Time for a little unorthodox, different kind of silly InuYasha question.

I've been studying a whole lot lately in my abundant free time about NASA's glory days of the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs of the 1960's, even reading transcripts of the communications between the astronauts and the ground in the Gemini and Apollo moon missions, and I've started wondering something.

Who would you think out of the InuYasha characters would have made a good astronaut? Personally I think Kikyo, Sesshomaru, and Naraku would be the bravest to be strapped into either the Space Shuttle or it's predecessor, the Apollo/Saturn 5, and get blasted into orbit and into zero gravity. InuYasha maybe too, but I think he would've been too ignorant to carry out instructions from Mission Control and the like. Kagome and Sango may try it together.

Anyway, what do you all think? Or is this question so silly it does not even make any sense?

I vote Kikyo she is the most calm under bad conditions and she is smart.Sesshomaru is calm but he loses his temper more than Kikyo.

What about Naraku/Onigumo, excluding his evilness. I'm pretty sure he wouldn't try anything during one of these missions because if one person really screwed up, all three of the astronauts would die. During them, each astronaut was dependent upon the other and the ground for not only success of the mission, but for getting home alive if the crap were to hit the fan and something went seriously wrong as depicted in the movie Apollo 13. So I'm confident Naraku wouldn't try anything.

Hmm, Kikyo, Sesshomaru and Naraku all three in the three-person Apollo Command Module for several days out in space. I think it would work, cause they'd all know they'd have to work together if they wanted to get back alive.

kik and sesshy. this is hilareous patriot!! :blue20:

You think all three of them (Naraku, Sesshomaru, Kikyo) would be brave enough to ride this:

Saturn V Lift-off

And be able to live together for several days in this:

Apollo Command Module Interior

I may write a short fic of it, but I don't know.

EDIT - Oh, almost forgot, Sess might have a problem fitting in this thing.

Sorry for dp'ing, but who voted Ginta & Hakkaku? Could you give your reasons please? I'm curious.

I think Miroku, Sesshoumaru and Kikyo would all be good for the job. They're calm, collective, and can do what they need to quickly without crumbling under pressure if something would happen to go wrong.

Hmm. Yeah, you're right. Miroku probably would make a good astronaut. I think I may just go ahead and start copying down the Apollo 8 Mission Transcript I've been reading the last several days but instead copy in Sesshomaru, Miroku and Kikyo's names. Sesshomaru would take up the role of the Commander, or CDR, Miroku the Command Module Pilot, or CMP, and Kikyo the Lunar Module Pilot, LMP, or in the case of Apollo 8, her title would be Systems Engineer instead, since Apollo 8 didn't carry a Lunar lander, even though it was the first time ever we sent a manned craft to orbit the moon for a few hours.

May also try to come up with a very short, maybe only a few chapters, story with this too.

I think that Sesshomaru and Kikyo couldnt handle being that close to Naraku without killing him though :blue20: .

Well, like I said above, how about a change in plans, and Miroku goes up gets to be crammed into that three person capsule with Sesshomaru and Kikyo for 6 or 7 days instead?

That would work but if Miroku is attracted to Kikyo(you know Miroku).There might be trouble.

I voted Naraku alone because if something goes wrong, he always has a backup plan. Others would make that a problem i think.

Yeah, Naraku would possibly be good at coming up with ways along with the ground of working around problems. As for Miroku, he would restrain himself because he'd know trying anything with Kikyo would put all three of their lives at risk. Here's a little something I've put together, by doing a little editing of the communications from the Apollo 8 Flight Journal. Now this may be a little long:

Public Affairs Officer - The engines are on. 4...3...2, 1, 0.

Public Affairs Officer - We have commit. We have lift-off, lift-off at 7:51 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

000:00:01 Sesshomaru: Lift off. The clock is running.

000:00:04 InuYasha: Roger. Clock. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - We have cleared the tower. Tower clear at 13 seconds.

000:00:14 Sesshomaru: Roll and pitch program.

000:00:16 InuYasha: Roger.

000:00:18 Sesshomaru: How do you hear me, Houston?

000:00:19 InuYasha: Loud and clear. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - 20 seconds now we get a loud and clear from Sesshomaru.

Public Affairs Officer - 32 seconds, BOOSTER says the S-IC, the first stage, looks good.

000:00:42 InuYasha: MARK. Mode 1 Bravo, Apollo 8.

000:00:44 Sesshomaru: Mode 1B. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - The crew confirms their progress at 50 seconds into the flight.

000:00:58 InuYasha: Apollo 8, you're looking good.

000:01:01 Sesshomaru: Roger. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - One minute out and InuYasha tells the crew, 'We're looking good.' One minute, 15 seconds, and we're a little more than five miles into the sky and about - nearly 40 miles downrange.

Public Affairs Officer - "One minute, 40 seconds, all looks great. 16 miles high into the mission and Sesshomaru has confirmed each event as it's been passed to him by InuYasha, our CapCom, at this point."

000:01:52 InuYasha: Mark. Mode 1 Charlie, Apollo 8.

000:01:54 Sesshomaru: Mode 1C. [Pause.]

000:02:07 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. You are Go for staging. Over.

000:02:10 Sesshomaru: Roger. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - The crew has been given a Go for staging. Inboard is out on time, Sesshomaru says. The inboard engines. 2 minutes, 25 seconds. We see an S-IC, the first stage cut-off.

000:02:36 Sesshomaru: Staging. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - S-II has ignited, we can confirm, and the thrust looks good, all engines, all sources show that second stage is burning perfectly. 2 minutes, 51 seconds into the mission.

000:03:05 Sesshomaru: ... second plane Sep.

000:03:08 InuYasha: Roger. Understand; Sep.

000:03:10 Sesshomaru: Roger. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - And at 3 minutes into the flight, the Range Safety console has been released at the Cape. 3 minutes into the flight, we are 50 miles high and about 100 miles down range.

Public Affairs Officer - 3 minutes, 25 seconds, we have verified that the escape tower has jettisoned. The crew has verified the escape tower has jettisoned.

000:03:31 Sesshomaru: Houston, how do you read? Apollo 8.

000:03:34 InuYasha: We hear you loud and clear, Apollo 8.

000:03:35 Sesshomaru: Okay. The first stage was very smooth, and this one is smoother

000:03:40 InuYasha: Understand; smooth and smoother. Looks good here.

Public Affairs Officer - Sesshomaru says staging was smooth and the ride now is even smoother.

000:03:47 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your trajectory and guidance are Go. Over.

000:03:51 Sesshomaru: Thank you, Houston. Apollo 8.

Public Affairs Officer - "Coming up on 4 minutes into the flight and the communications thus far have been excellent. It's been a little sparse but it's been quite sharp and clear. 70 miles altitude and about 20 miles or more downrange. Correction, let's make that 200 miles downrange. Flight Director Cliff Charlesworth gets an enthusiastic Go from both TRAJECTORY and BOOSTER at 4 minutes, 50 seconds into the flight."

000:04:58 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your trajectory and guidance are Go. Over.

Public Affairs Officer - MARK. 5 minutes and the crew is advised their trajectory and guidance are looking good.

000:05:02 Sesshomaru: Thank you, little brother.

000:05:04 InuYasha: Yes, you're looking real good, Sesshomaru.

000:05:05 Sesshomaru: Very good. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "And Sesshomaru came back with a very chatty, 'Thank you, little brother.' He's talking to InuYasha, who would be in the center seat today except for an operation several months ago. 5 minutes, 20 seconds into the flight. 300 miles downrange. We're nearly nearing 100 miles altitude, and everything looks just grand."

000:05:59 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Trajectory and guidance are Go.

000:06:02 Sesshomaru: Roger. Apollo 8. Go.

000:06:05 InuYasha: Mark.

000:06:06 InuYasha: You have S-IVB to orbit capability. Over.

000:06:09 Sesshomaru: Roger. Thank you. S-IVB to orbit. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - And InuYasha gives the crew another Go on trajectory and guidance, which at this point are the most critical elements. At 6 minutes, 10 seconds into the flight, our downrange distance now 400 miles. Our velocity in feet per second, nearly 15,000 feet per second or 10,227 miles per hour. We've achieved nearly 60 percent of the velocity required to make orbit. 57 percent right now, and we're 96.5 miles above the Earth. The SURGEON reports he likes everything he sees.

000:07:01 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your trajectory and guidance are Go. Over.

000:07:05 Miroku: Apollo 8's Go.

000:07:09 Kikyo: Onboard chart confirmed.

000:07:10 InuYasha: Roger. Understand. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - 7 minutes into the flight, and we're nearing the second stage - nearing the point where we will drop off the second stage and light the third stage. That event is to come at about 8 minutes and 40 odd seconds into the flight, We have now achieved 70 percent of the velocity required to obtain orbit. Our present velocity is 18,600 feet per second or 12,682 miles per hour, and we're 100 miles above the Earth, 100 even. 625 miles downrange.

000:07:31 Miroku: Just tried to PU shift, I believe.

000:07:37 InuYasha: Roger. That's the correct time for it.

000:07:41 Miroku: Roger. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Coming up on 8 minutes. Mark. 8 minutes. 20,400 feet per second or 13,909 miles per hour for everybody. 101.7 miles above the Earth, 734 miles down range."

000:08:03 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your trajectory and guidance are Go.

000:08:06 Sesshomaru: Roger. We're picking up a slight pogo at this point.

000:08:11 InuYasha: Understand; slight pogo. Thank you. [Long pause.]

000:08:30 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. You have level sense time. Over.

000:08:32 Sesshomaru: Roger. Level sense, On.

000:08:35 Sesshomaru: The pogo's damping out.

000:08:37 InuYasha: Understand; pogo damping out.

000:08:42 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. You look good for staging.

000:08:45 Sesshomaru: Staging?

Public Affairs Officer - And the crew is advised they look good for staging, and Sesshomaru says, 'Same here.' We've got S-II cut-off.

000:08:50 Sesshomaru: S-IVB ignition. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - We've got S-IVB ignition. Sesshomaru confirmed S-IVB ignition.

000:08:59 Sesshomaru: Guidance Initiate. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - And thrust looks good to us at 9 minutes into the flight.

000:09:06 Sesshomaru: Hey, Houston. How do you read? Apollo 8.

000:09:07 InuYasha: Apollo 8, reading you loud and clear.

000:09:09 Sesshomaru: Okay. We got Guidance Initiate.

000:09:12 InuYasha: Roger. Understand.

000:09:14 InuYasha: Trajectory and guidance are Go.

000:09:17 Sesshomaru: Thank you. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - We now have 89 percent of the velocity required, we're 920 miles downrange, and we're 9 minutes, 20 seconds into the flight. Flight Dynamics Officer says our altitude is nominal, which is the great conservative word for very nearly a perfect mission - as nearly as we can observe at this point.

000:09:49 InuYasha: Mark. Mode 4, Apollo 8.

000:09:52 Sesshomaru: Mode 4. Roger.

Public Affairs Officer - Nine minutes, 50 seconds and we've just gone to what we call mode 4. If any trouble should develop now we would go ahead and burn into orbit with our Service Propulsion engine.

000:09:57 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your predicted cutoff, 11 plus 28. Over.

000:10:03 Sesshomaru: Understand; 11:28.

000:10:06 InuYasha: Roger. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - We're now at 10 minutes, 10 seconds. We are at 103.7 nautical miles above the Earth. Our velocity is at an even 24,000 feet per second, 16,364 miles per hour, which is very, very close to orbital velocity, that's 95 percent of it and we're 1,200 nautical miles downrange, which would put us a little bit out of Bermuda.

000:10:44 Kikyo: How do you read, Houston?

000:10:46 InuYasha: Reading you loud and clear.

000:10:49 InuYasha: Go ahead, Apollo 8.

000:10:50 InuYasha: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

000:10:54 Sesshomaru: Loud and clear, Houston. Loud and clear.

000:10:57 InuYasha: Roger. You're looking good, Apollo 8. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - Ten minutes and 50 seconds and we've heard from Kikyo Higurashi for the first time, she simply said, 'How do you read, Houston?' She gets a 'looking good' comment from InuYasha."

000:11:16 Miroku: HP is coming up...

000:11:21 Miroku: HP is plus... [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - Eleven minutes, 20 seconds and we're hearing a little something from Miroku Houshi, a reading from one of his meter gauges.

000:11:30 Sesshomaru: ...and we have SECO (S-IVB Engine Cut-Off).

000:11:33 InuYasha: Roger. SECO. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - We have SECO says Sesshomaru. SECO, and I would call it 11 minutes, 30 seconds - that will be an estimate - 11 minutes, 30 seconds. Our launch digital data shows our velocity now, 25,577 feet per second or 17,439 miles per hour after a conversion.

000:11:58 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. You are Go.

000:12:01 Sesshomaru: Apollo 8 is Go. Thank you, Houston. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "The data now has been reduced and we show an altitude of 102.5 nautical miles, and the crew has been given a Go for all but they responded that they too, in fact, were Go.

000:12:11 Sesshomaru: AOS [Acquisition Of Signal] is Manual. [Pause.]

000:12:16 Sesshomaru: [Garble] is Off.

000:12:19 Miroku: Houston, we're recording altitude H.A., 102.6; H.P., 96.8; R.V.I., 25560.

000:12:32 InuYasha: Roger, Apollo 8. Understand. Apogee, 102.6; perigee, 96.8 and velocity - I understand - 25,560. Could you confirm?

000:12:44 Miroku: That's affirmative.

000:12:45 InuYasha: Thank you, Miroku. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Miroku Houshi has just now read us down what he saw on his instrumentation. He's shows an apogee of 102.6 nautical miles, a perigee of 96.8 nautical miles, and a cut-off velocity of 25,560 feet per second, 17,427 miles per hour. That's within a hundredth of a percentage point of what we are reading on our scales here in Houston. And now the crew has been advised, we have settled on an orbit of 103 nautical miles, apogee by 99 nautical miles perigee. We were shooting for something a little close to 100 nautical miles circular."

Cool!

Yeah, to really help visualize what all that was describing, watch the launch scene from the movie Apollo 13 and just imagine Sesshomaru, Kikyo, and Miroku in the spacecraft instead.

If they really did do this, Kikyo and Sesshomaru would've had to cut their hair beforehand to about shoulder length and then bun it up like Kagura has her hair to keep it from floating around in zero gravity. I can just imagine Sesshomaru replying in a stentorian voice to InuYasha's ground calls during that. Yes, a little bit of OOC-ness I know, InuYasha and Sesshomaru talking to each other like that, but during stuff like this, sibling rivalries MUST and WILL be put aside or LOTS of people's lives literally are in jeopardy.

I'm still working on doing some more of this. I may later today try to do a photo edit of a couple of pictures of Apollo astronauts on their way to the launchpad and try to paste in Kikyo, Sesshomaru, and Miroku's heads into them.

EDIT - Yeah, I'm sure Sango would have the guts to do this too, just don't put her and Miroku on the same mission together. For what I'm doing here that was seen above, besides InuYasha talking to them from the ground, Kagome and Sango are going to be talking to them eventually as well.

I do see inuyasha on the ground talking to them.I dont think he would do very good going up into space.

Oh, something I forgot to think of. I'm assuming too for this of course that Sesshomaru still has both of his arms and never lost one of them.

But can you imagine that, seeing Sesshomaru and Kikyo with hairstyles similar somewhat to Kagura's? Kikyo wouldn't even have those locks of her hair that usually hang in front of her ears. They'd be trimmed or tied back with the rest of her shortened hair in a bun as well.

For this one that I'm doing at the moment, Miroku really winds up in the role of navigator with Sesshomaru as commander and Kikyo flying along mostly to keep vigilant watch over the spacecraft's systems.

Kikyo with short hair hmm lol I just cant imagine that for some reason.

PM me your email address, and I'll send you a good length of my modified mission transcript I'm working on after I get it a little farther.

Lol, nice little screenplay you made. It was actually a bit humorous to imagine Inuyasha talking like that. ^.^ Well anyway, I really like the idea.

Thanks, all I've been doing is taking the actual Mission Transcription from this page:

Apollo 8 Flight Journal: Launch and Ascent

and mostly swapping out the names, but also modifying some of the speech to better fit who's saying what. Also, as you can see on this page, I'm leaving a lot of the boring commentary out too.

Hate to DP, but here's a modified version of the contents of the above link, with Sesshomaru, Miroku, and Kikyo in the roles of the astronauts, and InuYasha talking to them from the ground:

InuYasha Astronauts

CAUTION - File is big (11.6MB) because I pasted in several of the pics that are linked too in the Flight Journal page.

EDIT - Note, it's assumed Sess has his left arm in this as well.

Anybody have any other thoughts on this? I'll refresh the link above so it'll work again if anybody's interested.

That is a very strange question...I voted Ginta and Hakkaku though... :blue20:

Think you'd like me to send you what I've got of my rewritten mission transcript so far of Kikyo, Sesshomaru, and Miroku on one of the NASA moon missions? It's actually pretty funny I think! And I'm currently working on the next part where Kagura relieves InuYasha as the CapCom, the person who talks to them from the ground! :blue20:

naraku,cos he can survive no matter what.

Here's a pic edit I of Sess, Kikyo, and Miroku as Astronauts, though I could easily possibly swap out Miroku out for Naraku if anybody would like me to.

Sesshomaru, Kikyo, and Miroku as Astronauts

Really cool! You are really good at editing pics.

Thats so cool! XD

strange

Something I just finished converting. Sounds really funny, and is of some comm problems Kagura starts having communicating up to Sesshomaru in the spacecraft from the ground. The times you see are Ground Elapsed Time from mission liftoff:

035:09:20 Sesshomaru: Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

035:09:22 Kagura: Loud and clear, Apollo 8.

[As well as the radio link between the Earth station and the spacecraft, Houston can only communicate with Apollo 8 when there is a good two-way link between Houston and the station. This is a complex affair as the station is as likely to be on the opposite side of the Earth from Mission Control and keeps changing as the Earth turns to present a different face to the spacecraft.]

[Although Kagura has heard Sesshomaru's call, a circuit problem between Houston and the current ground station in Hawaii means that Sesshomaru will not hear her reply.]

035:09:28 Kagura: I'm going to have a maneuver PAD and...

035:09:32 Sesshomaru: Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

035:09:35 Kagura: I read you loud and clear, Apollo. 8. How me? [Pause.]

035:09:45 Kagura: Apollo 8. Houston. [Pause.]

035:09:53 Sesshomaru: Hello, Houston. Apollo 8. Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

035:09:58 Kagura: Apollo 8, loud and clear.

[Comm break.]

035:12:20 Sesshomaru: Hello, Houston. Apollo 8. Go ahead.

035:12:24 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. I believe we've lost our uplink. I'm transmitting in the blind. Read you loud and clear. [Long pause.]

035:13:30 Sesshomaru: Houston, Apollo 8. Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

035:13:38 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. Read you loud and clear. We may have some uplink problems; transmitting in the blind, at this time. Over.

[Comm break.]

035:15:30 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

035:15:38 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

035:16:10 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

035:16:23 Comm Tech: Hawaii Network GOSS Conference. How do you read?

[An engineer in Hawaii is checking communications from Hawaii to Houston. GOSS is Ground Operation Support System.]

035:16:32 Sesshomaru: Houston, How do you read? Apollo 8.

035:16:34 Kagura: Apollo 8, I read you loud and clear. How me? [Long pause.]

035:17:31 Sesshomaru: Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

035:17:35 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [Long pause.]

[The engineer in Hawaii now tries speaking with the spacecraft. Though Sesshomaru can hear Hawaii, he still cannot hear Houston and Kagura.]

035:18:20 Sesshomaru: Go ahead, Hawaii M&O. This is Apollo 8. How do you read?

035:18:25 Kagura: [Unheard by spacecraft] Apollo 8, Houston. Read you loud and clear.

035:18:37 Sesshomaru: Okay. Thank you, Hawaii. How do you read?

[Comm break.]

035:21:15 NETWORK: Hawaii, Houston NETWORK. Voice check on GOSS Conference.

[The NETWORK controller in the MOCR in Houston, George E. Egan, is trying to talk to Hawaii to establish the circuit from him to the mid-Pacific station.]

035:21:24 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston.

[Long comm break.]

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Mission Control Houston at 35 hours, 22 minutes into the flight. At the present time Apollo 8 is 132,542 nautical miles [245,467 km] from Earth, and our velocity is 4,307 feet per second [1,313 m/s]. At this time here in Mission Control Center we are working on a minor communications problem. We seem to have trouble getting the communications from the Control Center to Hawaii. We are reading the spacecraft loud and clear. No problem with communication across the 132,000 some odd miles between the spacecraft and Earth. The problem appears to be between Houston and Hawaii. Hawaii has been in touch with Sesshomaru Touken on the spacecraft and advised him that we are working on the problem at the present time and that we, as I said, do read the spacecraft loud and clear here in Houston. We are in the process at this time of switching to some of the back up routes that we have and checking those out. We expect to have communications restored shortly. This problem first appeared at about 35 hours, 10 minutes Ground Elapsed Time. As I say, we do expect to have it resolved shortly. We will continue to stand by and monitor and we will come back up after we have reestablished communications."

035:26:41 Comm Tech: Hawaii LOS [Loss of Signal]. Unable to find. [Long pause.]

035:27:07 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

035:27:14 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

035:27:55 Kagura: Hawaii, this is Houston CapCom. Over. [Pause.]

035:28:13 Comm Tech: Houston CapCom, Hawaii.

035:28:16 Kagura: Hawaii, Houston CapCom. I would like to have a voice check.

035:28:18 Comm Tech: Roger. I read you loud and clear.

[Communications between Houston and Hawaii have been re-established.]

035:28:21 Kagura: Okay. I'm reading you loud and clear. I understand you have contact with the spacecraft. Is that affirm?

035:28:26 Comm Tech: I have uplink voice to the spacecraft; the downlink is too low in the mud.

035:28:32 Kagura: Okay. Understand that you have good uplink, but your downlink is in the mud. You don't have any way of copying it either, is that correct...

035:28:40 Sesshomaru: Houston, Apollo 8. [Garbled] again. How do you read?

035:28:41 Comm Tech: That is affirmative.

035:28:45 Kagura: Okay, Hawaii, we can hear Apollo 8, calling down. Would you answer and tell them that we did copy that?

035:28:53 Comm Tech: Roger.

035:28:57 Comm Tech: Apollo 8, Hawaii M&O. Houston reports they copied your last.

035:29:03 Sesshomaru: Okay. Thank you.

035:29:08 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]

035:29:30 NETWORK: Hawaii, Houston NETWORK, GOSS Conference.

035:29:37 NETWORK: Hawaii, Houston NETWORK, GOSS Conference. You're Net 2.

035:29:41 Comm Tech: Houston NETWORK, Hawaii.

035:29:43 NETWORK: Roger. Did you copy the CapCom?

035:29:46 Comm Tech: Affirm. We copied the CapCom.

035:29:49 NETWORK: Is she keying the transmitters out there?

[Each time Kagura speaks, she presses a switch that generates a short tone. This goes down the line to the remote station where it temporarily switches (or keys) her voice onto the radio uplink. When she lets go, another tone of a slightly different frequency switches it out. These tones are called Quindar tones.]

035:29:58 Comm Tech: She did key it one time, Network.

035:30:01 NETWORK: Okay. I'm going to ask her to call the spacecraft again, and I would like for you to give me a report if she does not key the transmitters.

035:30:11 Comm Tech: Roger. Network is our NET 1 now conferenced up...

035:30:15 Kagura: Your NET 2 is conferenced to our GOSS Conference here.

035:30:21 Comm Tech: Roger. How about our GOSS Conference loop?

035:30:23 Kagura: Your GOSS Conference loop is dead.

035:30:26 Comm Tech: Roger. We are Go for command. We were unable to transmit before.

035:30:31 Kagura: Understand.

035:30:32 Comm Tech: We transmitted to the spacecraft as per CapCom and they acknowledged our transmission.

035:30:39 Kagura: Apollo 8. Houston.

035:30:43 Sesshomaru: Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

035:30:45 Kagura: Okay. We got back together again. You're loud and clear. We've been reading you. We have a problem down here on the ground getting our signal from MCC out to remote site.

035:31:01 Sesshomaru: Roger. Understand.

Personally, I think this is pretty funny.

Crap, so this last post stunk, didn't it?

I liked it alot.

I think it would be funny to see Hinta and Ginka up in space going crazy.

Here's some more comm problems:

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Mission Control, Houston at 38 hours, 41 minutes into the flight of Apollo 8. We have had no communications with the crew in the past 20 minutes since our previous announcement. At the present time, Apollo 8 is in an altitude of 140,600 nautical miles, traveling at a speed of 4,083 feet per second or 2,772 miles per hour. We continue to have a very quiet period, both here in Mission Control Center and on the Flight Plan. We have gotten a call from the spacecraft and we will pick that up now."

038:41:37 Sesshomaru: Hello, Houston. How do you read Apollo 8?

038:41:40 Kagura: Oh, loud and clear. [Pause.]

[Sesshomaru cannot hear Kagura in Mission Control. There is a problem getting voice from Houston to the spacecraft through Honeysuckle.]

038:41:45 Kagura: You sure do sound wide awake. [Long pause.]

[Kagura is surprised that Sesshomaru is awake, as he was expected to be asleep for several more hours.]

038:42:34 Sesshomaru: Hello, Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

038:42:36 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. Read you loud and clear. How me? [No answer.]

[Comm break.]

038:44:05 NETWORK: Honeysuckle network, GOSS Conference. How do you read?

038:44:07 Sesshomaru: Houston, this is Apollo 8. How do you read?

038:44:11 Kagura: Loud and clear, Apollo 8. [Long pause.]

[Sesshomaru still cannot hear Mission Control. However, he does manage to strike up a conversation with Mike Dinn at the Honeysuckle Tracking Station.]

[Mike Dinn, from 2002 correspondence - "Of course you can't hear me but you can hear Apollo 8's reponses to me. The problem was connecting the incoming line 'GOSS Net 1' to the transmitter modulator. There was no problem with the downlink getting to Houston. Of course John Saxon [Mike's colleague at Honeysuckle] insists I had the wrong buttons pushed, not being 100% familiar with the config. It's possible."]

[Mike fills in for us what he thinks his side of the conversation was.]

Dinn: Apollo 8, Honeysuckle.

038:44:53 Sesshomaru: Go ahead Honeysuckle. How do you read?

Dinn: Loud and clear. We have comm problems to Houston at the moment.

038:45:03 Sesshomaru: Well, I would like to say hello to all of you in Australia.

Dinn: Okay, and how's everything up there?

038:45:18 Sesshomaru: Good so far.

038:45:25 Sesshomaru: Thank you. [Pause.]

[This exchange and an earlier one from Hawaii seem to have made an impression on Sesshomaru as he later suggests (at 038:47:21) that the Communications people at the remote stations inform the crew if there are problems with the lines.]

038:45:27 NETWORK: Honeysuckle, Houston network, on GOSS Conference. How do you read?

038:45:33 Comm Tech: Houston network, this is Honeysuckle reading at 5, 5.

038:45:38 NETWORK: Roger. [Pause.]

038:45:45 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

038:45:53 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. [No answer.]

038:46:18 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. Over. [No answer.]

Public Affairs Officer - "This is Mission Control. We are apparently having some problems with direct communication from Houston to the spacecraft. We are reading them loud and clear. But at the present time we are having to relay information through the Honeysuckle maintenance operation personnel to the spacecraft and we are checking into the lines between here and Honeysuckle, Australia to determine just where the problem lies."

038:47:16 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston.

038:47:21 Sesshomaru: Roger, just checking with you. If you all start having ground switching problems, have some site that has Comm come in and tell us about it.

038:47:35 Kagura: Roger. Apollo 8. That's what we have been trying to do. Some of our problem seems to be getting from here to that site.

038:47:42 Sesshomaru: Houston. Apollo 8. How do you read?

038:47:45 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. Loud and clear. How me? [Long pause.]

038:47:59 Sesshomaru: Houston, Apollo 8.

038:48:03 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston. Read you loud and clear. [Long pause.]

038:48:36 Kagura: Apollo 8, Houston.

038:48:40 Sesshomaru: Roger. Go ahead Houston. Apollo 8.

038:48:43 Kagura: Roger. We read you loud and clear and copy your remarks about having our remote site talk to you. Some of our problem has been in going from MCC to the remote site. We will attempt to do that anytime we can.

038:49:01 Sesshomaru: That's right. Just tell them you are having problems.

038:49:04 Kagura: Rog.

[Very long comm break.][/color]

That was awesome

Hmm, I think I'll repost the liftoff comm stuff then.

Here's an improved liftoff stuff:

Public Affairs Officer - The engines are on. 4...3...2, 1, 0.

[Image KSC-71PC-543:



shows the vehicle on the pad as the engines build up to their full thrust. Note that the image of the crescent Moon has been artificially added to this photograph.]

[At lift-off, one of the most important areas of the Main Display Console that Sesshomaru must monitor is the subpanel which annunciates the progress of the launch. From top to bottom, this subpanel contains the Abort light, Mission Event Timer and Launch Vehicle Engine lights.



This photograph shows the panel of launch vehicle indicator lights as seen in the Apollo 13 Command Module Odyssey. Below this is the lift-off light which is embedded top-left in a cluster of critical switches (with safety covers) that are used to override the automatic abort sequences.



One second to lift-off, the five launch vehicle indicator lights in the spacecraft have gone out, announcing to the crew that the thrust is OK and the stack is about to be let go by the hold-down clamps.]

Public Affairs Officer - We have commit. We have lift-off, lift-off at 7:51 a.m. Eastern Standard Time.

[Once the launch vehicle begins to rise, even fractionally, it cannot safely settle back onto the pad. Shutdown of the engines for the first 30 seconds of flight is explicitly inhibited, as even a controlled shutdown of an engine at this critical early phase, would result in a catastrophic collapse of the Saturn V back onto the pad. Even a failing engine may be creating some thrust, and might be enough to buy time for an abort. This also eliminates the possibility of shutting down an engine due to an error in the Emergency Detection System. The vehicle is now in motion, so of the nine access arms, the five which have remained attached up to this point, must now detach their umbilicals from the vehicle and swing clear. These supply services to the S-II, S-IVB and the Service Module. The first two centimetres of travel trigger the release of the umbilical connector plates which in turn triggers retraction of the arms.]

[Disconnection of the IU's umbilical triggers the start of timebase 1.]


000:00:01 Sesshomaru: Lift off. The clock is running.

000:00:04 InuYasha: Roger. Clock. [Pause.]

[Photograph KSC-68PC-327:



This shows the rising vehicle as seen from the southeast, and S68-56002 is a view from the west some seconds later:



In this latter view, a yaw motion is discernible by the leaning of the stack away from the tower. The vehicle is programmed to fly this 1.25° yaw maneuver, beginning one second into the flight, in case a gust of wind comes up that might tend to push the vehicle into the umbilical tower.]

[The initial yaw maneuver makes the stack rotate around its center of gravity. At launch, this is about 30 metres above the rocket's base, midway along the LOX tank. The crew is at the end of a lever arm 67 metres long. Even the 1.25° of motion adds up to 5 or 6 feet sideways movement in the CM in just a few seconds.]

Public Affairs Officer - We have cleared the tower. Tower clear at 13 seconds.

000:00:14 Sesshomaru: Roll and pitch program.

000:00:16 InuYasha: Roger.

[The Flight Plan calls for Sesshomaru to report to Mission Control the accomplishment of many of the events that occur during ascent. He has already reported lift-off and like many other commanders, has not reported the yaw maneuver. Sesshomaru does report the initiation of the roll and pitch program.]

[Clear of all the pad's ironwork, the 363-foot tall Saturn V rocket can safely rotate around its longitudinal axis by 17.876° from its launch roll angle of 90 ° to its flight azimuth of 72.124°. With the roll completed, it will begin pitching over to fly along this bearing with the crew in a heads-down attitude. All these maneuvers are pre-programmed - although the rocket's computer 'knows' where it is, it is not using that information to adjust its flight path. It will dumbly fly a precise set of maneuvers, known as the tilt sequence, until the second stage has taken over. This sequence has been computed to place as little sideways aerodynamic force on the vehicle as possible while it gets through the thicker atmosphere.]

000:00:18 Sesshomaru: How do you hear me, Houston?

000:00:19 InuYasha: Loud and clear. [Long pause.]

[The full extent of the Saturn V's tail of flame is beautifully displayed in KSC-68PC-341:



and s68-56050:



Public Affairs Officer - 20 seconds now we get a loud and clear from Sesshomaru.

[The four outboard engines cant outwards at this point so that if one of them should shutdown inadvertently, the direction of thrust will still be near the rocket's center of gravity. The vehicle's roll maneuver should be complete by 28 seconds.]

[As the Saturn V stack makes its way to orbit, it passes through predetermined slices of time during which there are appropriate ways of aborting the mission should something go horribly wrong. These are known as abort modes. For the first two of these, there are defined safe ranges of vehicle motion rates as not exceeding ±4° per second in pitch and yaw, ±20° per second in roll. Motion rates exceeding these limits will entail an abort.]

[The first 42 seconds of flight, which takes the stack to an altitude of about 10,000 feet are flown in abort Mode 1A (one Alpha). In this mode, the Command Module that Sesshomaru, Kikyo and Miroku are riding in would separate from the Service Module then the LET (Launch Escape Tower, or just 'tower'), which is the solid-fuelled rocket mounted on top of the Command Module, would carry it up from the wayward launch vehicle while a small 'pitch control' motor at the top of the LET would steer the assembly east out over the ocean and away from a possibly exploding booster below. The tower would be jettisoned only 14 seconds after the initiation of the abort. While this is going on, the highly dangerous and toxic hypergolic propellants of the Command Module's RCS would quickly and automatically be dumped overboard as they would be harmful to the recovery forces. The Command Module would then descend on parachutes to a normal splashdown.]

Public Affairs Officer - 32 seconds, BOOSTER says the S-IC, the first stage, looks good.

000:00:42 InuYasha: MARK. Mode 1 Bravo, Apollo 8.

000:00:44 Sesshomaru: Mode 1B. [Pause.]

[Abort Mode 1B extends from 42 seconds into the flight to an altitude of 16.5 nautical miles as defined by the launch/insertion checklist. With the vehicle being further downrange and tilted over, the pitch control motor would not be required in the event of a IB abort. However, it had been discovered during hypersonic testing, that the Command Module/Tower stack could be marginally aerodynamically stable in a tower-first as well as a base-first attitude so a pair of canards were added which would be deployed automatically to force the combination into an attitude where the base of the Command Module is facing the direction of travel, ready for the safe deployment of the drogue and main parachutes. While the canards have little effect in a low altitude abort, they become increasingly important as the Saturn V gains speed through the 1B mode.]

Public Affairs Officer - The crew confirms their progress at 50 seconds into the flight.

[While the vehicle was sitting on the pad, the spacecraft cabin maintained an atmosphere of 60% oxygen, 40% nitrogen, the latter being supplied by equipment on the ground. Meanwhile the crew breathed pure oxygen within their suits. As the vehicle ascends into thinner air, the cabin pressure is allowed to fall until it reaches 6 psi whereupon automatic regulators begin maintaining it at that pressure. The circuit which supplies suit air is kept at a slightly higher pressure and it dumps into the cabin, gradually replacing the mixed atmosphere with a pure oxygen one. In case the cabin pressure has not fallen by the time they reach 4.1 nautical miles altitude, the checklist includes instructions to operate the cabin pressure relief valve and dump some of the spacecraft's atmosphere.]

000:00:58 InuYasha: Apollo 8, you're looking good.

000:01:01 Sesshomaru: Roger. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - One minute out and InuYasha tells the crew, 'We're looking good.' One minute, 15 seconds, and we're a little more than five miles into the sky and about - nearly 40 miles downrange.

Public Affairs Officer - "One minute, 40 seconds, all looks great. 16 miles high into the mission and Sesshomaru has confirmed each event as it's been passed to him by InuYasha, our CapCom, at this point."

000:01:52 InuYasha: Mark. Mode 1 Charlie, Apollo 8.

000:01:54 Sesshomaru: Mode 1C. [Pause.]

[Mode IC is used for aborts occurring between 16.5 nautical miles altitude and the jettison of the tower. As the air is now very thin, the airflow around the pair of canards at the top of the tower would have little aerodynamic effect during an abort, so the Command Module's RCS would be used to control the orientation of the spacecraft until they become effective. Note that in the Mode IC abort (on page A-2 of the checklist) that the canards are deployed even before the RCS is pressurized. This may be because if the Command Module gets into a "pointy end forward" attitude for too long, the RCS will be ineffective once it reaches the denser air. The safe range of vehicle motion rates are now defined as not exceeding ±9° per second in pitch and yaw, ±20° per second in roll.]

[The crew are at the top of page L-4 in the checklist. Now that Apollo 8 is above the significant atmosphere, the danger of an aerodynamically induced catastrophe has subsided. The EDS is disabled by Miroku throwing a switch on Panel 2 of the Main Display Console. Most malfunctions of the launch vehicle can be dealt with by human intervention and aborted manually.]

[The prodigious consumption of the F-1 engines means that the vehicle is becoming lighter by 15 tons each second. This, and the fact that they are becoming more efficient in the near-vacuum means that the g-forces experienced by the crew are rising rapidly. Therefore, at 2 minutes and 6 seconds, the center engine of the S-IC stage is shutdown by a pre-programmed signal to limit this acceleration. The same signal lights the centre lamp of the launch vehicle indicator lights momentarily and also begins timebase-2, providing the vehicle has achieved sufficient velocity (a measure to keep the vehicle safe in case TB-1 starts inadvertently). At the time of this cut-off the total stage thrust had risen by 20% to 9,000,000 pounds. The outboard engines will burn until depletion of the LOX supply is sensed, in this case, another 28 seconds.]

[Eight seconds before the outboard engines cut-off, the slow, deliberate tilting of the vehicle is brought to a halt - the so-called 'tilt arrest' - in preparation for staging. When the two sections of the Saturn V come apart, they do not want there to be any appreciable rotation of either.]

000:02:07 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. You are Go for staging. Over.

000:02:10 Sesshomaru: Roger. [Long pause.][/size]

[font=times]Public Affairs Officer - The crew has been given a Go for staging. Inboard is out on time, Sesshomaru says. The inboard engines. 2 minutes, 25 seconds. We see an S-IC, the first stage cut-off.

[The first stage engines underperformed by three-quarters of one percent but the stage burned for 2.45 seconds longer, shutting down at 2:34 GET, an event intimated to the crew by the four outer engine lights on a display coming on.



This is the start of timebase-3 which will sequence the staging of the two stages and the operation of the second stage. At cut-off, the rocket is travelling 12.57 metres per second (41.24 feet per second) faster than planned at 1,894 m/s and at an altitude of 35.5 nautical miles.]

000:02:36 Sesshomaru: Staging. [Long pause.]

[The first and second stages have, between them, a ring 10 metres in diameter, matching the stages above and below, and 5.5 metres high. This ring, the interstage, is there to make room for the S-II's engines which protrude some distance below the bottom edge of the stage's wall. If, at staging, the interstage were to stay with the S-IC, there is a danger that any slight rotation of the massive first stage would cause contact between it and the engine bells on the S-II. Therefore a cut is made directly above the S-IC using a shaped explosive charge, leaving the interstage with the S-II. However, the ring imposes a significant mass penalty on the second stage. So much so that it is a mandatory abort if the interstage doesn't separate. It too is dropped 30 seconds after the first separation. This gives time for the second stage engines to establish acceleration and for any rotations to die down.]

[The sequence for separation is as follows: Half a second after shutdown of the first stage, the four ullage motors mounted around the interstage ignite, followed a fifth of a second later by a command to fire the first separation explosive and ignition of the eight retro rockets mounted in the conical fairings near the base of the S-IC. The two sets of rockets firing in opposite directions pull the two sections of the vehicle apart. Physical separation comes soon after and half a second later, the J-2 engines on the S-II stage are started. The S-II ullage rockets were eventually deleted from the later Saturn V's. Ullage is a brewer's term for the space in a barrel taken up by air rather than liquor. The rocket people modify its use to mean the establishment of that space at the opposite end of a tank from the outlet so that the liquid leaves the tank cleanly. They usually achieve this by firing small rockets to settle the tank's contents to one end.]

Public Affairs Officer - S-II has ignited, we can confirm, and the thrust looks good, all engines, all sources show that second stage is burning perfectly. 2 minutes, 51 seconds into the mission.

000:03:05 Sesshomaru: ... second plane Sep.

000:03:08 InuYasha: Roger. Understand; Sep.

000:03:10 Sesshomaru: Roger. [Long pause.]

[Exactly 30 seconds after the first separation command, another is sent from the IU to detonate the cutting explosive at the top of the interstage. The S-II's acceleration cleanly pulls it away from the interstage. Four seconds later, Sesshomaru throws a switch and jettisons the unused Launch Escape Tower which takes the Boost Protect Cover with it. For the first time in the flight, all the windows in the spacecraft are uncovered.]

[With no launch escape tower, they begin flying in Abort Mode II. This lasts until the point where the S-II gives way to the S-IVB. In a Mode II abort, the Command and the Service Modules will separate from the launch vehicle and the Service Module main engine or its RCS engines will be used to get the spacecraft away from the launch vehicle. Then the Command Module and Service Module will separate before the Command Module completes a normal splashdown on the ocean.]

Public Affairs Officer - And at 3 minutes into the flight, the Range Safety console has been released at the Cape. 3 minutes into the flight, we are 50 miles high and about 100 miles down range.

[So far, the Saturn's guidance system has been keeping track of where it is going but has not done anything to alter its pre-programmed tilt sequence. Now the vehicle is essentially in space and beyond any reasonable aerodynamic forces so the sequence is terminated. At 3 minutes, 16 seconds, the IU begins the IGM or Iterative Guidance Mode, in which it starts steering the rocket to where it wants to go. It begins using position and velocity information to allow it to compute an appropriate trajectory to orbit and adjusts its flight path to achieve it. Attitude control is achieved by rotating or gimballing the outboard J-2 engines which alters the direction of the force they apply.]

Public Affairs Officer - 3 minutes, 25 seconds, we have verified that the escape tower has jettisoned. The crew has verified the escape tower has jettisoned.

000:03:31 Sesshomaru: Houston, how do you read? Apollo 8.

000:03:34 InuYasha: We hear you loud and clear, Apollo 8.

000:03:35 Sesshomaru: Okay. The first stage was very smooth, and this one is smoother.

000:03:40 InuYasha: Understand; smooth and smoother. Looks good here.

Public Affairs Officer - Sesshomaru says staging was smooth and the ride now is even smoother.

000:03:47 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your trajectory and guidance are Go. Over.

000:03:51 Sesshomaru: Thank you, Houston. Apollo 8.

Public Affairs Officer - "Coming up on 4 minutes into the flight and the communications thus far have been excellent. It's been a little sparse but it's been quite sharp and clear. 70 miles altitude and about 20 miles or more downrange. Correction, let's make that 200 miles downrange. Flight Director Cliff Charlesworth gets an enthusiastic Go from both TRAJECTORY and BOOSTER at 4 minutes, 50 seconds into the flight."

000:04:58 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your trajectory and guidance are Go. Over.

Public Affairs Officer - MARK. 5 minutes and the crew is advised their trajectory and guidance are looking good.

000:05:02 Sesshomaru: Thank you, little brother.

000:05:04 InuYasha: Yes, you're looking real good, Sesshomaru.

000:05:05 Sesshomaru: Very good. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "And Sesshomaru came back with a very chatty, 'Thank you, little brother.' He's talking to InuYasha, who would be in the center seat today except for an operation several months ago. 5 minutes, 20 seconds into the flight. 300 miles downrange. We're nearly nearing 100 miles altitude, and everything looks just grand."

[Apollo 8 is essentially at its orbital altitude so most of the work the S-2 has is to get it up to orbital velocity. With respect to the launch site, this is 24,243 fps or 16,529 miles per hour. However, the Earth is turning so taking its speed out of the number gives 25,567 fps or 17,432 miles per hour. Generally, the velocity readings in the spacecraft are given using this space-fixed frame of reference. The stack will actually overshoot their orbital altitude slightly, coming back 'downhill' as they get towards orbital velocity.]

000:05:59 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Trajectory and guidance are Go.

000:06:02 Sesshomaru: Roger. Apollo 8. Go.

000:06:05 InuYasha: Mark.

000:06:06 InuYasha: You have S-IVB to orbit capability. Over.

000:06:09 Sesshomaru: Roger. Thank you. S-IVB to orbit. [Long pause.]

[Should the S-II fail, they can reach the safety of orbit by separating and firing the S-IVB's engine. This would be an abort mode as they would use up fuel in the third stage meant to send them to the Moon. It would mean a Earth-orbital flight only for which an alternate flight plan exists.]

Public Affairs Officer - And InuYasha gives the crew another Go on trajectory and guidance, which at this point are the most critical elements. At 6 minutes, 10 seconds into the flight, our downrange distance now 400 miles. Our velocity in feet per second, nearly 15,000 feet per second or 10,227 miles per hour. We've achieved nearly 60 percent of the velocity required to make orbit. 57 percent right now, and we're 96.5 miles above the Earth. The SURGEON reports he likes everything he sees.

[They are more or less at orbital height but they are not travelling fast enough to maintain it. If all thrust were terminated now, the vehicle would gently arc back into the atmosphere. It is now essentially horizontal and accelerating at about 1.4g.]

[The flight azimuth they are flying affects the relationship between the vehicle and the ground stations it passes over. As they have got away on time and are flying a 72° azimuth, Kikyo ensures that antenna D, one of the four omnidirectional antennae around the circumference of the Command Module, is selected.]

000:07:01 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your trajectory and guidance are Go. Over.

000:07:05 Miroku: Apollo 8's Go.

000:07:09 Kikyo: Onboard chart confirmed.

000:07:10 InuYasha: Roger. Understand. [Long pause.]

[Kikyo is probably comparing readings from the DSKY (pronounced 'disky')with the tables on pages L-4-A and 4-B.]

[Public Affairs Officer - 7 minutes into the flight, and we're nearing the second stage - nearing the point where we will drop off the second stage and light the third stage. That event is to come at about 8 minutes and 40 odd seconds into the flight, We have now achieved 70 percent of the velocity required to obtain orbit. Our present velocity is 18,600 feet per second or 12,682 miles per hour, and we're 100 miles above the Earth, 100 even. 625 miles downrange.

[At 7 minutes, 23.45 seconds, the PU valve on each J-2 engine is actuated, lowering the flow-rate of LOX, thus altering the mixture ratio and making the engines burn richer. This is part of a strategy to make sure that as little propellant as possible is left in the tanks when the second stage has done its work. As the engines burn, there will always be a slight discrepancy in the actual mixture ratio, nominally 5.5:1, LOX to fuel by mass. By sensing how the levels in the tanks are decreasing, the Saturn's computer can decide an appropriate point to change the mixture ratio to 4.5:1 such that the tanks will be depleted simultaneously. The change causes the thrust of the stage to reduce from 1,143,578 pounds to 871,607 pounds.]

000:07:31 Miroku: Just tried to PU shift, I believe.

000:07:37 InuYasha: Roger. That's the correct time for it.

000:07:41 Miroku: Roger. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Coming up on 8 minutes. Mark. 8 minutes. 20,400 feet per second or 13,909 miles per hour for everybody. 101.7 miles above the Earth, 734 miles down range."

000:08:03 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your trajectory and guidance are Go.

000:08:06 Sesshomaru: Roger. We're picking up a slight pogo at this point.

000:08:11 InuYasha: Understand; slight pogo. Thank you. [Long pause.]

[Pogo is very much a problem in large-scale rocketry, and often misunderstood. First of all, it is not an acronym; rather it is a term borrowed from a child's toy, the pogo stick, a spring loaded affair that children could bounce along on. Like the pogo stick, the phenomenon concerns longitudinal oscillations, but in the launch vehicle, they are unpleasant and potentially damaging.]

000:08:30 InuYasha:[b] Apollo 8, Houston. You have level sense time. Over.

[b]000:08:32 Sesshomaru:[b] Roger. Level sense, On.

[The S-II is nearing the end of its powered flight. The actual time of engine cut-off is determined by sensors within the tanks that detect the falling propellant levels.]

[Each tank has five sensors that indicate when the propellant level in that tank is near exhaustion. When the IU receives two indications from the same tank, it send commands to the engines to shut down. To make this system fail-safe and preclude the chance of an early shut-down from faulty sensors, this level-sense cut-off system is not armed until the stage's propellant gauging system independently measures that the levels are getting low. The call from InuYasha is to let the crew know that the cut-off system is armed and they can expect shutdown any second.]

[Meantime, at 8:33.12 GET, the IU brings any rotation of the vehicle to a stop, an event known as "chi freeze". As with the separation of the first and second stages, unwanted vehicle rotation might cause the engine bell of the fresh stage to contact the interstage.]

[b]000:08:35 Sesshomaru: The pogo's damping out.

000:08:37 InuYasha: Understand; pogo damping out.

000:08:42 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. You look good for staging.

000:08:45 Sesshomaru: Staging?

Public Affairs Officer - And the crew is advised they look good for staging, and Sesshomaru says, 'Same here.' We've got S-II cut-off.

[The crew are working off the top of page L-5 in the checklist. The S-II sends its cut-off signal at 8 minutes, 44.04 seconds, bringing the launch vehicle indicator lights on and marking the start of timebase 4 which will orchestrate staging and the operation of the S-IVB during its first burn. The LV lights are extinguished at staging.]

[Three quarters of a second after T4 begins, two ullage motors at the base of the S-IVB begin firing. Tenth of a second later, four retro motors mounted around the conical interstage ignite and the stages are cut apart by a shaped explosive charge around the base of the S-IVB. Another tenth of a second later the single J-II engine at the base of the S-IVB begins its ignition sequence, announcing this to Sesshomaru by lighting lamp 1 of the launch vehicle indicator lights, in the top right position. It ignites 4¼ seconds after the start of T4 and takes about three seconds to get to full thrust. 65% thrust extinguishes the panel lamp in front of Sesshomaru. Typical thrust from this engine will be 202,678 pounds, nearly exactly what was predicted. Note that the J-2 engine on this stage is not an uprated version.]

000:08:50 Sesshomaru: S-IVB ignition. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - We've got S-IVB ignition. Sesshomaru confirmed S-IVB ignition.

000:08:59 Sesshomaru: Guidance Initiate. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - And thrust looks good to us at 9 minutes into the flight.

[Once more, the IU begins guiding the vehicle and its payload to orbit as they gain the final 10% of the velocity they need. The two ullage motors are ejected from the bottom of the stage to save weight.]

000:09:06 Sesshomaru: Houston. How do you read? Apollo 8.

000:09:07 InuYasha: Apollo 8, reading you loud and clear.

000:09:09 Sesshomaru: Good. We got Guidance Initiate.

000:09:12 InuYasha: Roger. Understand.

000:09:14 InuYasha: Trajectory and guidance are Go.

000:09:17 Sesshomaru: Thank you. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - We now have 89 percent of the velocity required, we're 920 miles downrange, and we're 9 minutes, 20 seconds into the flight. Flight Dynamics Officer says our altitude is nominal, which is the great conservative word for very nearly a perfect mission - as nearly as we can observe at this point.

000:09:49 InuYasha: Mark. Mode 4, Apollo 8.

000:09:52 Sesshomaru: Mode 4. Roger.

Public Affairs Officer - Nine minutes, 50 seconds and we've just gone to what we call mode 4. If any trouble should develop now we would go ahead and burn into orbit with our Service Propulsion engine.

[Mode 4 is the abort mode where the crew have been given a Go decision to continue to orbit using the S-IVB, and should that stage deviate from its allowed limits, the CSM will separate from the Saturn and use the SPS (Service Propulsion System) to continue into Earth orbit. It is called when the inertial velocity of the spacecraft reaches about 23,600 feet per second or 16,091 miles per hour. At about the same time, a Mode 3 abort is also enabled. Mode 3, like Mode 4, entails using the SPS for separation, but it then is used for a retro burn and a quick return to Earth.]

000:09:57 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. Your predicted cutoff, 11 plus 28. Over.

000:10:03 Sesshomaru: Understand; 11:28.

000:10:06 InuYasha: Roger. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - We're now at 10 minutes, 10 seconds. We are at 103.7 nautical miles above the Earth. Our velocity is at an even 24,000 feet per second, 16,364 miles per hour, which is very, very close to orbital velocity, that's 95 percent of it and we're 1,200 nautical miles downrange, which would put us a little bit out of Bermuda.

000:10:44 Kikyo: How do you read, Houston?

[Communications have been switched to work through the tracking ship Vanguard.]

000:10:46 InuYasha: Reading you loud and clear.

000:10:49 InuYasha: Go ahead, Apollo 8.

000:10:50 InuYasha: Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

000:10:54 Sesshomaru: Loud and clear, Houston. Loud and clear.

000:10:57 InuYasha: Roger. You're looking good, Apollo 8. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - Ten minutes and 50 seconds and we've heard from Kikyo Higurashi for the first time, she simply said, 'How do you read, Houston?' She gets a 'looking good' comment from InuYasha."

000:11:16 Miroku: HP is coming up...

000:11:21 Miroku: HP is plus... [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - Eleven minutes, 20 seconds and we're hearing a little something from Miroku Houshi, a reading from one of his meter gauges.

[The technical transcript gives the last two utterances as coming from Sesshomaru but it would make more sense to be coming from Miroku. He is occupying the center couch and has the task of monitoring the progress of the ascent by watching three computer displays right in front of him. He has entered Verb 82, Noun 50, which changes the display from velocity, altitude rate and altitude, to one that displays altitude, height of perigee (HP, its lowest point) and "Time of free fall". Time of Free Fall is the amount of time it would take, if the booster were to fail at that point, for the spacecraft to impact the Earth. :0_0:]

[Up to now, the vehicle has not had enough speed to sustain an orbit. If their engines were to quit, they would reach an apogee but the path their vehicle is describing would, in simple mathematical terms, have a negative value for the height of perigee; in other words they would impact the surface of the planet on their way down to it! :0_0: The computer does not display such hypothetical values. As they near the end of their burn, there comes a point when they do have enough velocity that HP would just become positive. If their engines quit then (and if the Earth had no atmosphere) they would coast around to the far side of the planet and just miss the ground. (:blue20: Of course this cannot happen in real life for the Earth does have an atmosphere that would slow them down long before this hypothetical situation came about. It can almost occur around the Moon where there is no atmosphere and later flights would coast only nine miles above its landscape. :0_0:)]

[As the last increment of velocity is added, Miroku can see the HP figure begin to rise towards the desired value of 100 nautical miles. The crude 5-digit display would show this as 01000. Their apogee is already around that value and the S-IVB should cut-off when perigee gets there also.]

000:11:30 Sesshomaru: ...and we have SECO (S-IVB Engine Cut-Off).

000:11:33 InuYasha: Roger. SECO. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - We have SECO says Sesshomaru. SECO, and I would call it 11 minutes, 30 seconds - that will be an estimate - 11 minutes, 30 seconds. Our launch digital data shows our velocity now, 25,577 feet per second or 17,439 miles per hour after a conversion.

[SECO is announced to the crew by LV lamp one coming on, and this event also begins timebase 5, a timebase that controls the operation of the S-IVB while in Earth orbit. Orbital insertion is defined as TB-5 plus 10 seconds and is marked by the LV lamp going out. The orbit they have achieved has a perigee of 98.0 nautical miles and an apogee of 103.3 nautical miles and being so low, has a period of 88 minutes, 10 seconds.]

000:11:58 InuYasha: Apollo 8, Houston. You are Go.

000:12:01 Sesshomaru: Apollo 8 is Go. Thank you, Houston. [Pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "The data now has been reduced and we show an altitude of 102.5 nautical miles, and the crew has been given a Go for all but they responded that they too, in fact, were Go.

000:12:11 Sesshomaru: AOS [Acquisition Of Signal] is Manual. [Pause.]

000:12:16 Sesshomaru: [Garble] is Off.

000:12:19 Miroku: Houston, we're recording altitude H.A., 102.6; H.P., 96.8; R.V.I., 25560.

000:12:32 InuYasha: Roger, Apollo 8. Understand. Apogee, 102.6; perigee, 96.8 and velocity - I understand - 25,560. Could you confirm?

000:12:44 Miroku: That's affirmative.

000:12:45 InuYasha: Thank you, Miroku. [Long pause.]

Public Affairs Officer - "Miroku Houshi has just now read us down what he saw on his instrumentation. He's shows an apogee of 102.6 nautical miles, a perigee of 96.8 nautical miles, and a cut-off velocity of 25,560 feet per second, 17,427 miles per hour. That's within a hundredth of a percentage point of what we are reading on our scales here in Houston. And now the crew has been advised, we have settled on an orbit of 103 nautical miles, apogee by 99 nautical miles perigee. We were shooting for something a little close to 100 nautical miles circular."

The funniest part I like about this was the comments about 'Time of Free Fall'!! :blue20:

:blue20: lol

Was the rest of it pretty funny too, imagining them actually doing that?

I voted Sesshomaru, but Kanna was my first choice. EXCEPT she's not on there.