.

070:19:01 Borman: We will not do that; we're going to stick with the Flight Plan and make the best we can here.

070:19:06 Carr: Roger, Frank. [Pause.]

070:19:12 Borman: As usual, in the real world, the Flight Plan looks a lot fuller than it did in Florida.

070:19:18 Carr: Roger. Understand.

[Long comm break.]

[Out on the end of it's arm, the HGA (High Gain Antenna) has a limited range of articulation, and the Flight Plan was carefully designed to allow it to maintain a link with Earth during lunar maneuvers. In particular, if the crew are in a "heads-down" attitude, the windows will be facing the surface while the HGA, on the opposite side of the spacecraft, will have easy access to Earth. With the fogged windows affecting visibility, there is a possibility the crew might have wanted to adopt a "heads-up" attitude which would have brought the HGA around to the Moon's side of the spacecraft. Mission Control are reminding the crew that to keep the HGA pointing at Earth in this attitude, they would need to yaw to the right. However, Frank is for minimising changes to their packed schedule.]

070:19:26 Lovell (onboard): [Garble.]

070:19:29 Anders (onboard): Well, I know we may need it. I got some more for you. [Garble] remember...

070:19:36 Lovell (onboard): Huh?

070:19:37 Anders (onboard): Did you bring the temporary stowage bag?

070:19:39 Lovell (onboard): [Garble]. Here it is. Yes. (Laughter) [Garble].

070:19:46 Anders (onboard): What other crises by the board?

070:19:49 Anders (onboard): I don't need any if you want to know. After what I've got in my pocket, I (laughter) can go anyplace for a while.

070:19:56 Lovell (onboard): Well, how could they [garble]?

070:20:08 Anders (onboard): Well, that kind of makes [garble].

070:20:22 Anders (onboard): How about just holding that [garble] tape [garble]. The thing is, the damn thing has 16 moving parts.

070:20:39 Anders (onboard): Well, I got it, but [garble] I'll bet - You can just put a piece of tape on it so it stays [garble].

070:20:59 Lovell (onboard): Okay, what's this coming up [garble]? [Garble] coming up here.

070:21:03 Lovell (onboard): At 71 hours - exactly - it's 70:21 right now. The realignment has been completed already. It's an eat period for Bill, eat period for myself; prepare to do GDC align to the IMU [Inertial Measurement Unit]. Okay, at 70:55...

[The GDC (Gyro Display Coupler) provides a backup attitude reference with information coming from the Gyro Assemblies. By the nature of this system, it is more prone to drift than the gyro system in the IMU, so occasionally, it's knowledge of the spacecraft attitude is updated with that from the IMU by pressing the GDC Align button.]

070:21:25 Lovell (onboard): Okay, yes, let me [garble]. At 70:55, you're going to pitch up. Your ORDEAL, 180, 250, and 00.

[Having held an inertial attitude since they entered lunar orbit, they will begin an orb-rate rotation to keep one side of the spacecraft aimed at the Moon. An initial attitude for this rotation is given in the Flight Plan though the figures given by Jim differ in somewhat in pitch.]

070:24:04 Anders (onboard): We could use Frank on the keypunch for the control point.

[After Apollo 8 reaches the sunlit side of the Moon, Jim is scheduled to carry out a series of sightings through the hatch window of various control points. Of course, the hatch window is fogged over to the point of being useless. We can assume that they are changing their attitude so that the rendezvous windows can be used. Here, Bill refers to the DSKY as a "keypunch". The phrase "keypunch" reflects the ubiquitous way data was entered into computers of the day. Personal computers certainly didn’t exist, nor did even the "dumb terminals" that characterized computers in the 1970’s. Cards had holes punched onto them that represented data, using machines like the IBM 029 keypunch machine. One of the editors (O’Brien) remembers fondly (yeah, right…) of the hours spent keypunching programs on the 029.]

070:27:18 Lovell (onboard): Man, this is really exciting.

Public Affairs Officer - "Apollo Control, Houston. We're now less than (break in recording) away from our LOS time on this the first revolution in lunar orbit. Continuing to monitor; this is Apollo Control, Houston."

070:27:19 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We need an O₂ purge now. [Pause.]

[Jerry Carr is referring to the O₂ purge of the fuel cells, used to clear out impurities in the system.]

070:27:31 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]

070:27:43 Lovell: Houston, Apollo 8. Just for your information, after we completed P52, I've acquired the Earth in the sextant. It's quite a sight from here.

070:27:57 Carr: Roger. Bet it is. [Long pause.]

070:27:56 Lovell (onboard): Okay, O₂ purge set.

070:28:11 Borman: How are the systems experts on the SPS coming, Gerry?

[After emerging from the Moon's eastern limb, engineering data from the spacecraft, including the data from the LOI burn, was replayed to Earth. Once gathered at the Earth station, it has to be passed on to Houston before analysis of the engine's performance can begin. Frank is especially keen to know whether it performed well as they need it to get back home. It has been 15 minutes since Frank’s original request for a review of SPS data, and it is 30 minutes until LOS. Frank is likely getting a bit impatient about the time it is taking to get an answer about an update on the status of the engine.]

070:28:24 Borman: Roger. [Long pause.]

070:28:32 Borman (onboard): Let's put that over there.

070:28:38 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Your SPS data; looking real good. It is just a matter of getting it all in from the site and getting it looked at.

070:28:48 Borman: Thank you.

070:28:49 Carr: So far everything looks copacetic.

[Comm break.]

070:29:21 Borman (onboard): [Garble] those last two REV's [garble].

Public Affairs Officer - "Apollo Control, Houston. We've just received data from our Flight Surgeon that Frank Borman's peak heart rate at LOI-1 read 130. The same reading he had, as a matter of fact, that he had at lift off. We would pass that along, continuing to monitor. This is Apollo Control."

070:30:42 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We would like to take about five minutes of high bit rate. Over.

070:30:50 Borman: Roger. Five minutes of high bit rate coming on.

070:30:52 Carr: Roger.

070:30:56 Borman: You got it.

[Comm break.]

070:32:15 Borman: Stand by one. [Long pause.]

070:32:52 Borman: Go ahead with the map update.

070:32:55 Carr: Roger, Frank. Map update. Rev 1/2, no change; rev 2/3 follows: 73:04:57, 73:09:37, 73:19:01, 73:48:53, 74:24:23. Remarks: Bravo one, 74:16:24. Over.

[Pages 1-18 to 1-20 of the Flight Plan have forms for the crew to take note of these timings. They represent when the spacecraft passes significant points during its orbit and help the crew keep track of when events occur. Though the Flight Plan has many of these times marked, they are only approximate. These times are based on the spacecraft's measured orbit and are accurate. This map update is relevant to the second and third revolutions around the Moon. It is interpreted as follows:

Loss Of Signal (LOS) before start of rev 2: 73:04:57.

This is the time they lose contact with Earth as they go behind the Moon for the second time.

Spacecraft sunrise in orbit: 73:09:37.

After LOS, the spacecraft returns to sunlight, crossing the Moon's sunset terminator soon after.

Passing over Prime Meridian of 150°W: 73:19:01.

Acquisition Of Signal (AOS): 73:48:53.

Spacecraft sunset in orbit: 74:24:23.

At this time, Apollo 8 will pass from lunar daytime into the lunar night a short time after passing over the sunrise terminator.

Landmark Bravo-1: 74:16:24.

The orbital evaluation of Apollo Landing Site (ALS)-1, known as B-1, is a major goal of the mission. This is a timing for its acquisition.]

070:33:52 Carr: Roger. We show you 23 minutes to LOS.

070:33:59 Anders: Roger. Are you going to dump the tape? [Long pause.]

070:34:41 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. You are Go for Rev 2. All systems are Go. SPS evaluation is still underway and looking good. Over. [Pause.]

070:34:56 Borman: Understand; Go for Rev 2. Thank you.

070:35:00 Carr: Roger, Apollo 8. We're still using the tape recorder. We'll dump it in a little bit. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Apollo Control, Houston. You just heard that Go for Rev 2. Flight Director Glynn Lunney..."

070:35:35 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. The recorder is yours. You can go to low bit rate.

070:35:43 Borman: Thank you.

[Comm break.]

070:37:55 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Request Biomed switch, Center. Over. [Pause.]

070:38:04 Borman: 3, 2, 1...

070:38:08 Borman: Mark.

070:38:11 Carr: Roger, Mark.

[Long comm break.]

070:43:57 Borman: Roger. Go in Low. [Long pause.]

070:44:38 Borman: Houston, Apollo 8. We're in the process of preparing meal 4, day - correction - day 4, meal A.

070:44:47 Carr: Roger, Frank.

[Long comm break.]

070:47:29 Anders (onboard): I do. [Garble].

070:48:13 Anders: Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

070:48:15 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

070:48:20 Anders: Are you going to be able to dump that tape prior to LOS? [Pause.]

070:48:30 Carr: Roger. Bill, they say they have already dumped the tape, and it's almost totally clean.

070:48:42 Anders: What does that mean? [Pause.]

070:48:52 Carr: That means you have got about 2 minutes of low bit rate on there, but the rest is clean. Over.

070:48:59 Anders: The high bit rate of the burn wasn't on there?

070:49:03 Carr: Negative. We've already dumped and got that. [Long pause.]

070:49:18 Anders: Okay. Let me know when you're going to dump it next time, Gerry. I understand we are Go now for the DSE. Have you got any voice off of it?

070:49:26 Carr: That's affirmative. We did.

070:49:31 Anders: Okay. Thank you. [Long pause.]

070:50:10 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. The voice quality on your tape was just sort of middling. We were able to monitor your burn and hear most of that pretty well.

070:50:27 Anders: Roger. Did you get a report of the photography accomplished, or is that on the tape at present?

070:50:36 Carr: Negative. We haven't heard that.

070:50:42 Anders: Okay. We'll put it on the tape now.

070:50:46 Carr: Roger.

[Comm break.]

[Having learned that the DSE tape has been dumped to Earth, Bill then uses it to leave a note of the progress of his photography.]

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Apollo Control, Houston. Now less than 5 minutes away from Loss Of Signal on our first revolution."

070:51:53 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. You are 4 minutes and 40 seconds from LOS. I would like a reconfirmation on your S-band Aux switch in the Downvoice Backup position. Over.

070:52:09 Borman: Negative; it is in Normal voice. We will go Downvoice Backup.

070:52:17 Carr: Roger. Request you leave it there forever. Over.

070:52:22 Borman: Roger. In Downvoice Backup now. [Long pause.]

070:52:44 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. All systems are Go. You're still Go for rev 2. Over.

070:52:53 Borman: Thank you.

[Comm break.]

070:55:25 Anders (onboard): Mag E was used for the targets previously mentioned, and is now indicating 30 - 30 exposures; that's Mag Echo.

070:55:32 Carr: Apollo 8. Houston.

070:55:37 Borman: Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

070:55:39 Carr: Roger. One minute until LOS

070:55:44 Borman: Thank you. [Long pause.]

070:55:55 Anders (onboard): Magazine - magazine J was on the 16-millimeter camera, run at one frame per second, starting about 10 minutes after LOI...

070:56:19 Lovell (onboard): Okay, this is [garble].

070:56:25 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. 10 seconds to LOS. All systems Go.

[Very long comm break.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Apollo Control, Houston. 70 hours, 56 minutes into the flight. We have had LOS with Apollo 8. At this time we would like to play back those historic first words of insertion into lunar orbit as we heard them here at Mission Control."

[The Public Affairs Officer is evidently elated at Apollo 8's achievement and shares the moment with the folk from the media once more.]

071:01:58 Borman (onboard): [Garble].

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Apollo Control, Houston. As Apollo 8 passed over the lunar hill, out of communication, we read an apolune of 168.2 nautical miles [311.5 km], a perilune of 60.3 nautical miles [111.7 km]. Velocity of the spacecraft at that time descending downward from its apogee was 5,224 feet per second [1,592 m/s]. Our current digital indications say that the present velocity is 5,297 feet per second [1,615 m/s]. So at 71 hours, 02 minutes, 35 seconds into this most historic flight; this is Apollo Control, Houston."

071:01:59 Lovell (onboard): I should get over there. - Could you fly it from over here?

071:02:01 Borman (onboard): Huh?

071:02:03 Lovell (onboard): Now you've got to maintain a position in the [garble].

071:02:06 Borman (onboard): Well, that's just to [garble] whenever we fly [garble] with the COAS [garble].

071:02:16 Borman (onboard): Trying to get up here.

071:02:18 Lovell (onboard): Well, look here. [Garble].

071:02:23 Borman (onboard): It doesn't say anything; about that.

071:02:34 Anders (onboard): One frame per second [garble] terminator.

071:02:37 Lovell (onboard): Let me see if I can get up here [garble]. Yes, I just [garble].

071:03:07 Lovell (onboard): What do you want me to do?

071:03:13 Anders (onboard): What do you want to do about this television?

071:03:15 Lovell (onboard): [Garble].

071:03:19 Anders (onboard): Well, you can go on and describe where we are.

071:03:20 Borman (onboard): Still got that [garble], Bill?

071:03:23 Anders (onboard): I don't see it.

071:03:24 Lovell (onboard): Bill, why don't you just worry about the television as far as [garble].

071:03:53 Anders (onboard): You see the terminator yet, Frank?

071:03:55 Borman (onboard): Yes.

071:03:58 Anders (onboard): Are you pitched down - to the horizon?

071:04:00 Borman (onboard): Yes, down.

071:04:02 Lovell (onboard): Okay, I've got the terminator.

071:04:06 Lovell (onboard): All right, the terminator is just coming over right now.

071:04:08 Borman (onboard): You want your camera going, Bill?

071:04:10 Anders (onboard): Start at - just start it a little past the, terminator.... Don't start a track until you get the terminator.

071:04:21 Lovell (onboard): Okay, let me [garble].

071:04:55 Lovell (onboard): Well, I thought we've better - Bill you've got - I guess you've got your instrument, right?

071:05:08 Lovell (onboard): What's the crater just before we get the terminator? The big one?

071:05:12 Anders (onboard): It's America.

071:05:14 Lovell (onboard): No, no, that's the real big one.

[We believe the "real big one" they are calling America is now known as Korolev. This massive 437-km walled plain is really a small multiring basin, having the vestiges of an inner ring visible within the main crater rim. This Lunar Orbiter photograph, I-038-M, shows the full crater well, at a similar Sun angle. Sergei P. Korolev (1906-1966) was the mastermind behind the early Soviet space program, being largely responsible for both the first unmanned and manned spacecraft.]

071:07:20 Anders (onboard): Here - It'll - At the terminator, it will be - 2.8, and it'll stay that way for a good while.

[Bill is referring to a photography exposure chart that shows the recommended camera f-stop as a function of orbital longitude. (need link to page in flight plan) The crew uses this chart to ensure that the film is correctly exposed for a given sun angle.]

071:09:45 Anders (onboard): Yes, good.

[At about this time, magazine J loaded with 16-mm film is started in the Maurer camera. With a frame-rate of only one frame per second, and mounted in one of the forward-facing rendezvous windows, this camera will photograph a strip across almost half of their orbit.]

[Journal contributors René and Jonathan Cantin have produced an excellent video file of this movie which includes audio where available and has many of the major landmarks labelled. There are two versions; high resolution (34.6 MB) and low resolution (17.7 MB).]

071:10:35 Lovell (onboard): Take those pictures [garble.]

[As they pass over the Moon's sunset terminator from darkness into light, Bill begins his stills photography using magazine G. Unfortunately, he has not realised that this magazine contains type 2485 film which is rated at a high sensitivity of 2000 ASA, about 6 stops higher than the 40 ASA he is likely assuming. The film was initially intended for taking images of astronomical phenomenon like the solar corona, which is to be imaged at about 85 hours GET. Bill will realise his mistake and inform the ground at 074:42:05. With prior knowledge of the problem, steps can be taken after the film is returned to Earth to compensate for the overexposure by altering the development process, eventually yielding good results.]

[Bill's six images of the terminator are frames AS08-18-2828 to 2833.

Click to see larger image.

These photographs are brought together into this montage, looking south along the terminator with the 60-km crater, Mechnikov in the foreground, named after Élie Metchnikoff (1845-1916), a Russian Nobel prize-winning microbiologist.]

071:13:20 Anders (onboard): Target 10 is mag D, frame...

[Bill is actually using magazine G. Mag D is not used until a long sequence is exposed on rev 4.]

[Target of Opportunity 10 is an area of the far side south of the crater Doppler, as seen in frame AS08-18-2834. The landscape is heavily beat up with a mix of old and newer landforms.]

071:15:16 Lovell (onboard): I see it. Right there.

[The on board voice recording ends at this point.]

[As best as we can tell, Bill is still using magazine G on one camera but begins using magazine E on another.Frame AS08-18-2835 looks in a southeasterly direction across a landscape north of the crater Bok, while 2836 brings the viewpoint around to look over the 59-km crater De Vries, visible to the upper left.]

[Four frames are taken on magazine E towards target 12. Notes from the Mission Report describe target 12 as a "fresh crater with trails of birdfoot secondaries" which is the 49-km crater, Crookes. Earth-based studies of the near-side crater, Copernicus had shown that every large crater generated huge numbers of secondary craters as the material it threw out of the ground impacted the surface. These craters were often laid out in distinctive patterns. The crater to the right of frame AS08-13-2244 is Doppler, named after Christian Doppler (1803-1853), an Austrian physicist who described the change in frequency caused by an emitter's motion. The Doppler Effect is well known in physics and radio electronics, being one of the major techniques used to track the Apollo 8 spacecraft. This 110-kilometre crater sits directly abutting the southern rim of Korolev (America).]

[The next three frames looking towards target 12 are 2245, 2246 and 2247, all of which feature Crookes. Under high sunlight, Crookes displays an impressive ray system, one that has two major rays 120° apart that indicate the impactor came in from the east. The ray system also shows that the crater is relatively fresh, perhaps a few hundred million years old which is also born out by the crater's sharp outline as shown in the photographs. The landscape just beyond Crookes has a series of elongate dimples running left to right remeniscent of a bird's footprints. Sir William Crookes (1832-1919) was British physicist and chemist who pioneered studies of cathode rays.]

[With magazine G, Bill takes a series of shots looking towards what is shown in the photo index as Target of Opportunity 20. T/O 20 is listed in the Mission Report as "15-km young craters on rim of Mendeleev", the latter being a large crater to the north of their current track. In frame AS08-18-2837 we are looking south to a cluster of small craters and one larger one sited above a scarp. This scarp is the eastern rim of Aitken, a large (135-kilometre) flat-floored crater with a dark mare-type interior. Frame 2838 is Aitken A, a 13-km crater to the north of Aitken. Bill looks back towards Aitken's est rim in 2839 where we can see the dark floor of the crater.]

[The Moon is a world whose landscape, though stark and beautiful in its own way, can exhibit an unremitting lack of variety, especially over the far side. Vast reaches of terrain contain countless craters that display the various characteristics well understood by researchers. Yet every so often, a feature is noticed that confounds this predictable monotony. In the corner of frame AS08-18-2839, a cluster of craters is visible in Aitken's dark interior, some of which have very unusual floors, likely related to the volcanism that led to the deposition of the mare material in the crater's floor. This cluster can be seen better in this Lunar Orbiter II image.]

[The crater, Aitken, lends its name to a feature that, despite its size, was only discovered just prior to Apollo. The South Pole-Aitken Basin is the largest, deepest impact structure in the Solar System and Aitken sits astride its north rim. It is a feature that is difficult to discern from photographs but its existence was demonstrated by the Lunar Orbiter missions and spectacularly displayed in the mid-1990s, when the Clementine mission produced the first topographical map that dramatically showed its 2,500-kilometre extent and 8-kilometre depth.]

[Frame AS08-18-2840 is of Aitken Z, a relatively large satellite crater just inside the northern rim of Aitken, whose mare-type floor is visible beyond on the upper right. The viewpoint moves further west in frame 2841 wich looks across the terracing inside the northwest rim of Aitken. 2842 shows a 30-km crater, Zwicky N, that sits in the middle of its highly deformed parent, Zwicky. Tracing the location of the next photo, 2843, was a bit tricky but it is a view looking south east towards Zwicky R, a 28-km irregularly-shaped crater. Frame 2844 is the last imag on mag G taken in lunar orbit. It shows the 26-km Cyrano A.]

[As Apollo 8 continues towards the Moon's eastern limb and reacquisition with Earth, it passes north of Tsiolkovsky. A sequence of 9 images are taken on magazine E, AS08-13-2248 to 2256. Judging by the lower contrast of these images, it appears they are being taken through one of the fogged-up windows.]

[Tsiolkovsky is markedly different from much of the surrounding landscape by virtue of its dark, mare-like interior. The crater's floor is visible at the upper right of AS08-13-2248, which views the northwestern hinterland. In 2249, 2250 and 2251, the land to the north of the crater appears with little contrast, both because the Sun is high over a landscape with few albedo changes, and the scene is being viewed through a foggy window. The photographer changes his viewpoint to look south east and to Tsiolkovsky itself in frames 2252, 2253, 2254 and 2255. The wall of the 200-km crater lies beyond the shore of the dark mare material and can be difficult to see in these images.]

[Finally in this sequence, frame AS08-13-2256 sees the camera's aim moving to the southwest at a cluster of small, bright craters that lie between Fermi and Hilbert. The largest crater in the frame is about 12 kilometres in diameter.]

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Apollo Control, Houston. At 71 hours, 38 minutes now into the flight of Apollo 8, we are now within 2 minutes of our predicted time of acquisition of this second pass across the front side of the Moon. During this pass, we expect to acquire via television - our prime tracking site for the TV is the Madrid site. Meanwhile, Glynn Lunney, here in Mission Control, has gone around the room updating all his flight controllers on the requirements - Flight Plan requirements for this revolution. We will stand by and continue to monitor at 71 hours, 38 minutes. Mark, 1 minute to predicted time of acquisition. Stand by. Mark, 30 seconds and standing by. 5 seconds."

[As the spacecraft comes into communication with Earth, it is already transmitting a TV picture of a bland lunar surface. Stills from this 13-minute transmission are taken from the DVD set on Apollo 8 made available by Mark Gray through www.spacecraftfilms.com.]

Public Affairs Officer - "That's Jerry Carr making a call. No reply yet. Standing by. We're receiving telemetry data now. Standing by."

071:40:42 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "The picture is coming in now."

071:40:52 Anders: Houston, this is Apollo 8 with the TV going. Over. [Pause.]

071:41:00 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Reading you loud and clear. We see your TV. It is a little bit - little bit clearer.

[The wide-angle camera lens is being masked to leave a circular field of view, probably by the filter holder that has been taped to the front of it.

Once the image settles down, we see a part of the Moon that is lit by a high Sun. The image is moving right to left which means south is to the top. There are no shadows and hence, very little definition except for some vague light and dark markings. The quality of the image is not being helped by the camera peering through a foggy window, probably window 5, next to Bill's couch.]

[Bill tilts the camera up to look towards the southern horizon.]

071:41:25 Anders: How's that look? Is it on the top of your picture?

071:41:30 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. It's a good picture - the horizon - we can't see many terrain features as yet. [Pause.]

071:41:41 Anders: Roger. [Pause.]

071:41:48 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We are beginning to pick up a few craters very dimly. The whole thing is pretty bright.

071:41:58 Anders: Roger. There is not much definition up here either out on the horizon. We're now approaching the craters See [Alden] and Bassett [Scaliger].

071:42:06 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]

071:42:15 Anders: I'll shift to the rendezvous window.

071:42:18 Carr: Roger, Bill.

071:42:22 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We want to take the DSE.

071:42:28 Anders: Roger. You've got it.

071:42:29 Carr: Roger. Looks like we've got a real good picture now.

[Once Bill moves the camera to window 4 the image improves markedly. The rendezvous windows were unaffected by the fogging that mars the other three.

The distinct bright circle on the right is Pasteur D, a 36-km crater. To the upper left, a large, slightly dark, circular feature is the 87-km crater Meitner. The bright ring punctuating its lower left rim is Meitner C.]

[If the guide we have to the Apollo era names is correct, Danjon is not currently in the camera's field of view.]

071:42:42 Anders: Sorry, we missed Carr [Perepelkin].

071:42:43 Carr: Me too. [Pause.]

071:42:54 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. We're going to need a cryo fan cycle sometime during this pass.

071:43:02 Anders: Roger. Can we wait 'til sunset?

071:43:06 Carr: Roger. We can wait.

["Cryo stirs" are used to mix the contents of the cryogenic tanks feeding the fuel cells. Over time, their contents tend to stratify, making accurate measurements difficult. This is not a time critical procedure, in that if it is delayed a few minutes it will not have major consequences. Bill certainly wants to finish the video transmission before dealing with the cryo tanks. Although it is not a difficult task - it involves only switching tank fans on and off - it is a timed procedure, which required setting up the "kitchen timer" and making sure the tanks are stirred for a specified amount of time. Such distractions are not wanted at this time.]

[In fact Meitner is leaving the frame.]

[Charts show there is a very bright crater above and to the left of centre. However its intrinic brightness under these conditions is not being displayed by this camera.

Pasteur D is off to the left and the two craters to the bottom right are Pasteur B and Y. Most of the frame is actually showing the northern interior of Pasteur (known to the crew as Borman) though the high lighting and its huge size (224 kilometres) make it impossible to see in this coverage.]

071:44:05 Anders: You see it in the upper part of your screen.

071:44:10 Lovell: Say, Bill. How would you describe the color of the Moon from here?

071:44:14 Anders: The color of the Moon looks, ah, a very whitish gray, like dirty beach sand, and with lots of footprints in it.

071:44:23 Lovell: Don't these new craters look like pick-axes striking concrete creating a lot of fine haze dust? [Pause.]

071:44:38 Anders: There's some interesting features out on the other window. Let me switch windows on you now.

071:44:41 Carr: Roger, Bill. [Pause.]

071:44:48 Anders: You should see the horizon now in the top of your picture.

[The view to the horizon is even more indistinct.

Just exiting the frame to the left is a large crater Hilbert, with the bright spots of Hilbert Y and W visible within. The dark patch on the horizon is a small area of mare material, Lacus Solitudinis.]

071:45:01 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston.

071:45:02 Anders: I believe these are the craters now Bassett [Scaliger] and See [Alden].

[Both of these craters are actually out of the frame to the left, beyond Hilbert.]

071:45:15 Anders: Roger.

071:45:18 Lovell: Gerry, as a matter of interest, there's a lot of what appears to be very small new craters that have these little white rays radiating from them.

071:45:29 Carr: Roger, Jim. [Long pause.]

071:45:50 Carr: Roger. We see the filter going over. [Pause.] Apollo 8, this is Houston. Looks like we have too much light. The polarizing filter doesn't help much. Go ahead and remove it again. [Pause.]

[This image from the TV coverage, shows the polarising filter in front of the lens.

Any improvement in the picture has probably been caused by the darkening effect of the filter taking the detail away from saturating the imaging tube, rather than any polarising effect. The dark crater to the left is Pasteur Q, a 24-km crater on the southwestern rim of Pasteur.]

[The view widens out again as the filter is removed.

Pasteur Q is still to the left of the image. The 127-km crater Sklodowska, known to the crew as Houston, is an indistinct dark patch to the right. The bright rays of a small, fresh crater on its right-hand rim are more visible.]

071:46:26 Anders: Roger. We're just passing over the crater Borman [Pasteur], and there's Anders [Backlund] out there, Lovell [Hilbert] is right south of it.

[Though these are all large craters, the high Sun and their great age has rendered all these features virtually invisible.]

071:46:49 Anders: Roger. [Long pause.]

071:47:01 Anders: Also, I'm fogging up the window here, Houston, among other problems.

071:47:06 Carr: Roger, Bill. The other window is better than this one.

071:47:12 Anders: Okay. [Pause.]

071:47:21 Carr: Yeah, much better picture, Bill. Much better.

[When the view returns to the rendezvous window, a well-defined cluster of craters become visible.

The bright crater upper left is Hansky F at 9 kilometres diameter, and to its right is the reasonably distinct form of Hansky itself, a 43-km crater. Ludwig is visible as a dark patch to the lower left while Hirayama K is to the lower right.]

071:47:47 Carr: Roger. [Pause.]

071:47:53 Anders: It's a big and sprawly one; It's got those two impact craters, one to the right and one to the left.

071:48:03 Carr: Roger, Bill. [Pause.]

071:48:13 Anders: How's your picture?

[The centre of the picture is over-exposed. This is the same place where there should be a bright ray crater on the western rim of Sklodowska.

Sklodowska A is visible as the dark patch to the left with Sklodowska Y being the bright-rimmed crater below it.]

071:48:26 Anders: Okay, I think - Okay. We are leaving the window. That gives you an idea how bad our window is.

071:48:34 Carr: Roger. This picture now is much better. I guess the light levels are decreasing now.

[Returning the camera to the rendezvous window results in an improved picture. Also, as they come towards the terminator, the craters begin showing the first hints of oblique to help reveal their structure and shape.

Hirayama K is to the left and Brunner, a 53-km crater known to the crew as Collins is on the right with the bright Brunner N above it.]

071:48:45 Carr: Roger. What crater is that that's just going off (out of the frame).

071:48:52 Anders: That's some small impact crater.

[Carr is asking about Hirayama K.]

071:48:57 Anders: We'll call it John Aaron's.

[John Aaron mans the EECOM console on the Green Team of flight controllers, responsible for keeping an eye on the spacecraft's electrical and environmental systems.]

071:49:04 Anders: If he'll keep looking at the systems anyway.

071:49:06 Carr: He just quit looking. [Pause.]

[To try and improve the visibility of these images, I captured 27 consecutive frames and stacked them using Registax, an astronomy program for image processing, which reduced the noise and interference and sharpened the detail.

Brunner is slightly right of centre.]

071:49:32 Carr:, Roger. Understand, Jim. [Pause.]

071:49:39 Carr: This - ah, Houston - Apollo 8, This is Houston. Looks like we could see Collins (Brunner) now.

071:49:48 Anders: Roger, there is Collins (Brunner) for you.

071:49:52 Lovell: And Collins (Brunner) is right on the edge of Smythe's Sea which we're about to pass over.

[Brunner has now moved to the upper left of the frame.

The dark material of Mare Smythii is beginning to appear at the bottom of the frame. Particularly visible is a crater whose rim is incomplete with its interior having been filled with lava. This is Helmert, a 26-km flooded crater.]

071:50:24 Carr: Apollo 8. This is...

071:50:26 Anders: We are now going across the Smythe Sea. Go ahead.

071:50:31 Carr: Roger. We just saw a Stellenword (?) go by.

071:50:39 Anders: Rog. He was really in a hurry.

071:50:45 Carr: Roger. Picture is much improved now. Getting better all the time.

071:50:51 Anders: Roger. The terrain here is, as you can see, not well defined. [Pause.] We are going to start a roll to the left, in order to come across the target area, with the television...

071:51:15 Carr: Roger.

071:51:16 Anders: ...landing site area.

071:51:18 Carr: Roger Bill. [Long pause.]

[Helmert has moved to the top left of the image and the dark floor of the 63-km Kiess, another of the flooded craters within Mare Smythii, dominates the lower left corner.

It seems that Kiess is referred to as O'Neill by the crew and Kiess S as Dennis.]

[The crater O’Neill was named after the godfather of one of the AFJ editors, Frank O'Brien. John O’Neill, who provided Frank with all the Apollo era documents that he treasures to this day, was the director of Flight Planning in Apollo days. John later replaced Gene Kranz as Director of Manned Space Operations. The following is from O'Neill's oral history interview, which, with many others, resides at the Johnson Space Center History website.] [Butler, from 2001 oral history interview: "Did you get a chance to hear the broadcast on Christmas Eve?"]

[O'Neill, from 2001 oral history interview: "Yes, yes. We not only heard that broadcast, but in order to be able to pass some information back and forth between mission control and the spacecraft, they took otherwise undesignated craters on the Moon that were prominent enough that they could use them for navigation, and, of course, the names don't stick. Only the astronomers and, you know, people who are really renowned in the field would ever really have a crater named after them, but it was kind of nice that on the Mission Control Center maps on the console and on the map in the spacecraft, they had given the craters the names of the people that had worked closely with the crew. So in the transcript somewhere it said, yes, 'O'Neill Crater.' At that, I think the people in O'Neill, Nebraska, no relatives of mine, all thought, 'Hey, this is really neat. They've named something after our town.'"]

[John O'Neill shared other stories from Apollo 8, this one related to the velcro pads used in the spacecraft to hold cue cards and other loose items.]

[O'Neill, from 2001 oral history interview: "By the time we got to Apollo 11, the Velcro business had really progressed, and there was sticky-back Velcro like everybody knows it today. That was not the case when we flew Apollo 8. The way that things worked in the launch preparation, the backup crew would go to the spacecraft and set all the switches, and they would put the checklists in right place to be available to the crew. They would put the launch cue cards in the place. So the Apollo 8, and you can imagine the first people to be leaving Earth orbit altogether, everyone was really taking that one seriously. But when the backup crew went out to put the cue cards up, they started into the process. As they were getting the last ones in place, the first ones were falling off. That was because at that time, the Velcro didn't come with sticky stuff already on it and you just peeled it off. They had to mix a compound called RTV. Apparently, the shelf life had been exceeded on the RTV they gave us, and it was just plain not holding the cue card to the Velcro. So they had to peel off all these cue cards and bring them back. There we are in the building where the crew quarters were located and where we had a flight data file area. Bill [William R.] Pogue, one of the astronauts, who was on the backup crew, and I are there in the middle of the night, trying to get all the old RTV scraped off and the new stuff applied. I remember that Bill Anders, who had a little trouble sleeping, I think, and I honestly believe, and I think they've said this themselves, that they only thought there was a 50-50 chance that this was all going to work. I mean the mission, not the cue cards. But anyhow, he couldn't sleep, and he saw us down there working. So he brought us a turkey sandwich in the middle of the night, and we took a break from trying to re-stick the Velcro on these cards and had a turkey sandwich with the guy that was going to go out of Earth orbit the next day and go to the Moon."]

[The following exchange is somewhat confusing as Bill and Jerry Carr seem to be discussing Kiess and and also Kiess S, bright crater left of centre.]

071:51:41 Carr: Roger. That's a very good one; that must be O'Neill.

071:51:49 Anders: Rog. [Long pause.]

071:52:09 Carr: Roger, Bill. We see O'Neill real well, also the smaller crater off to the side of it.

[The dark basalt of Mare Smythii is giving way again to light highland material.

Kiess S and R dominate the lop left corner of this image, with Kästner B directly below.]

071:52:21 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]

071:52:38 Borman: Houston. This is Apollo 8. We are going to terminate our program for this pass and get on with the preparations for LOI-2, if you say we're Go.

[LOI-2 is the second retrograde burn, intended to circularize their orbit around the Moon, at 110 km (60 nautical miles).]

071:52:55 Borman: Okay. Signing off until ninth rev. Apollo 8.

071:53:00 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. [Pause.]

[Shortly before the transmission ends, the camera is moved to the south-facing window.

The small crater in the foreground is the 18-kilometre crater Black, while the larger (94-km) crater in the centre of the frame is Ansgarius.]

[The Flight Director prompts Carr to thank the crew for letting the ground see the view.]

071:53:12 Borman: Roger.

[Comm break.]

071:55:02 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. You have the DSE.

071:55:08 Borman: Thank you, Houston.

071:55:10 Carr: Roger. Apollo 8, on your backside data, it's pretty much unintelligible. We suggest, Bill, that you recheck the position of your mike for your backside pass and try to speak a little bit louder and more distinctly. The last one we listened to was pretty much unintelligible. Over.

071:55:34 Anders: Roger. As soon as we get squared away, we will give you a real quick real-time summary.

071:55:39 Carr: Roger. [Long pause.]

071:55:56 Anders: And, Houston, you might let us know, can we do the red/blue filter exercise with both these filters - red filters on. Over.

071:56:06 Carr: Stand by. [Pause.]

071:56:10 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Apollo 8, Houston. Negative. [Long pause.]

071:56:33 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston with an LOI-2 maneuver PAD. Ready to copy?

071:56:41 Borman: Stand by.

071:56:42 Carr: Houston. Standing by. [Long pause.]

071:57:06 Borman: Okay, Houston. Go ahead.

071:57:07 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. LOI-2, SPS/G&N; 46427; minus 0.53, plus 1.41; 073:35:05.70; minus 0135.0; plus all zeros, plus all zeros. Copy?

071:58:03 Anders: Roger.

071:58:06 Carr: Roger. 000, 175, 358; 0060.7, plus 0060.6; 0135.0, 0:09, 0126.5; 02, 311.2, 19.7. Copy?

071:59:00 Anders: Roger.

071:59:05 Carr: Roger. Taurus, Aida. I repeat; Taurus, Aida, Up 16.2, left 0.1; the remainder not applicable. GDC align, Sirius, Rigel; 129, 155, 010; negative ullage. Horizon window, ignition minus 3, 27 degrees, horizon left. At ignition 18 degrees, horizon left. Before readback, configure for receiving any update. Over.

072:00:16 Borman: Roger. Understand. Configure for receiving an update.

072:00:26 Borman: Okay. We're in P00 and Accept. Go ahead.

[The PAD is interpreted as follows:

Purpose: This PAD is gives the parameters for Lunar Orbit Insertion burn 2. Their first LOI burn brought them into lunar orbit but was deliberately made slightly short so that any errors would not risk causing the spacecraft to impact the Moon. LOI-2 is a relatively small burn that finally circularises their orbit for the remainder of their stay.

Systems: The burn will be made using the large SPS (Service Propulsion System) engine at the rear of the Service Module, under the control of the Guidance and Navigation system.

CSM Weight (Noun 47): 46,427 pounds (21,059 kg). The calculated weight of the spacecraft has dropped considerably due to the propellant used for the LOI-1 burn.

Pitch and yaw trim (Noun 48): -0.53° and +1.41°. These are the angles through which the SPS engine should be swivelled to ensure its thrust acts through the spacecraft's centre of gravity.

Time of ignition, T_ig (Noun 33): 73 hours, 35 minutes, 5.7 seconds. The burn will occur about halfway around the far side as the spacecraft reaches its pericynthion, the lowest point in its orbit.

Change in velocity (Noun 81), fps (m/s): x, -135.0 (-41.1); y and z components are both zero. Since the change in velocity is expressed relative to the Local Vertical/Local Horizontal frame of reference, we can see that this burn is a pure retrograde burn and therefore meant to slow the spacecraft down with respect to the Moon.

Spacecraft attitude: Roll, 0°; Pitch, 175°; Yaw, 358°. The desired spacecraft attitude is measured relative to the alignment of the guidance platform. The current alignment of the platform was meant to match the spacecraft's prograde attitude for this burn when it was calculated such that the burn attitude would be 0°, 180°, 0°. This is to make it easier to monitor the attitude during what is an especially critical burn (one which, if erroneous, could cause impact. The fact that the pitch and yaw are slightly different to the ideal shows that small dispersions are being compensated for by this burn. Later, Frank will question Mission Control about this as he was evidently expecting the nominal numbers.

H_A, expected apocynthion of resulting orbit (Noun 44): 60.7 nautical miles (112.4 km).

H_P, expected pericynthion of resulting orbit (Noun 44): 60.6 nautical miles (112.2 km).

The apocynthion and pericynthion are essentially identical showing that a circular orbit is being aimed for.

Delta-V_t: 135.0 fps (41.1 m/s). This is the total change in velocity the spacecraft would experience. (It is a vector sum of the three components given above though since two of them are zero, it equals the minus-X component in magnitude.)

Burn duration or burn time: 9 seconds.

Delta-V_c: 126.5 fps (38.6 m/s). This value is entered into the Delta-V display of the EMS (Entry Monitor System) panel. This figure will descend to zero as the engine burns. If the Guidance and Control System fails to stop the burn, the EMS will do so but it has to be given a low Delta-V figure to take account of the engine's tail-off thrust after shutdown.

Sextant star: Star 02 (Diphda, in Cetus) visible in sextant when shaft and trunnion angles are 311.2° and 19.7° respectively. This is part of an attitude check.

Boresight star: Star Taurus, Aida is used for a second attitude check which is made by sighting through the COAS (Crew Optical Alignment Sight). Soon, Carr will inform the crew that Aida is really the Pleiades.

COAS Pitch Angle: Up 16.2°.

COAS X Position Angle: Left 0.1°.

Other parameters on the PAD sheet are not applicable to this maneuver.

GDC align stars: Stars to be used for GDC align purposes are Sirius and Rigel. The align angles are roll, 129°; pitch, 155°; yaw, 10°.

Though the SPS propellant tanks are partially depleted, Mission Control have determined that there is no need to perform an ullage burn to settle their contents.

The final comment refers to where in the rendezvous window the commander can expect to see the Moon's horizon, and when this occurs. At the edges of this window, lines have been painted to give the seated crewman a good idea of the angle an horizon makes with the spacecraft's X-axis, a helpful check that all is well with the spacecraft's control system. At three minutes to the burn, the Moon's horizon should be at about 27 degrees. By the time of ignition, it should be at 18 degrees.]

072:00:35 Borman: LOI-2; SPS/G&N; 46427; minus 0.53, plus 1.41; 073:35:05.70; minus 0135.0, plus 0000, plus 0000; 000, 175, 358; 0060.7, plus 0060.6; 0135.0, 0:09, 0126.5; 02, 311.2, 19.7; Taurus, Aida, up 16.2, left 0.1; the remainder not applicable. Sirius, Rigel, 129, 155, 010; no ullage. Ignition minus 3, 27 degrees, ignition, 18 degrees.

072:01:51 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. Readback is correct. [Long pause.]

072:02:12 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Your map update for rev 2/3, no change. Over.

072:02:22 Borman: Understand. No change, rev 2/3.

[An update for the timings of landmarks for Jim's sighting exercise was given at 070:32:55. Those timings are still valid.]

[This is in response to Frank’s insistence at 070:04:15 that a Go/NoGo on the spacecraft be given before each LOS.]

072:02:45 Carr: Apollo 8, this is Houston. We'll try to make that call 20 minutes before every LOS Over.

072:02:54 Borman: Fine. [Long pause.]

072:03:20 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. We have the CSM vector starting on the LV. Over. [Long pause.]

072:03:27 Borman: Thank you. [Pause.]

072:03:36 Lovell: Houston, this is Apollo 8.

072:03:40 Carr: Apollo 8, Houston. Go.

072:03:44 Lovell: Roger. Just an interesting feat