Bill Anders (LMP)

Houston, this is Apollo 8.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. We tried to get this realignment. We need—Do you have a maneuver to get us some gimbal angles so we don't get gimbal lock when we get the preferred alignment?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, on our present position, we'll go into gimbal lock. I figure to try and get the preferred angle.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

In running through PROGRAM 52, we got a PROGRAM ALARM 401 which would indicate that if we continued, we'd drive it into gimbal lock.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. This should be an OPTION 1 like OPTION 3.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Houston, we're doing an OPTION 1 like OPTION 3. We keep getting a 401 ALARM, which says desired RCTU yields gimbal lock.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. It appears that you have maneuvered around the gimbal locks system.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Sorry we were late on that answer.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Well, we stopped and went through coarse align of P52 and then we got fine align, and pick-a-pair, pick Capella, but she drove and didn't get to any place. I didn't pick Capella, and I can't recognize any out there right now. Can I re-cycle here and go back and pick a pair?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

That's affirmative, Apollo 8.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

My plan is to go back into re-enter PROGRAM 52—well, it did not drive to Capella, and I can't recognize it in the scanning telescope. My plan is to go back into recall P52.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, can you confirm that you zeroed the optics prior to starting?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. That's affirmative. We zeroed the optics.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. You have a GO for a second try in P52 with an OPTION 3.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay. I now have Aldebaran in the scanning telescope; I might want to call that one instead of Capella.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I'll see what it comes up with first, though.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, Apollo 8. We came up with an unacceptable difference in our stars; we're going to have to recycle.

Frank Borman (CDR)

If we don't get this midcourse in, what will that do to our pericynthian?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. In the event that we don't get this midcourse in, we'll still go for an LOI, and it's been suggested you might try Mirfak which is OCTO 10.

Frank Borman (CDR)

That's the one we're trying now.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We are all set up and counting down at 8 minutes.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, our data is down right now; appreciate making sure you have the tape recorder on.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. I am going to go—I'll have to go COMMAND RESET. You've got control.

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Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. You have some pitch and yaw angles for our PTC extra burn.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay, Apollo 8. That's pitch 348, yaw 315.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

That's affirmative. And would you give us another hack on your countdown time?

Frank Borman (CDR)

It's 5:18 17 16 15 14.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, I will give you a mark in 4 minutes.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Four minutes.

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Spoken on Dec. 24, 1968, 1:43 a.m. UTC (55 years, 11 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. How about switching the BIOMED switch over to the left.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Burn on time, angles nominal, burn time about 12 seconds, 0.2 feet per second after the DELTA-VC, 0 in VGX. We have transferred the results of the burn over to the left slot VERB 66.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. And got a couple of items that I would like to clean up. We will get you an RCS budget. We've got one redline now; we are trying to get some firmer numbers for you, and we will have those in a little bit. Right now your PTC usage is right on the flight plan line, so everything looks pretty good there. We want to get a crew status report from you. We would like to firm up the REV 2 flight plan idea; and sometime at your convenience, we would like to take a reading of the PRD for the commander and CMP and then have you swap them. We are trying to isolate the—what the possible reason is for the discrepancies or the disparity in the two readings.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

And we are maneuvering to the PTC attitude, Houston.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Could you give us the sign of that Z residual?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Stand by, Houston. Alright, Houston. Looks like we didn't record just the Z. We recorded DELTA-VC, which is minus 0.2.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

DELTA-V was 0.1, but we didn't get the sign.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand that was DELTA-VC was minus 0.2. I copied DELTA-VZ; ZULU is 0.2. Is that incorrect?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. It was 0.1, but we didn't get the sign.

Bill Anders (LMP)

We can get it. We have it on the tape, Houston, whenever you want to dump it.

Bill Anders (LMP)

It'll be about the last 5 minutes worth.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Okay, Houston, for the PRD's: CDR is 0.07, CMP is 0.64, LMP is 0.80. Note that the CMP's hasn't changed since we started and the commander's hasn't changed much. We have swapped PRD's; commander has LMP, CMP has commander's, and LMP has CMP's PRD. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Crew status report as follows: water, the commander has about 50 clicks so far today; CMP 43; and the LMP is 44. We've eaten two meals so far today. Day 3 meal A and B; consumed most of it except for the hard hard bite, which no one cares for. Pudding was outstanding. We're at a gain of pericynthian now of plus 63 miles. Commander and CMP have had a rest period just before the midcourse 4 of about 2 hours.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

We're at a gain of about 20 500 miles from the moon at 61:14. How does that agree with what you figure?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Looks like you're on the secondary loop. We would like to run that for about 5 minutes.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We're doing the ECS redundant component check.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Getting any data now Houston? Guess you are. Okay. See you stopped my tape then. I've been running for about 3 extra minutes here to record the check.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. We have data now. That was a temporary loss.

Frank Borman (CDR)

What's the matter? Was it chow time down there?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. Didn't know you could smell it that far away.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Give me a call when you're satisfied with the secondary loop; it's stabilized out here pretty well.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Wilco, and you might tell Jim that our RTCC is about 4 miles off; we had 20 496.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We just put compressor 2 on ac 2.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, Apollo 8. Do you show battery B as voltage dropped some from the postcharge value? Over.