Apollo 8: 50th Anniversary of a Crapshoot

[Oddball]

Because the lunar lander wasn't ready for so much as test flights in space, the itinerary for Apollo 8 was hastily changed. Instead of docking and maneuvering tests for the lunar vehicle, a lunar orbital plan was thrown together.

The first time the 3rd stage S-IVB booster would be used to propel a crew out of Earths gravity. The first time the command module engine would be used to insert the craft into lunar orbit, and later bast it out for the return home. Space sickness. Concerns about radiation from the Van Allen radiation belts. All of these firsts and more would be accomplished by this historically underrated mission.

On Dec. 21, 1968, just before 5 a.m. local time, James Lovell, William Anders and Frank Borman had no way of knowing that when they piled into their capsule tucked atop a Saturn V rocket on a Florida launchpad. Three hours later, they would be on their way to space and to becoming the first three humans to fly around the moon.

<snip>

When the Apollo 8 mission was redesigned, no mission control room was ready, no trajectories had been calculated for a lunar flight, no astronauts had been trained for it and there was no procedure for fetching returning astronauts on landing, current NASA Administrator Jim Bridenstine recounted in a new video released by the agency. The only engine the crew could rely on during flight for the multiple course-correction burns the path required had never re-ignited in flight. Apollo 8 would be Saturn V's first voyage with humans aboard, and only its third flight ever — and it failed during the second uncrewed flight.

Apollo 8 Launched 1st Astronauts Around the Moon 50 Years Ago Today Despite Big Risks

 

[gulfman]

How times have changed.The reading from the Bible on Christmas Eve by the astronauts.Such filth would never be allowed today.

 

[harmonica]

Earth Rise - Apollo 8

 

[Oddball]

Today was the first time a manned craft entered into lunar orbit.

Apollo 8 has just disappeared behind the Moon's western limb and will be out of radio contact with Earth for a period of time that depends on what the crew do in the next few minutes. If they do nothing, the Moon's gravity will sling them around and send them back towards Earth. They would then re-emerge from behind the eastern limb 22½ minutes later, having aborted the mission. What they actually intend to do is fire their SPS (Service Propulsion System) engine for a little over four minutes against their direction of travel, slowing them down enough to be captured by the lunar gravitational field. If this burn works as expected, then the trajectory experts and their computers have calculated that Apollo 8 will reappear 32 minutes, 37 seconds after it disappears. Any deviation from the planned burn will affect this duration, making it a good initial test of the burn's fidelity and their trajectory.

https://history.nasa.gov/afj/ap08fj/12day3_lunar_encounter.html



On the fourth orbit, William Anders captured what was to become one of the most famous images of the Apollo program: "Earthrise".

 

[Oddball]

 

[Picaro]

I'm still amazed at how close they were able to get to the moon via their calculations, using slide rules and no computers to do the work for them. Makes the modern nonsense about needing calculators and laptops in grade schools look pretty stupid when all of the people who invented, designed, and built computers in the first place only had chalkboards and pencils to accomplish a more impressive array of achievements, while modern kids can't even make change for a buck.