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Frank Borman (CDR)
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We don't seem to have much luck today, but don't call for a repairman yet. It may be our camera here.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Key moment TV broadcast 5: life onboard Apollo 8: Okay. We've had it on for a while. Are you getting our FM okay?
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Mike Collins (CAPCOM)
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Okay, Frank. There, we got it. It's coming in loud and clear. We look like we're looking at your hat and now the MDC.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Okay. Well, good afternoon. This is the Apollo 8 crew. And how is it focusing now, Houston?
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Mike Collins (CAPCOM)
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It's looking good. If you can hold the thing still, there's sort of a time delay. Any motion at all there ruins our picture.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Okay, fine.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Okay. That's right. That's Jim Lovell. What we thought we'd do today was just show you a little bit about life inside Apollo 8. We've shown you the scenes of the moon, the scenes of the earth, and we thought we'd invite you into our home. It's been our home at least for 4 days as you can see on the instrument panel. We mark off each day on the instrument panel. We're four down, and we're working on the fifth day. Of course, we're all looking forward to the landing on Friday. Down here in the part of the spacecraft that we call the lower equipment bay, we have the President's adviser on physical fitness, Captain Jim Lovell, about to undergo an exercise program that we do every day. You notice that he floats around very freely. He just bumped his head on the optics, used for our navigating. He's working with an exercise device that's designed to keep the muscles in shape. Now another very important function of our spacecraft is the computer, and I thought you might be interested in seeing what we have here, the displays that give us all the information about our burn, about navigating, and about the velocity that we use during entry and retrofire on earth-orbital missions. You can see it's controlled by a DSKY, or similar to a typewriter keyboard, and the things that go in and out of that are absolutely miraculous. It's done a fantastic job for us, and Jim Lovell has done an excellent job operating it. Now another very important thing whether you're in space or the ground is eating, and I've asked Bill Anders to show you how we eat up here in the flight. Pardon the picture while we move around here and change cameras. The food that we use is all dehydrated; it comes prepackaged in vacuum-sealed bags. You notice that all Bill has to do to keep it in one place is let go of it. Except for the air currents in the spacecraft, it would stay perfectly still. He gets out his handy, dandy scissors and cuts the bag. The food is varied, generally pretty good. If that doesn't sound like a rousing endorsement, it isn't, but nevertheless, it's pretty good food. You can see that Bill is very clever. He does things swiftly. Actually, those food bags are stuck together because they've been vacuum packed in plastic.
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Bill Anders (LMP)
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Well, here we have some cocoa; should be good. I'll be adding about 5 ounces of hot water to that. These are little sugar cookies, some orange juice, corn chowder, chicken and gravy, and a little napkin to wipe your hands when you're done. I'll prepare some orange juice here.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Okay. You can see that he's taking his scissors and cutting the plastic end off a little nozzle that he's going to insert the water gun into. The water gun dispenses a half-ounce burst of water per click. Here we go; Bill has it in now, and the water is going in. I hope that you all had better Christmas dinners today than us, but nevertheless, we thought you might be interested in how we eat.
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Mike Collins (CAPCOM)
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Roger. I haven't heard any complaints down here, Frank. We'll bring you up to speed on your food when you get back.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Ordinarily, we let these drinks settle for 5 or 10 minutes, but Bill's going to drink it right now. Then, to get on with the program, he cuts open another flap, and you'll see a little tube comes out —
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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— and he drinks his delicious orange drink. Maybe I should say he drinks his orange drink. He's usually not that fast. Bill is really in a hurry today. Well, that's what we eat. Now another very important part of the spacecraft is the navigation station or the optics panel. And we—just a minute; Bill wants to say something.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Okay. Now if you'll let me have the camera, Jim, I'll show the people where you do most of your work. Okay. Bill, can you explain it?
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Jim Lovell (CMP)
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If I can clean up some of Bill's food around here, and have it away—Down in this area is called the LEB or the lower equipment bay, and we have our optics positioning equipment right here. We do all our navigation down here by sighting on stars and on horizons of either the moon or the earth. And this is where we find out exactly where we are in space, what direction, and how fast we are traveling. And our computer, as Frank has mentioned, takes information and tells us how to maneuver to get home safely. I work with the scanning telescope and the sextant, and occasionally, if I get too busy, I just sort of float out of sight and go up into the tunnel which is the tunnel to the hatch of the lunar module which we don't have onboard, of course.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Now that's about all we have for today. I—each and every one of us wish each and every one of you a very Merry Christmas. And, I guess we'll see you tomorrow, and we'll be landing early Friday morning. Merry Christmas from Apollo 8.
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Mike Collins (CAPCOM)
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Roger. Merry Christmas from the ground, Apollo 8, and thank you very much for the guided tour. We really enjoyed it.
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Mike Collins (CAPCOM)
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Oh, the longer we track, the smarter we'll get; but stand by one for a pertinent answer.
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Mike Collins (CAPCOM)
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Tentatively, midcourse correction at 122 hours is zero; and in about an hour and a half, we'll have some track data to confirm that.
Spoken on Dec. 25, 1968, 9:15 p.m. UTC (55 years, 10 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet
