Spacelog Apollo 11

Yes. It came in quite quickly. However, I'm showing about 240 yaw and about zero on pitch, now.

Roger. About 240 and 0.

Apollo 11, Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

Roger. Just wanted to make sure you fellows hadn't gone back to sleep again. And I also have a little bit of late news here if you'd like to find out what's happened in the last 12—14 hours. Over.

Okay. Go ahead.

Okey doke. Hot off the press here: We find Juan Carlos was formally designated yesterday—Tuesday—to become General Franco's successor—as the Chief of State of Spain and eventual King. Juan Carlos will be sworn in today as his successor designate after taking an oath of loyalty to the law and the National Movement, Spain's only legal political organization. He will apparently be called the Prince of Spain.

House Ways and Means Committee also has agreed yesterday to tax changes affecting oil companies, also banks and utilities, which could add as much as 2 billion dollars per year to the federal revenue. The committee also voted tentatively to change the accounting procedures for telephone, electric, gas, and oil pipeline companies and to reduce tax benefits of mutual savings and loan institutions. So, it looks as if tax reform may be on the way.

Looking overseas, we find South Korea's first super highway, linking Seoul with the Port of Inchon, has been named the Apollo Highway to commemorate your trip. I think we mentioned last night that President Nixon has already started on his round the world trip, and today he is in San Francisco on his first stop which will take him to the U.S.S. Hornet, from which he'll watch the return of your spacecraft. He plans to visit seven nations including Rumania during this trip. He, as I think you also knew, had to miss the All Star baseball game yesterday, as it was rained out; but it is being played today.

The West Coast residents in Seattle, Washington; Portland, Oregon; Vancouver, British Columbia; and San Francisco all plan to make their areas visible to the three of you by lighting their lights between 9 pm and midnight tonight, according to the Associated Press. We do have clear weather predicted there, so you may be able to see Christmas lights, porch lights, store lights, and whatever may be turned on.

Good show.

A little closer to home here, back in Memphis, Tennessee, a young lady who is presently tipping the scales at 8 pounds, 2 ounces, was named “Module” by her parents, Mr. and Mrs. Eddie Lee McGhee. “It wasn't my idea.” said Mrs. McGhee, “It was my husband's.” She said she had balked at the name Lunar Module McGhee, because it didn't sound too good, but apparently they have compromised on just Module. Over.

(Laughter) …

Roger. Hear a few chuckles coming from that direction. And we do have a late report on the sports here also. The All Star game currently being played. The present score at the end of the fourth inning has the National League leading the American League by 9 to 3. So the hitters are having a good day, you can tell.

And rain clouds are over the MSC area at the moment. It began raining here just about 10 minutes ago, and last report, we were having a pretty heavy deluge. So, that's it from the news front for the afternoon here, Apollo 11. Over.

Thank you very much, Owen. I think my yard could use some water.

That's very true. I've forgotten exactly how many days it did go, Buzz, but something like 30 days without rain; and we can appreciate the rain we're getting right now.

That was Neil. This is Buzz, here. I wish we could find out when the last time my lawn was cut. Over.

That might be a little more difficult to find out. I'm not sure whether the—whether Mike is ready to admit when he last did the job, but I'll look into that for you.

Well, he'll tell you. He's got a new mower.

Roger.

Hey, ask my chinch bugs how they're doing?

11, Houston. Over.

Go ahead.

Roger. Joan wasn't home right now, Buzz, but Janis reports the grass is getting pretty high, and I would estimate that it's going to be close to your knees by the time you get out of quarantine. Over.

Okay. I'll have to schedule a little discussion after I get back.

Roger. And no reports—no report from the chinch bugs there, Mike.

Well, they're sort of taciturn little fellows. They don't say much; they just chomp away.

Concur on that.

Which is about what we're doing up here.

We concur on that, too.

Breakfast was magnificent as usual. I had sliced peaches, sausage patties, two cups of coffee, and I forget all what else.

That does sound pretty good. As a matter of fact, I'm way overdue for a meal myself, here. I could use some of that.

Why don't you get Milt to give you 5 minutes off and grab a hamburger?

Houston, Apollo 11. We've been doing a little flight planning for Apollo 12 up here.

Roger. Go ahead.

We're trying to calculate how much spaghetti and meatballs we can get on board for Al Bean.

I'm not sure the spacecraft will take that much extra weight. Have you made any estimates?

11, Houston. The medics at the next console report that the shrew is one animal which can eat six times its own body weight every 24 hours. This may be a satisfactory base line for your spaghetti calculations on Al Bean. Over.

Houston, Apollo 11. It was slightly colder in here last night than it has been on any previous night. Does EECOMM notice any change in his data or any explanation for that?

Roger. Stand by just a moment. We've got to check some temperatures.

Up until last night it was—if anything, a little on the warm side at night. Last night it was on the chilly side.

Roger there. We'll run down the temperatures for the 2 nights.

Oh, it's no big thing. Just as a matter of interest.

Roger.

And how'd you like the command module RCS temperatures?

11, Houston. They all look very good. The lowest temperature was 40 degrees, and we're taking a look at your cabin temperatures now.

We agree on the CM RCS. No heaters are going 2 to be required by a country mile.

We think that's correct.

We don't like those heaters, anyway, working off the direct coils.

Roger.

Peculiar thing, Owen, on the platform alignment is that when I really take my time and do a very slow, careful, precise job of marking. I'm getting about the same star angle difference as when I'm doing it in DTC and have to do a hurried rush job with relatively poor tracking. Star angle differences seem insensitive. It almost made me believe there's a very small bias there somewhere in the sextant.

Roger, 11. Perhaps the 3 degrees per second just isn't that much of a bother. Over.

Well, he's really trying to explain why he can't get all zeros.

I think Buzz is probably right. As a matter of fact, one time I made a mark which I thought was a little bit in error, but I thought, “Well heck. I'll go ahead and see how it works out anyway,” and I got five zeros that time. And when I have thought everything was exactly precisely on, I have consistently been getting 0.01.

Roger. Apparently it pays to hurry.

I usually do.

The visibility through the telescope has been very poor. It's, I would say, even worse than the simulator is right now. It requires long periods of dark adaptation which most times are most inconvenient; so it's really a tremendous asset to keep the platform powered up at all times and to keep it tweaked within the capability of the sextant field of view.

Understand, Mike.

11, Houston. Checking your temperatures, it does look like the spacecraft may have cooled down perhaps 2 or 3 degrees in the last 24 hours, and that sounds to be consistent with your report on the comfort level there. Over.

Okay.

Is that a LM off phenomenon?

11, Houston. It looks like we'll have to think a little more about that, as to whether it's a LM off or some effect of being out of Lunar orbit. We don't know, so we'll have to puzzle before we can give a better answer.

Okay.

Well, if the systems guys have anything they want chased down, we'll be happy to give you any readings or reports or what have you.

Roger. We'll think about that and see if there aren't some other tests to be usefully performed here.

11, Houston. I'll be turning things over to the Green CAP COMM at this time, and see you on the ground tomorrow.

Okay, Owen. I want to thank you and the whole Purple/Maroon group there for a good job helping Apollo 11.

Thank you, sir.

Thanks from us to all of you. It was really appreciated.

Great job, you guys.

Apollo 11, this is Houston. Over.

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 11.

11, this is Houston. With reference to your subjective evaluation that it felt cooler in side the spacecraft last night, we reported earlier that we did indeed see a drop of about 3 degrees over the previous night. Looking back, it appears the crew of Apollo 10 reported similar feelings during the translunar and transearth coast phases. We're wondering if you could give us any indication of the relative amounts of free or condensed water in the cabin last night and the night before from which we could infer humidity. Over.

Roger. That might be a little bit difficult to do. We'll take a look at the tunnel now. It does seem as though, between the dirt, we had a little bit more moisture in the tunnel. Of course, the LM hadn't been vented when we did translunar.

Roger. We were more curious about the relative amount of moisture between, say, last night and the night before, both of which would have the LM missing.

There's more moisture in the tunnel now than there has been at any previous time. Subjectively we have been unable to determine any change in—any buildup in humidity. There appears to be no moisture any other place in the spacecraft. For example, the windows are not fogging or—and various other cool spots around the spacecraft—all of them appear to be completely dry.

How are all the “Greens” today, Bruce?

Oh, the Greens are in good shape. The actual Green Team has been here for several hours. We're dogging the watch down here to position Ron for entry. Over.

Roger. Understand. Did Dave Reed get to explain the lunar … at the press conference?

No, but your comments about Bill Shaffer and the explanations were quoted in the paper last night.

Oh, oh.

Do you want to say anything more while you're on the line?

He's right. He's absolutely right.

How's old White, Bruce? Did he ever let you go get a cup of coffee when we were over on the back side?