{"id":26834,"date":"2021-11-29T10:06:03","date_gmt":"2021-11-29T10:06:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.skyatnightmagazine.com\/?p=24010"},"modified":"2021-11-29T10:21:12","modified_gmt":"2021-11-29T10:21:12","slug":"apollo-8-the-christmas-mission-around-the-moon","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcskyatnight\/rss_feed\/apollo-8-the-christmas-mission-around-the-moon\/","title":{"rendered":"Apollo 8: the Christmas mission around the Moon"},"content":{"rendered":"

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By Ezzy Pearson\n \t\t<\/p>

Published: Monday, 29 November 2021 at 12:00 am<\/p>

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Although 21 December 1968 was the shortest day of the year, for the astronauts of Apollo 8 it would be one of the longest of their lives.\u00a0The three astronauts began the day sitting on top of an untested rocket about to travel further from Earth than any human had been before. They were destined for the Moon.<\/p>\n

But Apollo 8 wasn\u2019t originally intended to go that far. The mission brief was initially to stay in low-Earth orbit and practise manoeuvring with a lunar lander.<\/p>\n

By June 1968, however, it had become apparent that the lander wouldn\u2019t be ready in time for the mission\u2019s launch.<\/p>\n

The timeline to meet the 1969 deadline for a lunar landing was already tight \u2013 a delay to Apollo 8 would derail it entirely.<\/p>\n

To avoid wasting the mission, NASA considered bringing forward the Apollo 9 mission plan and sending Apollo 8 to orbit around the Moon.<\/p>\n

It was an outrageous suggestion \u2013 only one Apollo mission had flown with a crew and the Saturn V rocket they planned to use on 21 December had never been launched with humans on board.<\/p>\n

Was it really a good idea to send astronauts to the Moon as the rocket\u2019s first big test?<\/p>\n

Ultimately, the decision was made not by NASA, but by the Soviet Union.<\/p>\n

\""Lunar\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
Lunar module pilot Bill Anders, command module pilot Jim Lovell and commander Frank Borman during a training exercise<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

In September, the Russians launched Zond 5, sending the first living creatures (including a pair of tortoises) to the Moon and back.<\/p>\n

It seemed a crewed Soviet mission couldn\u2019t be far behind.<\/p>\n

With public support for Apollo already strained, NASA could not afford to be beaten by the Russians again. Apollo 8 was in a race to the Moon.<\/p>\n

Three months later, the Apollo 8 astronauts were strapped into the Command Module waiting to launch.<\/p>\n

When the countdown hit zero, the crew began to fear that something might be wrong \u2013 the entire spacecraft was shaking like a freight train.<\/p>\n

In truth, the rocket was working perfectly; it was simply that the crew was unprepared for the sheer violence of lifting off in the world\u2019s most powerful rocket.<\/p>\n

The first stage blasted the crew to seven times the speed of sound, before the second and third stages took them into a parking orbit around Earth, 11 minutes and 34 seconds into the flight.<\/p>\n

But there would be no time for the crew to recover.<\/p>\n

They spent the next few hours checking the spacecraft before receiving the message, \u201cAlright, Apollo 8. You are go for TLI [translunar injection].\u201d<\/p>\n

The crew fired the single engine in the third stage for 12 minutes and from then on there was no turning back.<\/p>\n

As they travelled towards lunar orbit 385,000km away, the crew performed the procedures future lunar missions would need to carry out during their journeys.<\/p>\n

First, they set the spacecraft into a \u2018barbeque roll\u2019 to make sure the Sun didn\u2019t cook one side while the other froze in shadow.<\/p>\n

Then, though Apollo 8 didn\u2019t have a lunar lander on board, the crew performed a dry run of the manoeuvres needed to remove one from its housing behind the main command module.<\/p>\n

\""William\"<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>
William Anders\u2019 now-famous \u2018Earthrise\u2019 image, captured during Apollo 8, showed the fragility of our planet for the first time. Credit: NASA<\/span><\/figcaption><\/div>\n

Going silent behind the Moon<\/strong><\/h2>\n

On Christmas Eve, three days after its launch, Apollo 8 reached its destination, successfully carrying humans closer to the Moon than ever before.\u00a0Finally, the US had beaten the Soviets to a major lunar milestone.<\/p>\n

It would have been possible for the crew to simply loop around the Moon and come straight back to Earth. But since the mission was running smoothly (bar a case of space sickness on the part of Commander Frank Borman), the order was given to enter lunar orbit.<\/p>\n

The crew now had to fire the service module\u2019s engine for exactly the right amount of time.<\/p>\n

If the manoeuvre went wrong they could end up drifting irretrievably away into deep space.<\/p>\n

To make matters even more nerve wracking, the burn had to happen while they were on the far side of the Moon, where they would be out of contact with Earth.<\/p>\n

Command Module pilot James Lovell told ground control:<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019ll see you on the other side,\u201d and the crew performed their final checks before burning the engines for four minutes and seven seconds.<\/p>\n

\u201cLongest four minutes I ever spent,\u201d said William \u2018Bill\u2019 Anders as they waited for the timer to count down.<\/p>\n

But when the crew re-emerged from radio silence, they were in lunar orbit.<\/p>\n

For the next 20 hours the crew\u2019s main task was to image the lunar surface, particularly the five spots NASA had lined up as potential landing sites for future Apollo missions.<\/p>\n

As they looked at the landscape they had come so far to see, Lovell and Anders were captivated by its expansiveness and stark contrasts. Borman, however, was less taken by the scene, revealed in our interview with the Apollo 8 commander<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy own impression is that it\u2019s a vast, lonely, forbidding type existence\u2026<\/p>\n

It certainly would not appear to be a very inviting place to live or work,\u201d he said during a live television broadcast.<\/p>\n

But as the crew emerged from behind the Moon for the fourth time, they were treated to a sight that managed to break through even Borman\u2019s apparent apathy.<\/p>\n

\u201cOh my God!\u201d he exclaimed. \u201cLook at that picture over there! Here\u2019s the Earth coming up.\u00a0Wow, is that pretty?!\u201d<\/p>\n