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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Roger. First of all, Frank, the guys down here on the consoles want to spread their appreciation for a beautiful television job done.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Roger. We'll start out with the sports news. Los Angeles Dodger pitcher, Sandy Koufax, and Ann Widmark, 23-year-old daughter of actor Richard Widmark, plan to marry some time in the near future. Koufax said Tuesday that no date for the wedding was set, but he and Miss Widmark have been dating for some time. At Springfield, —
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Let's see. In Springfield, Missouri, Mickey Owen, the old-time catcher for the Brooklyn Dodgers who made the record books by dropping a third strike that led the New York Yankees to a victory over the Dodgers in the '41 World Series, decided that he would be remembered by more than just his sports record. Forty-five boys and girls have been the recipients of ponies that he offered. These youngsters were requested to send letters in telling him how they would care for a pony. When the letters poured in, he added five ponies to the 20 he already offered; and other donors pitched in 20 more. And said Mickey Owen, “I thought I'd have about 45 letters, but I ended up with about 900.” Now on the feature page: Wellington, New Zealand, about fifty men sat down to the traditional turkey and cranberry sauce at the South Pole today, but the Christmas had an Oriental flavor, as well. It included Sukiyaki cooked by members of a Japanese party who are crossing the Antarctic continent and stopped for the day with the U.S. Navy Polar base. In San Diego, California, the crewmen of the captured intelligence ship Pueblo donated their first paychecks to the workers at San Diego's Balboa Naval Hospital. They had all been given twenty dollars each, and—when they landed in San Diego—and they felt that this was a good demonstration of their feelings for those who had done so much to make their welcome here.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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In Reno, Nevada. Oh, that's affirmative, Frank. We changed the antennas from here.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Thank you.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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In Reno, Nevada, because there is no fireplace in his home, … a little boy wrote Santa Claus in care of the local newspaper and suggested, “would you please use the front door. You will have to kick the bottom a little bit because it sticks.” In Little Rock, Arkansas, babies born at St. Vincent Infirmary during the week before Christmas and through Christmas Day are being released to their mothers at discharge time in huge red Christmas stockings. Here is one in ecumenical cooperation. In Indio, California, the Chief of Police was armed Christmas Day with a prayer book. Rabbi Phillip H. Weinburg has taken over as Chief for a day so the real Police Chief, Homer Hunt, a Methodist could spend the holiday with his family. This is the third straight Christmas the Rabbi has filled in for Hunt. The previous 6 years, Rabbi Weinburg did the same for the Roman Catholic Police Chief of Reno, Nevada.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Prom the Associated Press, Americans watch Pope Paul celebrate Christmas Mass in Italy, and Europeans viewed a Christmas greeting from Apollo 8 via the most powerful communications satellite yet sent aloft. The news of Pope Paul and the Apollo 8 crew Tuesday night were the first to be relayed across the Atlantic commercially by Intelsat III, which was launched from Cape Kennedy last Wednesday. That's the one we saw go.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Intelsat is a 63-nation international communication consortium; provides a chart on the first global communications network. The new satellite is scheduled to begin full commercial service on January 2, initially serving North and South America and Europe. Further coverage of the Apollo 8 mission is to be relayed to Europe this week.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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From Washington: “This Christmas, the world is brightened with the hope of peace. When it comes, when hope turns to substance and the guns are quiet once again, it will come because you have pursued it with courage and skill.” This was a message from President Johnson to the Armed Forces on Christmas.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Here is a feature by Harry Rosenthal of Associated Press. It says: from Houston. Two Santas brighten the Christmas Eve for 2-year-old Jeffrey Lovell. The first one knocked on his front door and brought presents. The second started his daddy home from the moon. The first wore a red suit and a white beard and ho, ho'd loud enough to be heard down the block. The second was a huge engine spitting flame behind the moon, and thousands of people were awaiting word that it had fired. “Please be informed that there is a Santa Claus” were the first words from Apollo 8 as it emerged from radio silence to inform an anxious world 15 minutes after the fact that the engine had performed its critical burn. “None of us ever expect to have a better Christmas present than this one,” said Ken Mattingly of Mission Control. “Thank everyone on the ground for us. You know we couldn't have done it without you,” came the reply from Col. Frank Borman, the spacecraft commander. At this point, a Christmas tree came aglow in front of the consoles in Mission Control, and Astronaut Harrison Schmidt read a space version of “A visit from Saint Nicholas” to the crew. “Twas the night before Christmas, and way out in space, the Apollo 8 crew had just won the moon race,” it began. The Mission Control crew had delayed the celebration until Jeffrey's daddy, Navy Captain James Lovell, along with Air Force Major William A. Anders and Col. Borman were safely on their way home. Any other Christmas Eve, the families of the astronauts would have been in church for Christmas services, but this year they were all glued to their television sets. The homes all near the Manned Spacecraft Center were decorated. The lawns around the Lovell home and throughout his community of Timber Cove were lined with Mexican style luminarios, and the four Lovell children came out to light them about 7:30. They were just in time. At 8:00, a car drove up carrying a tall Santa Claus with a large sack on his back. He ho ho'd up to the door and knocked loudly. It opened, and there stood Jeffrey Lovell who will be 3 on January 14. Jeffrey recoiled at the sight. His mother held him up, and Jeffrey clung to her, still shying away. “Last year he ran away crying,” saying his 15-year old sister Barbara. Earlier, she had to run after him to prevent his blowing out all the luminaries. The other Lovell children, 13-year-old James and 10-year-old Susan watched with great amusement. Finally, the Santa and the children disappeared inside; the presents were put under the tree; presents not to be opened until today. Mrs. Lovell prepared egg nog and cookies for the guests, and they watched a 25-minute televised tour of the moon conducted by the three astronauts. Later, friends took Mrs. Lovell, Barbara, and Jeffrey on a tour of the neighborhood brightly lighted for Christmas. Above them in a clear sky, the quarter moon shone brightly, and the three astronauts, who more than any other men have seen the fruits of creation, pause in their scientific exploration there to beam to the earth the majestic word; from Genesis. “And God created the firmament heavens, and God called the dry land Earth, and God saw that it was good.”
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Roger. We have a newspaper coming in after while; we will give you a little more news later.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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We would like to get a crew status report on Jim and Frank when you get a chance.
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Jim Lovell (CMP)
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Both Frank and myself had a meal before bed last night, and I believe that we had about 20 clicks of water, and a good night's rest. Just getting up.
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Frank Borman (CDR)
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Jerry, this is Frank. Do you have any later word on our trajectory and how the charging looks?
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Apollo 8, Houston. We are looking at a midcourse correction at 104 hours of about 5 feet per second. The tracking is real good. We got you in the center of the corridor and on target.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Negative; we've deleted it. Your drift rates are small that you don't even need to unless you want to do it.
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Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)
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Roger, Frank. In 3 minutes, we are handing the control from Honeysuckle over to Madrid. Over.
Spoken on Dec. 25, 1968, 12:05 p.m. UTC (55 years, 11 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet
