Apollo 8
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, it terrified the United States. The nation had already been moving towards launching satellites, but it had been going slowly, and the fact that the USSR was ahead was a shock. Nor would it get any better: in 1961, the Soviets put Yuri Gagarin into orbit on Vostok 1. Even as the US struggled to catch up, it seemed like the Soviets owned space: a Russian orbited first, made the first rendezvous, put the first woman in space, made the first spacewalk. With the Cold War at one of its peaks, something had to be done. President John F. Kennedy put the challenge to both NASA and the American people: beat the Soviets to the Moon.
This task had to be done in steps. First came Project Mercury, which was to get single-man capsules into space at all. Then Gemini got two astronauts up at a time and practiced long duration flights and rendezvous in space. Apollo, with three-man spacecraft, would get men to the Moon. The technical challenges alone, just for Apollo, were staggering: how to get there, how to put astronauts on the Moon safely, and how to get them home. Eventually, NASA settled on a three-part spacecraft: the command module (CM) that would carry the three astronauts into orbit and home; the service module (SM) that held fuel and oxygen; and the lunar module (LM) that would take two of the three down to the Moon's surface and back. All three would be "stacked" atop a Saturn V rocket, the most powerful rocket ever constructed. Of the gigantic structure, only the CM would actually return home.
Before the Apollo program actually got to the Moon, however, there was going to be a lot of testing--especially after the Apollo 1 fire took the lives of three astronauts. NASA took each step at a time, sending up unmanned missions to test equipment (Apollo 4 through 6), then a manned mission (Apollo 7). Apollo 8 was originally supposed to be another test mission, but circumstances intervened: the LM was behind schedule, morale at NASA was declining because of the delays, and there was a real fear that the Soviets would still win the Space Race. A Russian spacecraft, Zond 5, had sent turtles to the Moon and back, and there was no telling if the Soviets were even then readying a cosmonaut or two to make the trip. (As it turned out, the Soviets had fallen behind, due to their own setbacks with the Soyuz program.) The result was that Apollo 8 would go to the Moon, with just the CM, and orbit it.
Originally, another crew, led by James McDivitt, were supposed to be on Apollo 8, but McDivitt turned it down as that crew was training to use the LM. NASA then assigned James Lovell, Frank Borman, and William Anders to Apollo 8--Borman would be mission commander, despite Lovell being the more experienced astronaut. Apollo 8 launched on 21 December 1968.
Generally speaking, the mission went off without issues, though there were constant fears in NASA, especially about course adjustment "burns" near the Moon. No one knew what the crew would run into or how the Moon's gravity would affect the spacecraft; if the burns went wrong, the three men would die. Also complicating matters was that Borman got very sick on the trip to the Moon, though this turned out to be a temporary space sickness caused by spatial disorentation. They arrived at the Moon on Christmas Eve.
For the next 20 hours, Apollo 8 took hundreds of pictures, as the three crew became the first humans to visit another celestial body, set a record for being the furthest away from Earth (a record later broken by Lovell again, aboard Apollo 13), and were the first humans to see in person the dark side of the Moon. Other than not getting enough sleep, the crew performed their duties without a problem; their photos and research were crucial to the eventual success of Apollo reaching and landing on the Moon.
Finally, on Christmas Day, Apollo 8 left the Moon to return home (the crew reading a passage from Genesis on the way), and splashed down safely on 27 December. They were recovered by the carrier USS Yorktown (CVS-10) and returned home to a hero's welcome. 1968 had been a very bad year for the United States, with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, and riots at home, but the success of Apollo 8 seemed to promise a better future--or, as one letter written to the crew stated, "You saved 1968."
Today, as of this writing, all three crew are still alive. The Apollo 8 capsule briefly went on display in Japan in 1970 as part of the World Expo, but was later donated to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
Apollo 8 has a personal connection for me: my father was on the Navy tracking team aboard the USS Yorktown. He tracked Apollo 8 from reentry to splashdown (and complimented Lovell's navigation, which was done with a sextant as a backup to the computer!), got to watch the capsule's recovery, and briefly met Borman aboard the ship. (The astronauts were quarantined aboard the Yorktown, but Dad ran into Borman while the latter was being escorted to the bathroom.) For the rest of his life, Dad was proud to have been a small part of the Apollo program, and wore an Apollo 8 patch on his informal flight suit. He would also go on to help track the first Space Shuttle mission, though by that time he was in the USAF and assigned to Space Command.
Dad passed away in 2013, but not before I got to visit the Museum of Science and Industry in 2009 and get this picture. Dad was happy that a member of the family was able to "reconnect" with Apollo 8, and hoped to visit himself at some point. Sadly, that never happened, but he loved this picture.
Apollo 8
When the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1 in 1957, it terrified the United States. The nation had already been moving towards launching satellites, but it had been going slowly, and the fact that the USSR was ahead was a shock. Nor would it get any better: in 1961, the Soviets put Yuri Gagarin into orbit on Vostok 1. Even as the US struggled to catch up, it seemed like the Soviets owned space: a Russian orbited first, made the first rendezvous, put the first woman in space, made the first spacewalk. With the Cold War at one of its peaks, something had to be done. President John F. Kennedy put the challenge to both NASA and the American people: beat the Soviets to the Moon.
This task had to be done in steps. First came Project Mercury, which was to get single-man capsules into space at all. Then Gemini got two astronauts up at a time and practiced long duration flights and rendezvous in space. Apollo, with three-man spacecraft, would get men to the Moon. The technical challenges alone, just for Apollo, were staggering: how to get there, how to put astronauts on the Moon safely, and how to get them home. Eventually, NASA settled on a three-part spacecraft: the command module (CM) that would carry the three astronauts into orbit and home; the service module (SM) that held fuel and oxygen; and the lunar module (LM) that would take two of the three down to the Moon's surface and back. All three would be "stacked" atop a Saturn V rocket, the most powerful rocket ever constructed. Of the gigantic structure, only the CM would actually return home.
Before the Apollo program actually got to the Moon, however, there was going to be a lot of testing--especially after the Apollo 1 fire took the lives of three astronauts. NASA took each step at a time, sending up unmanned missions to test equipment (Apollo 4 through 6), then a manned mission (Apollo 7). Apollo 8 was originally supposed to be another test mission, but circumstances intervened: the LM was behind schedule, morale at NASA was declining because of the delays, and there was a real fear that the Soviets would still win the Space Race. A Russian spacecraft, Zond 5, had sent turtles to the Moon and back, and there was no telling if the Soviets were even then readying a cosmonaut or two to make the trip. (As it turned out, the Soviets had fallen behind, due to their own setbacks with the Soyuz program.) The result was that Apollo 8 would go to the Moon, with just the CM, and orbit it.
Originally, another crew, led by James McDivitt, were supposed to be on Apollo 8, but McDivitt turned it down as that crew was training to use the LM. NASA then assigned James Lovell, Frank Borman, and William Anders to Apollo 8--Borman would be mission commander, despite Lovell being the more experienced astronaut. Apollo 8 launched on 21 December 1968.
Generally speaking, the mission went off without issues, though there were constant fears in NASA, especially about course adjustment "burns" near the Moon. No one knew what the crew would run into or how the Moon's gravity would affect the spacecraft; if the burns went wrong, the three men would die. Also complicating matters was that Borman got very sick on the trip to the Moon, though this turned out to be a temporary space sickness caused by spatial disorentation. They arrived at the Moon on Christmas Eve.
For the next 20 hours, Apollo 8 took hundreds of pictures, as the three crew became the first humans to visit another celestial body, set a record for being the furthest away from Earth (a record later broken by Lovell again, aboard Apollo 13), and were the first humans to see in person the dark side of the Moon. Other than not getting enough sleep, the crew performed their duties without a problem; their photos and research were crucial to the eventual success of Apollo reaching and landing on the Moon.
Finally, on Christmas Day, Apollo 8 left the Moon to return home (the crew reading a passage from Genesis on the way), and splashed down safely on 27 December. They were recovered by the carrier USS Yorktown (CVS-10) and returned home to a hero's welcome. 1968 had been a very bad year for the United States, with the assassinations of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy, the Tet Offensive in Vietnam, and riots at home, but the success of Apollo 8 seemed to promise a better future--or, as one letter written to the crew stated, "You saved 1968."
Today, as of this writing, all three crew are still alive. The Apollo 8 capsule briefly went on display in Japan in 1970 as part of the World Expo, but was later donated to the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
Apollo 8 has a personal connection for me: my father was on the Navy tracking team aboard the USS Yorktown. He tracked Apollo 8 from reentry to splashdown (and complimented Lovell's navigation, which was done with a sextant as a backup to the computer!), got to watch the capsule's recovery, and briefly met Borman aboard the ship. (The astronauts were quarantined aboard the Yorktown, but Dad ran into Borman while the latter was being escorted to the bathroom.) For the rest of his life, Dad was proud to have been a small part of the Apollo program, and wore an Apollo 8 patch on his informal flight suit. He would also go on to help track the first Space Shuttle mission, though by that time he was in the USAF and assigned to Space Command.
Dad passed away in 2013, but not before I got to visit the Museum of Science and Industry in 2009 and get this picture. Dad was happy that a member of the family was able to "reconnect" with Apollo 8, and hoped to visit himself at some point. Sadly, that never happened, but he loved this picture.