Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Understand. And you are maneuvering to PTC. That's fine.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Well, I would prefer to do that, but we will —

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. Stand by just one.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We would like to hold off on the passive thermal control until 7 hours GET and, in the meantime, to get as many more P23 marks as we can, starting with the first star and doing two sets of three marks each, and then going to the second star we gave you. And concurrent with that, if possible, we would like Bill to run this high-gain antenna checkout if Lovell's attitude is compatible with that.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. But they have not been to date. We are almost to the passive thermal control attitude now, and Jim is just halfway through taking his suit off.

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Frank Borman (CDR)

We'll have to hold off for a minute here.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. And the reason for this is the horizon calibration requires a number of points to give you good data for the onboard NAV coming on.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We understand. We will be right back with you; just have to wait a minute here.

Frank Borman (CDR)

That failing to separate from the S-IVB kind of fouled us up a little.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We are standing by. Are you about ready for the high-gain antenna trial?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. Just a second; we will check on that. Then are you in a position where you can go back to the star sightings?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Well, we will be, but we can't until Jim gets ready.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. We will stand, and you give us a mark on that. In just a second, I will check on the antenna. Okay. It looks like we are ready to go on the high-gain antenna check. And we can either go with commands called out from the ground, and you can monitor it, or you can be talked through it, whichever you prefer.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Well, stand by. I guess we are not quite in a proper attitude yet.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We are slowly getting it.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Did you call?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. There is the high-gain antenna on wide auto.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Are you getting the results you want from our high-gain antenna?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Affirmative. We are getting your data, and we may have a beam width change, but stand by on that.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Alright. We're standing by. Jim's about ready to go back to the P23.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. We have a GO until 7 hours on the start of the PTC.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We're on the PTC mode now waiting for Jim, and I noticed that out my window now I can see Orion very clearly, even though the sun is bright in the other window.

Frank Borman (CDR)

It almost pained me to say that, but it's true.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Speaking of the windows, the number 5 window is getting pretty well obscured and the number 3 window is unusable.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand; number 3 is unusable and number 5 is obscured. Can you make out any definition at all, or do you have a target to look at?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Well, I can see the sun. Wait till it comes around the earth, and I'll give you a better hack on that.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We're going to go ahead and try to dump your tape right now. Circuit margins aren't too good at our present configuration. We're going to take a look at it. If it doesn't work, we may have to dump it again at a later configuration.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, Apollo 8. We're maneuvering back now to do another P23.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, this is Apollo 8. I'll do two more sets on 15, and then we'll do one set on 16.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. Thank you.

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Spoken on Dec. 21, 1968, 7:13 p.m. UTC (55 years, 10 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay, Apollo 8. I'd like to fill you in on things we're thinking about doing in the next couple of hours, first chance you get there.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. In relationship to the midcourse correction, we'd like to put that one off until about 11 hours, and it will be approximately a 25-foot-per-second burn. The reason we're delaying the burn time is to allow for better tracking as a result of the 7-1/2-foot per second you put in on the separation. We'd like to take a little more time to look at the tracking data. And the dispersions in your correction aren't going to be growing very fast here. What we'll do then is to delete the NAV sightings that occur about 09 plus 10 in the flight plan, and this will be getting us back on to the normal flight plan sequence. So we'll go ahead and finish the P23, and the 7-hour limit on that P23 is due to the range limits on this test. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Is due to the what did you say?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

The 7 hours on the P23 problem is due to the fact that we want to get these sightings in at a certain range. Over.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

If you have any comments on that proposal, why, go ahead and pass them down, and we'll feed them in.

Frank Borman (CDR)

No, I think that's fine. We need to get out of the suits and get something to eat here too.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. Looks like we'll be back on the flight plan by 11 hours. We'll be holding up on the updates and PAD's because of the later burn.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. I believe we have the S-IVB in sight. It would appear to be tumbling, and every once in a while, we are getting very bright reflections from it off the star, off the sun.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, 8. Are you getting the data from the P23?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. We're copying your P23 progress. FAO advises that it looks like you are finishing your first star, and we'll need one more set on the second star, and this 7-hour cut-off isn't that firm, so we would like for you to go ahead and complete the second star if you can.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We're on the last setting of the second star right now.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Real fine. And we've got a—it's about time for a cryo fan cycle.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. We'll do them one at the time for about 4 minutes on each of them.

Bill Anders (LMP)

We've got the cryo fan on in H2 tank number 1.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, Apollo 8. We've just got finished taking two sets, six sightings on Sirius, and one set on Procyon.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. I understand that's six on Sirius and one on Procyon.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Two sets on Sirius, one set on Procyon.

Frank Borman (CDR)

And we're maneuvering now to PTC attitude.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, when you get a chance down in the lower equipment bay, it looks like you're using the floodlights in the dim 2 position, and that one is a time-limited item. We would like for you to do your standard running in the dim 1 position. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. Just turned them off.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Anytime you have them on, running dim 1 position is preferred to the LEB.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Houston. We have the cryo fan on—the number 1 H2 tank was on at 07:01. You can give us a hack when you want it—when you're ready for it to be turned off.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay, Apollo 8. You can terminate that one and go to the other tank.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Okay. O2 gage number 2 is on.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Are you having any problem on the ground with your COMM?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Negative. You're coming in loud and clear.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay. We seem to be breaking lock intermittently up here once in a while.