Spacelog Apollo 11

Roger, 11. I guess in keeping the cups of coffee score, why you get that one.

Well—Okay—Well, this morning, let's just see how close it comes to being parallel to the M-line. Before we started marking for the first time, it appeared that the computation of—of those three angles was somewhat off, and that I was wasting a lot of gas by going to those three angles and then having to make large attitude changes after that to get the M-line parallel. In some cases it appeared to be just an accepted attitude required, and you all said that it wasn't needed. So I was marking in some cases with the M-line not parallel. I thought perhaps you had some processor for computing that offset and making sense out of that data, but as far as I know, we've got to have the M-line parallel to the horizon.

Roger, 11. We don't have that capability. We do require that the M-line be parallel to the horizon in order to get a good mark. We feel that possibly the—the state vector information that you were using for your maneuver basis yesterday may have needed to be updated a little. And if you'll standby a second, we'll give you an evaluation of what we feel you'll get today by the AUTO maneuver.

Houston, Apollo 11. Over.

Go ahead, 11.

Roger. I'm getting ready to do an O₂ Fuel cell purge. Do you have any particulars on this? And I assume you want these one at a time, or can I triple up? Over.

We'd like them one at a time, and stand by. I don't think we have any sequence. You can do them in any order you want.

Okay.

Houston, Apollo 11. You want to look at these NOUN 93's before I proceed on?

Yes, please. Stand by a second.

Okay.

11, this is Houston. On our TM, here, we're only seeing values in two registers. Can you read us out the contents of register 3, please?

Register 3: minus three balls 24.

Roger. Minus three balls 24. And you can go ahead and proceed.

Okay. Proceeding at this time.

11, Houston. After you've completed P52, we'd like to uplink you a new state vector so we can start out clean on this P23. Over.

Okay.

Houston, are you observing the higher O₂ flow on fuel cell 3?

Houston, Apollo 11. It's triggered the MASTER ALARM three times, now. There goes number 4. It goes up to about 1.4, then oscillates back down to about 1.1. Over.

Roger. We saw them 1.3 now on TM. Stand by a second.

And we're in P00, now, for a state vector.

Roger. Give us ACCEPT, please.

Roger. Done.

11, Houston. On your O₂ flow, fuel cell 3: apparently it was flowing a little higher than the other two during purge, but the flow rate is acceptable. Over.

Roger, It seems to be flowing a little bit more, and actually putting out more current than the other two, also. Over.

Roger. We copy.

11, this is Houston. We've completed the uplink; the computer is yours; you can go back to BLOCK.

Okay. Thank you.

Go ahead, 11.

Houston, 11. I don't believe we were calling you right then,

Houston, Apollo 11.

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Go ahead.

Roger. I'm in a good attitude here to do—I have in the sextant this last P52 star, star 37. Is that all right for the optics calibration to save some gas, or do you want to go over to star 40?

Star 37 will be fine for the optics calibration. And we haven't noticed a VERB 66, yet, after our state vector uplink. Over.

Okay.

When you move into P23, we recommend that you use the CMC-computed angles for your AUTO maneuver and see how that works out. If it doesn't bring you up with the M-line parallel to the horizon to the substellar point, we will see if we can get you some ground-computed angles. I guess the big thing here is to make sure that the M-line is parallel to substellar points so we can get a good angular measurement. Over.

Yes. I believe.

Houston, Apollo 11. Marking on this star, I get a NOUN 87 twice in a row of five balls, so that's sufficient for a count.

That's certainly very sufficient.

Okay. Now I want to go to P00, and I am going to take your three angles and do a verify of 49 maneuver to your substellar point. Okay?

Okay. We recommend that for the first star, if we gave you a new state vector, we'd like to try the CMC-computed angles for your AUTO maneuver.

Okay.

All right.

Houston, Apollo 11. We're in process of maneuvering to P23 in desired attitude. It likes roll 8.37, pitch 61.33, and yaw 339.87. Over.

Roger. We copy. And that is for star 01?

Star 01, right near the horizon. Code 110.

Houston, Apollo 11. On this star, the AUTO maneuver works just fine. I am right at the substellar point. Everything looks beautiful except there is no star in sight. It is just not visible.

Roger. Is this for star 01?

That's correct.

You are not getting any reflections or anything like that that would obscure your vision, are you?

Well, of course, the Earth is pretty bright, and the black sky, instead of being black, has sort of a rosy glow to it. The star, unless it is a very bright one, is probably lost somewhere in that glow, but it is just not visible. I maneuvered the reticle considerably above the horizon to make sure that the star is not lost in the brightness below the horizon. However, even when I get the reticle considerably above the horizon so the star should be seen against the black background, it still is not visible.

Roger. We copy. Standby a minute, please.

11, this is Houston. Can you read us the shaft and trunnion angle off the counters?

Yes. I will be glad to. Shaft 331.2 and trunnion 35.85.

It's really a fantastic sight through that sextant. A minute ago, during that AUTO maneuver, the reticle swept across the Mediterranean. You could see all of North Africa, absolutely clear; all of Portugal, Spain, southern France; all of Italy, absolutely clear. Just a beautiful sight.

Roger. We all envy you the view up there.

But still no star.

11, this is Houston. Over.

Roger. Go ahead, Bruce.

On our ground computers we confirm the shaft and trunnion angle that you have as being pointed at the star. However, it looks as though that shaft and trunnion angle is also pointing into the structure of the LM, so that while you will be getting the Earth's horizon, the star … is obscured by the LM. We recommend an AUTO maneuver to the attitudes pen-and-inked into the flight plan. Roll 1772, pitch 2982 and yaw 330.0. Over.

11, this is Houston. While you're maneuvering, could we get a /CM DELTA-P reading from you? Over.

Roger. Just a tad under 1, Bruce, 0.95.

Apollo 11, Houston.

Go ahead.

Is the Commander aboard?

This is the Commander.

I was a little worried. This is the backup Commander still standing by. You haven't given me the word yet. Are you GO?

You've lost your chance to take this one, Jim.

Okay. I concede.

Houston, Apollo 11.

Go ahead, 11.

Okay. Our maneuver is complete, and at this attitude the M-line is exactly 90 degrees out of phase. It is exactly pointed along the vector toward the center of the Earth instead of being parallel to the right.

Roger.

I'm going to hold right here for your next suggestion.

Okay, Houston. It appears to be okay now; We've changed our attitude slightly, and I have a star and I'm maneuvering to get the M-line parallel.

This is Houston. Roger. We copy.

Houston, Apollo 11. Are you copying these NOUN 49's that have been going through?

Yes. We surely are. Let's see: plus 0.1 and a plus 0.2 on nautical miles and feet per second. Over.

11, this is Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

Yes, Mike. We show you in VERB 59 right now. Over.

That's right. I—I haven't entered—I gave the—I gave it back to the computer for a second. I put the mode switch from MANUAL back to CMC while I fooled with the DSKY, and the computer drove the star off out of sight. So the delay here has been in going back to MANUAL and finding the star again, which I've finally done. And—Just a second here, I'll go to ENTER and get a 51 and mark on it. As I say, for some reason the computer drove the star off out of sight.