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?

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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.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. We'll keep our eye on it. It sounds good, though.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay. Houston, Apollo 8. We've initiated the PTC.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Apollo 8, you can terminate the fans in the hydrogen, and we're ready to start on the oxygen tanks.

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Spoken on Dec. 21, 1968, 7:57 p.m. UTC (55 years, 11 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, we are through with the dump; you can have the tape recorder back.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We are ready to go to the second O2 tank.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

And for your information, it's Cleveland 24 to 10, and what we plan to do —

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

That's Cleveland 24 to 10, not over yet.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay, Apollo 8. Looks like you can terminate your cryo fans now, and we're going to leave you alone for a while and let you get caught up. Things we have onboard, the high-gain antenna check, COMM mode check that you have listed at 7 hours, we'll put off and do whenever you are ready for it. So that's at your convenience. During the high-gain dump that we performed using a wide band, we were still getting real good data at 36K, which is a little bit further than circuit margins that were predicted for you. And we've got our SPS burn coming up somewhere around 11 hours, and we'll give you more information on that later.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. We're doing the PROGRAM 21 now, determining ground track for LOI that we did not make at 5 hours.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. We just broke lock on S-band high-gain. We're on OMNI B now.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Is that Bravo or Delta?

Frank Borman (CDR)

We can't get the PROGRAM 21 to integrate up to LOI; just stalled out around 69 hours and 2 minutes.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. They are watching it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. Do you want us to stop the integration via VERB 96? Over.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

That is affirmative; VERB 96.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, this is Apollo 8.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. Do you want us to hold off on this P52 realignment, also?

Unidentified crew member

Yes, that is affirmative, CAP COM. We want to do that a couple of hours when it is related to the maneuver, midcourse.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

That is affirmative, Apollo 8. Let's time the maneuver and we will hold off and do that all in normal premaneuver sequence. And—We have got a score here—in the fourth quarter, 31 to 13. And I've got some words on your P21 discrepancy any time you are interested. And I'd like to confirm —

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Before I get off on that one, I'd like to confirm that you used the VERB 37 procedure to go to P00.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. On P21, the thinking runs that you had a slight error in your state vector at the time you started, and when that was integrated out, it intercepted the lunar surface where it locked up and this is contained in a fairly recent program note.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. Now, we've closed the—the waste vent, so we should see this O2 come down now.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Understand you closed the waste vent, and how about the lithium change? Have you done that one?

Milt Windler (FLIGHT)

EECOM, FLIGHT. Did you copy that?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

This conference communication is great. We won't have to have any debriefing.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

(Laughter) That's pretty outstanding.

CommTech

Right.