Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, we made the burn at 7.7 plus X plus 00001 Y; and Z's are all zeros. Gimbal angles, roll 180, pitch 310, and yaw 020.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. I copy plus X 7.7. Y 0.1; and roll, pitch, and yaw 180, 310, and 20.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Did you get that information, Houston?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. How are you reading?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Read you loud and clear. Did you get the information?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

That's affirmative. I say again, we copied plus X 7.7, one-tenth in Y, no Z; roll, pitch, and yaw, 180, 310, and 020.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. The burn was made at—initiated at 04:45.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. Do you want us to transfer that to the CS—to the LM state vector or just leave it alone? You —

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Affirmative, Frank. We would like you to transfer from the CSM to the LM state vector.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

How is that booster looking now? Is it drifting away rapidly, or how does it look?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Bill is the only one that can see it. Just a minute

Bill Anders (LMP)

We're 90 degrees from its X-axis, and we must be out 1000 feet and moving out.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand; 90 degrees from its X-axis and about 1000 feet and separating.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Plus or minus a couple of thousand.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, this is Apollo 8. I think we've got clearance now; we got a little behind on our P23's, but I suggest we go ahead and start those now.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We're well clear of the S-IVB now, Houston.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Bill. Thank you, and at your convenience, could you give us the PRD reading? And as far as the P23 goes, that's just fine to get started with it. It looks like your first star, which is number 14, should be good until about 05:15 GET. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. We'll start P23.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Houston, Apollo 8 with a PRD reading.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. At 4 hours 4 minutes, Commander is 0, CMP 0.64, LMP 0.02.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Got that. Copy left to right: 0, 0.64, and 0.02 at 4 hours and 4 minutes. Thank you.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. At 04:53, it was 0.01, 0.64, 0.03, and negligible on the survey meter.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I have a beautiful view of the S-IVB and the earth here on one. I'll try and get a picture for you.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We've got you about a minute away from the continuous vent open and 14 minutes away from the big dump, and we would like an estimate on your distance now if you can give it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Stand by. Our distance is about 3000 feet we would estimate.

Frank Borman (CDR)

And we can see the vent.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8. Houston. Say again.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Boy, it's really hard to describe what this earth looks like. I'm looking out my center window, which is a round window, and the window is bigger than the earth is right now. I can clearly see the terminator. I can see most of South America, all the way up to Central America, Yucatan, and the peninsula of Florida. There is a big swirling motion just off the east coast, and then going on over toward the east, I can still see West Africa, which has a few clouds right now. We can see all the way down to Cape Horn in South America.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Good grief, that must be quite a view.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Yes. Tell the people in Tierra Del Fuego to put on their raincoats; looks like a storm is out there.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Will do. Do you care to give them a 24-hour forecast?

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Frank Borman (CDR)

Probably as good as any other.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. You might be interested to know the center window is pretty well fogged up, but the other four seem to be in pretty good shape.

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Spoken on Dec. 21, 1968, 5:50 p.m. UTC (56 years ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Glad to hear you've got four out of five, and your big dump will be coming up in 2 minutes or so.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We're standing by.

Frank Borman (CDR)

The S-IVB has started dump.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Mike, did you say star 14 was good till about 05:30 or something?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Yes. Stand by while I give you that time again. Star number 14 should be good for about another 8 minutes, Jim—7 minutes.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay. Now be advised, the optics calibration is very difficult to do because of all the other little stars floating here. I'm going to …, bypass it and do it at the end of this.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Apollo 8. Understand.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

You should have the LOX dump now, Apollo 8.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, this is 8. I'm looking through the scanning telescope and that LOX dump and just blanked out completely the entire scanning telescope.

Frank Borman (CDR)

It's a fantastic sight, Bill. Looks like the S-IVB, a small attitude excursion while it's dumping.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. I've got a flight plan update for Bill if he's ready to copy.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. We are about 05:10 GET where we will record the BLOCK data TLI plus four and TLI plus 11. The TLI plus four PAD that we gave you before is perfectly all right. We will not require that one, and we will have the TLI plus 11 hour PAD for you shortly, then at 05:45 or 6 hours on that high-gain antenna checkout. Roger. Standing by.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We are on OMNI D, and we heard—we lost you after—TM plus four was okay.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. The TLI plus 4 hour PAD is okay. We will have the TLI plus 11 hour PAD for you shortly, and at 05:50, for your high-gain antenna checkout, we would like you to leave that switch in WIDE BEAM with reference to our conversation the other day; leave it in WIDE.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. Don't want to zap your receivers.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

No, it has to do with some loss of tracking data, so it is better to leave it WIDE.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, Apollo 8. Are you recording what we are getting out of 23?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Stand by one, Jim; I'll check.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

That is affirmative, Jim; we are copying your P23.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Pretty big numbers there.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Well, we think that is because you bypassed the trunnion check.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, we are getting some really big numbers in DELTA-R and DELTA-V.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Do you want us to proceed with this, or should we just leave them alone?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Do you want us to accept these, or should we leave them alone?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We do not wish you to accept those marks. This is due to the fact that in bypassing the trunnion bias check, you still have big numbers left in those registers, so you go ahead when—after you do the trunnion bias check. Those numbers will become small later, but do not accept them right now.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

We have a TLI plus 11 hour update for you when you are ready to copy.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. Ready to copy TLI plus 11.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Bill. TLI plus 11, and this assumes no midcourse correction number 1: it's an SPS/G&N; 63330 minus 163 plus 129. Are you with me so far?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. 013:56:47.59 minus 00489 plus 00000 plus 47250 177 144 000, not applicable, plus 00197 47253 554 47050 12 1278 256 023, up 265, left 18. Are you with me so far?