Apollo 8 Onboard TV

Apollo 8 Television

Apollo 8 had onboard an RCA black and white slow-scan TV camera. Like the Westinghouse Lunar Surface TV Camera used on Apollo 11, this produced a non-interlaced 320 line 10 frames per second picture which was scan-converted to 525 line 29.97fps (i.e. NTSC compatible) at the three prime MSFN stations.

During the mission, six broadcasts originated from Apollo 8. Five of these were relayed to Houston from Goldstone – and one from Madrid. (Until just before Apollo 11, there were no video circuits from Honeysuckle Creek to the outside world. While Apollo 8 TV was seen on station, it could not be released in real time.)

These video clips from Apollo 8 were on a tape loaned by Goddard Apollo TV Engineer Dick Nafzger to the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University. The 2 inch quadriplex tape contains daily mission highlights. These pictures were seen live worldwide during the mission. This recording is generally better than other existing recordings I have seen. The picture instability at the start of each clip is an artifact of the tape playback. (You could save these files to your hard disk for repeat viewing.)

MPEG 4 files – highlights from Apollo 8 onboard TV

Some Windows users have problems playing MPEG4 files. I suggest Quicktime or VLC.

En Route to the Moon

From TV Transmission 1.
31:08 GET.
Trans Lunar Coast.

Through Goldstone.

19.4 MB MPEG4 video file
(Duration: 5 min 11 sec.)

From TV Transmission 2.
55:10 GET.
Trans Lunar Coast.

Through Goldstone.

20.2 MB MPEG4 video file.
(Duration: 3 min 35 sec.)

This simulation, adapted from Starry Night Apollo, provides orientation.

From Lunar Orbit.

From TV Transmission 3.
71:40 GET.
Lunar Revolution 2.

Through Madrid.
(Honeysuckle had just had LOS.)

17.2 MB MPEG4 file
(Duration: 3 min 04 sec.)

From TV Transmission 4.
73:07 GET.
Lunar Revolution 9.

Through Goldstone.
(Honeysuckle was in mutual view.)

Message “for all the people back on Earth”.

12.3 MB MPEG4 file or 24MB version.
(Duration: 3 min 23 sec.)

Also available in Flash video.

On the way home.

From TV Transmission 5.
104:24 GET.
Trans Earth Coast.
166,000 miles from Earth.

Through Goldstone.

24 MB MPEG4 file
(Duration: 4 min 11 sec.)

From TV Transmission 6.
128:02 GET.
Trans Earth Coast.
97,000 miles from Earth.

Through Goldstone.

21 MB MPEG4 file
(Duration: 3 min 33 sec.)

Acknowledgements:
with grateful thanks to Dick Nafzger of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center
and to the Applied Physics Lab at Johns Hopkins University.
(Audio enhanced and video digitised by Colin Mackellar.)

Back to the main Apollo 8 mission page.

Back to the Honeysuckle Creek home page.