Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

The Browns took Dallas apart yesterday 31 to 20. We're sort of curious, who do you like today, Baltimore or Minnesota? Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

How many points are you giving?

Bill Anders (LMP)

(Laughter) He's not making many points at home with that comment.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand. Oh, I've got another score for you when you are ready to copy. Are you ready to copy?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Navy 14, Army 21. Would you like for me to repeat that? Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

You are very garbled; Houston; I'm unable to read. Will call you back in another year.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. We also notice the University of Houston lost their first home basketball game in 3-1/2 years last night. Illinois edged them out 97 to 84. And some really big news: the State Department announced only a few minutes ago that the Pueblo crew will be released at 9 p.m. tonight.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Sounds good. Outboard calculations indicate that Apollo 8 at 25 hours is 104 000 miles from home.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Yes. Our plot board shows a similar number.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Mighty nice view from here.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

We're showing about 104 800 miles, and we're guessing another 8 to 10 hours on your battery charge.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Frank, say again about the view. You were blocked, I think.

Frank Borman (CDR)

This is a mighty nice view we have down there today. A little bit more than a half earth. Looks like Africa and the Red Sea is visible; we're not quite sure as there is quite a bit of cloud cover; but even through the hazy windows, it's mighty nice.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

How are your windows? Do you have a couple left that are real clear?

Frank Borman (CDR)

The rendezvous windows are good. The others are all about the same as they were when we last reported. One and five have a slight haze and a little fog on the inside.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Just as a matter of curiosity for Bill, we can say a few words about the heaters for the cryo tanks, and also for the fans. We've noticed that the heaters are doing their thing normally, cycling on and off; and as time goes by, this cycle rate increases, indicating a little bit of stratification in the tanks. And then when we've been turning the fans on every 4 hours for a couple of minutes, this stirs things up and the heaters then cycling on and off again more slowly for awhile, until again a little bit of stratification occurs, and the cycling becomes slightly more rapid. This is, of course, normal; we just point it out as a curiosity to you. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. I haven't really been following it that close. One thing I have noticed is when you turn the fans on you get a glitch in the quantity, which might correspond to a glitch in AC. Maybe the next time we'll look at the AC volts and see what happens.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Our experts say that's not the reason for the glitch. They say the stratification fakes out the capacitance sensor there for a second.

Bill Anders (LMP)

I knew they would have some big deal answer for me.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Any other information you want us to send up to you?

Bill Anders (LMP)

No, we're going to zap you with the high gain here shortly.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Houston, this is Apollo 8. How do you read on the high gain?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Reading you loud and clear, Bill. How me?

Bill Anders (LMP)

I'm reading you loud and clear. I'll go ahead and dump this. You might want to listen to it in real time to evaluate the voice.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. We'll do that as soon as we can.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Give me a call when you are ready.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Do you want to dump it by your command, or would you like us to command the dump on it? Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Oh, you can go ahead and command whenever you are ready.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. we are starting now; thank you.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. I've already rewound.

Bill Anders (LMP)

There is only about 5 minutes worth on the tape, Houston.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand, Bill. You promised me you would wait 3 days before you started doing this, Bill.

Bill Anders (LMP)

It has been a long trip.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Bill. We've got your dump, and the voice quality is very good. We we going to take about 20 minutes or so to get it back to Houston to play it.

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Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. Where are you taking it through, Houston?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

It comes through Madrid and then Ascension, Bill.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Houston, Apollo 8. How do you read?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Bill. We are reading you loud and clear now. We had an antenna problem down here. We had an unexpected switch of antenna, which probably caused your high gain to quit.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Go ahead,Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Jim. When we lost our antenna down here, we interrupted your tape dump, so we are in the process of doing some rewinding and continuing the dump, in case Bill is wondering what is going on with the tape recorder.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. At 26 hours GET, we'll be switching our antennas back again at Madrid, and you can expect a glitch on your COMM system.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

I noticed that you skipped the IMU alignment for about 26 hours because we were still asleep. Do you want to include that again, or do you think it is required?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Jim. We think it is going to be required prior to the next set of P23 sightings, and we're suggesting that it be put in at 27:45. We'll have a flight plan—a more complete flight plan update in here shortly.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay. Fine. We're in the process of having breakfast.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

The tape dumps are complete; it's rewound. You can go ahead and record in low bit rate if you …

Bill Anders (LMP)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8 here.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Disregard. We were going to talk about the high gain, but you beat us to it.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Jim. We would like to take control of the tape for a few minutes to make sure that we got all that last dump. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. I just noticed that I can hear those RTC's coming through on normal voice.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

What does it sound like, Bill?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. I have a flight plan update for you sometime at your convenience.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Were you calling? Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay, Bill. This will be on page 2 dash 22 of your flight plan. For the command module pilot—I've already mentioned it to him—but at the top of the page, at about 27:45, actually, we would like him to do a P52, an IMU alignment, and then the P23 should be done as scheduled. Those four stars, Procyon, Regulus, Alphard, and Spica: we realize Alphard may not be too good a star, Regulus is about 3 degrees above the horizon, and Spica is at a 48-degree trunnion angle; so I guess what we are saying is if Jim has difficulty doing one set on each of those four stars, we suggest that he omit whichever one he is having difficulty with and pick it up by doing two sets on some other star that he likes. Over.

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Spoken on Dec. 22, 1968, 2:17 p.m. UTC (55 years, 9 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

All right. In the lower right hand corner of page 2-22, the passive thermal control attitude should read “pitch 224 degrees, yaw 020.”

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

And on the next page, at about 29 hours, you can resume the normal flight plan. We would like to make one addition; at 29:30, add a waste water dump. Even though one is not really required at that time, we would like to get the dump out of the way so we can track you uninterruptedly without any dumping, you know, as we are coming up on midcourse correction number 3. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

That's about all, Bill. You got any questions on this?

Bill Anders (LMP)

No, it looks pretty good. We've been saving up some water of our own to dump here, so that will work out all right.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Very good. And don't ruin Jim's optics.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We would like P00 in ACCEPT, please. We would like to send you up a P27. It's a LM state vector, going into the LM slot only, and we do not want you to transfer it over to the CSM.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8. Houston. Did you copy?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. We got it. We're sending you a LM state vector, and we would like you not to transfer that vector over to the CSM slot.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Apollo 8. Roger. Are you still planning an MCC 2 at 28 hours? Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Stand by one, Bill. Bill, negative. Now that midcourse correction number 2 has been cancelled. Its magnitude was less than 1 foot per second, so we decided not to do it. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

And you've got the computer again, if you go to BLOCK.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Go ahead.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Are you still computing the pericynthian time of 6910.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Stand by. We will get an update for you.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Your 6910 pericynthian is still good plus or minus a minute, and we will get it down to a fine map measurement …

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. This is Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay, Bill. We just got your readout on your voice tape, and we will be back with you on it shortly. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, I'm going to be doing my alignment at this time. I'm in a good position for viewing the stars.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston with voice check. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, Apollo 8. Read you loud and clear now. How us?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Oh, good. Reading you loud and clear. One, two, three, four, five, five, four, three, two, one. Am I cutting in and out still? Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Nope. All the numbers are coming up nicely.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We are going to switch antennas at 28:20. Stand by for our blitz.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger, Houston. And we will start passing thermal control, and we are maneuvering to P23.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand; maneuvering to P23; I understand.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. You copy high bit rate now for this P23?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Negative, Bill. We are getting low bit rate now.

Bill Anders (LMP)

If you go high bit rate, we will not bother recording it.