Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger for Bill. He can go ahead and do his standard reservice on the water now. It's looking good.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. You want us to reservice it now?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

That's affirmative, and upon completion, go back to AUTO.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We are still dumping your tapes. The voice quality on high bit is coming through superb, and you are GO for the next rev. And we would like to get a brief status report on your rest between 60 hours and LOI 1, just to fill in some information for us.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We only got a couple hours rest.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We're tired right now, but we will have to wait until TEI before we get back to the regular cycle.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Alright. I suspect you're right.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Okay, Houston. The water boiler has been reserviced, back pressure valve CLOSED for 1 minute, water ON for 2, and it's now steam pressure AUTO, H2O flow AUTO.

Bill Anders (LMP)

If we have a problem, a similar problem, again on the back side in the sunlight, might be a good idea to crank the secondary loop until we have AOS. What do you think about that?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Jim. In regard to your evaporator, we feel that if you do have a similar problem next time on the back side in sunlight, check the evaporator outlet temperature, and if it gets above 60, we concur that it would be a good idea to bring up the secondary loop. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. When we say bring up the secondary loop, we mean bring up the evaporator only on the secondary loop. Copy?

Bill Anders (LMP)

Houston, Apollo 8. We got time for a little news?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

I say how about a little bit of that news you promised?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We got the Interstellar Times here, the December 24 edition. Your TV program was a big success. It was viewed this morning by most of the nations of your neighboring planet; the earth. It was carried live all over Europe, including even Moscow and East Berlin, also in Japan and all of North and Central America and parts of South America. We don't know yet how extensive the coverage was in Africa. Are you copying me all right? Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

You are loud and clear.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Good. San Diego welcomed home today the Pueblo crew in a big ceremony. They had a pretty rough time of it in the Korean prison. Christmas cease-fire is in effect in Viet Nam, with only sporadic outbreaks of fighting. And if you haven't done your Christmas shopping by now, you better forget it.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

A couple of Oilers made the All-Star team, Webster and Farr.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

And that's about all our news. How about your news?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Well, we'll be looking forward to a big burn here shortly.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Mike, I think I can say it without contradiction, it's been a mighty long dry spell up here.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

I guess you can say anything you like without contradiction.

Frank Borman (CDR)

When can we dump water, Houston?

Frank Borman (CDR)

When can we dump water?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

We will get you the number after a while on your water dump. It looks like the quantity isn't increasing very slightly, and we're considering not only the quantity in regard to the dump, but also its effects on the trajectory relative to TEI and so forth, but we will have a good answer for you shortly.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We are not just thinking about the waste water tank: we're thinking about some other kind of water that has to get dumped out of the spacecraft, slightly used water.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We have about three and a half minutes to LOS. We give you back the DSE under your control, and in regard to your water dump, we are tentatively predicting a waste water tank dump at about 80 hours GET and any other dumps are at your discretion, any time you would like to make them.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

People listening to the high bit rate down here say it's like sitting in your living room listening to good hi-fi.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Sounds like a good idea.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Coming up on 2 minutes to LOS. We got a good reservice on the primary evaporator, and everything is still looking very good down here.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. One minute to LOS. Are you still reading us loud and clear?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Loud and clear. Loud and clear.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay, fine. We've been noticing a little bit of increase in our background noise as you approach backside.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We had to go off the high gain. That's why.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Have a good backside; we'll see you next time around.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Houston, Apollo 8. Go ahead.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Read you loud and clear. Welcome back.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. Looks like the evaporator—looks like the evaporator is holding okay, or at least it is trying to. It dropped the temperature down to about 32, and now it's come back up again and stabilized at about 42 degrees.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Houston, this is Apollo 8. What we are doing on the control point tracking—I managed to look for a CP-1 at the same time we were trying to do a CP-2 on this rev. I picked up two marks which are just as small, but more easily recognizable, than the ones that were given to me. I know that I can repeat the process and pick the same small point on the next rev. Now I can try to look for the control points that are written down, but I think that I have better control over the ones that we have.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Jim. Understand. We'll check that for you.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. One more point: the control point times which you have given me are a little bit off, and I can notice by comparing these maps that these maps are not too well aligned either.

Expand selection down Contract selection up

Spoken on Dec. 24, 1968, 5:35 p.m. UTC (55 years, 10 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. These two small points that you can repeat your marks on: will you be able to identify those precisely on a map? Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

That's affirmative; that is why I picked them. They are both—they're both very prominent features, and they are both very small craters about the same size as the ones we are looking for, but I can pinpoint them on a map.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. One more comment: as it offered a lot of controversy at data priority meetings, it looks like 10 degrees pitch up is the best attitude to obtain the horizon so that you can follow the landmark down through the scanning telescope. If you pitch down any more, full up trunnion will not get the horizon, and the horizon is a great help in leading yourself into the control point.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Jim, we concur with your use of the two small craters which you can repeatedly mark on and find on the map; and also if you will give us your new latitudes and longitudes, we can compute for you a time of closest approach to those points with the spacecraft 10 degrees pitched-up. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger, Houston. CP-1 latitude minus 606269, longitude over 2, minus 78954, altitude plus 00152; for CP-2 latitude minus 09638, longitude over 2, plus 81691, altitude minus 00007. I tried to get CP-3 at the same pass, but I let it go by to get set up for this first track at the landing site.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Houston. CP-1: would you say again the latitude, and on CP-2, say again the longitude CP-2, please?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. CP-1 latitude minus 06269; that is the latitude; and for longitude over 2 for CP-2, plus 81691.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. We copied them. Thank you.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

And it appears that resolve medium is a very good combination to track.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. I understand. Resolve medium.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

And it appears so far, Houston, that no spacecraft pitch motion is required to get five marks on the target in plenty of time.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. I understand you require no spacecraft motion to get five marks.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. I am about 15 minutes early with the TEI fix update and the map update. I will have them here whenever it's convenient for you to copy.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Okay. Just a little bit, Mike.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We would like to ask you to stop using AUTO OPTICS on the pseudo landing site. It's necessary that we send you up a P27 to update the RLS values stored in the computer. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. I found … I went to MANUAL OPTICS on B-1.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.