Apollo 8

Apollo Control, Houston here. 82 hours, 56 minutes into the flight. We have just lost signal with the spacecraft and I believe you heard earlier Frank Borman declare that he had a tired crew. Jim Lovell was very tired; you could tell it from his voice as the afternoon wore on. He said he was relieving him of all further Flight Plan responsibilities. Five minutes after he said that - he came back on the line and said Lovell is snoring already. ...

This is Apollo Control, Houston here. You heard Borman and since that conversation, the project manager George Low has come over to our console and he said that he urged me to make it very clear that Apollo spacecraft Program Office is altogether happy with the data they have gotten today and they feel like they have gotten as nearly 100 percent of the data as they could possibly get. He is quite pleased with it and he is ready to give the crew a well earned little extra bonus rest. According to the last information we have from the Flight Director, Cliff Charlesworth, and from the incoming Flight Director, we are going through a change of shifts here. We will still have the television pass as scheduled at about 8:25 or 8:27 in Houston time, to last approximately 45 minutes. We'll refine more as we get to it. Let me check my log here. We show it scheduled for 85 hours, 37 minutes as delineated earlier in the day. It used to run to 86 hours, 14 minutes. That's Elapsed Time and this is Apollo Control, Houston; at 82 hours, 59 minutes.

This is Apollo Control at 83 hours, 11 minutes. At the present time, Apollo 8 is nearing the end of it's seventh revolution. We've had Loss Of Signal now for about 16 minutes. Our displays here in Mission Control Center show that we should reacquire the spacecraft again in about 30 minutes. At the present time here in Mission Control Center, Flight Director Milton Windler is in the process of relieving Clifford Charlesworth, and our Capsule Communicator will be Ken Mattingly replacing Mike Collins in that position. Windler at present is going over the status of the spacecraft and the mission with his team of flight controllers. And as I said we will be reacquiring the spacecraft again in about 30 minutes. At the present time, all systems aboard the spacecraft look good, and as you heard in previous conversation shortly before we had Loss Of Signal, Lovell is sleeping at the present time, and the crew is modifying the Flight Plan to allow both Lovell and Anders to get some sleep or rest at least before the Trans-Earth Injection maneuver scheduled to occur at 89 hours, 15 minutes into the flight. At 83 hours, 12 minutes; this is Apollo Control, Houston."

This is Apollo Control, Houston, at 83 hours, 41 minutes into the mission. We're standing by at this time to reacquire the spacecraft as it comes over the lunar horizon on it's eighth revolution. Here in Mission Control Center, Flight Director Milton Windler and his team of flight controllers are becoming busily involved in becoming prepared for the Trans-Earth Injection burn, scheduled to occur at 89 hours, 15 minutes. Particularly, the flight dynamics people down in the front of the Control Center. They are, of course, the gentlemen who will be coming up with the information needed by the crew for the maneuver, and they are very heavily involved in that at the present time. We'll stand by for Capsule Communicator Ken Mattingly to put in a call to the crew as we reacquire at the signal now at about 1 or 2 seconds.

This is Apollo Control. During this pass on the eighth revolution across the front side of the Moon, we expect to begin passing up some information to the crew relevant to that Trans-Earth Injection maneuver. We do anticipate that both Lovell and Anders will be resting at this time. Shortly before we lost to the spacecraft, on the previous revolution, Borman advised us that Lovell was sleeping, and he said that he had removed a number of items from the Flight Plan in order that both Jim Lovell and Bill Anders would be able to get some rest before this Trans-Earth Injection maneuver. We'll continue to monitor here and anticipate that we will be having some conversation with Borman shortly.

This is Apollo Control at 83 hours, 54 minutes. We just put in a call to the spacecraft. Conversation with them at this time and we will pick that up for you at this time.

This is Houston. We're continuing to stand by here for further conversation. At the present time, the spacecraft is transmitting back to us with their omni antennas and there will be about 12 or 13 minutes before we bring on the High Gain. At that point, we would expect that the noise level would drop off somewhat. We are also here in Mission Control going ahead with the TV circuits - calling up those circuits and maintaining on the assumption that we will have TV transmission at the scheduled time, and that is 85 hours, 40 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. At the beginning we have not had confirmation of that from the crew, and as you heard earlier, Borman indicated that he would be deleting some items from the Flight Plan. However, the feeling at the present time here in the Mission Control Center is that the television transmission will occur on schedule unless we are advised otherwise by the crew. We'll continue to monitor here for a short while. If we don't pick up some conversation, we'll take the circuit down and pick up again when we are in contact with the crew.

At present time the spacecraft is crossing over the Sea of Tranquility, and it's approaching the terminator, the point at which it will go into darkness - actually not total darkness - that would be the area of the Moon that would be lighted by Earthshine, and from previous reports - Stand by. We have a call from the crew.

This is Apollo Control at 84 hours, 18 minutes. At this point, we have passed all of the information that Flight Director, Milton Windler wanted to get to the crew on this pass, on the 8th revolution, and we anticipate that any further conversation with the spacecraft before we lose signal in about 36 minutes, will be initiated by the crew. We'll continue to monitor and pick up the conversation as it develops. At the present time, it appears that Frank Borman is the active crewman. Lovell and Anders, we expect, are getting some rest at this time in preparation for the busy schedule they're going to have during the Trans-Earth Injection maneuver."

This is Apollo Control, Houston. We've had one very brief conversation with the crew since our previous report, and we'll pick that up and come up live with conversation that is developing at this time.

Based on that count from Frank Borman aboard the spacecraft, we've concluded here in Mission Control, we have about a 3-second delay from the time the signal is sent until we receive it here.

This is Apollo Control. At the present time, we seem to be getting a fair amount of noise on the circuit. We'll stand by to pick up conversations again should they develop and take the circuit down at this time.

This is Apollo Control, Houston; at 84 hours, 47 minutes into the flight. We've just reviewed with Frank Borman the procedures and plans we have for our television pass coming up on the next revolution, and we'll ... continue to follow for any live communications with the spacecraft.

Part of the transmission on that last conversation was a little bit difficult to copy. We were able to copy Borman saying that he would not be able to get pictures of the Earth on this TV pass coming up on our next revolution. And he indicated that he did not plan to attempt to use the telephoto lens. The estimation here in Mission Control Center is that he will not be in a proper attitude to get a shot out the window of Earth, and therefore would not be using the telephoto lens. We're now 2 minutes, 35 seconds away from Loss Of Signal from the spacecraft. We'll reacquire again about 46 minutes after we lose contact. At 84 hours, 52 minutes into the flight, this is Apollo Control.