©Mark Ollig
Friday will be 50 years since three American astronauts, seated in the command module of a Saturn V (Saturn five) rocket, blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL.
Apollo 8 was initially planned to conduct the first crewed tests of the Lunar Module (LM) to be used for landing on the moon.
However, NASA announced Aug. 19, 1968, that it was canceling the LM from the Apollo 8 flight, due to delays in getting it ready in time for its scheduled December liftoff.
Instead, it was decided Apollo 8 would be the first human-crewed mission to travel to the moon.
Dec. 21, 1968, I was a 10-year-old who was obsessed with all things NASA.
Sitting in front of the living room television, I stared at the tall Saturn V rocket on Launch Complex 39A.
I watched the countdown over channel 4 (CBS); Walter Cronkite was broadcasting from Cape Kennedy.
Cronkite appeared very interested in this launch; just minutes before liftoff, he turned his back on the television camera to get a better view of the Saturn V rocket outside his window.
“Coming up on the two-minute mark in the Apollo 8 mission,” said NASA’s launch commentator Jack King.
“T minus 10, nine, we have ignition sequence start. The engines are armed. Four, three, two, one, zero. We have commit. We have liftoff,” King reported from Mission Control.
Apollo 8 began its historic journey to the moon Saturday, Dec. 21, 1968, at 6:51 a.m.
I vividly remember hearing the roar of the five F-1 engines clustered on the bottom of the first stage.
Vast plumes of red flames and smoke shot out of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket as it slowly began its ascent into a blue Florida sky.
The 6.2-million-pound Saturn V was propelled upward utilizing 7.6 million pounds of thrust generated by those F-1 engines.
“It looks good! Oh, there’s the rumbling in our building!” exclaimed Walter Cronkite, describing the launch while looking through his binoculars.
“One minute, 15 seconds and we’re a little more than half a mile into the sky, and we’re nearly four miles downrange,” reported Paul Haney of Mission Control.
Apollo 8 soon attained Earth orbit, and for the next two hours, commander Frank Borman, command module pilot James Lovell, and lunar module pilot Bill Anders (his title even though no LM was attached) would be checking the systems of the command and service module to make sure everything was ready for their journey to the moon.
At two hours and 27 minutes into the flight, Mission Control radioed the crew, “Apollo 8. You are go for TLI. Over.”
Mission Control had just given the crew its official permission to go to the moon.
“Roger. We understand; we are go for TLI,” commander Borman responded.
TLI or Translunar Injection is an engine-firing maneuver which would put Apollo 8 on a proper heading to the moon.
Dec. 24, 1968, Apollo 8 reached the gravitational influence of the moon.
They then fired the large SPS (Service Propulsion System) main engine on the service module to slow them down and place them into lunar orbit.
According to the NASA logs, Apollo 8 obtained lunar orbit at 69 hours, 12 minutes, 30 seconds into the mission.
They orbited the moon at the height of 60 nautical (69 statute) miles and were 234,474 statute miles from Earth.
“Apollo 8, Houston. What does the ol’ Moon look like from 60 miles? Over,” radioed Mission Control.
“Okay, Houston. 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,” astronaut Jim Lovell reported.
Apollo 8 would orbit the moon 10 times.
The crew took photographs of specific locations for future Apollo mission landing sites.
For me, two memorable moments standout, which occurred during those 10 orbits.
The first was seeing the famous “Earthrise” from the moon, which became an iconic photograph.
The photo, taken by astronaut Bill Anders Dec. 24, shows Earth peering out from beyond the lunar surface.
“Earthrise” became a postage stamp, and Walter Cronkite used it as a backdrop on his “CBS Evening News” program.
The second occurred during the ninth orbit around the moon.
“Hey, why don’t we start reading that thing, and that would be a good place to end it,” said Frank Borman to Lovell and Anders.
Seconds later, Anders radioed Mission Control, “We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.”
It was Christmas Eve. Anders began reading from the book of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.”
Astronauts Lovell and Borman also read Scripture passages.
“And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you – all of you on the good Earth,” said commander Frank Borman, ending the transmission.
To all my readers; I wish you a Merry Christmas.
Friday will be 50 years since three American astronauts, seated in the command module of a Saturn V (Saturn five) rocket, blasted off from Cape Kennedy, FL.
Apollo 8 was initially planned to conduct the first crewed tests of the Lunar Module (LM) to be used for landing on the moon.
However, NASA announced Aug. 19, 1968, that it was canceling the LM from the Apollo 8 flight, due to delays in getting it ready in time for its scheduled December liftoff.
Instead, it was decided Apollo 8 would be the first human-crewed mission to travel to the moon.
Dec. 21, 1968, I was a 10-year-old who was obsessed with all things NASA.
Sitting in front of the living room television, I stared at the tall Saturn V rocket on Launch Complex 39A.
I watched the countdown over channel 4 (CBS); Walter Cronkite was broadcasting from Cape Kennedy.
Cronkite appeared very interested in this launch; just minutes before liftoff, he turned his back on the television camera to get a better view of the Saturn V rocket outside his window.
“Coming up on the two-minute mark in the Apollo 8 mission,” said NASA’s launch commentator Jack King.
“T minus 10, nine, we have ignition sequence start. The engines are armed. Four, three, two, one, zero. We have commit. We have liftoff,” King reported from Mission Control.
Apollo 8 began its historic journey to the moon Saturday, Dec. 21, 1968, at 6:51 a.m.
I vividly remember hearing the roar of the five F-1 engines clustered on the bottom of the first stage.
Vast plumes of red flames and smoke shot out of the first stage of the Saturn V rocket as it slowly began its ascent into a blue Florida sky.
The 6.2-million-pound Saturn V was propelled upward utilizing 7.6 million pounds of thrust generated by those F-1 engines.
“It looks good! Oh, there’s the rumbling in our building!” exclaimed Walter Cronkite, describing the launch while looking through his binoculars.
“One minute, 15 seconds and we’re a little more than half a mile into the sky, and we’re nearly four miles downrange,” reported Paul Haney of Mission Control.
Apollo 8 soon attained Earth orbit, and for the next two hours, commander Frank Borman, command module pilot James Lovell, and lunar module pilot Bill Anders (his title even though no LM was attached) would be checking the systems of the command and service module to make sure everything was ready for their journey to the moon.
At two hours and 27 minutes into the flight, Mission Control radioed the crew, “Apollo 8. You are go for TLI. Over.”
Mission Control had just given the crew its official permission to go to the moon.
“Roger. We understand; we are go for TLI,” commander Borman responded.
TLI or Translunar Injection is an engine-firing maneuver which would put Apollo 8 on a proper heading to the moon.
Dec. 24, 1968, Apollo 8 reached the gravitational influence of the moon.
They then fired the large SPS (Service Propulsion System) main engine on the service module to slow them down and place them into lunar orbit.
According to the NASA logs, Apollo 8 obtained lunar orbit at 69 hours, 12 minutes, 30 seconds into the mission.
They orbited the moon at the height of 60 nautical (69 statute) miles and were 234,474 statute miles from Earth.
“Apollo 8, Houston. What does the ol’ Moon look like from 60 miles? Over,” radioed Mission Control.
“Okay, Houston. 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,” astronaut Jim Lovell reported.
Apollo 8 would orbit the moon 10 times.
The crew took photographs of specific locations for future Apollo mission landing sites.
For me, two memorable moments standout, which occurred during those 10 orbits.
The first was seeing the famous “Earthrise” from the moon, which became an iconic photograph.
The photo, taken by astronaut Bill Anders Dec. 24, shows Earth peering out from beyond the lunar surface.
“Earthrise” became a postage stamp, and Walter Cronkite used it as a backdrop on his “CBS Evening News” program.
The second occurred during the ninth orbit around the moon.
“Hey, why don’t we start reading that thing, and that would be a good place to end it,” said Frank Borman to Lovell and Anders.
Seconds later, Anders radioed Mission Control, “We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you.”
It was Christmas Eve. Anders began reading from the book of Genesis: “In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth.”
Astronauts Lovell and Borman also read Scripture passages.
“And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you – all of you on the good Earth,” said commander Frank Borman, ending the transmission.
To all my readers; I wish you a Merry Christmas.
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| "Earthrise" Photograph by William Anders |