Spacelog Apollo 11

And don't forget one in the command module.

Roger.

Tranquility, Houston. We have you pitched up about 4 1/2 degrees. Over.

That's confirmed by our local observation.

Roger.

And thanks for putting me on relay, Houston. I was missing all the action.

Roger. We'll enable MSFN relay.

I just got it, I think.

Roger, Columbia. This is Houston. Say something. They ought to be able to hear you. Over.

Roger, Tranquility Base. It sure sounded great from up here. You guys did a fantastic job.

Thank you. Just keep that orbiting base ready for us up there now.

Will do.

Columbia, Houston. LOS 103 27, AOS 104 13. Over.

Thank you.

Tranquility Base, Houston. All your consumables are solid. You're looking good in every respect. We copy the DPS are venting. Everything is copasetic. Over.

Thank you, Houston.

Houston, the guys that said that we wouldn't be able to tell precisely where we are are the winners today. We were a little busy worrying about program alarms and things like that in the part of the descent where we would normally be picking out our landing spot; and aside from a good look at several of the craters we came over in the final descent, I haven't been able to pick out the things on the horizon as a reference as yet.

Roger, Tranquility. No sweat. We'll figure out—We'll figure it out. Over.

You might be interested to know that I don't think we notice any difficulty at all in adapting to one sixth g. It seems immediately natural to move in this environment.

Roger, Tranquility. We copy. Over.

The area out the left hand window is a relatively level plain cratered with a fairly large number of craters of the 5 to 50 foot variety, and some ridges—small, 20, 30 feet high, I would guess, and literally thousands of little 1 and 2 foot craters around the area. We see some angular blocks out several hundred feet in front of us that are probably 2 feet in size and have angular edges. There is a hill in view, just about on the ground track ahead of us. Difficult to estimate, but might be a half a mile or a mile.

Roger, Tranquility. We copy. Over.

Sounds like it looks a lot better than it did yesterday —

…

— at that very low Sun angle. It looked rough as a cob then.

It really was rough, Mike. Over the targeted landing area, it was extremely rough, cratered, and large numbers of rocks that were probably some, many larger than 5 or 10 feet in size.

When in doubt, land long.

So we did.

Tranquility, Houston. After you get through this P57, we'd like an E memory dump. Over.

Roger. After this first P57, you want an E memory dump.

That's affirmative.

Columbia, Houston. We have a P22 update for you, if you're ready to copy. Over.

At your service, sir.

I cycled the circuit breaker and got all nines. And we'll not now reset from all nines.

Roger.

Tranquility, Houston. We'll research this problem and be back with you momentarily on the mission event time—correction, the mission timer.

Okay.

I'd say the color of the—The local surface is very comparable to that we observed from orbit at this Sun angle, about 10 degrees Sun angle, or that nature. It's pretty much without color. It's gray, and it's a very white, chalky gray, as you look into the zero phase line; and it's considerably darker gray, more like a ash—ashen gray as you look out 90 degrees to the Sun. The—Some of the surface rocks in close here that have been fractured or disturbed by the rocket engine plume are coated with this light gray on the outside; but where they've been broken, they display a dark—very dark gray interior; and it looks like it could be country basalt.

Roger, Tranquility. We see the NOUN 93, VERB 34.

Roger. I assume you wanted it. Roger.

Tranquility, Houston. Please vent fuel and OX again. Over. It's building back up.

Okay. OX going now.

Tranquility, Houston. You can open both fuel and OX vent now. Over.

Okay.

Houston, Tranquility standing by for GO on a AGS to PGNS align and a lunar align. Over.

Stand by.

Tranquility, Houston. You are GO for the AGS to PGNS align and a lunar align. Over.

Roger.

Tranquility, Houston. Please vent the fuel. It's increasing rapidly. Over.

We show 30 psi in the fuel and 30 in the oxidizer.

Roger. We're reading somewhat different than that. Stand by.

The fuel temperature is reading 64 in the descent, and the oxidizer—that's descent 2—and the oxidizer is off scale low. Descent 1 is showing 61 in the fuel and 65 in the oxidizer.

Roger. Stand by. Tranquility, Houston. Please take the fuel vent switch and hold it open. Over.

Okay. We're holding it open. Indicating about 24 psi on board.

Roger.

Now indicating 20 psi in the fuel side.

Roger.

And 22 in the OX.

Roger.

Now indicating 15 psi in both tanks.

Roger.

Tranquility, Houston. If you haven't done so, you can release the fuel vent switch now. Over.

Roger.

Tranquility, Houston. We have indication that we've frozen up the descent fuel helium heat exchanger, and there's some fuel trapped in the line between there and the valves; and the pressure we're looking at is increasing there. Over.

Roger. Understand.

Tranquility Base, Houston. If you have not done so, please close both fuel and OX vents now. Over.

They're closed.

Thank you, sir.

From the surface, we could not see any stars out the window; but out my overhead hatch, I'm looking at the Earth. It's big and bright and beautiful. Buzz is going to give a try at seeing some stars through the optics.

Roger, Tranquility. We understand. Must be a beautiful sight. Over.

Columbia, Houston. Two minutes to LOS. You're looking great going over the hill. Over.

Okay. Thank you. Glad to hear the system's looking good. You have a suggested attitude for me? This one here seems all right.

Stand by.

Let me know when it's lunch time, will you?

Say again.

Oh, disregard.

Columbia, Houston. You got a good attitude right there.

Tranquility Base, Houston. If you want me to, I can give you a hack on the mission time, every 30 minutes. Over.

Tranquility, Houston. I'm counting down to T3 time. If you'd like to give me a hack, we can set up an event timer. Over.

Okay. How about counting up?

Roger. You want it counting up? Stand by.