Apollo 8

This is Apollo Control at 57 hours, 11 minutes into the flight. Here in Mission Control Center, we've completed the change of shift and Flight Director Milton Windler has gone through the status of the mission with his flight controllers. Now, at the present time, we are preparing for a midcourse correction. This will be the second performed on this translunar leg of the Apollo 8 flight. That first maneuver was, of course, performed with the Service Propulsion System engine. Midcourse maneuvers number 2, numbers 2 and 3, now which had been included in the Flight Plan, were not performed because of the small amount of correction needed and our estimate, at this point, is that midcourse correction number 2 [means four] will be for about 3 feet per second [1 metre/second] and will occur at the nominal time in the Flight Plan of about 61 hours. We've had two brief conversations with the crew since our last report. We'll play those back for you now.

... At the present time, Apollo 8's velocity, as it moves toward the Moon now, is 4,011 feet per second [1,223 m/s], so we are beginning to see an increase in velocity as the spacecraft comes under the influence of the Moon's gravity and begins to accelerate toward the Moon. Our height above the Moon is also showing a continued decrease and now reads 30,021 nautical miles [55,599 km]. Marilyn Lovell, Apollo 8 Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell's wife, was in the viewing room at Mission Control Center for about 30 minutes, viewing activities here in the Control Room and talking with Dr. Robert Gilruth in the viewing room. And she heard the rather brief conversations with the spacecraft during that period of time and she has now left the Control Center. At 57 hours, 16 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8; this is Mission Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 57 hours, 32 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. Now we are in contact with the spacecraft at this time and Bill Anders reports that both Frank Borman and Jim Lovell are sleeping at the present time. And we have passed up some preliminary information to the crew on the midcourse correction that they will be performing at 61 hours in their flight. We will ... stand by for any live communication with the spacecraft.

This is Apollo Control and it appears that we have no more communications with Bill Anders during this period. We would also judge that the crew is following the advice of the ground given out yesterday that they set their own pace and sleep when they feel they need it. As you heard, Anders reports both Borman and Lovell are sleeping at the present time. Apollo 8 is continuing now to accelerate toward the Moon. The current velocity reading is 4,018 feet per second [1,225 m/s] now - that's up about 10 feet per second [3 m/s] in velocity in the past 30 minutes. And our current altitude now stands at 29,048 feet or rather 29,048 nautical miles [53,797 km] above the Moon, This is Apollo Control at 57 hours, 40 minutes.

This is Apollo Control at 58 hours into the flight of Apollo 8. We've had no communications with the spacecraft since our last report, and here in Mission Control it has also been rather quiet. At the present time, the spacecraft is at an altitude of 28,225 nautical miles from the Moon and velocity reads 4,024 feet per second. Coming up, in just a little under 3 hours, we have a midcourse correction maneuver scheduled. This is listed as midcourse correction number 4 in the Flight Plan and will actually be the second midcourse correction on route to the Moon. Midcourse corrections 2 and 3, which were listed in the Flight Plan, were such low values that they were not performed and we anticipate that midcourse correction coming up will be for about 3 feet per second, a burn of about 3 feet per second using the spacecraft Reaction Control System. At 58 hours, 1 minute; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 58 hours, 12 minutes. We have just been in touch with the spacecraft and received a status report from Bill Anders on the condition of the spacecraft windows at this time. We'll ... stand by briefly, for any further communications with the spacecraft.

And it appears that we'll have no further communication at this time with Bill Anders, aboard the spacecraft. We're continuing to monitor the velocity and altitude as it approaches the Moon. At the present time, our velocity reading is 4,030 feet per second [1,228 m/s] and we're at an altitude above the Moon of 27,575 nautical miles [51,069 km]. Our predictions in Mission Control Center are that the velocity will, of course, continue to accelerate as we approach the Moon rather slowly for the next 7 hours or so and we anticipate that by about 65 hours, the velocity will be somewhere around 4,350 feet per second [1,326 m/s]. That would be an increase of about 300 feet per second over what we're showing now. The dramatic increase in the velocity will come between 65 hours and 69 hours, at the point of Lunar Orbit Insertion, when the velocity will just about double, going from 4,350 feet per second up to about 8,420 feet per second [2,566 m/s]. At 58 hours, 18 minutes into the flight; this is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 58 hours, 37 minutes. At the present time, our spacecraft velocity is 4,037 feet per second [1,230 m/s] and we are at an altitude now of 26,764 nautical miles [49,567 km] above the Moon. We had one rather brief conversation with Bill Anders in the past 15 minutes or so and have not heard from the spacecraft since. During that conversation, we passed up to the spacecraft an update to the computer driven clock aboard the spacecraft and that pretty much summarized the content of that communication. We'll ... pick up live with conversations that are going on at the present time.

This is Apollo Control at 59 hours, 22 minutes into the flight. At the present time Apollo 8 is at an altitude of 25,036 nautical miles [46,367 km] above the Moon and traveling at a speed of 4,053 feet per second [1,235 m/s]. Since our last report, we have only had one very brief conversation with the spacecraft. That was a request from the ground that Bill Anders begin a fuel cell purge, supposedly one of the routine bits of housekeeping that the crew will - is carrying out throughout the flight, at specified time intervals and part of this procedure to remove any contaminants that build up inside the fuel cells and could begin to degrade their performance. We will ... stand by for any possible call to the crew.

This is Apollo Control at 59 hours, 46 minutes. Capsule Communicator Ken Mattingly has just put a call into the crew. We'll ... follow the conversation live.

This is Apollo Control. During that series of conversations with the spacecraft, among the numbers passed up to the crew and then verified and read back down from the spacecraft, was the information that will be used for the midcourse correction coming up at 61 hours. That maneuver is scheduled to be an RCS maneuver using the four Reaction Control System jets on the Service Module, each of those having a thrust of about 100 pounds. So we'd have a total of 400 pounds of thrust. The burn duration is scheduled for 11 seconds and with that much burn time and that much thrust acting on the weight of the vehicle, which is estimated to be at 62,888 pounds, it gives a Delta-V, a change in velocity, of about 2 feet per second. And that velocity change would be in the retrograde direction. It would slow the spacecraft down slightly, having the effect of lowering the perigee, or perilune, at the point the spacecraft passes closest to the Moon. Our computations on the ground give the low point above the surface of the Moon at present, without the maneuver, as 69 nautical miles [127.8 km], The nominal altitude would be 61.5 [113.9 km], and this burn is designed to give us that altitude at pericynthion. The spacecraft will be pitched down and yawed right slightly in the burn, making it retrograde and slightly out of grade. We're now back in conversation with the spacecraft, and we'll pick that conversation up now.

This is Apollo Control. We have just now passed the 30-minute mark in the clock counting down to the midcourse correction maneuver. Now that clock currently reading 28 minutes 35 seconds until the burn, and at the present time, Apollo 8 is at an altitude of 22,211 nautical miles [41,135 km] above the Moon, traveling at a speed of 4,085 feet per second [1,245 m/s]. We'll continue to stand by for any conversation from the spacecraft or the ground to the spacecraft.

This is Apollo Control at 60 hours, 40 minutes into the flight; and we're continuing to countdown to our midcourse correction - now 19 minutes, 57 seconds from that maneuver. At the present time the crew is somewhat behind in the Flight Plan, and we suspect they are involved in aligning the inertial measurement unit in the Guidance and Navigation equipment. We just heard from the Guidance Officer that it appeared that that operation was proceeding well at this time. We'll continue to follow activities and monitor for any conversation between the ground and the spacecraft.

This is Apollo Control at 60 hours, 46 minutes. Now we're continuing to monitor for conversations between the ground and spacecraft. It's been a very quiet period what with the crew busily involved in getting ready for the midcourse correction maneuver. That burn is scheduled to occur now in 14 minutes and to resummarize that will be using the spacecraft Reaction Control System thrusters. It will be an 11 second burn giving us a change of velocity of 2 feet per second. That velocity change will primarily be retrograde slowing the spacecraft down by about 2 feet per second in order to lower the pericynthion or point at which the spacecraft passes closest to the Moon. And the burn will also be performed with the spacecraft yawed slightly out of plane. At 60 hours, 47 minutes; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 60 hours, 54 minutes. We just heard from the spacecraft. Jim Lovell [means Frank Borman] advised that they are set and apparently ready to go at this time for their midcourse correction maneuver. We will ... stand by for further communications with the spacecraft.

We are coming up now on 3 minutes until our midcourse correction maneuver. You will note a slight time delay from the time when the spacecraft is counting back and we're watching our clocks here. That's about one and one half second delay one way. Here is another call to the crew.

Coming up on 2 minutes now. Still looking good for that maneuver. At the present time, the spacecraft is at an altitude of 21,144 nautical miles above the Moon and traveling at a speed of 4,100 feet per second. We're now coming up on 1 minute, 30 seconds until that midcourse correction maneuver.

This is Apollo Control at 60 hours, 59 minutes, 41 seconds; and we're counting down now the last 10 seconds to our maneuver. We should have the beginning of that 11-second Reaction Control System maneuver at this time. We will stand by for confirmation here on the ground. We show the burn completed at this time."

This is Apollo Control. Based on this information passed back from the crew on that midcourse correction, and our figures here on the ground, it appears that the maneuver was within about 0.2 of a foot per second of being right on the nominal and that would put us very close to the preplanned pericynthion of 61½ nautical miles. We, of course, will be tracking the spacecraft following this maneuver to determine just exactly what effect it did have. But that was the preplanned (Delta-V). That maneuver would have had the effect of lowering the pericynthion by about 6 or 7 nautical miles. At 61 hours, 10 minutes into the flight, Apollo 8 is currently at an altitude of 28,676 nautical miles [53,108 km] and traveling at a speed of 4,107 feet per second [1,252 m/s]. This is Apollo Control, Houston.

This is Apollo Control at 61 hours, 29 minutes. A preliminary figure on the effects of that midcourse correction performed at 61 hours indicates that our height of perigee will be 62.3 nautical miles [115.4 km] as a result of that maneuver. Now we have been shooting for something on the order of 61.5 [113.9]. 62.3 is very good, and the flight controllers here in Mission Control Center are quite happy with that figure. The spacecraft also computed height of pericynthion following the maneuver and we heard from Lovell - their onboard computation was that the maneuver would have placed their pericynthion at 63 nautical miles. So we have very close agreement between the ground computer figure in that case and the onboard computation. We'll ... stand by for any communications that should develop. ...

This is Apollo Control. During that conversation with the crew, Jim Lovell gave us a status report on the eating and drinking and sleeping that they've done recently. And he said that they have logged 50 clicks of water for the Commander, and 33 clicks for the Command Module Pilot, and 44 clicks for the Lunar Module Pilot. That translates into one half ounce per click which would be about 25 ounces for the Commander; about 21 or 22 ounces for the Command Module Pilot and about the same amount of water for the Lunar Module Pilot. Lovell noted that they have all had two meals today. And found the pudding particularly palatable to them, and also you heard Lovell relay the onboard figure for the height of pericynthion, the closest approach of the spacecraft to the Moon following that midcourse correction maneuver. We'll continue to monitor for any conversations with the crew, and if we don't pick up communications in a minute or so, we'll take the circuit down and standby to come up again when there are further conversations.

This is Apollo Control at 61 hours, 41 minutes; and at the present time we show 7 hours, 17 minutes until our Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver. I will pass along to you information on that maneuver as soon as it is available. In the meantime we anticipate things will be quieting down somewhat both here in Mission Control Center and aboard the spacecraft. The Flight Plan is relatively quiet for the next several hours. It doesn't begin to pick up activity again until about 3 hours prior to the Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver at which time the crew will begin checking out the guidance and navigation equipment and running through their systems checks and preparation for that maneuver. And here on the ground, they will be passing up the information needed to carry out the maneuver and the crew will be checking this against their onboard figures and against the information that is automatically loaded into the computer from the ground. We'll continue to stand by for any communications that should develop. As I said we do expect that the insuing several hours will be quiet. At 61 hours, 43 minutes; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 61 hours, 58 minutes; and at the present time Apollo 8 is at an altitude of 18,733 nautical miles [from the Moon, 34,693 km], traveling at a speed of 4,139 feet per second [1,262 m/s]. Since our last report we've had a couple of conversations with the crew in which we've discussed the - some of the methods for working around the fogged windows that the crew has on the spacecraft in order to carry out the planned tasks in lunar orbit. And we'll ... continue to stand by for live conversations from the spacecraft.

This is Apollo Control at 62 hours, 24 minutes; and at the present time, Apollo 8 is traveling at a speed of 4,159 feet per second [1,268 m/s] or presently at an altitude of 17,657 nautical miles [32,701 km] above the Moon. We have some preliminary information on the Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver. We anticipate that this information will be refined and updated as we get additional tracking information on the spacecraft. At the present time we anticipate that the maneuver will be performed at about 69 hours, 8 minutes Ground Elapsed Time and the burn will be a total duration of about 4 minutes, 2 seconds and it will slow the spacecraft [by] about 2,990 feet per second [910 m/s]. We anticipate that the velocity at the beginning of the burn will be about 8,400 feet per second [2,560 m/s]. This will give us a velocity following the maneuver of about 5,400 feet per second [1,650 m/s]. We have had some conversations with the spacecraft since our last report. We are in communication with the crew at the present time. We'll pick ... whatever live communications are going on ...

This is Apollo Control. At the present time, the spacecraft is traveling at a speed of 4,176 miles - rather, feet per second [1,273 m/s], and the altitude [above the Moon] is 16,814 nautical miles [31,139 km]. You heard the crew advise they do hope to get some rest now before activity picks up leading toward the Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver. According to the Flight Plan, they'll have about 3 hours of relative quiet in which they will be able to get some rest prior to picking up activities leading toward that maneuver. Such things as preparing the guidance and navigation system, checking out the spacecraft systems, and getting set up for that maneuver. We'll continue to monitor for any conversation. We do anticipate that it will be relativly quiet, and we'll come back up in the event that we hear anything from the crews and we'll give you periodic status reports. At 62 hours, 46 minutes; this is Apollo Control.

This is Apollo Control at 63 hours, 4 minutes. At the present time our spacecraft is at an altitude above the Moon of 100 - rather 16,035 nautical miles [29,697 km], and our velocity continuing to increase - still increasing rather slowly but steadily. Our speed is now 4,194 feet per second [1,278 m/s]. We would expect this relatively slow velocity build up to continue to about 65 hours. At that point, the spacecraft will be some 11,000 nautical miles [20,400 km] from the Moon, and from that point on, the acceleration will begin to build up quite rapidly so that within about 4 hours from 65 hours at the point where we do the insertion maneuver from that - in that 4-hour period of time the velocity would just about double, going from some 4,350 feet per second [1,326 m/s] up to about 8,450 feet per second [2,576 m/s]. We have some further information on the Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver as a result of the midcourse correction that was done at 61 hours, and we have the refinement also on the effects of that miscourse correction. Prior to our midcourse maneuver, we computed that our pericynthion, or point of closest approach to the Moon, would have been about 66.5 nautical miles [123.2 km]. As a result of the burn, it was lowered to about 61.8 nautical miles [114.5 km]. The Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver using the Service Propulsion System engine is scheduled to occur at 69 hours, 8 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. The burn duration would be 4 minutes and 2 seconds. This would give us an orbit about the Moon with a low point of about 60 nautical miles [111 km] and a high point of about 170 nautical miles [315 km], We've had one brief conversation with the spacecraft since our previous report, and we advised the crew that they should be getting a good view of the Moon as they continue through their Passive Thermal Control mode with the spacecraft rolling at the rate of about 1 revolution per hour. At a certain specified degree of roll they should acquire the Moon through one of the windows of the spacecraft. During this period of time the spacecraft will be coming into a much better view of the Moon with a larger part of the lighted surface becoming visible to the crew. We'll ... pick up with the conversation that is developing right now between CapCom Ken Mattingly and the crew.

This is Apollo Control at 63 hours, 43 minutes. At the present time Apollo 8 is traveling at a speed of 4,236 feet per second [1,291 m/s], and their altitude is 14,399 nautical miles [26,667 km] above the Moon. Since our last report, we had one brief conversation with Frank Borman aboard the spacecraft. It's been relatively quiet on the spacecraft as we would anticipate. The crew indicated that they would attempt to get some rest between the midcourse correction, which was performed at about 61 hours and the starting of activities leading up to the Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver at 69 hours and 08 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. There will be a period of a couple of hours before their activity picks up in preparation for that burn. Beginning at about 66 hours in the Flight Plan they will begin burn preparations of the systems checks and Guidance and Navigation preparation that they will do for that maneuver, and until then, the Flight Plan is relatively quiet. So we, in line with that, do expect that we'll be hearing very little from the crew. In a previous conversation we heard Bill Anders request permission to take a Seconal tablet, one of the short acting sleeping pills that the crew carries onboard, and the Flight Surgeon recommended that he take a smaller tablet. They carried two different sizes. One a 50 milligram tablet and the other 100 milligram tablet, and the recommendation was that Anders take the 50 milligram tablet. We'll ... stand by for any further communication from the crew.

It appears that we'll have no further communication with the crew at least for the moment. Here in Mission Control at the present time, activity is beginning to pick up as we near our change of shift. Flight Director Glynn Lunney and his team of flight controllers are coming on at this time receiving briefings from the previous shift headed by Flight Director Milton Windler. The activity on the boiler control, sounded, as you would expect, like a beehive at the present time. At 63 hours, 48 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston.