Bill Anders (LMP)

You ought to give those guys a chance to go back to sleep and calibrate those things.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We've just passed 25 percent and you can terminate your waste water dump, please.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Believe it or not, our gage is 5 percent behind yours.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Yes, John said that he has been noticing that.

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Spoken on Dec. 25, 1968, 7:56 p.m. UTC (55 years, 3 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Bill Anders (LMP)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Yes. We are going to switch antennas from Madrid to Goldstone in about 3 minutes. You should hear the glitch.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Just for information, would the perigee reading and NOUN 42 be such a big minus number for such a small burn? We are reading minus 03137 now.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand; NOUN 42 perigee reads minus 03137. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. We are going to PROGRAM 30 after you give us the target load, and I didn't think there would be that much of a change for such a small burn.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Stand by. We will check into it, Jim.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. We don't think there's any problem or any funnies in this perigee prediction of minus 03137. It's a Keplerian prediction, and it's not very accurate. Now we have taken your vector from the downlink and run it through a make-believe external DELTA-V maneuver down here, and we get precisely the correct answer. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Understand that you figure just because of the conics solution that it comes up.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

That's affirmative. The Kepler solution is just pretty gross.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay. I was just kind of curious. I could see differences when we were talking about LOI burns, but this being such a short one, I thought it wouldn't be that much difference. I understand.

Frank Borman (CDR)

You are monitoring and seeing if we get any inadvertent engine firing all the time, aren't you?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Well, we can't tell when you're in low bit rate. When you're in high bit rate, that's right.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. If we crank up high bit rate and just have you take a checkout look at them?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Since you're on OMNI D (Dog) at this time, we're sort of 180 out of phase for the high-gain lock antennas. As soon as we can get high-gain lock, then we'll —

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. We will take the antennas and get on the high gain as soon as we can.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. We've done some more checking, and we confirm that that is the correct Keplerian prediction on NOUN 42 minus 03137, just like you said.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We are going to be doing a ranging sequence; if we can eliminate voice for a couple of minutes, we would appreciate it.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Our ranging is complete, and we have been monitoring your thruster firings, and they show what appears to be very normal damp activities. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Thank you. I guess it was associated with the water vent.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand, Frank.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Frank, we've got about 2-1/2 minutes to ignition, and we're still showing some of your SCS switches not set up as per checklist; specifically, rate LOW, deadband MINIMUM, and your BMAG mode at attitude one, rate two.