Frank Borman (CDR)

Very good; we'll be there.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I don't think those waves are too high. We're going to have to sit in this heap for about 45 minutes.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. We'll put in a kit for some small waves.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Tell Jerry Hammack if the waves get high, it's his fault.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Why don't you drive it back over to the PTC attitude and put it back in ATTITUDE HOLD for the roll, and we're going back in and review the DTO requirement. You have about the same results, it looks like, on a cursory analysis all three times. So we're going to take another look and see if there is any reason to do it again. If so, we'll call you. You can go ahead and put it back in ATTITUDE HOLD now.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, Apollo 8. Radio check.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Loud and clear, Apollo 8.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. It is taking us a little longer to go through and rehash all of the entry checklist than I though, and we are just about to wrap it up now.

Frank Borman (CDR)

No problem. Just watch my gimbal angles for me, and give me a call if they get too close.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. We will watch them.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

We would like to look at a couple more DELTA-V tests on the EMS, and the general consensus is that we don't think there is any particular problem. We'd like to go ahead and take a look at what you get by running four or five more DELTA-V tests. And prior to that, we'd like to run one of these null bias tests; and since we don't have any way of monitoring any of this stuff on the downlink, I'd like to have you tell us each step when you turn the switch and different orders and things like that.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Alright. I'll run a test.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. The first thing we want is this null bias, 100 seconds.

Frank Borman (CDR)

You stand by, and I'll do a null bias for 100 seconds. Do you want me to put DELTA-V in AUTOMATIC and let it alone for 100 seconds?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Going to DELTA-V; going to AUTO -

Frank Borman (CDR)

Went to one-tenth and back to zero.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Understand; plus one-tenth and back to zero.

Frank Borman (CDR)

One-tenth, now it's a minus one-tenth and back to zero; no, it's not zero yet; wait a minute.

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Frank Borman (CDR)

Now it's up some, minus 4; 0.4, that is.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Minus 0.7, and there is 100 seconds; minus 0.7 at 100 seconds.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. If we go back to mode, switch to stand by and FUNCTION switch OFF.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Now we'd like to do a couple of DELTA-V self-tests.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Say you're going AUTOMATIC?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Going to a DELTA-V test now. Counting down.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, this is Houston.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. We got caught in a station handover there. I didn't copy anything after you said you were putting it to DELTA-V test.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I ran—I ran three tests during that handover. Two over minus 19.6—two of them are minus 19.8; and one of them, minus 19.6.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. That sounds real fine.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. The other thing that—sometime prior to entry—and we're going to be looking at it—is the normal entry test pattern, and it's called out presently in the checklist as something we do around an hour. And we'd like to check if you can read the number on the scroll that is up now so we can see where we are in the test test pattern sequence. We're considering taking a look at one of these test patterns before we get into an hour so we can have more time to think about it in the event that there should be something anomalous in it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Why don't we do it right now? We're on number 8.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Understand; that's number 8, right?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. It takes an awful long time to run them over there anyway. It won't hurt to do one.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. If you'll stand by just a second; we're checking to see where we stand in the sequence of events for on pattern 8.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Another little thing about this EMS: you know, we had it set up when we separated from the booster —

Frank Borman (CDR)

— and the shock of the separation—the shock of the pyro's blowing in separation knocked it up to 100 and something.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Understand. Knocked it up to 100.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Was the pyro separation enough that the—you felt a sensable g in the bird?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Roger. Let's just say there wasn't any question we were separating.

Frank Borman (CDR)

While you are checking the scroll, find out which entry pattern I should be using this bird in.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. While we are verifying that scroll position—they are talking it over in the back room about that now—I would like to go ahead and run down the checklist with you for entry.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Looking on entry 1: the second item there is the 12-hour Kelvin cold soak, and in discussions I here and preflight, I think it is agreed that we don't want to do the cold soak there. So we are going to delete that step 2. And what it amounts to is, I think we do want to do a cold soak, and we certainly want to exercise the water boilers prior to entry in order to insure that we don't have one that is dried out, in the same manner that we had one dried out prior to LOI. And we are working on some procedures for that, and we'll have to come back to you with those a little bit later, and we will try to do it sometime when Bill's on the line so that everybody can get in on the loop at the same time. We would like to add a step between 8 and 9, or as part of step 8. This is all on page E-1, where we turn the VHF to Simplex A at minus 4 hours and 35 minutes. Now this will be beyond two-way VHF range, but it will make sure that we do have it on at the time when we pick it up. We were able to get out to 20 000 miles with a downlink, and we are checking on the uplink signal. So if we put it on at this point, we know we have it on well in advance of any time we might be able to get into the VHF.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. I guess maybe I have that backwards. They copy—you folks copied the VHF out to 20 KM. We're checking on the—on the downlink into that now. But in any event, this 4 hours and 35 minutes will get it well in advance of that.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay, 8. We just got an answer back on the test patterns. We thought it was—We had 25 test patterns which are allocated to ground test, and these are the ones we've been looking at. Then there are five more that are allocated to flight, and the only difference in these patterns is that the flight patterns have instructions actually written on them; so if we are looking at test pattern 8, that means that we're still working on the ones that were allocated to the ground test, so there was no problem there. And I'll get you a number for which pattern we should be using for entry; working on that one right now. So we would like to go ahead and run through these.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I don't mean the test pattern. I say, I don't mean the test pattern. We asked them to put the supercircular on the number, the first place on the scroll; I'm sure they did. I'm sure it's the first pattern, but I just wanted to make sure that's right.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. That's why we are trying to verify. So —

Frank Borman (CDR)

You want me to run through a test pattern?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Yes, sir. If you would, please. And if you'd tell us each step as you go through it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. Going through step 1; EMS test 1: wait 5 seconds. There's 5 seconds. Going AUTO. Okay- Indicator lights are all OFF; the range is zero, zero. Now I'm gonna slew the hairline over the notch. Okay. And now we go in EMS test 2.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Got the 0.05g light; all others are out.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go on test 3: far side lower light on 10 seconds; going to set the range counter to 58. Okay. Set at 58; going to test 4.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Beautiful. It's perfect. It's right in the corridor. It comes down and stops at zero, zero.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Go in test 5: perfect again. Okay. Now I go to range set.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. That was perfect.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay, Apollo 8. I'd like to run one more null bias and looks like we will have exercised everything we can get to.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. DELTA-V AUTO, all zeros.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. Understand minus 2. Alright. Is that minus 2 or minus two-tenths?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Two-tenths, three-tenths now.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Real good. That looks like we —

Frank Borman (CDR)

It looks like we had a lot of noise on the circuit for a while there, Ken.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Yes, we did, too; all those electronic glitches I guess.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. One hundred seconds, it's plus—minus four-tenths.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. Real fine. That looks like that's about all of the functions that we can check, and looks like everything is just down the line.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. We still owe you confirmation that you can expect your high speed scroll to be the first pattern you come to, and I'll let you know as soon as they come in with an answer on it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

I'd like to go ahead and finish going through the entry book if you're ready.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. We've reviewed most of the book up here, and we will have to come back and suggest a way that we can check out the water boiler prior to getting reentry area. We've reviewed all of the last minutes changes that were put in—pen and ink type things—and they're all looking good. On page E-7, like to add a couple of items.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. On step 34 under final stowage, which is a sort of catch-all area, there's a step that says secondary glycol to radiator, and it says bypass, verify. While we are down in this area, we would like to go to panel 382, the water control panel, and set up the evaporator water control valve both primary and secondary to AUTO. Now this is something we would have done had we done the cold soak at minus 12 hours, but since we weren't doing it there, we would like to go ahead and make sure we have these in AUTO, and this will enable automatic controls from the panel.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Can we just make this part of the procedure when we test out the water boilers beforehand?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Yes, sir. If we get that checked out earlier, we can just leave them in AUTO.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. I'm just going to make a note here, and we can do it the other way, too. The other item that was pen-and-inked in —

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

You may already have this down as step 35. It says UP TELEMETRY to BLOCK, VERIFY, and there's a step right after that that says RCS command module heaters to circuit breakers CLOSED.

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Spoken on Dec. 26, 1968, 7:12 a.m. UTC (55 years, 10 months ago). Link to this transcript range is: Tweet

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. I guess that one was sent up to you this afternoon. And when you turn the page over to E-8, it shows the EMS entry check being run at minus an hour, and you know that it's a short test. There is really no reason to wait for an hour; we might as well go ahead and do that as soon as you get through with step 35 on page E-7 because we're coming up on a pretty busy period.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I say that's fine; we'll do that.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Houston, are you still there?

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Roger. We got a discussion going; be right back.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay, Apollo 8. On page E-9 —

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

— at the top of the page, you have step 38, and right underneath that, prior to step 39, we want to have a primary glycol loop activation. What we are doing is to get the glycol evaporator water switch to AUTO and the glycol evaporator steam pressure switched to AUTO. This will get your primary water boiler on the line prior to entry, or at least it'll enable it.

Frank Borman (CDR)

Okay. Tell me what to write in, Ken.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. It's glycol evaporator water to AUTO.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Apollo 8, Houston. Are you there?

Frank Borman (CDR)

Glycol evaporator water switch to AUTO.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. And the second switch is the glycol evaporator steam pressure to AUTO.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. That takes care of getting the primary water boiler enabled, and it's my understanding that we were going to make the actual entry with both the primary and the secondary water boilers on the line.

Frank Borman (CDR)

I'm not reading you now, Houston.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Okay. There's some question from reading the checklist. It is my understanding that both the primary and the secondary water boilers will be ON for the actual entry, and don't find a place in the checklist where it's actually turned on. So we'd like to get confirmation on that, and we'll make sure that we have all the proper switching to put in the checklist.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Alright. Still on page E-9 and under step 39 at the bottom of the pyro circuit check, there's a step that says panel 8, all circuit breakers CLOSED except and then it lists five that are printed, one that was pen-and-inked before launch. It says EDS power circuit breakers 3 OPEN, and to be complete, we ought to add the RCS heater circuit breakers. There's two of those, and they should also be OPEN.

Ken Mattingly (CAPCOM)

Alright. The rest of these pages look good; I'm coming over through the graphs. And on page E-11 —