Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. We will do that. When you get in the PTC attitude, we will let you know when we take the command on the antenna switching.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. Just be careful what you do with the tape recorder. Bill's a little sensitive about that.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. We were listening to the tape dumps, and it looks like Bill gets a happy new year after all.

Frank Borman (CDR)

A happy new year? How come, Jack—an, in a joke?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

No, we got that off of his tape dump; he and Jim were discussing that one.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Oh, yes. That's right.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, are you getting all this data from P23?

Frank Borman (CDR)

I wanted to know if you're getting the data from P23?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Ken, we've about run out of gas here on this next set of stars. Would you ask your people to be especially alert there watching the systems tonight?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. I have—let's see, we've got a hydrogen purge line here that ought to come on about 91:40 and an oxygen-hydrogen fuel cell purge for 92 hours.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. Will you call us about those, please?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

I sure will. And, let's see, we just wanted to let you know we've got a real good battery charge going here this time. Looks like—it looks just like the ones in the book, and I'd like to get a battery C voltage before you shut down, and a sleep report on what you did in —

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

— lunar orbit and your plans for the next couple of hours.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Thirty-seven volts on battery C.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. Thirty-seven volts.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We all only got about 2 hours sleep today MAX, Ken. We're going now—Bill's going to stay up awhile, and Jim and I are going to sack out, and we're going to try to rotate short sleep cycles till we can get back to the normal one.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger, sounds like a good idea. And EECOM on the ground tells us that the flying EECOM is to go ahead and put his hydrogen purge line heater on, and we'll get ready for a fuel cell.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Thank you. He can't turn on his radio. There he goes.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I hope it won't disappoint anybody too much if we knock off those last two stars, but Jim is just in a daze, and so am I.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8. One of the things we'd like to have before you shut down also is VERB 64 so we can watch the pointing angles.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Hey, Frank, you might be interested; they are having some trouble with the medics' P-2.

Bill Anders (LMP)

The medics can't clean out their P-2.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Oh, is that right? It's been so busy.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Oh, yeah. It's worn the thing out at the bearings. (Laughter)

Frank Borman (CDR)

Hey, Ken, tell the people if you see anything getting close to the gimbal lock to be sure and whistle, too, will you?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

We sure will, Frank. You will want to make sure one of you keeps your COMM carrier on.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We'll keep one man with a headset on.

Frank Borman (CDR)

That's right. We'll keep one man with a COMM carrier on.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8. You have got some big yaw angle there.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Apollo 8, Houston.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Copy that you are now in PTC attitude, and we're watching your gimbal angle. We apparently do not have a downlink voice, but the data is good.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Houston, Apollo 8. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Okay. We're establishing PTC. We took one last look at the moon and on our way back.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. In order for us to handle the antenna switching, I guess we'd like to have the AUX tape switched to OFF, and the tape FORWARD switch OFF; and we'll be switching between OMNI's Bravo and Delta.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Between what and what?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. We are going to be switching between OMNI's Bravo and Delta.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Alright. And I'm gonna—you bug me when you get over 50 degrees of yaw, so I'll probably be watching that number pretty closely. We'd like to have the BIOMED switched to the right position. Okay. And for your own information: the fuel we show in the different quads I have here if you would like to copy it.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. I'll give you the percentage on Alfa 60, Bravo 57, Charlie …

Bill Anders (LMP)

Wait a minute. It asks for present time, and I can't plot that fast, Ken.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. I'm sorry. Alfa is 60.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Okay. Stand by.

Expand selection down Contract selection up

Spoken on Dec. 25, 1968, 8:01 a.m. UTC (55 years, 10 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Bill Anders (LMP)

That's a coincidence. That's just what I worked out on Lovell's slide rule.

Bill Anders (LMP)

How are we doing on the cryos?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Oh, you've got some pretty good numbers on that that I sent up yesterday, and you had about 160 hours. Well, I'll check that out, but you were fat on cryo. I've got some SPS DELTA-V. You've got 33:20. You fly the service module RCS through the DAP. You have 142; and through SCS, it's 121.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We can't monitor on low bit rate whether you started your fuel cell purge. If you haven't, we can still go ahead and start now; and if you can, keep us posted as you go through it.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. You want an O2 and an H2 purge, Ken?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

It looks like you may be in OMNI Alfa. Can you confirm that we're set up to switch between Bravo and Delta?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Thank you very much. And you are in the fuel cell purge?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Understand the purge is complete. Thank you. And in reference to your cryo, it looks like we'll have 180 pounds in each oxygen tank at SEP and 11 pounds in each hydrogen tank. And you're well above the single tank capability.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston in the blind. Select OMNI Charlie. Over.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Apollo 8, Houston in the blind. We've lost all data on you and request you select us a good OMNI antenna; try Charlie. Over.