Apollo 8
Template:Short description Template:Pp-move-indef Template:Featured article Template:Use American English Template:Use mdy dates Template:Infobox spaceflight
Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing and then returned to Earth.<ref name="NYT-20181221">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref name="NYT-20181224a">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref name="NYT-20181224b">Template:Cite newsTemplate:Cbignore</ref> The three astronauts—Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders—were the first humans to see and photograph the far side of the Moon and an Earthrise.
Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968, and was the second crewed spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program (the first, [[Apollo 7|ApolloTemplate:Nbsp7]], stayed in Earth orbit). ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 was the third flight and the first crewed launch of the Saturn V rocket. It was the first human spaceflight from the Kennedy Space Center, adjacent to Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida.
Originally planned as the second crewed Apollo Lunar Module and command module test, to be flown in an elliptical medium Earth orbit in early 1969, the mission profile was changed in August 1968 to a more ambitious command-module-only lunar orbital flight to be flown in December, as the lunar module was not yet ready to make its first flight. Astronaut Jim McDivitt's crew, who were training to fly the first lunar module flight in low Earth orbit, became the crew for the [[Apollo 9|ApolloTemplate:Nbsp9]] mission, and Borman's crew were moved to the ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 mission. This left Borman's crew with two to three months' less training and preparation time than originally planned, and replaced the planned lunar module training with translunar navigation training.
Apollo 8 took 68 hours to travel to the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times over the course of twenty hours, during which they made a Christmas Eve television broadcast where they read the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 10 and, with [[Apollo 11|ApolloTemplate:Nbsp11]] in July 1969, the fulfillment of U.S. president John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. The ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27, 1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the northern Pacific Ocean. The crew members were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return.
Background
[edit]In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was engaged in the Cold War, a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union.Template:Sfn On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite. This unexpected success stoked fears and imaginations around the world. It not only demonstrated that the Soviet Union had the capability to deliver nuclear weapons over intercontinental distances, it challenged American claims of military, economic, and technological superiority.Template:Sfn The launch precipitated the Sputnik crisis and triggered the Space Race.Template:Sfn
President John F. Kennedy believed that not only was it in the national interest of the United States to be superior to other nations, but that the perception of American power was at least as important as the actuality. It was therefore intolerable to him for the Soviet Union to be more advanced in the field of space exploration. He was determined that the United States should compete, and sought a challenge that maximized its chances of winning.Template:Sfn
The Soviet Union had heavier-lifting carrier rockets, which meant Kennedy needed to choose a goal that was beyond the capacity of the existing generation of rocketry, one where the US and Soviet Union would be starting from a position of equality—something spectacular, even if it could not be justified on military, economic, or scientific grounds. After consulting with his experts and advisors, he chose such a project: to land a man on the Moon and return him to the Earth.Template:Sfn This project already had a name: Project Apollo.Template:Sfn
An early and crucial decision was the adoption of lunar orbit rendezvous, under which a specialized spacecraft would land on the lunar surface. The Apollo spacecraft therefore had three primary components: a command module (CM) with a cabin for the three astronauts, and the only part that would return to Earth; a service module (SM) to provide the command module with propulsion, electrical power, oxygen, and water; and a two-stage lunar module (LM), which comprised a descent stage for landing on the Moon and an ascent stage to return the astronauts to lunar orbit.Template:Sfn This configuration could be launched by the Saturn V rocket that was then under development.Template:Sfn
Framework
[edit]Prime crew
[edit]The initial crew assignment of Frank Borman as Commander, Michael Collins as Command Module Pilot (CMP) and William Anders as Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) for the third crewed Apollo flight was officially announced on November 20, 1967.Template:SfnTemplate:Refn Collins was replaced by Jim Lovell in July 1968, after suffering a cervical disc herniation that required surgery to repair.Template:Sfn This crew was unique among pre-Space Shuttle era missions in that the commander was not the most experienced member of the crew: Lovell had flown twice before, on Gemini VII and Gemini XII. This would also be the first case of a commander of a previous mission (Lovell, Gemini XII) flying as a non-commander.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn This was also the first mission to reunite crewmates from a previous mission (Lovell and Borman, Gemini VII).
As of June 2024, James Lovell is the last surviving Apollo 8 astronaut. Frank Borman and William Anders died on November 7, 2023,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> and on June 7, 2024,<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> respectively.
Backup crew
[edit]The backup crew assignment of Neil Armstrong as Commander, Lovell as CMP, and Buzz Aldrin as LMP for the third crewed Apollo flight was officially announced at the same time as the prime crew.Template:Sfn When Lovell was reassigned to the prime crew, Aldrin was moved to CMP, and Fred Haise was brought in as backup LMP. Armstrong would later command ApolloTemplate:Nbsp11, with Aldrin as LMP and Collins as CMP. Haise served on the backup crew of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp11 as LMP and flew on [[Apollo 13|ApolloTemplate:Nbsp13]] as LMP.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Support personnel
[edit]During Projects Mercury and Gemini, each mission had a prime and a backup crew. For Apollo, a third crew of astronauts was added, known as the support crew. The support crew maintained the flight plan, checklists, and mission ground rules, and ensured that the prime and backup crews were apprised of any changes. The support crew developed procedures in the simulators, especially those for emergency situations, so that the prime and backup crews could practice and master them in their simulator training.Template:Sfn For ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8, the support crew consisted of Ken Mattingly, Vance Brand, and Gerald Carr.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The capsule communicator (CAPCOM) was an astronaut at the Mission Control Center in Houston, Texas, who was the only person who communicated directly with the flight crew.Template:Sfn For ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8, the CAPCOMs were Michael Collins, Gerald Carr, Ken Mattingly, Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, Vance Brand, and Fred Haise.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
The mission control teams rotated in three shifts, each led by a flight director. The directors for ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 were Clifford E. Charlesworth (Green team), Glynn Lunney (Black team), and Milton Windler (Maroon team).Template:SfnTemplate:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Mission insignia and callsign
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The triangular shape of the insignia refers to the shape of the Apollo CM. It shows a red figureTemplate:Nbsp8 looping around the Earth and Moon to reflect both the mission number and the circumlunar nature of the mission. On the bottom of theTemplate:Nbsp8 are the names of the three astronauts. The initial design of the insignia was developed by Jim Lovell, who reportedly sketched it while riding in the back seat of a T-38 flight from California to Houston shortly after learning of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8's re-designation as a lunar-orbital mission.Template:Sfn
The crew wanted to name their spacecraft, but NASA did not allow it. The crew would have likely chosen Columbiad,Template:Sfn the name of the giant cannon that launches a space vehicle in Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon. The ApolloTemplate:Nbsp11 CM was named Columbia in part for that reason.Template:Sfn
Preparations
[edit]Mission schedule
[edit]On September 20, 1967, NASA adopted a seven-step plan for Apollo missions, with the final step being a Moon landing. [[Apollo 4|ApolloTemplate:Nbsp4]] and [[Apollo 6|ApolloTemplate:Nbsp6]] were "A" missions, tests of the [[Saturn V|SaturnTemplate:NbspV]] launch vehicle using an uncrewed Block I production model of the command and service module (CSM) in Earth orbit. [[Apollo 5|ApolloTemplate:Nbsp5]] was a "B" mission, a test of the LM in Earth orbit. ApolloTemplate:Nbsp7, scheduled for October 1968, would be a "C" mission, a crewed Earth-orbit flight of the CSM. Further missions depended on the readiness of the LM. It had been decided as early as May 1967 that there would be at least four additional missions. ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 was planned as the "D" mission, a test of the LM in a low Earth orbit in December 1968 by James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell Schweickart, while Borman's crew would fly the "E" mission, a more rigorous LM test in an elliptical medium Earth orbit as ApolloTemplate:Nbsp9, in early 1969. The "F" Mission would test the CSM and LM in lunar orbit, and the "G" mission would be the finale, the Moon landing.Template:Sfn
Production of the LM fell behind schedule, and when ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8's LM-3 arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in June 1968, more than a hundred significant defects were discovered, leading Bob Gilruth, the director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), and others to conclude that there was no prospect of LM-3 being ready to fly in 1968.Template:Sfn Indeed, it was possible that delivery would slip to February or March 1969. Following the original seven-step plan would have meant delaying the "D" and subsequent missions, and endangering the program's goal of a lunar landing before the end of 1969.Template:Sfn George Low, the Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, proposed a solution in August 1968 to keep the program on track despite the LM delay. Since the next CSM (designated as "CSM-103") would be ready three months before LM-3, a CSM-only mission could be flown in December 1968. Instead of repeating the "C" mission flight of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp7, this CSM could be sent all the way to the Moon, with the possibility of entering a lunar orbit and returning to Earth. The new mission would also allow NASA to test lunar landing procedures that would otherwise have had to wait until [[Apollo 10|ApolloTemplate:Nbsp10]], the scheduled "F" mission. This also meant that the medium Earth orbit "E" mission could be dispensed with. The net result was that only the "D" mission had to be delayed, and the plan for lunar landing in mid-1969 could remain on timeline.Template:Sfn
On August 9, 1968, Low discussed the idea with Gilruth, Flight Director Chris Kraft, and the Director of Flight Crew Operations, Donald Slayton. They then flew to the Marshall Space Flight Center (MSFC) in Huntsville, Alabama, where they met with KSC Director Kurt Debus, Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips, Rocco Petrone, and Wernher von Braun. Jerry Wittenstein, deputy chief of flight mechanics, presented trajectories for the new mission.<ref>family history</ref> Kraft considered the proposal feasible from a flight control standpoint; Debus and Petrone agreed that the next Saturn V, AS-503, could be made ready by December 1; and von Braun was confident the pogo oscillation problems that had afflicted ApolloTemplate:Nbsp6 had been fixed. Almost every senior manager at NASA agreed with this new mission, citing confidence in both the hardware and the personnel, along with the potential for a circumlunar flight providing a significant morale boost. The only person who needed some convincing was James E. Webb, the NASA administrator. Backed by the full support of his agency, Webb authorized the mission. ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 was officially changed from a "D" mission to a "C-Prime" lunar-orbit mission.Template:Sfn
With the change in mission for Apollo 8, Slayton asked McDivitt if he still wanted to fly it. McDivitt turned it down; his crew had spent a great deal of time preparing to test the LM, and that was what he still wanted to do. Slayton then decided to swap the prime and backup crews of the DTemplate:Nbspand ETemplate:Nbspmissions. This swap also meant a swap of spacecraft, requiring Borman's crew to use CSM-103, while McDivitt's crew would use CSM-104, since CM-104 could not be made ready by December. David Scott was not happy about giving up CM-103, the testing of which he had closely supervised, for CM-104, although the two were almost identical, and Anders was less than enthusiastic about being an LMP on a flight with no LM.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn Instead, ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 would carry the LM test article, a boilerplate model that would simulate the correct weight and balance of LM-3.Template:Sfn
Added pressure on the Apollo program to make its 1969 landing goal was provided by the Soviet Union's [[Zond 5|ZondTemplate:Nbsp5]] mission, which flew some living creatures, including Russian tortoises, in a cislunar loop around the Moon and returned them to Earth on September 21.Template:Sfn There was speculation within NASA and the press that they might be preparing to launch cosmonauts on a similar circumlunar mission before the end of 1968.<ref name="Moon Race 1968">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Compounding these concerns, American reconnaissance satellites observed a mockup N1 being rolled to the pad at Baikonur on November 25, 1967.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Apollo 8 crew, now living in the crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center, received a visit from Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the night before the launch.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref> They talked about how, before his 1927 flight, Lindbergh had used a piece of string to measure the distance from New York City to Paris on a globe and from that calculated the fuel needed for the flight. The total he had carried was a tenth of the amount that the Saturn V would burn every second. The next day, the Lindberghs watched the launch of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 from a nearby dune.Template:Sfn
Saturn V redesign
[edit]The Saturn V rocket used by ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 was designated AS-503, or the "03rd" model of the SaturnTemplate:NbspV ("5") rocket to be used in the Apollo-Saturn ("AS") program. When it was erected in the Vehicle Assembly Building on December 20, 1967, it was thought that the rocket would be used for an uncrewed Earth-orbit test flight carrying a boilerplate command and service module. ApolloTemplate:Nbsp6 had suffered several major problems during its April 1968 flight, including severe pogo oscillation during its first stage, two second-stage engine failures, and a third stage that failed to reignite in orbit. Without assurances that these problems had been rectified, NASA administrators could not justify risking a crewed mission until additional uncrewed test flights proved the Saturn V was ready.Template:Sfn
Teams from the MSFC went to work on the problems. Of primary concern was the pogo oscillation, which would not only hamper engine performance, but could exert significant g-forces on a crew. A task force of contractors, NASA agency representatives, and MSFC researchers concluded that the engines vibrated at a frequency similar to the frequency at which the spacecraft itself vibrated, causing a resonance effect that induced oscillations in the rocket. A system that used helium gas to absorb some of these vibrations was installed.Template:Sfn
Of equal importance was the failure of three engines during flight. Researchers quickly determined that a leaking hydrogen fuel line ruptured when exposed to vacuum, causing a loss of fuel pressure in engine two. When an automatic shutoff attempted to close the liquid hydrogen valve and shut down engine two, it had accidentally shut down engine three's liquid oxygen due to a miswired connection. As a result, engine three failed within one second of engine two's shutdown. Further investigation revealed the same problem for the third-stage engine—a faulty igniter line. The team modified the igniter lines and fuel conduits, hoping to avoid similar problems on future launches.Template:Sfn
The teams tested their solutions in August 1968 at the MSFC. A Saturn stage IC was equipped with shock-absorbing devices to demonstrate the team's solution to the problem of pogo oscillation, while a Saturn Stage II was retrofitted with modified fuel lines to demonstrate their resistance to leaks and ruptures in vacuum conditions. Once NASA administrators were convinced that the problems had been solved, they gave their approval for a crewed mission using AS-503.Template:Sfn
The Apollo 8 spacecraft was placed on top of the rocket on September 21, and the rocket made the slow Template:Convert journey to the launch pad atop one of NASA's two massive crawler-transporters on OctoberTemplate:Nbsp9.<ref name="satVillust">Template:Cite book</ref> Testing continued all through December until the day before launch, including various levels of readiness testing from DecemberTemplate:Nbsp5 through 11. Final testing of modifications to address the problems of pogo oscillation, ruptured fuel lines, and bad igniter lines took place on December 18, three days before the scheduled launch.Template:Sfn
Mission
[edit]Parameter summary
[edit]
As the first crewed spacecraft to orbit more than one celestial body, ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8's profile had two different sets of orbital parameters, separated by a translunar injection maneuver. Apollo lunar missions would begin with a nominal Template:Convert circular Earth parking orbit. ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 was launched into an initial orbit with an apogee of Template:Convert and a perigee of Template:Convert, with an inclination of 32.51° to the Equator, and an orbital period of 88.19 minutes. Propellant venting increased the apogee by Template:Convert over the 2Template:Nbsphours, 44 minutes, and 30 seconds spent in the parking orbit.Template:Sfn
This was followed by a trans-lunar injection (TLI) burn of the S-IVB third stage for 318 seconds, accelerating the Template:Convert command and service module and Template:Convert LM test article from an orbital velocity of Template:Convert to the injection velocity of Template:ConvertTemplate:Sfn<ref name="PressKit"/> which set a record for the highest speed, relative to Earth, that humans had ever traveled.Template:Sfn This speed was slightly less than the Earth's escape velocity of Template:Convert, but put ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 into an elongated elliptical Earth orbit, close enough to the Moon to be captured by the Moon's gravity.Template:Sfn
The standard lunar orbit for Apollo missions was planned as a nominal Template:Convert circular orbit above the Moon's surface. Initial lunar orbit insertion was an ellipse with a perilune of Template:Convert and an apolune of Template:Convert, at an inclination of 12° from the lunar equator. This was then circularized at Template:Convert, with an orbital period of 128.7 minutes.Template:Sfn The effect of lunar mass concentrations ("mascons") on the orbit was found to be greater than initially predicted; over the course of the ten lunar orbits lasting twenty hours, the orbital distance was perturbated to Template:Convert.Template:Sfn
Apollo 8 achieved a maximum distance from Earth of Template:Convert.Template:Sfn
Launch and trans-lunar injection
[edit]
Apollo 8 was launched at 12:51:00 UTC (07:51:00 Eastern Standard Time) on December 21, 1968, using the Saturn V's three stages to achieve Earth orbit.Template:Sfn The S-IC first stage landed in the Atlantic Ocean at Template:Coord, and the S-II second stage landed at Template:Coord.Template:Sfn The S-IVB third stage injected the craft into Earth orbit and remained attached to perform the TLI burn that would put the spacecraft on a trajectory to the Moon.Template:Sfn
Once the vehicle reached Earth orbit, both the crew and Houston flight controllers spent the next 2Template:Nbsphours and 38 minutes checking that the spacecraft was in proper working order and ready for TLI.Template:Sfn The proper operation of the S-IVB third stage of the rocket was crucial, and in the last uncrewed test, it had failed to reignite for this burn.Template:Sfn Collins was the first CAPCOM on duty, and at 2Template:Nbsphours, 27 minutes and 22 seconds after launch he radioed, "ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8. You are Go for TLI."Template:Sfn This communication meant that Mission Control had given official permission for ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 to go to the Moon. The S-IVB engine ignited on time and performed the TLI burn perfectly.Template:Sfn Over the next five minutes, the spacecraft's speed increased from Template:Convert.Template:Sfn
After the S-IVB had placed the mission on course for the Moon, the command and service modules (CSM), the remaining ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 spacecraft, separated from it. The crew then rotated the spacecraft to take photographs of the spent stage and then practiced flying in formation with it. As the crew rotated the spacecraft, they had their first views of the Earth as they moved away from it—this marked the first time humans had viewed the whole Earth at once. Borman became worried that the S-IVB was staying too close to the CSM and suggested to Mission Control that the crew perform a separation maneuver. Mission Control first suggested pointing the spacecraft towards Earth and using the small reaction control system (RCS) thrusters on the service module (SM) to add Template:Convert to their velocity away from the Earth, but Borman did not want to lose sight of the S-IVB. After discussion, the crew and Mission Control decided to burn in the Earth direction to increase speed, but at Template:Convert instead. The time needed to prepare and perform the additional burn put the crew an hour behind their onboard tasks.Template:SfnTemplate:Sfn
Five hours after launch, Mission Control sent a command to the S-IVB to vent its remaining fuel, changing its trajectory. The S-IVB, with the test article attached, posed no further hazard to ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8, passing the orbit of the Moon and going into a Template:Convert solar orbit with an inclination of 23.47° from the Earth's equatorial plane, and an orbital period of 340.80 days.Template:Sfn It became a derelict object, and will continue to orbit the Sun for many years, if not retrieved.<ref name=ha20130923>Template:Cite web</ref>
The Apollo 8 crew were the first humans to pass through the Van Allen radiation belts, which extend up to Template:Convert from Earth. Scientists predicted that passing through the belts quickly at the spacecraft's high speed would cause a radiation dosage of no more than a chest X-ray, or 1Template:Nbspmilligray (mGy; during a year, the average human receives a dose of 2Template:Nbspto 3Template:NbspmGy from background radiation). To record the actual radiation dosages, each crew member wore a Personal Radiation Dosimeter that transmitted data to Earth, as well as three passive film dosimeters that showed the cumulative radiation experienced by the crew. By the end of the mission, the crew members experienced an average radiation dose of 1.6 mGy.<ref name="Biomedical">Template:Cite book Sec. 2, Ch. 3.</ref>
Lunar trajectory
[edit]Lovell's main job as Command Module Pilot was as navigator. Although Mission Control normally performed all the navigation calculations, it was necessary to have a crew member adept at navigation so that the crew could return to Earth in case communication with Mission Control was lost. Lovell navigated by star sightings using a sextant built into the spacecraft, measuring the angle between a star and the Earth's (or the Moon's) horizon. This task was made difficult by a large cloud of debris around the spacecraft, which made it hard to distinguish the stars.<ref name="journal day 1 green">Template:Cite web</ref>
By seven hours into the mission, the crew was about 1Template:Nbsphour and 40 minutes behind flight plan because of the problems in moving away from the S-IVB and Lovell's obscured star sightings. The crew placed the spacecraft into Passive Thermal Control (PTC), also called "barbecue roll", in which the spacecraft rotated about once per hour around its long axis to ensure even heat distribution across the surface of the spacecraft. In direct sunlight, parts of the spacecraft's outer surface could be heated to over Template:Convert, while the parts in shadow would be Template:Convert. These temperatures could cause the heat shield to crack and propellant lines to burst. Because it was impossible to get a perfect roll, the spacecraft swept out a cone as it rotated. The crew had to make minor adjustments every half hour as the cone pattern got larger and larger.<ref name="journal day 1 Maroon">Template:Cite web</ref>
The first mid-course correction came eleven hours into the flight. The crew had been awake for more than 16 hours. Before launch, NASA had decided at least one crew member should be awake at all times to deal with problems that might arise. Borman started the first sleep shift but found sleeping difficult because of the constant radio chatter and mechanical noises. Testing on the ground had shown that the service propulsion system (SPS) engine had a small chance of exploding when burned for long periods unless its combustion chamber was "coated" first by burning the engine for a short period. This first correction burn was only 2.4 seconds and added about Template:Convert velocity prograde (in the direction of travel).Template:Sfn This change was less than the planned Template:Convert, because of a bubble of helium in the oxidizer lines, which caused unexpectedly low propellant pressure. The crew had to use the small RCS thrusters to make up the shortfall. Two later planned mid-course corrections were canceled because the ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 trajectory was found to be perfect.<ref name="journal day 1 Maroon"/>
About an hour after starting his sleep shift, Borman obtained permission from ground control to take a Seconal sleeping pill. The pill had little effect. Borman eventually fell asleep, and then awoke feeling ill. He vomited twice and had a bout of diarrhea; this left the spacecraft full of small globules of vomit and feces, which the crew cleaned up as well as they could. Borman initially did not want everyone to know about his medical problems, but Lovell and Anders wanted to inform Mission Control. The crew decided to use the Data Storage Equipment (DSE), which could tape voice recordings and telemetry and dump them to Mission Control at high speed. After recording a description of Borman's illness they asked Mission Control to check the recording, stating that they "would like an evaluation of the voice comments".<ref name="journal day 2 green">Template:Cite web</ref>
The Apollo 8 crew and Mission Control medical personnel held a conference using an unoccupied second-floor control room (there were two identical control rooms in Houston, on the second and third floors, only one of which was used during a mission). The conference participants concluded that there was little to worry about and that Borman's illness was either a 24-hour flu, as Borman thought, or a reaction to the sleeping pill.Template:Sfn Researchers now believe that he was suffering from space adaptation syndrome, which affects about a third of astronauts during their first day in space as their vestibular system adapts to weightlessness.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> Space adaptation syndrome had not occurred on previous spacecraft (Mercury and Gemini), because those astronauts could not move freely in the small cabins of those spacecraft. The increased cabin space in the Apollo command module afforded astronauts greater freedom of movement, contributing to symptoms of space sickness for Borman and, later, astronaut Rusty Schweickart during ApolloTemplate:Nbsp9.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
The cruise phase was a relatively uneventful part of the flight, except for the crew's checking that the spacecraft was in working order and that they were on course. During this time, NASA scheduled a television broadcast at 31 hours after launch. The ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 crew used a Template:Convert camera that broadcast in black-and-white only, using a Vidicon tube. The camera had two lenses, a very wide-angle (160°) lens, and a telephoto (9°) lens.Template:Sfn<ref name="journal day 2 Maroon">Template:Cite web</ref>
During this first broadcast, the crew gave a tour of the spacecraft and attempted to show how the Earth appeared from space. However, difficulties aiming the narrow-angle lens without the aid of a monitor to show what it was looking at made showing the Earth impossible. Additionally, without proper filters, the Earth image became saturated by any bright source. In the end, all the crew could show the people watching back on Earth was a bright blob.Template:Sfn After broadcasting for 17 minutes, the rotation of the spacecraft took the high-gain antenna out of view of the receiving stations on Earth and they ended the transmission with Lovell wishing his mother a happy birthday.<ref name="journal day 2 Maroon" />
By this time, the crew had completely abandoned the planned sleep shifts. Lovell went to sleep Template:Frac hours into the flight – three-and-a-half hours before he had planned to. A short while later, Anders also went to sleep after taking a sleeping pill.<ref name="journal day 2 Maroon" /> The crew was unable to see the Moon for much of the outward cruise. Two factors made the Moon almost impossible to see from inside the spacecraft: three of the five windows fogging up due to out-gassed oils from the silicone sealant, and the attitude required for passive thermal control. It was not until the crew had gone behind the Moon that they would be able to see it for the first time.Template:Sfn
Apollo 8 made a second television broadcast at 55 hours into the flight. This time, the crew rigged up filters meant for the still cameras so they could acquire images of the Earth through the telephoto lens. Although difficult to aim, as they had to maneuver the entire spacecraft, the crew was able to broadcast back to Earth the first television pictures of the Earth. The crew spent the transmission describing the Earth, what was visible, and the colors they could see. The transmission lasted 23 minutes.Template:Sfn
Lunar sphere of influence
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At about 55 hours and 40 minutes into the flight, and 13 hours before entering lunar orbit, the crew of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 became the first humans to enter the gravitational sphere of influence of another celestial body. In other words, the effect of the Moon's gravitational force on ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 became stronger than that of the Earth. At the time it happened, ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 was Template:Convert from the Moon and had a speed of Template:Convert relative to the Moon. This historic moment was of little interest to the crew, since they were still calculating their trajectory with respect to the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center. They would continue to do so until they performed their last mid-course correction, switching to a reference frame based on ideal orientation for the second engine burn they would make in lunar orbit.Template:Sfn
The last major event before Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) was a second mid-course correction. It was in retrograde (against the direction of travel) and slowed the spacecraft down by Template:Convert, effectively reducing the closest distance at which the spacecraft would pass the Moon. At exactly 61 hours after launch, about Template:Convert from the Moon, the crew burned the RCS for 11 seconds. They would now pass Template:Convert from the lunar surface.Template:Sfn
At 64 hours into the flight, the crew began to prepare for Lunar Orbit InsertionTemplate:Nbsp1 (LOI-1). This maneuver had to be performed perfectly, and due to orbital mechanics had to be on the far side of the Moon, out of contact with the Earth. After Mission Control was polled for a "go/no go" decision, the crew was told at 68 hours that they were Go and "riding the best bird we can find".<ref name="journal day 3 LOI">Template:Cite web</ref> Lovell replied, "We'll see you on the other side", and for the first time in history, humans travelled behind the Moon and out of radio contact with the Earth.<ref name="journal day 3 LOI"/> Frances "Poppy" Northcutt, who was the first woman in NASA's mission control and helped calculate the return to Earth trajectory for this mission, recounts what it was like when Apollo 8 went behind the Moon for the first time in an interview: "That was a very nerve-racking period on the team I was on, and I think it was a very nerve-racking period in general because of this thing with losing signal. You've got this big mystery going on there on the backside of the Moon. You do not know what's happening and there's not a darn thing anybody here can do about it until we hear from them."<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
With ten minutes remaining before LOI-1, the crew began one last check of the spacecraft systems and made sure that every switch was in its correct position. At that time, they finally got their first glimpses of the Moon. They had been flying over the unlit side, and it was Lovell who saw the first shafts of sunlight obliquely illuminating the lunar surface. The LOI burn was only two minutes away, so the crew had little time to appreciate the view.Template:Sfn
Lunar orbit
[edit]The SPS was ignited at 69 hours, 8Template:Nbspminutes, and 16 seconds after launch and burned for 4Template:Nbspminutes and 7Template:Nbspseconds, placing the ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 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 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">Template:Cite web</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 Template:Convert 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: Template:Blockquote
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 ApolloTemplate:Nbsp11 landing site. The launch time of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 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 mm still photographs and Template:Convert of 16 mm movie film.Template:Sfn
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 Template:Convert.<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 near Seabrook, Texas, but due to the ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 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" />
Earthrise and Genesis broadcast
[edit]
When the spacecraft came out from behind the Moon for its fourth pass across the front, the crew witnessed an "Earthrise" in person for the first time in human history.<ref name="journal day 4-456" /> NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 had taken the first picture of an Earthrise from the vicinity of the Moon, on August 23, 1966.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Anders saw the Earth emerging from behind the lunar horizon and called in excitement to the others, taking a black-and-white photograph as he did so. Anders asked Lovell for color film and then took Earthrise, a now famous color photo, later picked by Life magazine as one of its hundred photos of the century.<ref name="journal day 4-456">Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite magazine</ref>
Due to the synchronous rotation of the Moon about the Earth, Earthrise is not generally visible from the lunar surface. This is because, as seen from any one place on the Moon's surface, Earth remains in approximately the same position in the lunar sky, either above or below the horizon. Earthrise is generally visible only while orbiting the Moon, and at selected surface locations near the Moon's limb, where libration carries the Earth slightly above and below the lunar horizon.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Anders continued to take photographs while Lovell assumed control of the spacecraft so that Borman could rest. Despite the difficulty resting in the cramped and noisy spacecraft, Borman was able to sleep for two orbits, awakening periodically to ask questions about their status. Borman awoke fully when he started to hear his fellow crew members make mistakes. They were beginning to not understand questions and had to ask for the answers to be repeated. Borman realized that everyone was extremely tired from not having a good night's sleep in over three days. He ordered Anders and Lovell to get some sleep and that the rest of the flight plan regarding observing the Moon be scrubbed. Anders initially protested, saying that he was fine, but Borman would not be swayed. Anders finally agreed under the condition that Borman would set up the camera to continue to take automatic pictures of the Moon. Borman also remembered that there was a second television broadcast planned, and with so many people expected to be watching, he wanted the crew to be alert. For the next two orbits, Anders and Lovell slept while Borman sat at the helm.<ref name="journal day 4-456"/>Template:Sfn
As they rounded the Moon for the ninth time, the astronauts began the second television transmission. Borman introduced the crew, followed by each man giving his impression of the lunar surface and what it was like to be orbiting the Moon. Borman described it as being "a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing".Template:Sfn Then, after talking about what they were flying over, Anders said that the crew had a message for all those on Earth. Each man on board read a section from the Biblical creation story from the Book of Genesis. Borman finished the broadcast by wishing a Merry Christmas to everyone on Earth. His message appeared to sum up the feelings that all three crewmen had from their vantage point in lunar orbit. Borman said, "And from the crew of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you—all of you on the good Earth."<ref name="moonport">Template:Cite book Ch.20-9.</ref>
The only task left for the crew at this point was to perform the trans-Earth injection (TEI), which was scheduled for Template:Frac hours after the end of the television transmission. The TEI was the most critical burn of the flight, as any failure of the SPS to ignite would strand the crew in lunar orbit, with little hope of escape. As with the previous burn, the crew had to perform the maneuver above the far side of the Moon, out of contact with Earth.Template:Sfn The burn occurred exactly on time. The spacecraft telemetry was reacquired as it re-emerged from behind the Moon at 89 hours, 28 minutes, and 39 seconds, the exact time calculated. When voice contact was regained, Lovell announced, "Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus", to which Ken Mattingly, the current CAPCOM, replied, "That's affirmative, you are the best ones to know."<ref name="journal day 4 TEI">Template:Cite web</ref> The spacecraft began its journey back to Earth on December 25, Christmas Day.Template:Sfn
Unplanned manual realignment
[edit]Later, Lovell used some otherwise idle time to do some navigational sightings, maneuvering the module to view various stars by using the computer keyboard. He accidentally erased some of the computer's memory, which caused the inertial measurement unit (IMU) to contain data indicating that the module was in the same relative orientation it had been in before lift-off; the IMU then fired the thrusters to "correct" the module's attitude.<ref name="Benke">Template:Cite news</ref>
Once the crew realized why the computer had changed the module's attitude, they realized that they would have to reenter data to tell the computer the module's actual orientation. It took Lovell ten minutes to figure out the right numbers, using the thrusters to get the stars Rigel and Sirius aligned,Template:Sfn and another 15 minutes to enter the corrected data into the computer.Template:Sfn Sixteen months later, during the [[Apollo 13|ApolloTemplate:Nbsp13]] mission, Lovell would have to perform a similar manual realignment under more critical conditions after the module's IMU had to be turned off to conserve energy.Template:Sfn
Cruise back to Earth and reentry
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The cruise back to Earth was mostly a time for the crew to relax and monitor the spacecraft. As long as the trajectory specialists had calculated everything correctly, the spacecraft would reenter Earth's atmosphere two-and-a-half days after TEI and splash down in the Pacific.Template:Sfn
On Christmas afternoon, the crew made their fifth television broadcast.<ref> Template:Cite AV media </ref> This time, they gave a tour of the spacecraft, showing how an astronaut lived in space. When they finished broadcasting, they found a small present from Slayton in the food locker: a real turkey dinner with stuffing, in the same kind of pack given to the troops in Vietnam.Template:Sfn
Another Slayton surprise was a gift of three miniature bottles of brandy, which Borman ordered the crew to leave alone until after they landed. They remained unopened, even years after the flight.Template:Sfn There were also small presents to the crew from their wives. The next day, at about 124 hours into the mission, the sixth and final TV transmission showed the mission's best video images of the Earth, during a four-minute broadcast.<ref> Template:Cite AV media </ref> After two uneventful days, the crew prepared for reentry. The computer would control the reentry, and all the crew had to do was put the spacecraft in the correct attitude, with the blunt end forward. In the event of computer failure, Borman was ready to take over.Template:Sfn
Separation from the service module prepared the command module for reentry by exposing the heat shield and shedding unneeded mass. The service module would burn up in the atmosphere as planned.Template:Sfn Six minutes before they hit the top of the atmosphere, the crew saw the Moon rising above the Earth's horizon, just as had been calculated by the trajectory specialists.<ref name="splashdown1">Template:Cite web</ref> As the module hit the thin outer atmosphere, the crew noticed that it was becoming hazy outside as glowing plasma formed around the spacecraft.Template:Sfn The spacecraft started slowing down, and the deceleration peaked at Template:Convert. With the computer controlling the descent by changing the attitude of the spacecraft, ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 rose briefly like a skipping stone before descending to the ocean. At Template:Convert, the drogue parachute deployed, stabilizing the spacecraft, followed at Template:Convert by the three main parachutes. The spacecraft splashdown position was officially reported as Template:Coord in the North Pacific Ocean, southwest of Hawaii at 15:51:42 UTC on December 27, 1968.<ref name="MissionReport" />
When the spacecraft hit the water, the parachutes dragged it over and left it upside down, in what was termed StableTemplate:Nbsp2 position. As they were buffeted by a Template:Convert swell, Borman vomited, waiting for the three flotation balloons to right the spacecraft.Template:Sfn About six minutes after splashdown, the command module was righted into a normal apex-up (Stable 1) orientation by its inflatable bag uprighting system.Template:Sfn The first frogman from aircraft carrier Template:USS arrived 43 minutes after splashdown. Forty-five minutes later, the crew was safe on the flight deck of the Yorktown.<ref name="splashdown1" />Template:Sfn
Legacy
[edit]Historical importance
[edit]Apollo 8 came at the end of 1968, a year that had seen much upheaval in the United States and most of the world.<ref name="Men of the Year">Template:Cite magazine</ref> Even though the year saw political assassinations, political unrest in the streets of Europe and America, and the Prague Spring, Time magazine chose the crew of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 as its Men of the Year for 1968, recognizing them as the people who most influenced events in the preceding year.<ref name="Men of the Year"/> They had been the first people ever to leave the gravitational influence of the Earth and orbit another celestial body.<ref name="Apollo 8 Firsts">Template:Cite web</ref> They had survived a mission that even the crew themselves had rated as having only a fifty-fifty chance of fully succeeding. The effect of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 was summed up in a telegram from a stranger, received by Borman after the mission, that stated simply, "Thank you ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8. You saved 1968."Template:Sfn
One of the most famous aspects of the flight was the Earthrise picture that the crew took as they came around for their fourth orbit of the Moon.Template:Sfn This was the first time that humans had taken such a picture while actually behind the camera, and it has been credited as one of the inspirations of the first Earth Day in 1970.<ref>Template:Cite journal</ref> It was selected as the first of Life magazine's 100 Photographs That Changed the World.Template:Sfn
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Apollo 11 astronaut Michael Collins said, "Eight's momentous historic significance was foremost";Template:Sfn while space historian Robert K. Poole saw ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 as the most historically significant of all the Apollo missions.Template:Sfn The mission was the most widely covered by the media since the first American orbital flight, Mercury-Atlas 6 by John Glenn, in 1962. There were 1,200 journalists covering the mission, with the BBC's coverage broadcast in 54 countries in 15 different languages. The Soviet newspaper Pravda featured a quote from Template:Ill, Chairman of the Soviet Interkosmos program, who described the flight as an "outstanding achievement of American space sciences and technology".<ref name="Pravda">Template:Cite news</ref> It is estimated that a quarter of the people alive at the time saw—either live or delayed—the Christmas Eve transmission during the ninth orbit of the Moon.Template:Sfn The ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 broadcasts won an Emmy Award, the highest honor given by the Academy of Television Arts & Sciences.<ref name="PBS Emmy Award">Template:Cite web</ref>
Madalyn Murray O'Hair, an atheist, later caused controversy by bringing a lawsuit against NASA over the reading from Genesis. O'Hair wanted the courts to ban American astronauts—who were all government employees—from public prayer in space.Template:Sfn Though the case was rejected by the Supreme Court of the United States, apparently for lack of jurisdiction in outer space,<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> it caused NASA to be skittish about the issue of religion throughout the rest of the Apollo program. Buzz Aldrin, on ApolloTemplate:Nbsp11, self-communicated Presbyterian Communion on the surface of the Moon after landing; he refrained from mentioning this publicly for several years and referred to it only obliquely at the time.Template:Sfn
In 1969, the United States Post Office Department issued a postage stamp (Scott catalogue #1371) commemorating the ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 flight around the Moon. The stamp featured a detail of the famous photograph of the Earthrise over the Moon taken by Anders on Christmas Eve, and the words, "In the beginning GodTemplate:Nbsp...", the first words of the book of Genesis.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> In January 1969, just 18 days after the crew's return to Earth, they appeared in the Super Bowl III pre-game show, reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, before the national anthem was performed by trumpeter Lloyd Geisler of the Washington National Symphony Orchestra.<ref name=PaleyCenter>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite webTemplate:Cbignore</ref><ref group=n name="nationalanthem">NFL's website erroneously states that Anita Bryant performed the anthem, but NBC's broadcast of game, available from the Paley Center for Media's collection, shows that Geisler performed it.</ref>
Spacecraft location
[edit]In January 1970, the spacecraft was delivered to Osaka, Japan, for display in the U.S. pavilion at Expo '70.<ref>Template:Cite book</ref><ref>Template:Cite news</ref> It is now displayed at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, along with a collection of personal items from the flight donated by Lovell and the space suit worn by Frank Borman.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Jim Lovell's ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 space suit is on public display in the Visitor Center at NASA's Glenn Research Center.<ref>Template:Cite web</ref><ref>Template:Cite press releaseTemplate:Cbignore</ref> Bill Anders's space suit is on display at the Science Museum in London, United Kingdom.Template:Sfn
In popular culture
[edit]Apollo 8's historic mission has been depicted and referred to in several forms, both documentary and fiction. The various television transmissions and 16 mm footage shot by the crew of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 were compiled and released by NASA in the 1969 documentary Debrief: ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8, hosted by Burgess Meredith.<ref>Template:Cite AV media Debrief: Apollo 8 was released as a bonus feature for the Discovery Channel's miniseries DVD release.</ref> In addition, Spacecraft Films released, in 2003, a three-disc DVD set containing all of NASA's TV and 16 mm film footage related to the mission, including all TV transmissions from space, training and launch footage, and motion pictures taken in flight.<ref>Template:Cite AV media</ref> Other documentaries include "Race to the Moon" (2005) as part of season 18 of American Experience<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> and In the Shadow of the Moon (2007).<ref>Template:Cite web</ref> Apollo's Daring Mission aired on PBS' Nova in December 2018, marking the flight's 50th anniversary.
The 1994 album The Songs of Distant Earth by Mike Oldfield uses the Anders' reading for the cut "In The Beginning".<ref>Template:Cite web</ref>
Parts of the mission are dramatized in the 1998 miniseries From the Earth to the Moon episode "1968".<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> The S-IVB stage of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8 was also portrayed as the location of an alien device in the 1970 UFO episode "Conflict".<ref>Template:Cite episode</ref> ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8's lunar orbit insertion was chronicled with actual recordings in the song "The Other Side", on the 2015 album The Race for Space, by the band Public Service Broadcasting.<ref>Template:Cite news</ref>
A documentary film, First to the Moon: The Journey of Apollo 8 was released in 2018.
See also
[edit]Notes
[edit]References
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Bibliography
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External links
[edit]- "Apollo 8" at Encyclopedia Astronautica
- Template:Cite journal Article about the 40th anniversary of ApolloTemplate:Nbsp8
- Multimedia
- Apollo 8: Go for TLI 1969 NASA film at the Internet Archive
- Debrief: Apollo 8 1969 NASA film at the Internet Archive
- "Apollo 07 and 08 16mm Onboard Film (1968)" raw footage taken from Apollos 7Template:NbspandTemplate:Nbsp8 at the Internet Archive
- Apollo 8 Around the Moon and Back 2018 YouTube video
Template:Apollo program Template:Moon spacecraft Template:Orbital launches in 1968 Template:NASA space program Template:Time Persons of the Year Template:Portal bar Template:Authority control