Where these tapes came from
All audio in this section was recorded at Honeysuckle Creek by Bernard Scrivener, who was the Department of Supply Admin Officer at the station.
He had a reel to reel tape recorder set up near the speaker for the 112A intercom in the Station Director’s office. From there, he could monitor the PAO audio, as well as Net 1 (air/ground), Net 2, and other voice loops.
 |
Bernard Scrivener in Station Director Tom Reid’s office during Apollo 8. In front of him is the Western Electric 102C speaker connected to the 112A intercom station next to it. On the desk behind the telephone Bernard is using is the reel-to-reel tape recorder which made these recordings. Photo from Goddard News, January 13 1969. Preserved by Mike Dinn, scanned by Colin Mackellar, image enhancement by Bill Wood. 102C speaker ID thanks to Frank Sullens. |
Mike Dinn was given Tape
number 1 (covering the launch and TLI) by Bernard, and in August 2004, Bernard’s
widow, Rosemary, gave Mike the remaining eight tapes.
In total, there are nine 900 foot tapes, most with two tracks recorded in each direction, giving four tracks. Duration of each track is a little over 90 minutes at 1 7/8 inches per second, making a total of 45 – 50 hours.
Mike used a Sony reel to reel machine to play the tapes and then digitise them as stereo files (with the left and right channels being the two tracks in that direction of the tape).
I separated these left and right channels into mono files and, with the help of the excellent Apollo 8 Flight Journal by David Woods and Frank O’Brien, was able to determine the Ground Elapsed Times. (As a further help, at the start of most audio tracks, Bernard announces the mission phase and Honeysuckle pass number. I have left these announcements on the files.)
Much of the audio is rather noisy, with long periods of no activity. As Mike Dinn points out, it sounds as if there is an amplifier with a long time constant AGC in series – noise gradually increases to a maximum during periods of no activity. It’s also possible to hear (and see, if you look at the files graphically) the change from one omni antenna to another as the spacecraft slowly turns in PTC (i.e. barbecue) mode.
What’s interesting about these tapes
These tapes are from Honeysuckle passes (and sometimes the periods just before and after), and cover some of the crucial ‘firsts’, such as Trans Lunar Injection, Lunar Orbit Insertion, first emergence after LOI, and the first descriptions of the Moon from lunar orbit – as well as the reading from Genesis chapter 1 during lunar orbit 9.
(Note also that the Honeysuckle’s Wing station, Tidbinbilla, tracked the spacecraft, with the data being sent to Honeysuckle for processing and forwarding to Houston. On Monday December 23 1968, problems with the Honeysuckle feed cone meant that Tidbinbilla handled the tracking alone.)
With the exception of the commentary of the launch on tape 1, the recordings seem to be of Net 1 (Air / Ground) but have some snippets of various Manned Space Flight Network voice loops – with Honeysuckle, Carnarvon and Guam being heard briefly.
These recordings are what was heard on the Manned Space Flight Network circuits, rather than the Public Affairs (‘Voice of Apollo’) audio released at Houston. This means that they are probably the ‘most authentic’ surviving recordings of the communications between Houston and the spacecraft on the historic first voyage from the Earth to the Moon.
On most of these recordings the Quindar tones (tones triggered by the Capcom to key the tracking station transmitters on and off) have been filtered out – as was done on the uplink to the astronauts. (Contrary to popular belief, the astronauts did not usually hear the Quindar tones.)
The tapes also give a hint into the difficulty of communicating at lunar distances and the complexity of tracking station and network configurations.
The echo that is heard in some of these recordings is likely due to two audio loops being monitored at once – the direct audio from the downlink and the audio coming from Net 1 via Goddard.
I previously added some extracts from this audio to Hamish Lindsay’s wonderful Apollo 8 essay, but wanted to make all of the audio available (though only the most hard-core Apollo enthusiasts will listen to it all!). Where there are only one or two exchanges in a 90 minute segment (with noise for most of the time), just the highlights will be also available under the link to the complete file.
On some files, there’s not much to hear – but they will be there for your enjoyment nonetheless.
All told, the complete set of mp3 files will add up to around 520MB, so I suggest that you may want to download them (Windows: Right click, Mac: Control click, then Save as) rather than just listening and reloading them again later. (It will also help keep the website bandwidth usage under control!)
– Colin Mackellar, December 2007.
Day 1
The
Apollo 8 Flight Journal and Hamish
Lindsay’s Apollo 8 essay are excellent references to have handy as
you listen to these files.
For Day 1 of the mission, Honeysuckle saw Apollo 8 only
briefly on Revolution 1. During Trans Lunar Coast and Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle
tracked the spacecraft for up to 11 hours a day.
|
Honeysuckle Mission Day 1 – Saturday 21 December 1968 |
||||
| Tape | Start GET | Start AEST* | Length | Content / highlights |
|
3.1MB |
-00:01:03 |
22:51 AEST (06:51 US CST) |
15'33"
|
Launch Public Affairs audio (Jack King at KSC and Paul Haney at MCC-H provide
commentary) |
|
2.0MB |
000:52:09 |
23:43 AEST (07:43 US CST) |
11'35"
|
Revolution 1 – Carnarvon and Honeysuckle Creek. 6'20" HSK Ops Supervisor John Saxon and Deputy Stadir Mike Dinn. |
|
310KB |
002:25:52 |
01:17 AEST (09:17 US CST) |
1'44"
|
Revolution 2 – Carnarvon. Mike Collins informs the crew they are “Go for TLI”. |
|
2.4MB |
002:45:36 |
01:41 AEST Dec 22 (09:41 US CST) |
13'52"
|
TLI burn. Clip starts 1'55" before S-IVB ignition. |
* AEST = Australian Eastern Standard Time. (Australia did not begin Daylight Saving until 1971.)
Day 2
|
Honeysuckle Mission Day 2 – Sunday 22 December 1968 Trans Lunar Coast Day 1 |
||||
| Tape | Start GET | Start AEST | Length | Content / highlights (times from start of segment) |
|
4.8MB |
011:40:56 |
10:31 AEST approx. (18:31 US CST Dec 21.) |
41'47"
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 2 Mike Dinn announces Honeysuckle AOS, comms still through Goldstone
at this point. 15'40" Call from Honeysuckle to Houston Commtech. |
|
6.4MB |
020:27 |
19:18 AEST (03:18 US CST) |
37'20"
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 2 (continued) 30’18” Capcom Gerald (Jerry) Carr re battery charge and O2 purge. |
|
3.2MB |
022:35 |
21:26 AEST (05:26 US CST) |
18'52"
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 2 (continued) 05'55" Borman asks Capcom Mike Collins why lock was broken – there had been a handover from Honeysuckle to Madrid about a minute earlier. |
Day 3
Problems with arcing in the the Honeysuckle feed cone meant that Honeysuckle’s wing site at Tidbinbilla handled the uplink and downlink for the full pass. As was normal, all the audio and data went to and from Tidbinbilla and Houston via Honeysuckle Creek.
These tapes cover almost the full 10 hours of the pass. The
audio files for this day total 96.2MB.
|
Honeysuckle Mission Day 3 – Monday 23 December 1968 Trans Lunar Coast Day 2 |
||||
| Tape | Start GET | Start AEST | Length | Content / highlights (times from start of segment) |
|
6.9MB |
036:15 |
11:06 AEST (19:06 US CST Dec 22) |
40'19"
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 3 00'00" Lovell using scanning telescope. 17'30" Guam Commtech re A/G remoting test 34'40" Borman calls. * thanks to Brian Riehle and Al Fong for the names. |
|
16.6MB |
036:58:20 |
11:58 AEST (19:58 US CST Dec 22) |
96’54”
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 3 (continued) Apollo 8 now approx. 138,000 nautical miles (256,000 km) from the Earth. |
|
16.6MB |
039:13 |
14:04 AEST (22:04 US CST Dec 22) |
97'43"
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 3 (continued) 09’17” Guam switch calls. 49’30” Jerry Carr reads up news and ball scores to Frank
Borman as his colleagues sleep. (News: The USS Pueblo crew have
been released). 94'20" Borman: just completed the canister change. |
|
16.6MB |
040:55:52 |
15:46 AEST (23:46 US CST Dec 22) |
96’58”
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 3 (continued) 41'’57" is the first exchange on this tape – Handover
to Guam in 2.5 minutes through Guam No exchanges from 71’39” to end of tape at 96’58”. |
|
22.5MB |
042:40:45 |
17:31 AEST (01:31 US CST) |
98’25”
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 3 (continued) Through Guam Through Honeysuckle |
|
17MB |
044:20:00 |
19:11 AEST (03:11 US CST) |
98’24”
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 3 (continued) Apollo 8 now almost 155,000 nautical miles (287,000 km) from Earth. No exchanges until 44'50". Jerry Carr is Capcom. 44'50" Jim Lovell on the cislunar NAV (045:14:50 GET). Tape ends at 046:31:15 GET. |
|
10.3MB |
046:33 |
21:24 AEST (05:24 US CST) |
59’45”
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 3 (continued) 03'30" Discussing a state vector update (No transmissions from 16'15" – 20'50' and 25'20" – 36'43" though there is some crosstalk from the adjacent track on the tape.) 49'18" Carr: Command change from (says “to”) HSK (to
MAD) in 2 minutes. Honeysuckle track ends at 22:15 AEST |
Day 4
|
In between tracks, this brief item was recorded from (possibly) Net 3. |
||||
| Tape | Start GET | Start AEST | Length | Content / highlights (times from start of segment) |
|
1.4MB |
049:53 | 00:44 AEST |
08'06"
|
‘Apollo Network Control’ news bulletin – space related news, apparently read to the Network stations from Goddard. 6’37” Item of interest: Otto Womack, network identity and former Madrid Stadir is “alive and living on Guam”. 7’25” After the bulletin, NST calls Honeysuckle on Net 3.
Initially answered by John Saxon(?), followed by Laurie Turner(?). Poor quality recording – noise reduction thanks to Bill Wood. |
This is the day that men from Earth enter orbit around the Moon for the first time.
These tapes cover more than 10 hours of the pass. The audio files for this day total 99MB.
|
Honeysuckle Mission Day 4 – Tuesday 24 December 1968 Trans Lunar Coast Day 3, Lunar Orbit insertion and Lunar Revolution
1 and start of 2. |
||||
| Tape | Start GET | Start AEST | Length | Content / highlights (times from start of segment) |
|
4.6MB |
060:07:10 |
10:58 AEST (18:58 US CST Dec 23) |
27'04"
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 4 00'12" Capcom Ken Mattingly finishes reading up a PAD, followed
by discussion on reaction control thruster use to allow the crew to
see out of a clear window once in lunar orbit. |
|
16.9MB |
060:35:20 |
11:26 AEST (19:26 US CST Dec 23) |
98’23”
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 4 (continued) Note: There is some crosstalk on this tape. About 30 seconds of audio severely affected by print-through on the tape was edited out – no efect on the dialogue. 16'30" 8 minutes to the Midcourse Correction Maneuver 4. through Honeysuckle |
|
16.7MB |
062:09 |
13:00 AEST (21:00 US CST Dec 23) |
97’12”
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 4 (continued) Note: There is some crosstalk on this tape. 12'35" Run down on systems. |
|
16.7MB |
064:02 |
14:53 AEST (22:23 US CST Dec 23) |
98"55"
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 4 (continued) (Only three brief exchanges on this tape) 35'44" Frank Borman calls Jerry Carr for a radio check. |
|
16.7MB |
065:42 |
16:33 AEST (00:33 US CST) |
97'03"
|
Trans Lunar Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 4 (continued) Note: There is some severe crosstalk on this tape (sorry!). 12'30" Jerry Carr calls with a Preliminary LOI-1 PAD. |
|
16.2MB |
067:22 |
18:13 AEST (02:13 US CST) |
97'48"
|
Trans Lunar Coast leading up to Lunar Orbit Insertion, Honeysuckle Pass 4 Note: There is some crosstalk on this tape, esp around 33’ in. Through Guam |
|
15.1MB |
069:24 |
20:15 AEST (04:15 US CST) |
87'47"
|
Lunar Revolution 1, Honeysuckle Pass 4 00'25" The recording starts well before AOS on revolution 1 in case of a no-burn. 08'28" Capcom Jerry Carr calls Apollo 8 – a little early
in case of a no-burn. approx 069:32GET. 12'40" Normal 2-way comms is established – 69'40" Go for Rev. 2 |
|
1.7MB |
71:38:13 |
22:29 AEST (06:29 US CST) |
9'52"
|
Lunar Revolution 2 – through Madrid HSK had LOS at 21:47:39 AEST – MSFN is now tracking via MAD (who have a TV link to the outside world.). 2'27" Capcom Jerry Carr calls Apollo 8 |
Day 5
Final lunar orbits and TEI – with a Christmas message for all the people back on Earth. Beginning of Trans Earth Coast.
These tapes cover just over three hours. The audio files for this day total 32.5MB.
|
Honeysuckle Mission Day 5 – Wednesday 25 December 1968 Christmas Day, Australian time |
||||
| Tape | Start GET | Start AEST | Length | Content / highlights (times from start of segment) |
|
2.7MB |
084:38:54 |
11:30 AEST (19:30 US CST 24 Dec) |
15’35”
|
end of Lunar Revolution 8 through Goldstone 11'13" Mattingly – “We’re approaching 4 minutes to LOS. All systems are Go.” No more exchanges on this rev. LOS at 15'14". |
|
12.5MB |
085:39 |
12:30 AEST (20:30 US CST Dec 24) |
72'40"
|
Lunar Revolution 9, Honeysuckle Pass 6 (slight echo on the recording) 03'54" Anders calls. The TV is on. TV commentary continues. 27'14" Anders – “We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.” – with the reading from Genesis chapter 1. (excerpt). (TV clip here.) 29'15" TV broadcast ends. |
|
1.6MB |
087:42 |
14:33 AEST (22:33 US CST Dec 24) |
9'06"
|
Lunar Revolution 10, Honeysuckle Pass 6 Ken Mattingly reads up Manoeuvre PADs for TEI-10 and 11. |
|
9.7MB |
087:55:33 |
14:46 AEST (22:46 US CST Dec 24) |
56'18"
|
Lunar Revolution 10, Honeysuckle Pass 6 (continued) 8'00" Mattingly – “You have a Go for TEI.” |
|
6MB |
089:28:56 |
16:20 AEST (00:20 US CST) |
34'55"
|
Post Trans Earth Injection, Honeysuckle Pass 7 (as announced
– must mean Pass 6 continued) 2'26" Mattingly calls Apollo 8 several times. 16'52"Mattingly – “We’d like to try to have you
manually acquire on High Gain.” 25'05" Deke Slayton calls to wish the crew “a very Merry
Christmas”. (excerpt) [At Honeysuckle Creek, the audio from Apollo 8 is clearer than the audio from Houston.] 30’02” Jack Schmitt reads up a Christmas poem to the crew. (excerpt) |
Day 6
Trans Earth Coast Day 2.
These tapes cover the entire pass (with breaks for tape changes)
– starting before AOS.
Total duration of the tapes. 10 hours 50 minutes of the pass. The audio files
for this day total 112MB.
|
Honeysuckle Mission Day 6 – Thursday 26 December 1968 Boxing Day, Australian time |
||||
| Tape | Start GET | Start AEST | Length | Content / highlights (times from start of segment) |
|
16.7MB |
108:30:44 |
11:22 AEST (19:22 US CST 25 Dec) |
97'15" |
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 8 Apollo 8 is around 156,000 nautical miles (270,000 km) from Earth. (Presumably through Goldstone.) 00'13" Christmas music is being played up to the crew. 89'40" Bill Anders discusses a High Gain Reacquisition test as
the spacecraft turns in PTC mode. From 92'30" we hear the noise
increase and decrease as the HGA attempts to maintain lock. Tape ends
at 97'’15" |
|
16.7MB |
110:25:13 |
13:16 AEST (21:16 US CST 25 Dec) |
97'30" |
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 8 (continued) 11'00" Continued from the previous tape, Bill Anders has been
running a High Gain Reacquisition test. Here he reports to Ken Mattingly
that it “didn’t work as advertised”. Discussion follows. Through Honeysuckle 50'53" Frank Borman asks Ken Mattingly how far they are from home.
Answer: 148,550 (nautical miles or 275,000 km). |
|
16.7MB |
112:06:40 |
14:57 AEST (22:57 US CST 25 Dec) |
97'13" |
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 8 (continued) Apollo 8 is now half way home. 35'45" Ken asks Frank to reinitialise the PTC attitude. No other exchanges until 96'47". |
|
16.8MB |
113:46:42 |
16:37 AEST (00:37 US CST) |
97'37 |
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 8 (continued) No exchanges until 32'37" when Ken Mattingly requests some tests on the Entry Monitoring System. 41'58" A Station handover has just occurred. (presumably from
Honeysuckle to ??) Long discussion on the checklist. |
|
16.7MB |
115:26:52 |
18:17 AEST (02:17 US CST) |
97'18" |
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 8 (continued) 11'40" Questions for Bill Anders about sleep. 34'30"– inflight entertainment starts. There is a configuration
problem somewhere, and Bill can only hear the music when Ken calls.
Ken cannot hear the spacecraft. Through Honeysuckle |
|
16.7MB |
117:11:36 |
20:02 AEST (04:04 US CST) |
97'23" |
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 8 (continued) 3'21" First exchange on this tape between Bill Anders and Ken
Mattingly – about gimbal angles. Houston has been playing background
music up to the spacecraft. 14'46" Music resumes at low level. Anders – “I can’t hear it, but it sounds like something I’d rather not hear anyway.” Nevertheless, the music continues. 65'04" Anders calls and Mattingly returns – “Hello,
Apollo 8. We interrupt this program of music to bring you the late evening
status report.” Last exchange for this tape section. |
|
11.6MB |
18:56:17 |
21:47 AEST (05:47 US CST) |
67'21" |
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 8 (continued) 5'48" Bill Anders will delay the LiOH canister change for about
30 minutes to avoid waking the Commander. 48'34" Jerry Carr has just come on as Capcom. He announces a handover
to Madrid in 15 seconds. Jim Lovell, who has just woken, responds. |
Day 7
Trans Earth Coast Day 3.
Apollo 8 is now picking up speed as it plunges towards Earth.
Approx 8.6 hours. 105.7MB.
|
Honeysuckle Mission Day 7 – Friday 27 December 1968 Trans Earth Coast Day 3. |
||||
| Tape | Start GET | Start AEST | Length | Content / highlights (times from start of segment) |
|
5.2MB |
? |
? |
30'15"
|
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 9 There is no communications with the crew in this segment. (It’s included here for completeness. Will anyone listen to it?) |
|
16.7MB |
134:26:26 |
13:17 AEST (21:17 US CST 26 Dec) |
97'25"
|
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 9 (announced as 8) Apollo 8 is 70,900 nautical miles (131,300 km) 10'27"–13'55" Capcom Mike Collins calls Bill Anders.
Discussion on orientation for PTC mode. 54'10" Collins asks for a switch to Omni C. |
|
16.8MB |
136:05:56 |
14:56 AEST (22:56 US CST 26 Dec) |
97'36"
|
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 9 (announced as 8) 07'29" Collins asks for a different omni. Through Carnarvon (This seems to have been due to a misconfiguration, possibly at Goddard Voice. The complexity of the system was considerable and everyone was still learning.) 65'10" Borman reports the PTC is going well. (Last exchange on this tape track.) |
|
16.8MB |
137:45:51 |
16:36 AEST (00:36 US CST) |
97'32"
|
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 9 (announced as 8) 32'51" Radio check Through Honeysuckle 92'25" Capcom Jerry Carr calls. |
|
16.7MB
|
139:27 |
18:18 AEST (02:18 US CST) |
97'32"
|
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 9 Through Honeysuckle No further comms until 61'53". 68'00" Mattingly calls, no answer. 79'10" Borman asks for their current range and velocity. No further exchanges on this tape track. |
|
16.8MB
|
141:06 |
19:57 AEST (03:57 US CST) |
97'45"
|
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 9 (announced as 8) Now 43,000 nautical miles (79,600 km) from Earth. 27'47" Jerry Carr asks if they called. No further exchanges on this tape track. |
|
16.7MB |
142:54:03 |
21:45 AEST (05:45 US CST) |
97'23"
|
Trans Earth Coast, Honeysuckle Pass 9 (announced as 8) Through Honeysuckle Apollo 8 is now 25,300 nautical miles (46,800 km) from Earth. 63'37" – 74'36" Discussion about potable water levels. 77'48" Under heavy noise: “Carnarvon M&O – Network, GOSS Conference, How do you read?” (repeated 78'00".) There are comms problems between Houston and Carnarvon. (excerpt – 7'41" duration, 1.3MB.) 78'14" Paul Oats(?), Carnarvon. 81'12" Network (sounds like Ernie Randall in Houston). 83'14" Mattingly calls Apollo 8. “We had a momentary loss of comm on the ground then. Read you loud and clear.” 84'42" Same voice as at 78'16".
|
Day 8
End of Trans Earth Coast – and Re-entry.
Tape 9 begins 30 minutes to midnight on Friday – with
re-entry just 2 hours and 21 minutes away.
|
Honeysuckle Mission Day 8 – Saturday 28 December 1968 End of Trans Earth Coast – and Re-entry. |
||||
| Tape | Start GET | Start AEST | Length | Content / highlights (times from start of segment) |
|
16.8MB |
144:40:00 |
23:31 AEST (07:31 US CST) |
97'58"
|
End of Trans Earth Coast 16'50" Anders – “We’ve completed the checklist down to the 1 hour point...” 18'28" Network (Ernie Randall) calls Carnarvon on GOSS Conference
for a voice check. (excerpt) With the handover to Carnarvon, so comes the end of Honeysuckle’s
last track of Apollo 8. |
|
At Honeysuckle, the clock ticks over to Day 9, Saturday 29 December. Tape 9 Track 1 continued – Through Carnarvon 61'33"Mattingly – “If you’re not doing anything
else, how about let’s make a VHF check.” Apollo 8 is now at 9,600 nautical miles (17,700 km). 71'06" Another VHF test. 76'50" Mattingly – “Apollo 8, Houston. Stand by for handover – Carnarvon to Guam on the hour. We should have continuous contact except for the blackout period, beginning at 146:51.”
No further exchanges on this tape track. |
||||
|
10.9MB |
146:21:50 |
01:12 AEST (09:12:50 US CST ) |
47’34” |
Re-entry Through Guam Guam has had LOS and Apollo 8 is now in view of the tracking ship Redstone. 17'55" Mattingly – “Apollo 8, through the Redstone.
You’re looking good – both primary and secondary loops are
holding good.” 23’14” Mattingly – “Apollo 8, Houston – one
minute to RRT.” 31’52” Mattingly asks for a DSKY reading before drogues.
from 36’45” It appears the last few minutes of the tape seem to be monitoring a loop with no comms on it. |
| End of Apollo 8 audio recorded at Honeysuckle Creek. | ||||
Any corrections gladly received.
I plan to add a table to help in time comparisons.