by Acer
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
If Professor Schmitt is following this (and I’m sure he is), he should know that while the auto optics system is doing okay, the eyeballs are having a harder time seeing through all this smear on the windows.
Jim Lovell @JLCMPApollo8
All three of us are in agreement that the spacecraft’s windows have been the worst system of the mission so far. There’s going to have to be a great deal of improvement if a successful lunar landing is to be attempted.
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
The rendezvous windows are okay now, but they’re so small and looking in the wrong direction.
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
It certainly looks like we picked the more interesting part of the Moon for future missions to land on. The backside looks like a sandpile my kids have been playing on for a long time. It’s all beat up, no definition, just a lot of bumps and holes.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
I wonder if this new knowledge we gain from the Moon will tell us more about the planet Mars. It has been suggested that Mars once had an atmosphere as dense as ours and that it may once have even had intelligent life.
Dr Robert Jastrow @RJGoddardInstitute
Mars has a basic moisture and is a possible abode of life, at least in the past. Astronaut archaeologists would be very important members of the teams sent to Mars on future expeditions.
Dr Robert Jastrow @RJGoddardInstitute
The surface of Mars looks typically like the surface of the Moon – a relatively dead body. But what we do know is that there are at least two major bodies in the solar system that could bear life on them. One is the Earth, or course. The other one is Mars.
Dr Robert Jastrow @RJGoddardInstitute
There may also be the possibility of life on some of the moons orbiting the larger planets such as Jupiter. Unfortunately, at the present time, we know next to nothing about conditions on those moons.
Dr Robert Jastrow @RJGoddardInstitute
If we do find any life on Mars, no matter how primitive, we will have to conclude that the chances of life developing anywhere in the Universe on an Earth-like planet are quite high. The consequences of that would be staggering to say the least.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
We have three problems up here right now: the urine disposal system, the bad windows and… a certain Mr. F. Borman.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
I wonder if any of us ever thought we’d be spending Christmas Eve orbiting the Moon. Incredible!
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
I just hope we’re not still orbiting the Moon on New Year’s Eve. That would be a very bad result.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
There’s that strange noise again. Still no idea what it is.
Dr Eugene M Shoemaker @EMSCalifIoT
During this mission, we may get the confirming evidence of either the presence, or the absence, of a cloud or an atmosphere of small basaltic particles above the Moon’s surface.
Frank Renolds @FRABCNews
One controversy that rages in scientific circles is about the age of the Moon if it is older or younger than the Earth. So I wonder if this mission is going to give an answer to that question – a question that has bothered astronomers and other scientists for quite some time.
Dr Eugene M Shoemaker @EMSCalifIoT
Most recent evidence on the age of the Moon is based on the rate of which meteorites and other solid objects have been hitting the Moon. My best estimate now is that most parts of the Moon’s surface are in fact younger than the Moon itself and younger than the Earth.
Dr Eugene M Shoemaker @EMSCalifIoT
So we may not see the record of the first billion years of history preserved on the surface. It looks as if most of the Moon’s surface is young. Not quite as young as some parts of the Earth’s surface, but still too young to give us clues about earliest stages of the formation of the solar system.
Dr Eugene M Shoemaker @EMSCalifIoT
Future astronauts will have to drill down into the Moon’s surface and recover deep core samples that can be analyzed back on Earth.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Apollo 8 will make just two more circuits of the Moon, all the time taking photographs and mapping out terrain for a Moon landing, possibly as early as next summer.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
There is one positive result already from the flight of Apollo 8. In London, even Britain’s Flat Earth Society says now that it “may take a new look at things.”
(British and other flat Earth societies propagate the idea that the Earth is flat rather than globe-shaped. Their beliefs are largely based on Biblical cosmological descriptions, particularly Genesis. Most of the various societies were formed in the mid-1950s as a counterpoint to the prevailing scientific view, in the belief that scientists were trying to replace religion with science.
Many Flat Earth Society members believe that the NASA missions to the Moon were a hoax staged by Hollywood – a belief shared by some today even outside of the flat Earth societies.)
The Flat Earth Society’s recent model of the shape of the Earth is that the planet is a flat disc with the North Pole at its center and a high wall of Antarctic ice at the outer edge.
Bill Humphries @BHNewcastleUNI
The Flat Earth Society’s belief in such things is so far removed from astronomical measurements and the observations of astronauts that I wonder why people continue to give time to even listen to such assertions.
Bill Humphries @BHNewcastleUNI
Well if nothing else, I guess their beliefs do give us some scope for light-hearted discussion and I suppose there will always be people who rail against the scientific mainstream. Perhaps that’s not entirely a bad thing.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Apollo 8 is now on its next to last orbit of the Moon. We expect one more television transmission from the spacecraft which will come up very shortly now.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Before that, the astronauts rested a little because, we are told, they are tired and needed a little break before filming and then the critical maneuver that should start them back to Earth early tomorrow morning – Christmas morning.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Mission Control in Houston is now preparing to receive the pictures from this ninth orbit of the Moon – the second and last of their television transmissions from lunar orbit.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The spaceship is just coming around the trailing side of the Moon from its ninth trip around on the far side of the Moon. The person speaking to the crew of Apollo 8 is astronaut Ken Mattingly. He is the so-called CAPCOM – capsule communicator.
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
We are a minute and a half into the acquisition and receiving telemetry from the spacecraft. I am expecting voice communications imminently.
Milton Windler @MWFlightApollo8
Hopefully, we will also be receiving a good set of TV pictures.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
We are all looking forward anxiously to this second set of pictures from the spacecraft orbiting the Moon 70 miles above the lunar surface and moving at 3,600 mph – 5,362 feet per second.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Okay… we are getting a picture now. Mission Control says it’s very good. Doesn’t look very good to me… not at the moment at least.
Milton Windler @MWFlightApollo8
The TV pictures are not good so far. We’re still looking here at that bright spot in the top left center of the picture.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
At the moment, the astronauts can film through the two so-called rendezvous windows, one on each side of the spacecraft. We hear they are now moving to film through another window. The last picture didn’t make a lot of sense to me.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Of course, we need to bear in mind that these live TV pictures being transmitted a quarter of a million miles through space are not the only pictures the Apollo 8 crew has been taking on this mission.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The astronauts also have high quality still and cine cameras. The films from those cameras will be developed and viewed after they are back on Earth. We expect to see some outstanding photography from those cameras.
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
We are reading Apollo 8 loud and clear but no clear TV picture is coming down. Oh wait! That’s much better. I think they’ve got it now.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Oh, now a clearer picture of the frame of the rendezvous window and the Moon’s horizon.
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
We are coming up to the terminator now…light going into the darkness. We can now see the Sea of Crises coming over the horizon.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
Boy! Looking at the Moon with this 28-power scope is fantastic! I’m trying to see if I can spot anything that looks like it might have been a volcano at some point.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
But even at 60 miles, it does seem like it’s still far away. Could be a psychological thing. Wish I could say we have seen a volcano or something.
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
I haven’t seen anything that looked like a volcano all day long. Tsiolkovsky is the only one that has a distinct appearance to it – at least as far as its filling goes.
Bill Anders @LMPApollo8
Jim has a good roll of color film left. I suggested he take a picture of Earth next time it comes up over the horizon. I’m pitching us up a little here.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
Tracking is much easier with the sextant than with the scanning telescope. There is much finer control, and at these orbital speeds, RESOLVED to MEDIUM seems to be the best combination.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
Tracking speed LOW is too low. It doesn’t give me time to catch up with the target. Can’t keep up with the landing site using that setting.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
The sextant is giving me much better control with which to track the landmarks. It magnifies the landmark and it’s very easy to maintain the sextant on the landmark.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
The crater which is in the middle of Gemini is very easy to see. One side has collapsed – the side to the left. You can see rocks and debris that have tumbled down.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
On many of the craters that go by, we can see where hard rock has stayed in place around the rim of the crater as the rest of the debris has folded over into a mound on the crater floor.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
Coming up on Crater Carr now. The newer craters that surround the older ones have sharper ridges. They’re more roundly-formed, like cones and funnels. Along the insides, there is a brighter material than in the older craters.
Jim Lovell @CMPApollo8
There are two bright craters just to the west of Crater Slayton that have this particular characteristic.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
We just had another PROGRAM ALARM. Nothing serious – it’s just because Jim took too many marks. We see the Earth coming up now.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
We’d like Jim to take marks with approximately 30 seconds between each mark. The last ones we copied were around 15 seconds between each mark. That seems to upset the computer, so he needs to stretch them out a little.
Jim Lovell @JLCMPApollo8
Uh, oh! There’s that strange noise again!
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
That’s enough filming for now. We have a sleep period coming up soon and we’re all pretty tired right now.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
We’re going to be pretty busy after the next rest period – those final two revolutions around the Moon. The computer needs a bit of a rest too.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
I had to actually order Jim, quite forcefully, to go to bed. He didn’t want to and Houston keep asking us stuff. They should know we’re all pretty beat right now.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Okay. We are now one minute to loss of signal and Lovell is snoring already. That is a good thing.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Apollo 8 is now going around the far side of the Moon once more. Hope they have a good back side, and we’ll see them next time around.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Just had a big argument with Bill Anders who is refusing to go to bed. He really needs to. To hell with all the exposure stuff he wants to do – we’ll bust our asses for it later, goddamit!
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Okay. Both Bill and Jim are resting now. They’ve only got a couple of hours before they’re going to have to be fresh again around the front side.
Nelson Benton @NBCBSNews
Christopher Kraft, the Director of Flight Operations for the Manned Spacecraft Center has been at Mission Control for every one of the manned space flights. He is a man who has had a great deal to do with all of those missions.
Nelson Benton @NBCBSNews
Christopher told me that he is even more excited about this flight than he was about the historic Mercury flight of Alan Shepherd back in 1961.
Chris Kraft @DirFlghtOpsMSC
We recognized the magnitude of this particular flight well before our men began to fly. We didn’t realize the impact that Alan Shepherd’s flight was going to have.
Chris Kraft @DirFlghtOpsMSC
This flight is just fantastic for all of us and I guess a lot of people wonder if we feel the magnitude of this flight like the outside world does. Well, we certainly do.
Nelson Benton @NBCBSNews
In effect, Christopher Kraft has had his finger ‘on the button’ during all of the flights up to this point. This point must surely be the highlight of his career so far.
Nelson Benton @NBCBSNews
Kraft has been working on this program since 1961 when the president decreed that men should fly to the Moon and return safely to Earth before this decade was over
Chris Kraft @DirFlghtOpsMSC
We knew when the president set this in motion that it was extremely hard and we have all been working hard day and night since then to make it come true in the incredibly short timeframe that he set us.
Chris Kraft @DirFlghtOpsMSC
This flight in particular is the culmination of a lot of intense work, particularly for the last 3 or 4 months, because we had not originally planned to go to the Moon this early in the program.
Chris Kraft @DirFlghtOpsMSC
We got this opportunity as a result of the command module being ready before the lunar module. We all felt that this mission, without the lunar module was the greatest investment we could make for the program, to gain the biggest step towards achieving the late president’s stated goal.
Chris Kraft @DirFlghtOpsMSC
We are happy with how the mission has gone so far and remain cautiously optimistic. Of course, we still have the trans-Earth injection burn to make at the Moon, and of course the very important re-entry and landing.
Nelson Benton @NBCBSNews
That trans-Earth injection is of course totally dependent on the performance of the service propulsion system. They only have one rocket engine to carry out this critical maneuver and so I wonder how concerned the NASA people are about that single engine on which so much depends.
Nelson Benton @NBCBSNews
If that engine fails to fire, the astronauts would not be able to return to Earth. They and their spacecraft would be trapped in orbit around the Moon with no hope of rescue.
Chris Kraft @DirFlghtOpsMSC
I’ve looked at the telemetry data of the engine’s performance so fa
r, and so have many other technical experts. The data show that the engine has performed exactly as we had hoped so far.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Interesting, and certainly worth noting, that Chris Kraft’s full name is Christopher Columbus Kraft – which seems appropriate for a man who has played such a major role in this great exploration.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Seems like Ken Mattingly is coming on as capsule communicator. I wonder how Ken got to pull duty as CAPCOM on Christmas Eve. Happens to bachelors all the time, doesn’t it?
Ken Mattingly @KMCAPCOMApollo8
I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else this Christmas Eve other than keeping remote company with those guys circling the Moon.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Looks like Apollo 8 is coming right down the pike. It’s doing just what it’s supposed to, and our computers have got the right numbers in them because they’re predicting right where the spacecraft is going.