"At some point in the history of the world", editorialized The Washington Post in 1968, "someone may have read the first ten verses of the Book of Genesis under conditions that gave them greater meaning than they had on Christmas Eve. But it seems unlikely ... This Christmas will always be remembered as the lunar one."
READ: MISSION TRANSCRIPT: THE CHRISTMAS BROADCAST READ: APOLLO 8 MISSION REPORT READ: APOLLO 8 PRESS KIT READ: APOLLO 8 FLIGHT PLAN VOL. 1 READ: APOLLO 8 FLIGHT PLAN VOL.2 READ: APOLLO SATURN V 503 FLIGHT MANUAL VIDEO: AS SEEN LIVE - THE CHRISTMAS BROADCAST FROM THE MOON VIDEO: APOLLO 8 CHRISTMAS VIDEO VIDEO: APOLLO 8 - DECEMBER 21, 1968 VIDEO: DE-BRIEF APOLLO 8 VIDEO: AS SEEN LIVE - LAUNCH OF APOLLO 8 VIDEO: THE ANNUAL JOHN H. GLENN LECTURE - AN EVENING WITH THE APOLLO 8 ASTRONAUTS (NOV. 13, 2008) VIDEO: THE APOLLO 8 CREW REMEMBERS HISTORIC MISSION LIVE FROM THE NEWSEUM (NOV. 13, 2008) VIDEO: ISS EXPEDITION 18 CREW PAYS TRIBUTE TO APOLLO 8 VIDEO: ISS EXPEDITION 18 ASTRONAUTS' CHRISTMAS GREETING VIDEO: APOLLO 8 VIDEO FILE A LUNAR CHRISTMAS At 8:40 p.m. the Apollo 8 astronauts were on television. First, they showed the half Earth across a stark lunar landscape. Then, from the other unfogged window, they tracked the bleak surface of the Moon. "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth", said Lovell. The pictures aroused great wonder with an estimated half billion people vicariously exploring what no man had ever seen before. "For all the people on Earth," said Anders, "the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you." He paused a moment and then began reading: In the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth. After four verses of Genesis, Lovell took up the reading: And God called the light Day and the darkness he called Night. At the end of the eighth verse Borman picked up the familiar words: And God said, Let the waters under the Heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear; and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters He called seas; and God saw that it was good. The commander added: "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." It was a time of rare emotion. The mixture of the season, the immortal words, the ancient Moon, and the new technolgy made for an extraordinarily effective setting. The New York Times, which called Apollo 8 "the most fantastic voyage of all times", said on December 26: "There was more than narrow religious significance in the emotional high point of their fantastic odyssey." As Apollo 8 began its tenth and last orbit, CapCom Ken Mattingly told the astronauts: "We have reviewed all your systems. You have a GO to TEI" (trans-earth injection). This time the crew really was in thrall to the SPS engine. It had to ignite in this most apprehensive moment of the mission, else Apollo 8 would be left in lunar orbit, its passengers' lives measured by the length of their oxygen supply. Ignite it did, in a 303-second burn that would effect touchdown in just under 58 hours. Apollo 8 reentered at 25,000 mph and splashed down south of Hawaii two days after Christmas. The stupendous effect of Apollo 8 was strengthened by color photographs published after the return. Not only was the technology of going to the Moon brilliantly proven; men began to view the Earth as "small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence", as Archibald MacLeish put it, and to realize as never before that their planet was worth working to save. The concept that Earth was itself a kind of spacecraft needing attention to its habitability spread more widely than ever. During the last week of 1968 the Associated Press repolled its 1278 newspaper editors, who overwhelmingly voted Apollo 8 the story of the year. Time discarded "The Dissenter" in favor of Borman, Lovell, and Anders; and a friend telegraphed Frank Borman, "You have bailed out 1968." (Excerpt from NASA publication SP-350, Apollo Expeditions to the Moon. Edited By EDGAR M. CORTRIGHT) 
(Image Above: This view of the rising Earth greeted the Apollo 8 astronauts as they came from behind the Moon after the lunar orbit insertion burn. Earth is about five degrees above the horizon in the photo. The unnamed surface features in the foreground are near the eastern limb of the Moon as viewed from Earth. The lunar horizon is approximately 780 kilometers from the spacecraft. Width of the photographed area at the horizon is about 175 km (109 miles). On the Earth 386,000 km (240,000 miles) away, the sunset terminator bisects Africa. Image Credit: 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 Apollo 8 spacecraft consisted of a command module similar to Apollo 7 except that the forward pressure and ablative hatches were replaced by a combined forward hatch, which would be used for transfer to the Lunar Module on later missions. The spacecraft mass of 28,817 kg is the mass of the CSM including propellants and expendables. A Lunar Module was not used on the Apollo 8 mission but a Lunar Module Test Article which was equivalent in mass (9027 kg) to a Lunar Module was mounted in the spacecraft/launch vehicle adapter as ballast for mass loading purposes. 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. Apollo 8 Facts Lunar Module: none flown, Lunar Test Article ballast A lunar module was not carried but a Lunar Test Article which is equivalent in weight to a lunar module was carried as ballast. The mission was the second flight in the Apollo program and the first manned flight on the Saturn V rocket. Saturn V launch vehicle with the Apollo spacecraft on top stood 363 feet (110 meters) tall.
RETURN TO THE SPACEARIUM HOMEPAGE |
| Copyright © 2008, Space Media Corporation and The Spacearium, All Rights Reserved. All trademarks and copyrights on this page are owned by their respective owners. Space Media Corporation is a wholly owned company of the Aerospace Research & Engineering Systems Institute, Inc. |
