APOLLO 8 Modern doc
Page 22
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
Cabin temperature is still just about holding up.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Jim needs to keep a close watch on his altimeter – that’s going to come up in a hurry here. Looks like we’re overshooting according to the EMS.
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
Primary evaporator’s crapped out. Secondary is still holding up.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
We’re just under 2 g’s now.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
Second pulse coming up. This should take us up to 3 g’s.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
We have now lost telemetry signal with the spacecraft at 146 hours 46 minutes and 45 seconds. The blackout period should continue for 3 minutes. Right about now the crew should be getting the spike - the g spike that they will get at just under 7 g’s.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
Temperature on the leading edge of the heat shield will now be around 5,000 degrees. Flight Director reports that he is hearing a keying coming in as in Morse code keying and he is wondering as to the source of it.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
If the blackout lasts the predicted time, it should be over in 10 or 11 seconds from now and we will hope to hear from the crew once again.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The astronauts will now be experiencing seven g’s – seven times their weight on Earth. So a 150 lb. astronaut will weigh something over 1,000 lbs. as they plummet towards earth.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
Our curves put the spacecraft at 35 to 36 miles above the Earth, expected to bounce up to 40 miles shortly before descending again. Our capsule communicator Ken Mattingly is putting in a call to the astronauts.
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
We’ve passed the 3-minute mark. I’ve put in two calls to the spacecraft. No response yet.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
Huntsville Space Flight Center advises that they have not established contact with the spacecraft at this time as we come up on 3 and a half minutes after entering the period of blackout.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
We should be getting voice comms with Houston back around now. I told Jim to give Houston a call.
Milton Windler @MWFlightApollo8
Huntsville initially said they had acquired an S-band signal, but called back immediately to negate that and say that there was in fact no signal. They are now handing over communications checks, communications authority, to one of the range aircraft in the Pacific.
Milton Windler @MWFlightApollo8
One of the recovery helicopters has reported seeing something in the dark night sky, but these kinds of reports at these critical moments are not unusual.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
We are coming up on 4 minutes after entering the blackout period and Ken Mattingly is putting in another call to the Apollo 8 spacecraft.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
This is a real fireball, but it’s looking good. Don’t need to forget ‘boost entry’ though. It’s almost all over but the shouting now, and I was able to tell Houston that we’re in real good shape. Hope they were able to hear. Probably not.
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
We have them! We have Apollo 8!
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
They are coming in broken, but loud. I can’t tell if it’s Borman or Lovell but either will do!
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
They do have a signal! They do have a signal from the spacecraft!
Prof. Jack Schmitt @JS_USGS/NASA
Wonderful!
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
Now one of the range ships is reporting a radar contact. The first voice contact was extremely broken up but three words that came through audibly were, “… real good shape… “.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
Another of the flight controllers here in Mission Control says he heard the words, something like, “… a real fireball…”. We estimate we are now just over one minute away from deployment of the drogue parachutes.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
According to the flight plan, the drogues should be deployed at 146 hours 54 minutes when the spacecraft is at 23,000 feet.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Ah! “Real good shape!” What happy words!
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
We don’t need to go to boost entry yet.
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
There’s a faint smell here in the capsule. Don’t know what that’s about. Can’t do anything about it now anyway.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
We’ve got one minute to drogue parachutes deployment. We’re in boost entry now, but there’s nothing on the altimeter yet.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
There goes the apex cover. There go the drogues!
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
Cabin pressure’s coming up. Circuit breakers closed. VHF antennas okay. Flashing beacon is going on… now. Okay… the light is on and working.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
We indicate 8,000 feet. We can’t see the chutes but we’re going down very slow.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Drogue parachutes have now deployed. Standing by for release of main chutes.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
The USS Yorktown is now reporting and confirming a radar contact with the spacecraft. The bearing is now being passed to the Recovery Room here in Houston.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The extreme heat phase of the re-entry has now passed and they are now dropping with just gravity forces coming into play. On our animation, we are showing the drogue chutes as having been deployed at this time.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The little chutes come out before the critical big chutes deploy. We will wait for confirmation from Mission Control or the ships and aircraft in the area that the main chutes have deployed successfully.
Milton Windler @MWFlightApollo8
According to our flight plan we should have had main parachute deployment within the last minute, but we have heard nothing but noise on the main circuit for the last minute or so.
Milton Windler @MWFlightApollo8
The last word we had from Apollo 8 was “…over…”, but nothing right before or after that. And no contact right now.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
We are now at 146 hours 57 minutes mission time and according to our estimates, they should be hitting the water in the next 2 minutes. If and when we get some intelligible comms, we will come back online.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
We are hearing from Paul Haney who is the voice of the mission over there at Apollo Control, Houston, that they are having difficulty establishing communications with the astronauts aboard the returning space vehicle.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
So there is no confirmation yet that the main chutes have opened and if the spacecraft did in fact survive that terrible heat of re-entry
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
However, we are showing a graphic of the re-entry vehicle coming down under its main chutes which should be happening right at this very moment if all has gone well.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
TV viewers should note that it is a graphic representation, not live footage, as it is still night time over there in the Pacific and actual live pictures won’t be possible until daybreak, just a few minutes from now.
Milton Windler @MWFlightApollo8
Bad comms is understandable perhaps with these low level relays we are using, but we had extremely good communication from the recovery area in a simulation yesterday and we were hoping for the same today.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
O
ne of the concerns of course is the weather in the landing zone. They will splash down in an area of the Pacific known as the inter-tropical convergence zone which is prone to severe weather at times.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
However, we are told that there are no weather issues expected at this time and that conditions are much better than had been originally anticipated. It is of course still nighttime over there and we are unsure whether or not that will cause any problems for the recovery effort.
Gordon Barnes @CBSWeatherBureau
During the nighttime hours (and this spacecraft is coming down at 4.51 in the morning out there) weather activity is at its weak point. Consequently, there will be some weak clouds at about 20,000 feet, a layer at 12,000 feet and another layer at 2,000 feet.
Gordon Barnes @CBSWeatherBureau
There may be a few light rain showers around the landing zone area. If any of the rain showers should move over the precise recovery area, the visibility will be restricted to about 5 miles which could be a problem for the recovery teams in the early daylight hours out there.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The big problem out there is going to be the dark. A landing at night has never been attempted before, although there have been a lot of practice sessions by the recovery teams and astronauts working during the dark nighttime hours.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
These practice sessions have been conducted largely in the Gulf of Mexico and Jim Lovell once spent 48 hours bobbing around in the sea out there waiting to be picked up. Actual recovery, however, will not be attempted in the dark unless there is some kind of emergency.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
After Apollo 8 splashes down, it will only be about 40 minutes until dawn, and the navy swimmers will not be dropped from the helicopters until first light unless the astronauts call for their help for some reason.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
So recovery should take place in the daylight hours. One of the reasons perhaps is that sharks in that area are said to be a little more frisky and voracious in the pre-dawn hours than they are after first light.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The helicopters will be summoned to the site of the spacecraft by a visual beacon on top of the spacecraft and by radio beacon, and they will hover overhead during those remaining hours of darkness.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
As they hover overhead, the helicopters will beam large searchlights down onto the spacecraft as it bobs up and down on those 4 foot waves in the Pacific, but they will not attempt the actual recovery of the astronauts until first light.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
Recovery 2 helicopter, within the last minute, has reported they have a landing light in sight and that they have voice contact with the crew. I repeat: They have voice contact with the crew!
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
However, we have not heard any further voice communications from the Apollo 8 crew here at Mission Control, Houston. We are going to try and patch that conversation into our consoles here in Houston. As of now, we have not heard it.
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
Recovery helicopter 3 reports that they also have the flashing beacon at their 4 o’clock position, almost level with the chopper.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Airboss 1 just called to welcome us home. They said they’ll have us on board the Yorktown in no time. Great to hear!
3 minutes 48 seconds to splashdown
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
If the helicopters have indeed picked up voices from the capsule, that would seem to indicate that the main parachutes have indeed opened.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
If the parachutes had not opened, the plunge to Earth would have been so rapid that by now they would have fatally impacted the Pacific Ocean.
RECOVERY
Dallas Townsend @DTCBSNews
I am on board the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown where radar has just picked up the Apollo 8 capsule as it descends.
Dallas Townsend @DTCBSNews
It looks like Apollo 8 is going to land just 5,000 yards from the carrier, almost exactly on schedule at 4.51 a.m. here in the Pacific Ocean. This could be the closest landing to the recovery vehicles in the history of spaceflight.
Dallas Townsend @DTCBSNews
The spacecraft could be on the surface right about now. We are waiting for confirmation of that. Through the darkness, I can see the flashing red light of another of the recovery helicopters heading out towards the sea.
Dallas Townsend @DTCBSNews
Any minute now, that helicopter should be dropping smoke flares to indicate the precise location of the spacecraft as it bobs up and down on the waves and swells of the Pacific.
Ron Nessen @RNessenUSSYorktown
We are standing in the dark here on the deck of the USS Yorktown. Those in charge of the recovery don’t like us to have our television lights turned on as they interfere with the ability of the recovery helicopters to navigate.
Ron Nessen @RNessenUSSYorktown
We are now hearing that the capsule is indeed on the water having hit it at just 15 mph, which is a pretty good job when you consider the incredible speed (nearly 25,000 mph) the capsule was travelling at as it approached the Earth’s atmosphere.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
We have no word yet on the attitude of the spacecraft; whether it is nose down as, unfortunately, was the case with Apollo 7 before they inflated their air bags, or nose up.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
Nearly everyone agrees that the capsule is just 5,000 yards from the USS Yorktown which we will happily settle for right now.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The general idea of the recovery operation is that one of the helicopters carrying three frogmen will approach the spacecraft, then hook up a sea anchor and a floatation collar around the vehicle. They will then take the crew, one by one, up into one of the helicopters.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
I’m afraid our pictures, indeed the entire signal from our reporters on the USS Yorktown out there in the Pacific Ocean have now broken up completely. Well, I guess it’s rather remarkable that we got any pictures at all considering the distance involved.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
On the other hand, we were able on many occasions to get rather good live TV pictures from Apollo 8 as it circled the Moon, which is at a considerably greater distance from the U.S. mainland than is the middle of the Pacific Ocean – some quarter of a million miles in the case of the Moon.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
We have two new reports. The inflation bags atop the capsule have been inflated and there have been reports, visual reports of course, of the flashing light being seen from the USS Yorktown.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
After a 575,000 mile trip journey over 6 days, the spacecraft has landed exactly at its predicted impact point and less than 3 miles from the aircraft carrier, the USS Yorktown, waiting for it in the Pacific Ocean.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
The landing area should now be illuminated by a large floodlight from one of the recovery helicopters. So the entire area should now be visible from the Yorktown.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
At 147 hours 45 minutes mission time, we understand that Commander Frank Borman is making small talk with the crew of one of the recovery helicopters. Apparently, they were chatting about whether or not anyone had seen the capsule coming down on its main chutes.
Ron Nessen @RNessenUSSYorktown
The capsule is reported to be in ‘Stable One’ condition. That means it is floating the right way up, not inverted as has been the case with some previous splashdowns.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
Our Capsule Communicator,
Ken Mattingly, has just tried unsuccessfully to put in a call to the spacecraft through the ARIA aircraft.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
While we try to establish that communication, we have been advised that the USS Yorktown is now just 3,800 yards away from the capsule which is off the port side of the ship.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
Latest report to us from the scene indicate that the first light of dawn is beginning to show in the east and that the capsule is riding nicely in relatively calm waters.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffaisNASA
The USS Yorktown has advised us that they are ready to deploy swimmers. They expect their navy swimmers will be in the water around the capsule 14 minutes from now.
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
We are still getting only bits of fractured communication from the Apollo 8 crew. However, we are cheered up knowing that the crew is feeling fine and that in a very few minutes, swimmers will be in the water ready to transfer the crew to the helicopter and then to the USS Yorktown.