Apollo 7

Apollo Control, Houston; 216 hours, 10 minutes into the flight. Tom Stafford has struck up a conversation with Apollo 7 via Hawaii. Let's listen.

This is Apollo Control, Houston; 216 hours, 52 minutes. Over Ascension a couple of minutes ago, we had an interesting conversation with the crew. They were passed some sleep updates to their Flight Plan and we got some comments from Wally Schirra about nice the windows are in this - in the Apollo machine for taking pictures. Let's hear the conversation now.

This is Apollo Control, 217 hours, 50 minutes into the flight. Over Hawaii, we have established contact and we are having a chat with Apollo 7 and prior to that, we had some conversation via the ship Mercury. That conversation was taped while we were replaying the television tape from a pass earlier this morning. We will start off with the Mercury tape and then break into the Hawaii pass and we will probably catch up with a lot of action.

Apollo Control, Houston here, 218 hours, 24 minutes, and we've had a long quiet time here since we left the Guaymas station with no contact and we expect none for another 8 minutes; at which time we should tag up via Tananarive. Just wanted to let you know we are still here, the flight is still moving along, and if you heard the last pass, you might have heard Wally comment about something reminding him of an earlier flight. I think it was in reference to the Mercury and the swells the Mercury's taking out there with storm Gloria. He said that it reminded him of the Allen B, that was in reference, of course, to Allen Barlet Shepherd Jr., one of his fellow astronauts who was a Capsule Communicator on Schirra's Mercury flight stationed on a ship in the far west Pacific, which took a tremendous buffeting from another typhoon. Shepherd and the ship managed to ride the typhoon out and they were on hand during the Sigma 7 flight and Mercury. At 218 hours and 25 minutes, this is Apollo Control, Houston.

Apollo Control, Houston, here at 218 hours and 44 minutes into the flight via Tananarive we have tagged up with the crew. Among other things Tom Stafford passed up to them some social intelligence on the plans of the pilot's wives for this afternoon. Here is that conversation.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 219 hours, 05 minutes into the flight, and we've been in contact - we are in contact with the crew via the ship Mercury, and early in the pass the lunar module pilot proposes a bet with our assistant flight director here, Ed Fendell, on one of the local football games today. Here's the conversation.

Apollo Control, Houston here at 219 hours, 27 minutes into the flight. We are in touch with 7 through Hawaii and here is the conversation.

Apollo Control, Houston here at 220 hours, 15 minutes into the flight, and through Tananarive we are talking with Walt Cunningham. Here is how the conversation is going.

This is Apollo Control at 220 hours, 39 minutes. Apollo Control - Apollo 7 is in touch now with the Mercury. Let's listen.

This is Apollo Control; 220 hours, 46 minutes. The Mercury has LOS. In terms of man-hours, flown Apollo 7 has now exceeded Gemini 7. The duration of Gemini 7 was a few minutes over 330 hours with 2 men aboard. We're now at 220 hours, 47 minutes into Apollo 7 with 3 crewmen aboard. Next station to acquire will be Hawaii at 220 hours, 56 minutes. This is Mission Control Houston.

This is Apollo Control, 220 hours, 56 minutes. Apollo 7 is at Hawaii now.

This is Apollo Control at 221 hours, 3 minutes. Hawaii has LOS. The next station acquiral will be Ascension. Apollo 7 beginning a short low elevation pass there at 221 hours, 38 minutes.

This is Apollo Control at 222 hours, 4 minutes. We have about a minute's worth of tape from the Ascension pass. We had a short bit of acquisition at Tananarive, but no conversation at that station. We will play that tape for you now.

This is Apollo Control; 222 hours, 13 minutes. Apollo 7 is in its 140th revolution. Coming up on the Mercury now.

This is Apollo Control. 222.22 minutes. LOS at Mercury. Wally Schirra reported during this pass that he has donned the suit, strapped himself in the couch as a test of the way in which the crew now believes they will reenter on Tuesday. It's with the suit on, no helmets and no gloves. He indicated they will pad the headrest and he believes this will be satisfactory for entry. Next station to acquire will be Hawaii. A very low elevation past there less than 1 degree, but we will have about 2 minutes of acquisition beginning at 222 hours, 34 minutes. This is Mission Control Houston.

This is Apollo control at 222 hours, 34 minutes, Apollo 7 about to tag up at Hawaii.

This is Apollo control 222 hours, 36 minutes, Hawaii has LOS new. The next station to acquire will be the Redstone at 222 hours, 47 minutes.

This is Apollo control at 222 hours, 47 minutes into the mission. The Redstone has acquisition now.

Apollo control at 222 hours, 54 minutes, Apollo 7, beyond the range at Redstone. Wally Schirra reported during this pass that the activities tomorrow dictate that the TV schedule will be at 237 hours, 50 minutes, this is about 3 and a half hours later than originally scheduled. He indicated that the crew would turn the camera on at that time and let it run through out the pass. The next station to acquire will be Ascension at 223 hours, 12 minutes. This is mission control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 223 hours, 12 minutes. Apollo 7 is in revolution number 141 and Ascension is about to acquire. We'll stand by.

This is Apollo Control at 223 hours, 21 minutes; LOS at Ascension. The Mercury, the next station to acquire, is still in stormy seas out in the Western Pacific. Today they report waves at 15 feet and the ship is continuing to roll at 20 degrees. Apollo 7 will be within range of the Mercury at 223 hours, 50 minutes.

This is Apollo Control at 223 hours, 50 minutes into the mission. Apollo 7 about to be acquired at the Mercury. Guam has overlapping coverage. Mercury reports a problem with its Unified S-band antenna. So we will only have VHF voice during this rev. We'll stand by.

This is Apollo Control; 224 hours, 2 minutes into the mission. Guam has LOS. Next station to acquire will be Redstone, at 224 hours, 21 minutes.

This is Apollo Control at 224 hours, 21 minutes into the mission. The Redstone has just acquired Apollo 7. We'll monitor this pass.

This Apollo Control; 224 hours, 30 minutes. Redstone has LOS. During this pass Walt Cunningham reported seeing a Coral Atoll in the area. Wally Schtrra couldn't resist the pun that it's better than seeing nothing a'tall. Ascension will acquire next shortly after Apollo 7 enters its 142 rev. Acquisition there at 224 hours, 47 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo control at 224 hours, 47 minutes, Apollo 7 is in the night side of its 142 revolution as Ascension gets acquisition.

Apollo control at 224 hours, 58 minutes, Ascension has LOS now. Donn Eisele awake during this pass, Wally Schirra and Walt Cunningham beginning their sleep period. Donns breakfast hour is schedules during this next hour 225 hours to 226 hours. It's a quiet time in the Flight Plan. Next station to acquire will be Mercury at 225 hours, 25 minutes. This is mission control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 225 hours, 25 minutes. The Mercury is about to acquire Apollo 7. Guam has overlapping coverage on this rev.

Apollo Control at 225 hours, 38 minutes. Guam has LOS. Very little conversation during the Mercury and Guam pass as we give Donn Eisele time enough to finish his breakfast. Next station to acquire will be the Redstone at 225 hours, 57 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 225 hours, 57 minutes, Apollo 7 coming upon the Redstone now. We'll stand by through this pass.

This is Apollo Control; 226 hours, 06 minutes into the mission. The Redstone has LOS. Ascension will be the next station to acquire at 226 hours, 23 minutes.

This is Apollo Control, 226 hours, 23 minutes into the mission. Apollo 7 being acquired at Ascension. About the time of Ascension LOS, the Canary Island station will have AOS.

This is Apollo Control, 226 hours, 37 minutes. Canary's has LOS. During this pass which started at Ascension and continued uninterrupted through the Cannary's acquisition, we continued the hydrogen stratification test, powered down the computer, and we passed up some information to Donn Eisele on a test to see whether the optics have been degraded by any deposits such as have been seen on the windows. We asked him to take a look through the optics with the eye pieces removed during a daylight pass. Donn reported that with the eye pieces on the view through the optics now is as good as it was at the start of the flight. The Mercury the next station to acquire at time 227 hours, 2 minutes, 56 seconds. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 227 hours, 02 minutes into the mission. Apollo 7 coming up on a short low elevation pass at the Mercury, followed by an overlapping brief coverage at Guam.

Apollo Control at 227 hour 11 minutes. Guam has LOS. we continued the cryogenic stratification test during this pass and we have ended the service propulsion system line heater test. The next station to acquire will be the Redstone at 227 hours, 32 minutes. This is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 227 hours, 32 minutes. Apollo 7 coming within the range of the Redstone now. We'll stand by for this pass.

Apollo Control at 227 hours, 43 minutes. Redstone has LOS. Next station to acquire will be the Canary Islands at 228 hours, 03 minutes.

This is Apollo control at 228 hours, 03 minutes into the mission, Canary Islands is about to acquire Apollo 7. The Madrid station has some overlapping coverage.

Apollo control at 228 hours, 14 minutes Madrid has LOS. We completed the Flight Plan update on this pass also got a run down on Donn Eiseles health, he reported he got a good eight hours sleep, his cold seems better, his ears are clear more often now. Next station to acquire will be Redstone, we'll miss the Mercury and Guam this rev. Apollo 7, in its 144 revolution. Redstone due to acquire at 229 hours, 07 minutes. This is mission control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 228 hours, 25 minutes. Prior to acquisition of Apollo 7 at the Mercury, the next tracking station, we will have a change of shift in the control center. This shift has been essentially a quiet one. We'll give you a recap of the major items on the shift. During - early in the shift, during rev 140, at about 222 hours, 14 minutes elapsed time over the Mercury, Wally Schirra reported that he had conducted a test. He had donned the suit, strapped himself in the couch, reported that he believed that they would re-enter Tuesday in suits, with the headrest padded, but with no helmets and gloves. He tried that out during the test and it seemed to work very well. Later in that same pass, that same rev rather, over the Redstone, Schirra reported that he would change the TV times tomorrow because of the busy schedule of activities. And the elapsed time for the television pass was changed to 237 hours, 18 minutes elapsed for the start of the pass; 237 hours, 30 minutes for the end of the pass, in Central Daylight Time that's 7:20 A.M. to 7:32 A.M. Tracking ship Mercury in the Pacific still reported stormy seas, waves of 15 feet; the ship rolling as much as 20 degrees. Mercury, during one rev, also had a U S-B antenna problem and we used VHF voice. We have not had any particular problems since then with the Mercury. Conducted several tests during this shift. Communications tests at several stations. Conducted a test of the service propulsion system line heaters and we conducted another cryogenics stratification test this time on the hydrogen tanks. We powered up the command module computer in rev 142 over the Redstone at 225 hours, 57 minutes; checked some information in the computer; powered back down a station later at Ascension. At Ascension we passed up some procedure for optics degradation test, which is scheduled to begin in about 2 minutes. We asked Donn Eisele to take a look through the optics with the eyepieces removed during a day pass to see whether he could observe any deposits on the internal lens. These are deposits such as have appeared on the windows. At that time, Eisele reported that so far, with the eyepieces on, that the view is as good now as it was at the start of the flight. Over the Redstone, in rev 143, we started a Flight Plan update, which included the new TV times; times for a waste water dump; we continued that update during this last contact at the Canarys and at Madrid, taking the Flight Plan up through SPS burn number 7, which is scheduled for 239 hours, 06 minutes elapsed time. Donn Eisele reported at that time, that he had a good 8 hours sleep, that his cold seems better and his ears are clear. That essentially covers the activities on the shift. There will be no change of shift press briefing tonight. The third shift headed by Jerry Griffin will have a news conference in the morning. Estimated time right now between 7:30 and 8:00. Next station to acquire will be the Redstone at 229 hours, 07 minutes. At 228 hours, 31 minutes, this is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control; 229 hours, 07 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We are approaching the Redstone tracking station, we should have acquisition in a very few seconds; let's stand by.

This is Apollo Control; 229 hours, 18 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We've just lost acquisition at the Redstone tracking ship, we are completing our 144th revolution at this time approaching the West coast of South America. At 229 hours, 19 minutes, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 229 hours, 27 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're now at the point of acquisition at the Antigua Tracking Station. Let's listen in.

This is Apollo Control, 229 hours, 36 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. Our next acquisition point will be Canary Islands at 229:30. At 229, correction, 229:38. Our time right now is 229:36. This is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 229 hours, 38 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We have acquired Canary Islands Tracking Station on the one hundred forty fifth revolution the beginning of the one hundred forty fifth, we'll standby for conversation.

This is Apollo Control, 229 hours, 49 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We've just lost acquisition with Canary Islands and the Madrid Tracking Station. Our next point of contact will be Carnarvon at 230 hours, 17 minutes. At 229:50, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 230 hours, 17 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're coming up now on acquisition point of Carnarvon tracking station and we now have data at Carnarvon; let's listen in.

This is Apollo Control; 230 hours, 21 minutes into the flight of Apollo 7. We've lost acquisition at Carnarvon. We have about 2-1/2 minutes to acquire at Honeysuckle Creek so we'll just stand by. During the Carnarvon pass it was confirmed that there had been a fuel cell oxygen or O₂ purge and that was about it. We'll stand by now for the pass at Honeysuckle.

This is Apollo Control; 230 hours, 31 minutes into the flight of Apollo 7. We have just lost acquisition at Honeysuckle. We are now anticipating Redstone tracking station at 230 hours, 43 minutes, some 11 minutes from now, 12 minutes from now. At 230:31, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 230 hours, 43 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're now approaching the acquisition point at the Redstone Tracking Ship. Let's listen in.

This is Apollo Control, 230 hours, 53 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We've just lost acquisition at the Redstone Tracking Station. We're anticipating Antigua acquisition at 231 hours, 2 minutes. At 230:54 ending up the one hundred forty fifth revolution, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 231 hours, 2 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We are coming up in a very few seconds to acquisition point to Antigua. Let's listen in.

This is Apollo Control, 231 hours, 12 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We have lost acquisition. And we are now anticipating Canary Islands acquisition in some 2 and 1/2 minutes now. We'll standby. On this last pass we had definition of when to dump the waste water and that's 235 hours, 50 minutes to dump it down to 40 percent quantity. And that would be the last dump before reentry. At 231:13 this is Apollo Control standing by for the Canary Islands pass.

This is Apollo Control; 231 hours, 24 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We've lost acquisition at Canary Islands. We're anticipating Carnarvon acquisition at 231:50. At 231:24, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 251 hours, 50 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We now have acquisition at Carnarvon on revolution 146; let's listen in.

This is Apollo Control; 252 hours, 07 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're climbing up apogee and coming into the last half of the 146th revolution of Earth. At 232 hours, 07 minutes, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 232 hours, 32 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We have acquisition at the Texas tracking Station. Now let's standby.

This is Apollo Control, at 232 hours, 47 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. During this last pass we had the information passed up from CAPCOM Pogue here at the control center that Apollo 7 has a GO for 164-1 or for the completion of the mission. And now we have about a 2 minute wait for acquisition at Canary Islands. We'll standby through the Canary Islands pass for such conversation as there may be.

This is Apollo Control; 232 hours, 58 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're losing acquisition with Canary Islands now, we'll pick up the spacecraft at Carnarvon at 233:25. During this pass we heard astronaut Eisele indicate that the fuel cell number three master alarm light was on but all the meter readings were normal, at which time Cap Com Pogue indicated they had been watching this for some time on the ground and that the condensor exhaust temperature was coming down and it now stands at 155 degrees Fahrenheit. He also indicated that it will come back up and there's nothing to be concerned about when the fuel cell is put on the line. Eisele came back indicating that the history of the fuel cells seem to indicate that the number three cell is running cool, number one hot and number two is taking most of the load and how about swapping. Cap Com Pogue indicated that they would let him know at the Carnarvon pass. We have a GO for revolution 163, the completion of 163 revs which is the end of the mission and the retrofire that would come up from right now would come up in 26 hours, 39 minutes and some seconds. We had a report in here that at 0605 Zulu, that's Greenwich time 5 hours different from Central Daylight Time that would be 01:05 our time, a Class one bright, 1B flare, occurred on the Sun solar flare. This flare had been predicted for the last couple of days and although it was small compared to those that would expell harmful high energy protons, the situation itself does serve to illustrate how it would have been handled had it been a lunar mission that we had going on with the astronauts on their way to the Moon. The flare was observed as it occurred by the SPAN, that's Solar Particle Alert Network, observer at the Carnarvon station Australia. He placed a call into the space environment console located in the Control Center here in Houston and the information was immediately relayed to the Space Disturbance Forecast Center in Boulder, Colorado for confirmation and additional information, their inputs. The Carnarvon SPAN site followed up their voice report by transmitting via teletype here to the Control Center detailed data on the RF burst that accompanied the flare. Within a half hour after the flare was first observed, the data was being analyzed by a computer here at Houston MCC. The results of the computer analysis will show that there is no adverse radiation associated with this event, as I say it was a minor disturbance, Class 1B is not a major solar flare, so there was not adverse radiation associated with it and it was expected result for such a small one. Protons are generally present only during the very largest of solar flares. Solar flares such as this, again, would not effect the Apollo 7 Earth Orbital mission so there is no cause for concern about that. The only concern would occur during a deeper space flight such as a lunar mission, but again it does serve to indicate in this particular example how it would have been handled had this been a lunar mission. We're anticipating Carnarvon at 235:25, 233:35 a correction. At 233:03, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 233 hours, 25 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're coming up in about 10 seconds with acquisition at Carnarvon. We'll standby.

This is Apollo Control, 233 hours, 42 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We have lost acquisition and as CAPCOM Pogue passed up to the crew. Guaymas acquisition will be at 234:04. We also have a very short 2 and 1/2 minute contact with the Huntsville Tracking Ship at 234:01. And evidently CAPCOM Pogue does not anticipate any contact there. So we'll come upon Guaymas at 234:04. At 253:43, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 234 hours, 03 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We are coming up in just a few seconds on acquisition at Guaymas, Mexico; let's listen in.

This is Apollo Control, 234 hours, 33 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're now losing acquisition at Canary Islands. We're anticipating Tananarive at 234:46. At 234:33, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 234 hours, 46 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We have acquired at Tananarive. We'll standby.

This is Apollo Control, 234 hours, 53 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We had no voice contact at Tananarive. We have experienced some difficulty of communicating through Tananarive in the last day or so. We are now anticipating contact with Carnarvon at 235 hours even. At 254:53, this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control; 235 hours into the mission. We are acquiring very shortly Carnarvon tracking station; let's listen in.

This is Apollo Control; 235 hours, 17 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We've just lost acquisition at Honeysuckle. We're anticipating contact at Hawaii tracking station at 235 hours, 29 minutes, some 11 minutes from now, 12 minutes. At 255:18 this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 235 hours, 29 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're coming up on the Hawaiian Tracking Station. We should have acquisition in a very few seconds.

This is Apollo Control; 255 hours, 59 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We are coming up on loss of signal, we will acquire Tananarive at 236:21, correction, no that is correct 236:21. At 235:59 this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 236 hours, 21 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're coming upon acquisition with the Tananarive Tracking Station. Let's listen in.

This is Apollo Control, 236 hours, 28 minutes into the flight of Apollo 7. We're now losing acquisition at Tananarive. Our next point of contact will be Carnarvon at 236:36. This is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, 236 hours, 31 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We're coming up on Carnarvon within the next 4 plus minutes. We'll take a couple of minutes before to have a recap on the last 7½ hours of activity. At revolution 144, 229 hours roughly at Redstone it was indicated by Apollo 7 that the telescope was working as well now as at the start of the mission. There was a dry period from 229 hours up through 230 hours with not much going on. At 230 hours the Apollo 7 confirmed a fuel cell O₂ purge, pass block data. And astronaut Pogue passed up a map update. At 231 hours, the waste water dump time of 235:50 was indicated to the crew. And at that time was indicated if they would dump at 235 hours, 50 minutes down to 40 percent, that that would probably be the last waste water dump of the mission. At 232 hours, 32 minutes on the Texas pass REV 146, we passed up a GO for 164-1. That is 163 revolutions which is the complete plan for mission. So they have a GO for the complete mission as of that time. At 232 hours, 50 minutes the Canary Islands - Eisele indicated that fuel cell number 3 master alarm was on but all the meter readings seemed normal onboard. Astronaut Pogue here at the control center indicated that we had been watching this for some time. And that the condenser exhaust temperature is coming down, 155 degrees now or at that time. But it will go back up when the fuel cell is put on the line. Eisele then indicated that since number 3 fuel cell was running cool and number 1 fuel cell had a history of running hot and number 2 is taking most of the load. How about swapping it? And Pogue indicated that they would let him know at Carnarvon. At about this time we had an indication of solar flare activity and that was that - they had observed a I-B. That's a one bright classification which is a small solar flare. And although it is small compared to those that would expel harmful high energy protons, the situation served well to illustrate how it would have been handled had this been a lunar mission. The flare was observed by the SPAN. That's Solar Particle Alert Network Observer at the Carnarvon Australian Station. He placed a call into the space environment console located in the control center here in Houston. The information was immediately relayed to the space disturbance forecast center in Boulder, Colorado. And the Carnarvon SPAN site followed up the voice report by transmitting via teletype to control center here a detailed account and the data on the RF burst that accompanied the flare. Within 1/2 hour after the flare was first observed the data was being analyzed by a computer here in MCC. The results of the computer analysis show that there is no adverse radiation associated with this event. And this was an expected result for such a small flare. So there was no danger to the flight but it served well to indicate how such flare reportage was to be handled. At 235 hours, astronaut Schirra had questions about the actifed tablets and about the mucus - and how - he asked the question of whether actifeds thicken the mucus, and if that was normal. And the doctor here in the control center on duty indicated, "Yes, it was normal". He then asked about sinuses and the doctor said, "Yes, they open the sinuses; they shrink the sinuses." The canister changes were then talked about. We have two more canister changes to complete the mission and that the lithium hydroxide canisters onboard and in rev 148 235 hours, 29 minutes at Hawaii, it was indicated by the Apollo 7 crew that the telescope, when it was used, the edges appeared sort of fuzzy; very difficult to observe around the edges, looking through the telescope. There was a navigation update, and the last waste water dump down to 40 percent level was performed during that pass. We are now up to the Carnarvon acquisition point; let's stand by for any live conversation.

This is Apollo Control, 236 hours, 46 minutes into the mission of Apollo 7. We are losing acquisition, have lost acquisition at Carnarvon. Our next point of contact will be Hawaii Tracking Station at 237:02. This is the pass on the 149th revolution, this is the pass, and I might say the final pass of the mission for television, the live television is as follows. On this revolution at 237 hours, 16 minutes, or 7:18 am Central Daylight Time, they will turn the television camera on at 237:18, 7:20 am; our TV pass should begin with hopefully good resolution and at 7:32 am, Central Daylight Time, the pass will end. At 236:48 this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control, Houston; 237 hours, 03 minutes into the flight of Apollo 7. The Flight Plan calls for an oxygen purge during this pass across the States, an oxygen fuel cell purge as well as a TV - the TV is to be turned on at 237 hours, 16 minutes. We have tagged up with 7 via Hawaii. Let's catch that conversation.

This is Apollo Control. The TV pass should be a good long one. We are due to acquire at Texas at 237:18 and we should lose lock, according to our charts here, at - through the Merritt Island range, actually it will be the Antigua station at 237:29, 11 minutes.

And the camera is on. We are beginning to see a picture. We have got about half a picture and it is clearing up now. It's - cut it up, would you, Hal? It is just possible that might be converter trouble. I don't it looks like to me that is the kind of trouble we had before. I can see the "high atop the Apollo room" sign.

If you look very sharply, you can see pictures of the men's wives, just above their couches.

That apparently brings down the curtain on another television performance. Here's Schirra again.

Apollo Control, Houston, 238 hours, 21 minutes. During the news conference, we picked up about 1-1/2 minutes of tape, very minimum conversation at Ascension, Tananarive, and Carnarvon. We're about to lose acquisition by Carnarvon right now. We'll pick up at Guam in 6 or 7 minutes. We still have an SPS burn scheduled at 239:06. Here is the tape from the stations you missed.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 238 hours, 39 minutes. We should acquire, just any second, by Hawaii. We did make contact at Guam, but it was simply an establishing call, a standby, and I know, no resulting conversation. We are satisfied the carriers are in the proper attitude for the burn. The burn is to take place at 239 hours, 6 minutes, and it will be burn no. 7. The duration of it will be about 8 seconds and the differential velocity expected will be 225.4 feet per second. It will be done out of plane and have little or no effect on the orbit, The result in orbit will be 90 by 239 nautical miles according to our present plans. Immediately following the burn, the crew is to have lunch. Then they're to do a sextant calibration test, I'll get an update on some more planned landing areas, should any difficulty develop. You've heard Walt Cunningham remark about all the pages in the planned landing area that he has filled. They are to do some ground photography over Mexico and South America. Still no contact, we'll just standby.

Apollo Control here, our present orbit before the burn is 230.4 nautical miles, perigee 90.2, 230.4 90.2, 230.4 - 90.2.

Our oxygen supply reads 33 percent remaining and the - oxygen tank no. 1 and 33 percent is actually in oxygen tank no. 1 is 33.28 and oxygen tank no. 2 is 33.64. Here is some conversation.

Cabin temperature is a very comfortable 70 degrees, about the same as it is here in Houston.

The hydrogen remaining shows 18.4 percent in tank 1, tank 2 - 18.1 percent.

Spacecraft is pitch down 4 degrees, has a yaw right handed 3 degrees, 0 roll, and is maintaining that attitude quite steadily.

Fuel cell temperatures look like this, 163 on fuel cell no. 1, 191 on fuel cell no. 2, that is a little bit higher than yesterday. It has consistently been higher than the other two through the flight. Fuel cell number 3 is 162 degrees Farenheit.

Let's make that cabin temperature 66 - 65 to 66 degrees. Those are the latest telemetry data coming to us via Guaymas.

The cabin is still a rock solid 5.1 and the O₂ flow rate today is .4. I think yesterday it was .27.

The load sharing on the fuel cells is quite evenly distributed among the three cells, most of them are showing a 33 point something reading and it bounces back and forth on our scales here, some of them showing for a few seconds, 34, some other one perhaps 32, but these are in percentages. They show a very balanced load sharing condition, which is an important factor.

Astronaut boss Deke Slayton has joined us in the Control Center this morning to watch this burn.

It is just deadly quiet from the spacecraft and it is very quiet here in the Control Center.

And this is Apollo Control. Apparently we will not have any discussion building up to it. We will come back to you just prior to the burn. At 238 hours, 56 minutes, this is Apollo Control.

If you look at your television monitors, you can see one of the TV displays we have called up would suggest you direct your attention to the center of the chart. You will see the pitch, yaw, and roll and this is real time telemetry now coming in from the Antigua station. You can also look at the top of that chart and see the quantities remaining in quad A, B, C, and D. It reads from about 123 in quad A down to 122 in quad B. The pilots have now completed their checklists and they have gotten a 2 minute mark. That attitude is all zeros.

We have got still another good 4 minutes in this pass, so we should be able to cover the burn with ease.

4, 3, 2, 1, 0. The SPS is on, GMC confirms. Getting a normal burn. SPS off.

Again, if you look at your quads, there you notice about 8 pounds of fuel used up in ullage setup.

Flight dynamics officer predicted 16.8 and the residuals came 17.9, got a compliment for his ability to plan from the Flight Director.

And that will wrap it up for this pass and we will pick it up at Ascension at 239:17, 07 minutes from now. Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control, Houston at 239 hours, 17 minutes into the flight. At any second we ought to hear from 7 by Ascension Island. Let's open the line.

This is Apollo Control. That concludes a very talkative Ascension Island pass. And we'll see what happens at Tananarive in about 7 minutes. Apollo Control, Houston at 239 hours, 25 minutes.

Apollo Control, Houston, 239 hours, 32 minutes. Via Tananarive, we expect acquisition just any second.

Apollo Control, Houston here, we've got the data from that last SPS burn on fuel and on the weights of the SPS fuel and oxidizer and it goes like this. In the fuel tank just prior to the burn we had 1102 lbs. remaining. Immediately after the burn, We had 876. In oxidizer, just prior to the burn, we had 1832 lbs., immediately after the burn 1469. A rather dramatic dropoff, and this of course, remains above our red line value for that node of the orbit. Here goes Jack Swigert's first call.

And that obviously will wrap up the inconclusive and unreadable comm by Tananarive.