Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. You are in the scan limit right now on the high-gain antenna; although you may have NARROW beam width selected, you are in WIDE. To improve the situation would take a pitch down and a yaw left, and we will have FAO check it and give you some angles if we need to change it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We just got out of the scan limit by pitching up and yawing right.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. You are right, Frank.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Are we still in wide band, or are we in narrow band now?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. EECOM says you are in good shape now.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. COMM check.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Key moment TV broadcast 6: views of the earth: Apollo 8, Houston. We're getting television.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. How's the picture?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. The picture is on the lower right hand of our screen.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Camera should go down away from the terminator and to the right.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Still down and about the same place; a little worse; now it's coming in

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Are you getting it now, Jerry?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. We've got most of it; keep moving off to the right. Good. You have it centered right now.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Well, the earth looks a little bigger to us today, not much, but it's somewhat bigger. I'm sitting over in the right hand seat now; Bill has got the TV camera; Frank is helping him out aiming it directly to hit the earth. I hope we have a good picture. Can you see the clouds?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Affirmative. We sure can. Move it up toward the terminator—correction, away from the terminator just a shade.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

At the tip of South America, there is a great swirl of clouds down there. It looks like a great storm. I wonder if you can see it.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. We see a large swirl just south of the terminator.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. And then up to the left hand side, or towards the north, we can see the light waters around the West Indies, and we can actually see Florida. I'm looking through Bill's monocular, and I can see the various land masses, South America and the central part and southern part of the United States.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Move-a little bit away from the terminator now, a little left with the camera and a little further from the terminator.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Okay. You're moving it toward the center of the screen now, and the earth is off on the left side of our screen.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Real fine. That's good. Hold it right there.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

What we're thinking about right now, Jerry, is hitting that wedge angle, about 2 degrees their limit. When we come back, the earth looks pretty small right from here.

Bill Anders (LMP)

As I look down on the earth here from so far out in space, I think I must have the feeling that the travelers in the old sailing ships used to have: going on a very long voyage away from home, and now we're headed back, and I have that feeling of being proud of the trip, but still—still happy to be going back home and back to our home port. And that's—that's what you're seeing right here.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Bill. We'll sure be glad to get you back, too.

Frank Borman (CDR)

This is Frank Borman. We've enjoyed the television shows, and we'd like you to stay tuned in in the future because there'll be flights and rendezvous and earth orbit, and then, of course, there'll be television from the lunar surface itself in the not too far distant future. So, until then, I guess this is the Apollo 8 crew signing off, and we'll see you back on that good earth very soon.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

We'd like you to go back to PTC. Pick either attitude that's easiest to fly to.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Your PTC attitude ought to be either a 1045 or a 18315. We'd recommend 18315. That will keep your windows out of the sun.

Frank Borman (CDR)

180, that's right. I got them mixed up, didn't I? It's 18315.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston. You're unreadable due to background noise. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I say we're starting to stow the spacecraft and get all squared away and then be sleeping and eating. We'll be all thinking about entry from now on.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. And now that Bill's up, we'd like to get a redundant components check.

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Frank Borman (CDR)

Alright. He's putting helmets in the food boxes. Just a minute, I'll get him to do it for you.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. There is no great hurry, Frank. We're —

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

We're mostly interested in looking at the secondary loop.

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Spoken on Dec. 26, 1968, 9:08 p.m. UTC (55 years, 3 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Frank Borman (CDR)

That's what I was going to say. I can't see any reason to check anything other than the secondary loop, can you?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Now in that cabin cold soak, we won't have any cabin fans.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Jerry, this is Apollo 8.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. I just got on the sextant and now looking at Texas, and the weather man is right, it looks like a pretty good day. Full of clouds down there, but not bad.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Real fine, Jim. Can you see the kids out in the yard waving?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Would you tell Pete Conrad to get his kids off my roof?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Jim, do you see the bright spot out in the Pacific Ocean through the sextant?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

I'll try. We saw it, of course, through the windows and through the monocular. I'll see if I can spot it.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Yes, Jerry, I can see the bright spot. It's—I guess it's the subsolar point. It's off of South America, it appears to me. It is a grayish spot compared to the blue waters surrounding it. It's undefined in diameter, though I mean, it's not a clear round spot at all; it's just a raggedy one.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. That showed up real well on the TV's picture.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We'd like to delay that request for a secondary loop check to a little better point as far as thrusting is concerned.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Fine. We can wait for a long time on that.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Jim, we've got some bird watchers in the viewing room.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Sounds good. Who are they?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Oh, well, good. Say hello to her for me.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Yes, and she's got a few troops with her, too.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Did she see the TV, I wonder?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Affirmative. Barbara and Jay are with her.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We're replaying your television pictures now. We can see the Chilean coast and Florida.

Bill Anders (LMP)

That's a pretty good little television camera, isn't it?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

It sure is. With the right filters on it, it's great. That was a Schmitt input.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

He must be a Jack of all trades.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Bill would like to ask the friendly Flight Surgeon's permission to take a Seconal so he can sleep.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. That's a “yes.”

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Before Bill falls asleep, we'd like to have him go ahead and do that secondary EVAP check now at any time at his convenience, and if we don't happen to be able to monitor it with high bit rate, just let us know when you did it.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. I'll tell him that evaporator check at any time.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. BIOMED switch to the CDR. Over.