Editing Apollo 8 (section)

===Lunar orbit===

The SPS was ignited at 69 hours, 8{{nbsp}}minutes, and 16 seconds after launch and burned for 4{{nbsp}}minutes and 7{{nbsp}}seconds, placing the Apollo{{nbsp}}8 spacecraft in orbit around the Moon. The crew described the burn as being the longest four minutes of their lives. If the burn had not lasted exactly the correct amount of time, the spacecraft could have ended up in a highly [[ellipse|elliptical]] lunar orbit or even been flung off into space. If it had lasted too long, they could have struck the Moon. After making sure the spacecraft was working, they finally had a chance to look at the Moon, which they would orbit for the next 20 hours.<ref name="nssdc orbit">{{cite web |url=https://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/nmc/spacecraft/display.action?id=1968-118A |title=Apollo 8 |work=[[National Space Science Data Center]] |publisher=NASA |access-date=June 28, 2013 }}</ref>

On Earth, Mission Control continued to wait. If the crew had not burned the engine, or the burn had not lasted the planned length of time, the crew would have appeared early from behind the Moon. Exactly at the calculated moment the signal was received from the spacecraft, indicating it was in a {{convert|193.3|by|69.5|mi|km|adj=on}} orbit around the Moon.<ref name="nssdc orbit" />

After reporting on the status of the spacecraft, Lovell gave the first description of what the lunar surface looked like:
{{Blockquote|The Moon is essentially grey, no color; looks like [[plaster of Paris]] or sort of a grayish beach sand. We can see quite a bit of detail. The [[Mare Fecunditatis|Sea of Fertility]] doesn't stand out as well here as it does back on Earth. There's not as much contrast between that and the surrounding craters. The craters are all rounded off. There's quite a few of them, some of them are newer. Many of them look like—especially the round ones—look like hit by [[meteorite]]s or projectiles of some sort. [[Langrenus (crater)|Langrenus]] is quite a huge crater; it's got a central cone to it. The walls of the crater are terraced, about six or seven different [[wiktionary:terrace|terraces]] on the way down.<ref name="journal day 4-123">{{cite web |url=https://history.nasa.gov/ap08fj/13day4_orbits123.htm |title=Day 4: Lunar Orbits 1, 2 and 3 |last1=Woods |first1=W. David |last2=O'Brien |first2=Frank |date=April 22, 2006 |work=Apollo 8 Flight Journal |publisher=NASA |access-date=September 20, 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070922045003/https://history.nasa.gov/ap08fj/13day4_orbits123.htm |archive-date=September 22, 2007 |url-status=dead |df=mdy-all }}</ref>}}
[[File:The Lunar Farside - GPN-2000-001127.jpg|thumb|A portion of the [[Far side of the Moon|lunar far side]] as seen from Apollo{{nbsp}}8]]

Lovell continued to describe the terrain they were passing over. One of the crew's major tasks was [[reconnaissance]] of planned future landing sites on the Moon, especially one in [[Mare Tranquillitatis]] that was planned as the Apollo{{nbsp}}11 landing site. The launch time of Apollo{{nbsp}}8 had been chosen to give the best lighting conditions for examining the site. A [[film camera]] had been set up in one of the spacecraft windows to record one frame per second of the Moon below. Bill Anders spent much of the next 20 hours taking as many photographs as possible of targets of interest. By the end of the mission, the crew had taken over eight hundred 70&nbsp;mm still photographs and {{convert|700|ft}} of 16&nbsp;mm movie film.{{sfn|Orloff|2000|p=37}}

Throughout the hour that the spacecraft was in contact with Earth, Borman kept asking how the data for the SPS looked. He wanted to make sure that the engine was working and could be used to return early to the Earth if necessary. He also asked that they receive a "go/no go" decision before they passed behind the Moon on each orbit.<ref name="journal day 4-123" />

As they reappeared for their second pass in front of the Moon, the crew set up equipment to broadcast a view of the lunar surface. Anders described the craters that they were passing over. At the end of this second orbit, they performed an 11-second LOI-2 burn of the SPS to circularize the orbit to {{convert|70.0|by|71.3|mi|km}}.<ref name="nssdc orbit" /><ref name="journal day 4-123" />

Throughout the next two orbits, the crew continued to check the spacecraft and to observe and photograph the Moon. During the third pass, Borman read a small prayer for his church. He had been scheduled to participate in a service at St. Christopher's [[Episcopal Church (United States)|Episcopal Church]] near [[Seabrook, Texas]], but due to the Apollo{{nbsp}}8 flight, he was unable to attend. A fellow parishioner and engineer at Mission Control, Rod Rose, suggested that Borman read the prayer, which could be recorded and then replayed during the service.<ref name="journal day 4-123" />