Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. At 128 hours, your altitude is 97 413, your velocity is —

Frank Borman (CDR)

Stand by just a minute.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Your altitude is 9 413; velocity is 6072; roll is 1 degree, pitch is 58, yaw 0,

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

I just got a newspaper, Frank. I will go through it and pick out the news items for you.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Good. That will be great. We're just eating breakfast.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

How are you having your eggs this morning?

Bill Anders (LMP)

Bacon. All except Lovell. He's having eggs Benedict.

Bill Anders (LMP)

That Timber Cove crew, you know, they -

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

That's the gourmet crowd.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Jerry, in doing these P23's, we were just about over Africa most of the time. At least, it was in view; nice weather over there this time of year.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. You want to go down there?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Jerry, Jim Lovell just checked the P30, P21, and says you are right, 97 800 miles.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

We ought to have these computers flight qualified in another couple of missions.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, Apollo 8.

Expand selection down Contract selection up

Spoken on Dec. 26, 1968, 1:34 p.m. UTC (55 years, 3 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Was MCC 6 determined for exactly 122 hours, when you came up with that six-tenths of a foot per second?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Jim, at exactly 122 we were figuring 0.5.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. I'll try it again now at the same time using the P37 with MA. The last time we did it, before the last sightings, I got 2 feet per second. I'm going to see what I come up with this time.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston. We are ready for you to start your waste water dump anytime now. Could we have a crew status report?

Frank Borman (CDR)

You may, we had a good night sleep. Everyone slept at least 7 hours yesterday, and we have just finished breakfast, drunk a lot of water, and I think we are in very good shape; just used the exerciser.

Frank Borman (CDR)

What would you like to know about?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

That's about it. Are you ready for some morning news?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Okay. There is really not a whole lot in the news this morning. Things are kind of quiet. I guess the biggest news is the accident rate—the holiday deaths—which is certainly not very pleasant news, but we had 233 people killed nationally, and 9 of them were in Houston on Christmas Eve, and Christmas. In the world news, the families made the news again. This is Associated Press: "The families of Apollo 8 crew sent a Christmas message to Navy Commander Lloyd Bucher, Captain of the USS Pueblo crew, released this week by North Korea. The message, addressed to Commander and Mrs. Bucher, at San Diego Navy hospital read 'You have been in our thoughts and our prayers. Your reunion has brought great joy into our heart this Christmas day. Our best to you personally and to all of the families under your command'. And it was signed 'Families of the crew of Apollo 8.' Space officials said that the message had been suggested and written by Mrs. Frank Borman.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Let see. Elsewhere in the national news, the newlyweds, David and Julie Eisenhower, came away from their secret honeymoon hideaway to have Christmas dinner with President-elect Nixon and the family. In New York city, the world's busiest harbor was reduced to almost complete inactivity Christmas day, due to a 5-day old longshoreman strike and a rare hiatus in shipping schedule. No ships arrived or left the harbor. Ferries, running on reduced holiday schedule, provided the only marine activity.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Here is an interesting little feature item that is kind of good to hear. It seems that up in Ann Arbor, Michigan, they have a new youth gang. It's called the Gilnet Gang. It roams the streets of Ann Arbor, acting in secret, and sometimes bypassing the law. They call themselves the Guerillas for Good. Some of the things they have done is, painted a bridge that was covered with obscenities. They painted it one night. A condemned house with—it's popular with neighborhood children, but dangerous, was boarded up. Downtown planters unfilled because of a debate over which group was responsible, business or government, were filled with flowers. A hedge, thought to be hampering vision, at busy intersection was trimmed, and the owner was angered. Trash along a portion of the Huron River was picked up. Members of the gang are anonymous teenagers who ask for no individual recognition. Their aim is to slice red tape, to get things—good things in their opinion—done. The organization has a faint religious overtone. It's sort of an ecumenical group, said an assistant professor at the University of Michigan who acts as an informal sounding board for the gang's ideas. The name is from St. Peter, the Fisherman's Net. And it is remote enough not to be identified with any particular church. There is a thread of Robin Hood running through this thing, said their teacher, who also prefers to remain anonymous. A lot of their activities are extra-legal. When the system bogs down, they directly administer good, rather than go through the red tape channels. The gang is made up of about 55 highschool kids, boys and girls, and there's another 40 or 50 who belonged to the gang before they graduated. The idea for the gang evolved from a trip to Detroit slum area, where a church group—youth group noted the way that street gangs operate. They were impressed with the methods of operation and decided to organize for somewhat different reasons. 'It was the chance to do things for the pure sake of giving,' said the gang's advisor.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

That is about it as far as the world and national news and the features is concerned. On the sport page, Hank Stram of the Kansas City Chiefs was named as the AFL coach of the year. This is the second time for him in three seasons. The voting was done by an Associated Press panel of 30 sports writers and sportscasters, three from each city. The nearest one to him was Weeb Ewbank. Other coach's that received votes were Sid Gilman of San Diego, and Lou Sabin of Denver. As for the Shriners College All Star game yesterday, the North cooled the South 3 to 0. Michigan State's Dick Berlinsky booted a 23 yard field goal in the first quarter and it was all the North needed to beat the South Wednesday, in the Shrine's College All Star football game. Let's see, I guess the interesting things about this are that first downs, North 19, South 16; rushing, North 214, South 169; passing was North 96, South 109. So, all in all, it looks like they were evenly matched. Looks like Parseghian and his Notre Damers weren't as strong as ole Howard was worrying about.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We are dumping the water now, Jerry.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

For the big Astro Blue Bonnet game, the big basketball classic followed by the Astro Blue Bonnet Bowl in the Dome: SMU and Oklahoma have arrived. They are getting ginned up for the big game. Doesn't say here which are favored. I will look that up and let you know later, if one is favor here. The Davis Cup is underway now, down in Australia, and the US is bidding to recapture that again, and apparently we're favored to recapture the supremacy today. Another item in the news, is O. J. Simpson; he was named player of the year in college football for the second consecutive season by the Walter Camp Football Foundation. Woody Hayes, as I told you yesterday, was named coach of the year.