Left to right: Lovell, Anders, Borman
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Apollo 8 during launch, with a double exposure of the Moon, which was not visible at the time
Wikipedia.
Earthrise
Image Credit: NASA
Earthrise
Main article: Earthrise
When the spacecraft came out from behind the Moon for its fourth pass
across the front, the crew witnessed Earthrise for the first time in
human history (NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 took the very first picture of an Earthrise from the vicinity of the Moon, on August 23, 1966).[42]
Borman saw the Earth emerging from behind the lunar horizon and called
in excitement to the others, taking a black-and-white photo as he did
so. In the ensuing scramble Anders took the more famous color photo, later picked by Life magazine as one of its hundred photos of the century.[43] Due to the synchronous rotation
of the Moon about the Earth, Earthrise is not generally visible from
the lunar surface. Earthrise is generally only visible when orbiting the
Moon, other than at selected places near the Moon's limb, where libration carries the Earth slightly above and below the lunar horizon.
Anders continued to take photographs while Lovell assumed control of the spacecraft so Borman could rest.[43]
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.[43]
Borman awoke fully, however, when he started to hear his fellow crew
members make mistakes. They were beginning to not understand questions
and would have to ask for the answers to be repeated. Borman realized
that everyone was extremely tired having not had a good night's sleep in
over three days. Taking command, he ordered Anders and Lovell to get
some sleep and that the rest of the flight plan regarding observing the
Moon be scrubbed. At first Anders protested saying that he was fine, but
Borman would not be swayed. At last Anders agreed as long as Borman
would set up the camera to continue to take automatic shots 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. On subsequent Apollo missions, crews would avoid
this situation by sleeping on the same schedule.
As they rounded the Moon for the ninth time, the second television
transmission began. 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."[44]
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 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."[45]
The only task left for the crew at this point was to perform the Trans-Earth Injection
(TEI), which was scheduled for 2½ 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.
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."[46] The spacecraft began its journey back to Earth on December 25, Christmas Day.
Wikipedia.
Apollo 8
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"'Round the moon and back..."
Crew
Frank Borman
Commander
William A. Anders
Lunar Module Pilot
James A. Lovell Jr.
Command Module Pilot
Backup Crew
Neil Armstrong
Commander
Fred W. Haise Jr.
Lunar Module Pilot
Edwin E. Aldrin Jr.
Command Module Pilot
Payload
CSM-103
Prelaunch Milestones
12/24/67 - S-II stage ondock at Kennedy
12/27/67 - S-IC stage ondock at Kennedy
12/30/67 - S-IVB ondock at Kennedy
1/4/68 - S-IU ondock at Kennedy
8/14/68 - launch vehicle at pad
10/17/68 - spacecraft at Pad
12/11/68 - Countdown Demonstration Test
Launch
Dec. 21, 1968; 7:51 a.m. EST
Launch Pad 39A
Saturn-V AS-503
High Bay 1
Mobile Launcher Platform-1
Firing Room 1
Orbit
Altitude: 118.82 miles
Inclination: 32.509 degrees
Orbits: 10 revolutions
Duration: six days, three hours, 42 seconds
Distance: 579,606.9 miles
Landing
Dec. 27, 1968; 10:52 a.m. EST
Pacific Ocean
Recovery Ship: USS Yorktown
Mission Objective
The mission objectives for Apollo 8 included a coordinated performance of the crew, the command and service module, or CSM, and the support facilities. The mission also was to demonstrate translunar injection; CSM navigation, communications and midcourse corrections; consumable assessment; and passive thermal control. The detailed test objectives were to refine the systems and procedures relating to future lunar operations.
All primary mission objectives and detailed test objectives were achieved. All launch vehicle and spacecraft systems performed according to plan. Engineering accomplishments included use of the ground network with onboard navigational techniques to sharpen the accuracy of lunar orbit determination and the successful use of Apollo high-gain antenna -- a four-dish unified S-band antenna that deployed from the service module, or SM, after separation from the third stage.
The mission objectives for Apollo 8 included a coordinated performance of the crew, the command and service module, or CSM, and the support facilities. The mission also was to demonstrate translunar injection; CSM navigation, communications and midcourse corrections; consumable assessment; and passive thermal control. The detailed test objectives were to refine the systems and procedures relating to future lunar operations.
All primary mission objectives and detailed test objectives were achieved. All launch vehicle and spacecraft systems performed according to plan. Engineering accomplishments included use of the ground network with onboard navigational techniques to sharpen the accuracy of lunar orbit determination and the successful use of Apollo high-gain antenna -- a four-dish unified S-band antenna that deployed from the service module, or SM, after separation from the third stage.
Mission Highlights
Apollo 8 launched from Cape Kennedy on Dec. 21, 1968, placing astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell Jr. and William Anders into a 114 by 118 mile parking orbit at 32.6 degrees.
During the second revolution, at two hours, 50 minutes ground elapsed time, the S-IVB third stage restarted for a five-minute, 17-second burn, initiating translunar coast. Following S-IVB/CSM separation at three hours, 21 minutes, a 1.5 feet per second radial burn of the SM reaction control engines was initiated to establish sufficient distance for S-IVB propellant dumping. Following the propellant dumping, which sent the stage into diverging trajectory and solar orbit, the separation distance still was deemed inadequate and a second SM reaction control burn of 7.7 feet per second was performed.
The first midcourse correction occured at about 10 hours, 55 minutes into the mission and provided a first check on the service propulsion system, or SPS, engine prior to committing spacecraft to lunar orbit insertion. The second and final midcourse correction prior to lunar orbit insertion occurred at 61 hours, 8 minutes, 54 seconds.
Loss of signal occurred at 68 hours, 58 minutes, 45 seconds when Apollo 8 passed behind the moon. At that moment, NASA's three astronauts became the first humans to see the moon's far side. The first lunar orbit insertion burn, at 69 hours, 8 minutes, 52 seconds, lasted four minutes, two seconds and reduced the spacecraft's 8,400 feet per second velocity by 2,994 feet per second, resulting in an initial lunar orbit of 70 by 193 miles. The orbit circularized at 70 miles by the second lunar orbit insertion burn of 135 feet per second, performed at the start of the third revolution, again on the back side of the moon, at 73 hours, 35 minutes, five seconds.
During the 20-hour period in lunar orbit, the crew conducted a full, sleepless schedule of tasks including landmark and landing site tracking, vertical stereo photography, stereo navigation photography and sextant navigation. At the end of the 10th lunar orbit, at 89 hours, 19 minutes, and 16 seconds, a three-minute, 23-second trans-Earth injection burn was conducted, adding 3,522 feet per second. Only one midcourse correction, a burn of five feet per second conducted at 104 hours, was required instead of the three scheduled.
Six telecasts were conducted during the mission: two during translunar coast, two during lunar orbit and two during trans-Earth coast. These transmissions were telecast worldwide and in real time to all five continents. During a telecast on Christmas Eve, the crew read verses from the first chapter of Genesis and wished viewers, "Good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you -- all of you on the good Earth." All telecasts were of excellent quality. Voice communications also were exceptionally good throughout the mission.
Separation of the command module, or CM, from the SM occurred at 146 hours, 31 minutes. A double-skip maneuver conducted during the re-entry steering phase resulted in an altitude gain of 25,000 to 30,000 feet. The re-entry velocity was 24,696 mph, with heatshield temperatures reaching 5,000 degrees F. Parachute deployment and other re-entry events were nominal. Apollo 8 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean at 10:51 a.m. EST Dec. 27. The splashdown was about 5,100 yards from the recovery ship USS Yorktown, 147 hours after launch and precisely on time. According to prior planning, helicopters and aircraft hovered over the spacecraft, and pararescue personnel were not deployed until local sunrise, 50 minutes after splashdown. The Apollo 8 crew reached the recovery ship at 12:20 p.m. EST.
NASA
This spacecraft was the first of the Apollo series to successfully orbit the moon, and the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth's gravity and reach the Moon. The mission achieved operational experience and tested the Apollo command module systems, including communications, tracking, and life-support, in cis-lunar space and lunar orbit, and allowed evaluation of crew performance on a lunar orbiting mission. The crew photographed the lunar surface, both farside and nearside, obtaining information on topography and landmarks as well as other scientific information necessary for future Apollo landings. Additionally, six live television transmission sessions were done by the crew during the mission, including the famous Christmas Eve broadcast in which the astronauts read from the book of Genesis. All systems operated within allowable parameters and all objectives of the mission were achieved. The flight carried a three man crew: Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr., and Lunar Module Pilot William A. Anders.
The spacecraft was launched on December 21, 1968 at 12:51:00 UT (7:51 a.m. EST), and was placed in a 190.6 km x 183.2 km Earth parking orbit with a period of 88.2 minutes and an inclination of 32.51 degrees. At 15:41:37 UT a third-stage burn injected the Apollo spacecraft into translunar trajectory. Orbit insertion took place on 24 December at 09:59:20 UT into an elliptical 310.6 km by 111.2 km lunar orbit. Two orbits later a second burn placed Apollo 8 into a near-circular 110.4 by 112.3 km orbit for eight orbits. The transearth injection burn took place on 25 December at 06:10:16 UT after a total of 10 lunar orbits.
Apollo 8 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 27 December 1968 at 15:51:42 UT (10:51:42 a.m. EST) after a mission elapsed time of 147 hrs, 0 mins, 42 secs. The splashdown point was 8 deg 7.5 min N, 165 deg 1.2 min W, 1,000 miles SSW of Hawaii and 5 km (3 mi) from the recovery ship USS Yorktown. The Apollo 8 Command Module is on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois. http://abyss.uoregon.edu/~js/space/lectures/lec15.html
NASA
Guillermo Gonzalo Sánchez Achutegui
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ayabaca@hotmail.com
ayabaca@yahoo.com
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