Apollo 8: A Mission Often Forgotten (Armchair Astronaut, Dec. 2010)

Welcome to this second edition of Armchair Astronaut! :D In this issue of the column I'm going to talk about a mission that's often forgotten, and while not well-remembered, very historic and risky.

Apollo 11 is a well-remembered mission. And why not? It was the first mission to land on the moon. NASA had finally completed JFK's challenge of the decade to land a man on the moon and bring him back safely in the 1960s. But people oft forget the missions, the people, the steps and risks taken to complete this challenge. Apollo 8 was one of those missions. First manned mission to use a Saturn V. First manned mission to fly to the moon and orbit it. And first to safely return from another world.

Recently I read an awesome book on Apollo 8 written by Robert Zimmerman, and it's called "Genesis: the story of Apollo 8". "Genesis" is the December Armchair Astronaut book. While published 12 years ago, and it is 299 pages, it is just a totally awesome book!! I choose Genesis as Armchair Astronaut book for December because this month it will be 42 years since Apollo 8 flew!! In the rest of this article I will try to recall some of the stories and highlights I remember from reading this book.

The mission of Apollo 8 as we know it certainly wasn't in NASA's original get-man-to-the-moon schedule. Apollo 8 was scheduled to experiment and test out the lunar module, the spacecraft specially designed for landing on the moon. See, the lunar module (LM) would separate from the command module (CM) and go land on the moon. The CM would serve as an orbiting base while the lunar module and its inhabitants were exploring the moon. When the astronauts in the LM were done on the moon, they'd fire up their engine and go and dock with the CM.All the astronauts were transfer over into the CM, and then the LM would be cast off.

So anyway. Grumman, the company responsible for producing the LM, was behind schedule. NASA had to come up with good mission objectives for Apollo 8 while not totally duplicating the mission of Apollo 7. Well, the moon was the goal. But what kind of lunar mission do you have without a lunar module? Well, you orbit around the moon! So that's what NASA decided. Apollo 8 and its crew of Frank Borman (commander), Jim Lovell (CM pilot) and Bill Anders (the LM-less LM pilot) would orbit the moon in the command module.

It was a bold move. So far, there had been no perfect tests of the Saturn V, the booster that would propel Borman and his crew to the moon. However, von Braun and his team believed that they had all the problems solved. So Apollo 8 would be the first manned test of a Saturn V.



Then there was the issue of time. The Soviets had let out that they may orbit a man around the moon by early 1969. And when all these decisions were being made, it was October 1968. Usually a lunar crew trained for a year. But after consulting the time tables of when would be the perfect time to send Apollo 8 on its way, NASA decided that Apollo 8 would fly at Christmas time. In fact, they'd be making their 10 orbits around the moon on Christmas Day itself.

Amazingly, Washington approved. And with Frank Borman's approval, NASA went forward with its new plan for Apollo 8. Jim Lovell had a surprise for his wife. There was a Mexican resort owner that often let astronauts and their families vacation for cheap at his resort. The Lovell family had been planning to take up this offer at Christmas, 1968. As soon as Lovell found out the news about the Apollo 8 mission change, he came home and told his wife that perhaps he might have to be somewhere else at Christmas and that they would have to cancel their vacation. Marilyn Lovell asked where he would be. With practice, he replied, "Oh...the moon." :D

Genesis: The story of Apollo 8 was different than other space books I've read before. Of course, it's a biography and the story material changes book by book. But unlike other books that focused solely on the space program, Genesis talked about the riots and other events of 1968 that were going on at the same time. While it bit scary to read about, it was very nice to have the story a bit more in balance, and understanding the times. I agree with Jim Lovell, who once stated that Apollo 8 was the best thing that could have ever happened to America in 1968.

At 7:51am EST on December 21, 1968 a Saturn V propelled Borman, Lovell, and Anders away from the Earth and towards the moon. Three days later, Apollo 8 and its crew reached lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. In mission preparation, Commander Borman had been notified that many, many people would be watching their Christmas Day television broadcast from the moon. Borman, and others knew that whatever was said should be well-thought out and appropriate. So, after the crew did a bit of thinking, they decided on a Christmas broadcast. But they'd keep it secret till the time came.

Apollo 8 was in lunar orbit. The time was Christmas Day. It was time to deliver that all-important Christmas broadcast. After describing the moon's surface, the Apollo 8 crew started reading the first few verses of Genesis off their flight plan:


William Anders:
"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you".
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell:
"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman:
"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 called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."

Borman then 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 the best message the crew could have ever come up with.

As soon as 10 orbits of our satellite had been made, the 8 crew fired up their engine and headed back home. There was relatively few problems on the way back. In fact, future moonwalker Harrison Schmitt radioed up a modified version of The Twelve Days of Christmas to the crew. It went something like this:

"Frank Borman was all snug in his bed, 
while Jim Lovell in his couch, 
and Bill Anders in the bay,
racked their heads on the computer display." :D

For many, the best Christmas present ever was watching the splashdown of Apollo 8 on December 27. Three men had gone to another world--and returned. Life magazine made the crew their Men of the Year. America went crazy with happiness. And even the Soviets acknowledged the American victory by inviting Frank Borman to the Soviet Union. Borman was the first American astronaut that had been officially invited to the Soviet Union. For the first time, the Earth had been seen and photographed as the fragile ball in space that it is. NASA--and America--was one step closer to landing a man on the moon and meeting JFK's challenge of the decade.

I don't really think I need to re-state this, but if you want to learn about the oft-forgotten, very historic, risky, and exciting mission of Apollo 8, please consider reading Genesis: the story of Apollo 8.