Spacelog Apollo 11

Roger, 11. That's pretty significant. Thank you much, Buzz.

Right.

How far out are we, Charlie?

Stand by. I'll give it to you exactly. Looks like around 130,000, but stand by.

Okay.

11, Houston. The exact range is 125,200 miles, and you're traveling 4486 feet per second.

Pretty far and pretty slow. Just past halfway.

Roger. What's the latest on Luna 15?

Hello, Apollo 11. Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Charlie.

Roger. Latest on Luna 15—TASS reported this morning that the spacecraft was placed in orbit close to the lunar surface, and everything seems to be functioning normally on the vehicle. Sir Bernard Lovell said the craft appears to be in an orbit of about 62 nautical miles. Over.

Okay. Thank you, Charlie.

And also, President Nixon has reported—or declared a day of participation on Monday for all federal employees to enable everybody to follow your activities on the surface. Many state and city governments and businesses throughout the country are also giving their employees the day off, so it looks like you're going to have a pretty large audience for the EVA.

Houston, Apollo 11. We've stopped PTC. We're in the right position; we're setting up for TV.

Apollo 11, Houston. We have you stopped in the PTC; attitude looks good to us. Mike, I would like to get a COMM check. The last couple of the transmissions from the spacecraft has been garbled from especially Buzz. Could you both give me a COMM check? Over.

Roger, Charlie. Buzz here. How do you read? 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Roger. You are about four-by with a slight decrease/increase in volume, sort of a wavy volume to it. Over.

Okay. I moved my mike around. How about now? Is this any better?

Hey, that's beautiful right there. Thank you.

Okay, Charlie. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5; 5, 4, 3, 2, 1. How do you read me?

Roger. You're five-by. Is Neil on?

1, 2, 3, 4, 5; 5, 4, 3, 2, 1.

Hello, Apollo 11. Houston. We got the network all configured for the TV. You can start any time you want. Over.

Okay, 11. We have a picture. We see the Earth right in the center of the screen. Over.

Roger, Houston. Apollo 11 calling in from about 130,000 miles out. And we'll zoom our camera in slowly and get the most magnification we can. Over.

Roger.

11, Houston. The definition is pretty good on our monitor here. The color is not too …, at least on this set. Could you describe what you're looking at? Over.

Roger, 11. It's a pretty good picture on clarity here. We're having—can you tell us—It appears to us that there are two distinct cloud- formations trending east/west, one approximately about along the equator, and one around 30 or so south latitude. Could you tell us exactly where those cross the landmasses? Over.

Yes. They cross just south of the lower part of Mexico, probably through Central America. That is the equatorial band which we assume to be the intertropical convergence zone. The other band, which stands about 30 south, correctly appears to join the equator at the far left, or just beyond the horizon on the left edge of Earth, or at least it looks like it's going to join it. We don't have an explanation for that banding.

Roger, Neil. Thank you. It also appears that just to the left of the terminator, up in the northern hemisphere, there's a cloudband trending—a gap in the cloud, trending northwest/southeast. It appears to us that that comes in about over the northern United States, or perhaps the central United States. Is that about correct? Over.

I can see on the monitor the thing you were talking about, but right now I can't get my eye to the window to pick out just where it crosses the shoreline.

Roger.

You guys are doing a good job. It's a real steady picture, here. We're—Clarity is excellent. The color, it's—the clouds are—The whites are distinct. The rest if it looks like, to me anyway on the monitor I'm observing, is a fairly greenish blue is the way I'd describe it. Over.

It appears that the —

Well, we can't observe much green from the spacecraft.

Roger. On this monitor, the landmasses appear to be just a darker grayish color rather than a brown.

Well, it's true that we do not have the depths of color at this range that we enjoyed at 50,000 miles out. However, the oceans still are a definite blue and the continents are generally brownish in cast, although it is true that they're tending more toward gray now than they were at the closer range.

Roger, 11. We've been—I've just been vectored to another monitor and sure enough, the browns are coming in a lot more distinctly on the Eidephor that we have up on our screen in the control center. Over.

Okay, world, hold on to your hat. I'm going to turn you upside-down.

11, that's a pretty good roll, there.

Oh, I'd say sloppy, Charlie. Let me try that one again.

You'll never beat out the thunderbird.

Apollo 11, Houston. That practice did you some good. It's looking—real smooth roll, there.