Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We copy Jim doing a P52, and I'm standing by with a maneuver PAD for midcourse 5 any time at your convenience.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay. Ready to copy, Mike.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Jim. This is midcourse maneuver number 5, and it's a RCS/G&N, and it's 31700, not applicable, not applicable. Are you with me?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Good. 103:59:52.86, minus 00050, plus all zeros, plus 00001 000 334 001 five zeros, plus 00190 00050 014 00050. Are you still with me? Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Good. 413020 183, Shaula, down 064, left 06, plus 0747, minus 16410 12988 36301 146:46:40; north set of stars, Sirius and Rigel, roll 308, pitch 209, yaw 357. Remarks: use high-speed procedure with minus MA. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger, Houston. MCC 5, RCS/G&N—are you with me?

Jim Lovell (CMP)

31700, NA, NA, 103:59:52.86, minus 00050, plus all zeros, plus 00001 000 334 001, all zeros, plus 00190 00050 014 0050 413020 183, Shaula, down 064, left 06, plus 0747, minus 16410 12988 36301 146:46:40; Sirius, Rigel, 308 209 357; use high-speed procedure with minus MA.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. And could you go to ACCEPT, please, and we're going to send you a P27 load consisting of a LM state vector and a target load for MCC 5.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We'd like to dump your waste water tank down to 25 percent; we'd like to do it before the midcourse, for tracking reasons. So if it is convenient with you, if you'll start right now, we'll dump on down to 25.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We'll get right with it.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We got those loads in and verified; you can go back BLOCK at your computer. And George Low says he's working on that window problem at 6, or spacecraft 104. You just happen to have the wrong spacecraft.

Frank Borman (CDR)

That's the wrong statement; we've got the right spacecraft. I'll clue you, if it keeps going this way for 2 more days, we've got not only the right spacecraft, but we've got the best spacecraft.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Apollo 8. We're starting the dump now, Houston.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Okay. We're starting the waste water dump now.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. I need a Pop Romeo Dog on all three and a status report on the LMP.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. The LMP's PRD hasn't moved an inch since we took off. And that's the one the CMP did have, still 0.64. And I just had about 5-1/2 hours sleep, and I'm in the process of scarfing up a meal; and I've been drinking lots of water, feeling good, and that's about it.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Okay. And you got a PRD on the other two.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Yes. The CMP is ready to report. The CMP is reading 1.2 rem.

Frank Borman (CDR)

And the CDR: I got stuck with somebody else's, but mine reads now—my new one reads 2.02 rems. I don't know if there is a message there or not.

Bill Anders (LMP)

He's starting to glow in the dark.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Yes. You should have hung on to the one you had. It sounded a little bit better. I copy left to right 2.02, 0.12, and 0.64. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

What have they measured in our—what have they measured on that, I guess you would call it the VABABR, or VABD?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

We're sending the boy to the back room to find out.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Find out what it is, or what it's reading?

Bill Anders (LMP)

We'll need both answers up here, too.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Bill's VA and VR reading that he requested is 0.13. Over.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Roger. Looks like you've got a little discrepancy here.

Bill Anders (LMP)

You ought to give those guys a chance to go back to sleep and calibrate those things.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. We've just passed 25 percent and you can terminate your waste water dump, please.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Believe it or not, our gage is 5 percent behind yours.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Yes, John said that he has been noticing that.

Bill Anders (LMP)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Yes. We are going to switch antennas from Madrid to Goldstone in about 3 minutes. You should hear the glitch.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Just for information, would the perigee reading and NOUN 42 be such a big minus number for such a small burn? We are reading minus 03137 now.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand; NOUN 42 perigee reads minus 03137. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. We are going to PROGRAM 30 after you give us the target load, and I didn't think there would be that much of a change for such a small burn.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Stand by. We will check into it, Jim.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. We don't think there's any problem or any funnies in this perigee prediction of minus 03137. It's a Keplerian prediction, and it's not very accurate. Now we have taken your vector from the downlink and run it through a make-believe external DELTA-V maneuver down here, and we get precisely the correct answer. Over.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Roger. Understand that you figure just because of the conics solution that it comes up.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

That's affirmative. The Kepler solution is just pretty gross.

Jim Lovell (CMP)

Okay. I was just kind of curious. I could see differences when we were talking about LOI burns, but this being such a short one, I thought it wouldn't be that much difference. I understand.

Frank Borman (CDR)

You are monitoring and seeing if we get any inadvertent engine firing all the time, aren't you?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Well, we can't tell when you're in low bit rate. When you're in high bit rate, that's right.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. If we crank up high bit rate and just have you take a checkout look at them?

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Since you're on OMNI D (Dog) at this time, we're sort of 180 out of phase for the high-gain lock antennas. As soon as we can get high-gain lock, then we'll —

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. We will take the antennas and get on the high gain as soon as we can.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger, Frank. We've done some more checking, and we confirm that that is the correct Keplerian prediction on NOUN 42 minus 03137, just like you said.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. We are going to be doing a ranging sequence; if we can eliminate voice for a couple of minutes, we would appreciate it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. We will.

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Spoken on Dec. 25, 1968, 7:51 p.m. UTC (55 years, 10 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Our ranging is complete, and we have been monitoring your thruster firings, and they show what appears to be very normal damp activities. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Thank you. I guess it was associated with the water vent.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand, Frank.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Over.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go ahead, Houston. Apollo 8.

Mike Collins (CAPCOM)

Frank, we've got about 2-1/2 minutes to ignition, and we're still showing some of your SCS switches not set up as per checklist; specifically, rate LOW, deadband MINIMUM, and your BMAG mode at attitude one, rate two.