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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, we would like to have you go to P00 and ACCEPT and we would like to take the recorder at this time; then I will copy your PAD.
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Jim Lovell (CMP)
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TEI 10, SPS/G&N: 45597, minus 040, plus 157 089:19:15.67, plus 35186, minus 01512, minus 00520 180 007 000, not applicable, plus 00186 35223 318 35018 42 0924 253; Scorpii Delta, down 069, left 45, plus 0748, minus 16500 12994 36300 146:50:05; Sirius, Rigel, 129 155 010; four-quad, ullage, 15 seconds; horizon on the 3.2-degree mark is T minus 3; high-speed procedure minus MA.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Roger. TEI 11, SPS/G&N: 45597, 0—correction—that's minus 040, plus 157 091:18:12.24, plus 36325, minus 01727, plus 01428 180 003 000, November Alfa, plus 00186 36394 323 36186 42 0995 254; Scorpii Delta, down 103, left 48, plus 0742, minus 16500 13005 36327 146:51:44; Sirius and Rigel, 129 155 010, four quads, 15 seconds; horizon on 2.9-degree line at T minus 2; high-speed procedure with minus Mike Alfa. Over.
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Jim Lovell (CMP)
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Roger, Houston. TEI minus 11, SPS/G&N: 45597, minus 040, plus 157 091:18:12.24, plus 36325, minus 01727, plus 01428 180 003 000, not applicable, plus 00186 36394 323 36186 42 0995 254; Scorpii Delta, down 103, left 48, plus 0742, minus 16500 13005 36327 146:51:44; Sirius, Rigel, 129 155 010; four quads, 15 seconds, 2.9-degree window mark at T minus 2; high-speed procedure minus MA.
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Bill Anders (LMP)
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Houston, could you give me the SPS helium tank temperature at about 87:20, please?
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, Houston. At 87:48, we're reading 84 degrees, and at LOS we had 80. We'll take a look at the tape and see if we can find out what we had on the backside.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Okay, Apollo 8. We've reviewed all your systems. You have a GO for TEI. One of the things we would like to do as soon as you come out on the other side is a P23. We are checking into your helium pressures now. We're going to correlate not only the last REV but the previous REV for the same location, and we will have that number for you in a little bit.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Affirmative. And looks like that will go with the entry REFSMMAT; begins at 92 hours.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Okay. On the helium tank TEMP's: that's not recorded on low bit rate, and looking over our tape dumps, most of this stuff we have on the backside there is low bit rate. So we won't be able to give you an exact number, but looking at what we have every time we go out of sight and come back over the hill, it looks like you can expect about 82 to 84 degrees as a nominal temperature.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, Houston. We'd like to have the tape recorder for about 5 minutes for one last look.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Thank you. And I guess we still have a cryo stir ahead of us, and we've checked your triple bias, and there's no change.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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We're on a maneuver to burn attitude, and it's going to make us lose the high gain.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, the tape recorder is yours. We have your double umbra update, 89:07:15.87.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, Apollo 8, this is Houston. Three minutes LOS; all systems are GO. Over.
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Jim Lovell (CMP)
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That burn status report: it burned on time; burn time 2 minutes 23 seconds, seven-tenths VGX. Attitude nominal, residuals minus five-tenths VGX plus four-tenths VGX—of minus O VGZ. DELTA-VC minus 26.4.
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Jim Lovell (CMP)
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Roger. We had 2 minutes 23 seconds. Our—wait one. Change that to read 3 minutes 23 seconds.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, at the first convenient moment, we'd like to have the high-gain antenna.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, Houston. We do not have any data on the ground yet; the voice is very good.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, Houston. We'd like to try to have you manually acquire on the high gain.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Roger. Reading you loud and clear. Initial tracking indicates a 4 foot per second at 8 hours will put you on target.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Okay. If you'll go to P00 and ACCEPT, we'll update the REFSMMAT, and I have some backup GDC angles for the new entry REFSMMAT.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Roger. Your backup GDC alignment: roll 308, pitch 209, yaw 357. Over.
Expand selection down Contract selection up -
Deke Slayton
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Good morning, Apollo 8; Deke here. I just would like to wish you all a very Merry Christmas on behalf of everyone in the Control Center, and I'm sure everyone around the world. None of us ever expected to have a better Christmas present than this one. Hope you get a good night's sleep from here on and enjoy your Christmas dinner tomorrow; and look forward to seeing you in Hawaii on the twenty-eighth.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Okay, leader. We'll see you there. That was a very, very nice ride, that last one; this engine is the smoothest one.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Thank everybody on the ground for us. It's pretty clear we wouldn't be anywhere if we didn't have them doing it or helping us out here.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Okay. The computer is yours, and I guess we have an IMU alignment and a P23 on the schedule.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, Houston. We would like to have you cycle your ZERO OPTICS switch prior to beginning P52.
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Roger. And got a couple of words for you. Jack's been watching you since LOI, and he has a few words he wants to give you.
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Jack Schmitt
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Key moment Jack Schmitt reads “The Night Before Christmas”: Typhoid Jack here, and we have got some good words here that originated at the Cape with a bunch of friends of yours. And it's sort of in a paraphrase of a poem that you probably are familiar with. Do you read me, Apollo 8?
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Jack Schmitt
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Okay.
“'Twas the night before Christmas and way out in space,
the Apollo 8 crew had just won the moon race;
The headsets were hung by the consoles with care,
In hopes that Chris Kraft soon would be there;
Frank Borman was nestled all snug in his bed,
While visions of REFSMMAT's danced in his head;
And Jim Lovell, in his couch, and Anders, in the bay,
were racking their brains over a computer display,
When out of the DSKY, there arose such a clatter,
Frank sprang from his bed to see what was the matter.
Away to the sextant he flew like a flash,
To make sure they weren't going to crash.
The light on the breast of the moon's jagged crust,
Gave a luster of green cheese to the gray lunar dust,
When what to his wondering eyes should appear,
But a Burma Shave sign saying 'Kilroy was here.'
(Laughter)
But Frank was no fool; he knew pretty quick,
That they had been first; this must be a trick.
More rapid than rockets, his curses they came,
He turned to his crewmen and called them a name.
Now Lovell, now Anders, now don't think I'd fall
For an old joke you've written up on the wall.
They spoke not a word, but grinning like elves,
And laughed at their joke in spite of themselves.
Frank sprang to his couch, to the ship gave a thrust,
And away they all flew past the gray lunar dust.
But we heard them explain ere they flew around the moon:
Merry Christmas to earth; we will be back there real soon.”
Great job, gang. -
Frank Borman (CDR)
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Thank you very much. That was a very good poem; but in order to win the race, you have got to end up on the carriers.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Roger. We got an alignment with your new REFSMMAT now. What's on the program here? You want us in P23 and then what?
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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That's what I wanted you to say. We used up the gimbal angles of 10 and 45 with the—this REFSMMAT, right?
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Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)
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Roger. Notice that you are starting on your P23 which is the last scheduled activity. Initial tracking looks like the initial midcourse may be less than the 4 foot per second on the first guess. And we have looked at your burn data, and it's all just as smooth as you said; everything on there looked real nominal. Systems now look good; looks like in PTC attitude, we should be able to switch OMNI's for you, if you would like to do that. We were having good success with predicting on the way out where to switch the antennas, and if it will help you any, we can do that on the way back in.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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That would be nice if you could do it, but we will keep one man in the shop to watch the gimbal angles; but if you could switch the OMNI's, it would sure save us a lot of problems.
Spoken on Dec. 25, 1968, 5 a.m. UTC (55 years, 8 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet
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