APOLLO 8 Modern doc
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Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
The flight to the Moon is occupying prime space on all radio, TV and newspaper outlets right now. It is THE news story worldwide. The headline of the Post says “MOON – HERE THEY COME!”
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
A suspect in the Miami kidnapping was captured yesterday, and the 11 GIs who have been detained in Cambodia for 5 months were released yesterday and will make it home for Christmas.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon were married yesterday in New York. The groom was described as “nervous”.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
We understand that Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders will be in private conversation or communication today with an old man who wears a red suit and usually lives at the North Pole.
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
We saw the old man in the red suit yesterday and have informed Houston that he is heading their way.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
We are now going to attempt a most interesting television experiment. Using the capacity pioneered here at Cape Kennedy and our new communications satellites, we are going to try to link up two men with differing views on this mission.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
These two esteemed men living on opposite sides of the Earth have expressed opposite viewpoints of the Apollo 8 mission, of man going to the Moon at this time.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Sir Bernard Lovell, is in Jodrell Bank in England where he presides over that great radio telescope – a telescope that pierces farther into the heavens than any other telescope on Earth. He has recently expressed reservations regarding this flight.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Dr. William Pickering, is in the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in California and is a staunch proponent of the Apollo 8 mission. We can see Dr. Pickering on our screens now.
Dr. William Pickering @WPJPL
This is the next step in the series of steps designed to lead to a man landing on the Moon and returning to Earth. This mission is the most difficult step we have attempted yet. Success in this mission is crucial to the success of the Apollo program.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
I invited Dr Pickering in California to say good morning to Dr. Lovell in England, which he did. Unfortunately, after many attempts, we were not able to maintain the TV satellite link up with England. Perhaps this is TV for the future. Just not yet.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
However, we understand that Sir Bernard’s objections to the Apollo program are based on him favoring unmanned exploration of the Moon rather than these more difficult, dangerous and costly manned missions.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
We will try to get back to Dr. Pickering after the astronauts get into lunar orbit later today.
Bill Humphries @BHNewcastleUNI
What a pity that TV link up and debate didn’t work - it would have been most interesting. I imagine that in future years, such link ups between continents will become commonplace. Hope so.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
After receiving some very good suggestions from the optics boys in Houston, we are going to try once again to film out of the windows and see if we can send down a clear picture of the Earth this time.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
We are standing by for another TV transmission from Apollo 8 in which they hope to have solved the focus and glare problems they had earlier.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Now we are seeing a live picture of the entire Earth from 200,000 plus miles out in space. Boy, what a sight!
Jim Lovell @JLCMPApollo8
We are filming the western hemisphere and the south western part of the United states. I can see clouds over parts of Mexico. Land areas are brownish…
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The astronauts and the people at Mission Control have worked all day so that we could get these pictures beamed in from 200,000 miles out from Earth.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Through the marvels of modern television, we are now able to go live by satellite to the Jodrell Bank radio telescope complex in England to listen to Sir Bernard Lovell. Sir Bernard is, of course, the director of the world-famous Jodrell Bank radio telescope.
Sir Bernard Lovell (1913-2012)
Sir Bernard Lovell (knighted in 1961 for his outstanding contributions to radio astronomy) was the first director of Britain’s Jodrell Bank Radio Telescope and Observatory. During the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo missions, his radio telescope was able to accurately track not only the missions launched by NASA, but also the highly secretive missions launched by the Soviet Union. He had initially been critical of the NASA program to land a man on the Moon due to the immense cost and danger involved compared to unmanned lunar missions. He later reversed his opinion and became an enthusiastic supporter of NASA’s Apollo program.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
In recent days, much has been made in the press about Sir Bernard’s comments on the Apollo 8 mission in which he seemed to imply that the mission will provide little of scientific benefit.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
I feel slightly embarrassed about the way my earlier remarks were reported in the press. Speaking about the scientific content of this particular flight, I’m afraid my remarks were taken completely out of context and made to imply that I did not fully support this project.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
I have to confess that today has been very fascinating and very exciting. It has been an astonishing engineering achievement. I’m sure the photographs the astronauts beam back from the Moon will be quite spectacular.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
Hopefully, the mission will tell us more about our solar system. One of the key things we know about our solar system is that it was born about 2.5 million years ago (sic) but we know little about how it developed after that.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
Neither are we certain about whether or not our solar system is unique. With luck, the Apollo program as a whole will give us greater insight into how the Moon, and therefore the Earth, developed in the first few million years of their existence.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
However, to enable us to get really definitive data on the early formation of the Moon, the Solar System and the Earth, we will have to wait until a mission is able to land on the Moon and bring back Moon rocks for detailed analysis.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
For the first time now, I really feel confident that the Apollo program is going to be able to move forward and land a man on the Moon - literally within months.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
And it does look now that America will be able to achieve this before the Soviets, even though we don’t know exactly where the Russians are in their space program since their progress toward that goal is not entirely known.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
Quite apart from the scientific and astronomical benefit of the Apollo program, I speak as an ordinary human being, who believes that man only survives if man undertakes these great enterprises.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
As soon as we have the techniques to enter a new environment, in this case space, then we have to find men who are brave enough, engineers, technologists and scientists who are courageous enough to undertake these projects.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
It’s the same kind of question, the old question, of: “Why climb Mount Everest?” The answer being, of course: “Because it’s there!” If we were to stop embarking on these new explorations and achievements, civilization would, in my view, cease to move forward.
1 day 7 hours 5 minutes mission time
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
John Glenn, the first American to orbit the Earth, is also watching the Apollo 8 mission with perhaps more than usual interest from his home near the Space Center in Houston.
John Glenn @GGNASAMercury
It’s a real pleasure to see and hear Sir Bernard Lovell again. I spent one of my most pleasurable days in Europe with him when he showed us all around the amazing Jodrell Bank radio telescope complex.
John Glenn @GGNASAMercury
I’ve watched every step of the mission so far and am delighted to see it going so well so far. I think the big thing about this flight is this is the first time man has gone outside of his own gravitational field.
John Glenn @GGNASAMercury
Going outside of the Earth’s gravitational field is different than anything we’ve ever tried before.
John Glenn @GGNASAMercury
I have been disappointed to hear some of the criticism of the space program recently. I believe that embarking on projects like these gives man control over his own future and makes man different from the other animals on Earth.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
I can assure Mr. Glenn, and everybody else, that I am a very firm believer in the space program and my criticisms were entirely local and not intended for publication at all. I’m sure that we really do see eye-to-eye on this matter.
John Glenn @GGNASAMercury
I’m glad to hear Sir Bernard’s clarification because I was most concerned that he was somewhat more opposed to the program than I thought he was.
Sir Bernard Lovell @BLJodrellBank
I am sorry my remarks were reported in that manner and I can assure Mr. Glenn that no-one was no more concerned than I when I saw the newspapers. My remarks were taken entirely out of context.
John Glenn @GGNASAMercury
I think perhaps too much is made, in this country particularly, on the ‘space race’ aspect of this thing. I think the scientific return that Sir Bernard has talked about is what we are all looking to.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
During the launch, I saw Colonel Lindbergh here at the Cape. It was most fascinating. He talked about the nature of this flight in relation to his historic first flight across the Atlantic Ocean from the United States all the way to Europe.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
In 1927, when Colonel Lindbergh flew across the Atlantic alone in that little monoplane ‘The Spirit of St. Louis’ with an engine of just 32 horsepower, he said: “A lot of people called that a mad stunt – pure exhibitionism.”
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
But that flight paved the way. Now, 10,000 people cross the Atlantic by aircraft every day. This is amazing! You don’t know when you make these initial flights just what it will lead to.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Who knows? Perhaps one day in the not too distant future, travelling into space, to the Moon and beyond may become as commonplace as it now is to fly between the continents.
Mike Collins @MCCAPCOMApollo 8
At 31 hours 39 minutes into the mission of Apollo 8, we are having a shift change here at Mission Control. Flight Director Milton Windler has replaced Clifford Charlesworth and the fresh Capsule Communicator will be astronaut Ken Mattingly.
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
We’re reading the Apollo 8 crew very weakly at the moment, perhaps as a result of them being so far out from Earth, way more than halfway to the Moon now. We’re about to hand the signal over to Goldstone relay station so we’ll see if that improves things.
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
The crew can anticipate a fuel cell purge at 35 hours mission time. We ought to be through with battery A charging at 34 hours, at which point they will have pretty much a full battery there..
Frank Renolds @FRABCNews
We are just getting word that there may be an announcement or update soon from the State Department regarding the crew of the USS Pueblo who have been held as prisoners by the North Koreans for nearly a year now.
Frank Renolds @FRABCNews
Both the ship and crew have been held since January this year when the ship, alleged by the North Koreans to be a spy ship, was attacked and boarded by the North while it was sailing in international waters.
Frank Renolds @FRABCNews
One sailor was killed during the attack and the remaining 82 crew held captive while, we are informed, back channel negotiations have been going on to secure the men’s release.
General Pak Chung Kuk @PCKDPRK
We have offered to release the 82 American pirates if their government will sign the 3 A’s document. That is they must admit that their ship was spying in DPRK waters, apologize for their crime, and assure us that it will not happen again.
General Gilbert H. Woodward @GHWUSArmy
We do not feel it is just to sign a paper saying we have done something we haven’t done. However, in the interest of reuniting the crew with their families, we might consider signing an ‘acknowledge receipt’ of some kind.
Ken Mattingly @TMCAPCOMApollo8
Standing by for a sleep report on astronauts Jim Lovell and Bill Anders from Commander Borman.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Jim had about 4 hours sleep and Bill about 3 hours. Looking over the flight plan, I think we (and future missions) perhaps ought to have rest periods a little bit shorter but more frequent. I think the crews would remain fresher that way.
General Pak Chung Kuk @PCKDPRK
The imperialist American forces are merely employing sophistries and petty stratagems to escape responsibility for the crimes their side committed.
General Gilbert H. Woodward @GHWUSArmy
I will sign a document acknowledging receipt of 82 prisoners and one corpse… and that’s it!
General Pak Chung Kuk @PCKDPRK
The American general must sign the specific 3 A’s document and admit to their crime. If he does not, no release of their captured pirates will be possible.
James Leonard @JLeonardStateDept
We could have General Woodward sign their 3 A’s document and then verbally immediately denounce the contents of the document once our sailors are released. We are seriously considering this.
Ken Mattingly @TMCAPCOMApollo8
We’ve been getting some reports in from the optics people regarding the failure of the telephoto lens. The feeling is that the automatic light control device on the camera may have been fooled by the bright disk of the Earth overcompensating for the dark background of space.
Ken Mattingly @TMCAPCOMApollo8
We are running some tests to see if this information is in fact the case, and if it may be possible to correct this during future transmissions with the use of proper filters.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Something is up with one or more of the Earth stations. We haven’t been able to receive any communications from Mission Control in Houston for a good 20 minutes now.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
I’m still not feeling too great. My diarrhea is continuing and my stomach is acting up badly. Hope I can get over this quickly. Six days cramped in a tiny box in space with a virus and masses of work to do would be no joke.
Jim Lovell @JLCMPApollo8
It’s kind of eerie hearing nothing but silence from Houston. Makes you realize just how alone and distant we are out here as we approach the Moon.
Jim Lovell @JLCMPApollo8
And with our spaceship commander coming down with some kind of virus, being out of touch with the mission controllers in Houston is the last thing we need.
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
Houston needs to get the comms re-established real quick. The success of this mission is dependent on being able to receive and implement procedures from Mission Control.
General Pak Chung Kuk @PCKDPRK
The Americans have agreed to sig
n the 3 A’s document admitting their criminal actions against the DPRK.
Ken Mattingly @TMCAPCOMApollo8
At this time here in Mission Control, we are having some serious communications problems getting a signal from Hawaii. We are reading the spacecraft loud and clear. No problem across the 200,000 plus miles between Earth and the spacecraft. The problem is between Houston and Hawaii.
Ken Mattingly @TMCAPCOMApollo8
We are in the process of switching to some of the back up routes we have and checking those out. This problem first appeared at 35 hours 10 minutes mission time, but we hope to have it resolved shortly.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Thankfully, we have been able to re-establish communications from the ground up to the spacecraft. Apparently, the problem originated at the Goddard Space Center through where all ground to air comms are routed.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Seems like we blew a fuse over at Goddard and the communications circuit between Goddard and Hawaii was down. Thankfully, we are once again able to communicate with the astronauts of Apollo 8.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA