Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay. Sounds good. How is your Christmas, Jerry?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Real good, Jim. Santa Claus struck last night before I came in here on the shift, and I guess we will finish off the unwrapping this morning when I get back.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Right. He was looking for a chimney on 103 here, but he didn't see any.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

(Laughter) You could have left the hatch unlocked for him.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

I'll think about that one.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Think real hard, Jim. EECOM says he could have slid down the steam duct.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Sounds good. About that time, Bill would have been boiling water.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Hey, Jerry, this is Frank. What's up?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Hi, Frank. Christmas morning has come at the Borman house. And the boys and Susan and your Mom and Dad all send their love. They say for you to stay in there and pitch. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. Thank you. Please reciprocate for me.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Frank, when Bill wakes up, give me a holler. I've got a message for him, too.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Are the Guidance boys busy this morning?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

I just worked out an answer to move my landing longitude 6 degrees east. I just want to compare with what they've got based on the same burn time of 114 hours, based on the bias impact longitude determined from the P37 which is wrong. I've indicated that I need 600 foot per second DELTA-VC burn plus, and my DELTA-VX changes from a minus 11.6 feet per second. I'd like to have them verify that if I could.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger Jim. Standby, and I'll see if they copied all that.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

The voice isn't too great right now, and the Guidance troops didn't get all of that. How about waiting about 2 or 3 minutes? We'll swap OMNI antennas, and then we should get good voice transmission from you and then repeat it. Would you, please?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. How do you read? Over.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. We're reading you much better now. Jim can go ahead with his transmission to the guidance troops. They have one question before he starts. They would like to know what his GERU was at TIG, 114 hours. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. Wait one. The GERU at TIG was plus 07972.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston. We are ready to copy your data. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay, Houston. Based on the P37 with minus MA solution, I got an impact longitude of minus 160.95. I biased it to get an impact latitude—longitude of 163.75. I wanted to change my impact point 30 degrees to the east, and I tried to determine what my P30 burn parameters would be to do this, and I got a DELTA-VX burn of minus 11.6 and a DELTA-VC of plus 600, DELTA-VY of zero. Now that changed my previous DELTA-VX burn from minus 50.2. I just want to know whether that meets with their approval.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Jim. We copy and will run it through the mill and give you an answer.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston with a flight plan update.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. At 100 hours 30 minutes, change star number 02 from one set to two set. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. Star 02 from one set to two set.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Also, set number 2, set number 2, change star number 11 to star number 7. Over.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Then after star set number 3, initiate PTC again; pitch 10, yaw 45. Over.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Then at 101 hours 30 minutes, delete the earth horizon settings. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

101:30, delete the earth horizons sightings.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

That's affirmative. The folks here are evaluating the thermal situation. Looks like you will be out of PTC rather at an extended period of time. That's the reason we have you initiating PTC again there around 101 as soon as you finish those three star sightings. We are still working on the—about the next 10 hours after 100 hours. We are looking at the thermal situation, and the star sighting situation, and we will be giving you more updates later on. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We don't have a thermal problem at all now, do we? All our indications here are normal in here.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Everything looks okay. I think they're just kinda trying to look down the track aways.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I'm all for keeping it that way.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Frank, I would like to talk to you for a minute or two about the AUTO OPTICS funnies that you have been seeing throughout the mission. Over.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. The problems you have run into so far are due to some unknown source, probably EMI or the like loading your CMC trunnion cell which is now 91, so it doesn't really represent your true trunnion angle. Now this loading problem we don't feel implies any decrease in the reliability in your CMC at all. We think that the best way to circumvent the problem is to cycle the OPTICS ZERO switch first to OFF and then ON prior to using the optics for any purpose. And with that procedure, I think you probably won't have any more problems. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger, Jerry. Understand. I do notice one difference. We did preferred REFSMMAT's. The first we had trouble with; the last one worked out as expected. I noticed for the first one that when the option came up, it was for nominal option, whereas for the very same procedure for this last REFSMMAT change, we got … preferred REFSMMAT option. …

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston with a comeback on your entry navigation calculations. Over.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. We went through the charts and got exactly the same answer as you got. Looks like your procedure is very good; looks like it was real good head. You remembered to average out the velocity. We also went ahead and computed the problem to verify the chart and got a good solution. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Now if we can get our state vectors to agree, we'll be in business.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. Is Jim listening?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. On your question about the option: PROGRAM 40 sets the preferred flag such that the next P52 will come up option 1, subsequent alignments after that come up option 2. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Understand. So 40 will have to come up with a TIG burn with an option 1 for us.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Now concerning your restart that happened in lunar orbit, for the peace of mind of the computer people and the MIT folks, we have a question. Did VERB 34 ENTER to a flashing VERB 51 in P22 cause your restart? Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Yes. That sounds like it was it.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

That must be a “no, no”.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Yes, Yes. That's a “no, no”.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

That almost caused an unscheduled EVA, too.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. BIOMED switch center. Over.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston. It is about time for us to start keeping track of some command module RCS temperatures; so when you get a chance, we'd like the reading now, and we'll try to repeat it about every 8 hours or so.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. We'll get them for you right now.

Frank Borman (CDR)

You want the motor off the test meter, right?

Frank Borman (CDR)

The 5C is pegged high.

Frank Borman (CDR)

So's 5D. 6A is high; 6B is high; 6C is 5 volts; 6D is pegged high.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Roger. Understand. 5C and 5D are pegged high; 6A and 6D are pegged high; 6 Charlie is 5 volts; and 6 Delta pegged high. Over.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We're showing quad A running a little bit warmer than the other quads. If you remember, I mentioned before that we were coming into a period of time here where we were going to spend a lot of time with no PTC going. We'd like for you to try to favor quad A if you can in the shade, and do whatever you can to keep that temperature from getting out of hand. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. I'm only reading 121 on quad A.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Quad C is the highest temperature we have; it's 142.

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Spoken on Dec. 25, 1968, 3:41 p.m. UTC (55 years, 10 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. We are more interested in the tank temperatures than the quad temperatures. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. I understand. Now listen, if you think it is that important, we'll just keep PTC-ing it and not even do anything.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Negative. There's no sweat right now. We're watching it, and we just wanted to let you know that this thing is being looked at. If we get anywhere near a situation where we feel we ought to change, we'll go back to PTC or cool it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. Thank you. We'll do our best, but it is kind of hard, though. You are sort of subject of spatial geometry: wherever the stars and the moon happens to be, that's where you point.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. We understand. We're going to keep an eye on it down here, and we'll keep you appraised.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. Pass the word to Jim that on these marks that are coming up, pretty important that he remember to record his DELTA-R and DELTA-V and trunnion. We are working low bit rate down here, and so we're not going to be able to record that data from here. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

We are recording them all.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, Apollo 8. Did you read that we are recording all the DELTA-R and DELTA-V and trunnion …

Frank Borman (CDR)

As luck would have it, we got the sun almost directly ahead on top of us here.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. We understand, but tank temperature is holding steady, so we are all right.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. The helium tank temperature that we are watching on quad A has only gone up 1 degree in all this work that you are doing, so we don't consider it to be too terribly serious. What we would like to do, as soon as you finish this P23 work, is rather than go back into PTC, let's just roll her over 180 degrees and put quad A on the cool side, and hold it that way until your next activity comes up, which is around 102:30. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay, Jerry. We're through with PROGRAM 23. We're just going to roll here to get the sun off quad A, if that's what you want.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. Good deal.

Frank Borman (CDR)

It should be getting cool now, Jerry.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. So far we haven't seen the temperature start back down again. We expect to see it, though.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. Give us the word if you want us to maneuver back here before that time that you …, please.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. We have some data that was missed on your P23. We'd like you to read it down to us if you have time.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We will in just a minute.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead. What do you want?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. On star number 2, the sixth mark, we missed DELTA-R and DELTA-V.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Sixth mark, that's—did Lovell tell you to do this? Come on, Carr; come clean. Did he ask you to ask for this?

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Negative. Uh-uh. We really missed it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

It's all zeros, and all zeros.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Roger. All zeros, all zeros. Okay. On star number 7, we missed the trunnion on marks 1, 2, and 3.

Frank Borman (CDR)

On 1, trunnion was 03235; on 2, it was 03240; on 3, it was 03241.

Jerry Carr (CAPCOM)

Okay, Frank. And then the last one is on star number 1; we missed the trunnion on mark 5.