Apollo 8

Apollo 8

Mission Insignia
Mission Statistics
Mission Name:	Apollo 8
Call Sign:	Command module: Apollo 8
Number of Crew:	3
Launch:	December 21, 1968 12:51:00 UTC Kennedy Space Center LC 39A
Lunar Orbit:	Dec 24 09:59:20 UTC– Dec 25 06:10:16 UTC
Landing:	December 27, 1968 15:51:42 UTC 8° 6' N — 165° 1' W
Duration:	6 d 3 h 0 min 42 s
Number of Lunar Orbits:	10
Time in Lunar Orbit:	20 h 10 min 13.0 s
Mass:	CSM 28,817 kg; LTA 9,026 kg
Crew Picture
Apollo 8 Crew

Apollo 8 was a manned mission of the Apollo space program. Apollo 8 was the first mission that carried humans beyond Earth orbit, and the first time anyone was closer to another celestial body than they were to Earth.

Crew

• Frank Borman (2), commander
• James Lovell (3), command module pilot
• William Anders (1), lunar module pilot

Mission Parameters

• Mass: 28,817 kg
• Perigee: 183.2 km
• Apogee: 190.6 km
• Inclination: 32.51°
• Period: 88.15 min

• Perilune: 111.2 km
• Apolune: 310.6 km
• Inclination: 12°
• Period: 128.7 min

Translunar injection burn

• December 21, 1968, 15:41:38 UTC

The Saturn V, S-IVB third stage, was fired for a second time. It burned for a total of 318 seconds. The Apollo 8 was propelled from an earth parking orbit velocity of 7792.8 meters per second to a translunar trajectory velocity of 10,822 meters per second.

See also

• Splashdown

Mission Highlights

The Apollo 8 astronauts were the first human beings to venture beyond low Earth orbit and visit another world. What was originally to have been an Earth­orbit checkout of the lunar lander became instead a race with the Soviets to become the first nation to orbit the Moon. The Apollo 8 crew rode inside the command module, with no lunar lander attached. They were the first astronauts to be launched by the Saturn V, which had flown only twice before. The booster worked perfectly, as did the SPS engines that had been checked out on Apollo 7. Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit on the morning of December 24, 1968. For the next 20 hours the astronauts circled the Moon, which appeared out their windows as a gray, battered wasteland. They took photographs, scouted future landing sites, and on Christmas Eve read from the Book of Genesis to TV viewers back on Earth. They also photographed the first Earthrise as seen from the Moon. Apollo 8 proved the ability to navigate to and from the Moon, and gave a tremendous boost to the entire Apollo program.

After orbiting Earth, the spacecraft orbited the Moon and then returned safely. Apollo 8 was originally meant to have been like the Apollo 9 mission, an Earth orbital test. However, it was moved up to a lunar flight on only the second Apollo manned mission and without the safety of having the redundant systems of a lunar module (if the Apollo 13 malfunction had occurred on Apollo 8 the crew would have died). The reason was that it was becoming clear the Soviets were trying to preempt the first lunar flyby with their Zond program, which aimed to fly a stripped down Soyuz on a Proton rocket carrying 1-2 Cosmonauts. A partially successful unmanned test was carried out in September 1968. This is the one that alarmed NASA into redesignating the Apollo 8 mission on short notice.

Launched: December 21, 1968 from Pad 39A

Returned: December 27, 1968

Crew members: Frank Borman, commander; Jim Lovell, command module pilot; William A. Anders, lunar module pilot

Mission notes:

• Famous photos were taken of Earth throughout the trip.
• On Christmas morning, the crew read aloud the creation story from the book of Genesis; the reading was broadcast worldwide.

The command module is displayed at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois. No lunar module was used.

Apollo 8 Maneuver Summary

T+ Time	Event	Burn Time	Delta-Velocity	Orbit
T+00:00:00	Lift-Off	.	.	.
T+00:02:06	S-IC Center Engine Cut-Off	132 seconds	.	.
T+00:02:34	S-IC Engine Cut-Off	160 seconds	+2,304 meters/second	.
T+00:02:36	S-II Ignition	.	.	.
T+00:08:44	S-II Engine Cut-Off	318.4 seconds	+4,108 meters/second	.
T+00:08:45	S-IVB Ignition	.	.	.
T+00:11:25	S-IVB Cut-Off	160 seconds	+980 meters/second	.
T+00:11:35	Orbital Insertion	.	.	191.3 x 181.5 km
T+02:50:37	Second S-IVB Ignition	.	.	.
T+02:55:55	S-IVB Cut-Off	318.4 seconds	+3,040 meters/second	.
T+02:56:05	Trans-Lunar Injection	.	.	.
T+03:21:00	CSM/S-IVB Seperation	.	.	.
T+11:00:00	Mid-Course Correction	14.6 seconds	2.6 meters/second	.
T+60:59:55	Mid-Course Correction 2	12.8 seconds	.	.
T+69:12:27	Lunar Orbit Insertion 1	246.9 seconds	-894 meters/second	312.1 x 110.9 kilometers
T+73:35:07	Lunar Orbit Insertion 2	9 seconds	+41 meters/second	112.4 x 110.6 kilometers
T+89:19:17	Trans-Earth Injection	203.7 seconds	+1,067 meters/second	.
T+103:59:54	Mid-Course Correction 3	14 seconds	.	.
T+146:28:48	CSM Seperation	.	.	.
T+146:46:13	Re-Entry Interface	.	.	.
T+147:00:42	Splashdown	.	.	.

Reference

Preceded by : Apollo 7

Apollo program

Followed by : Apollo 9