1968: Apollo 8 (NASA)

Apollo 8 was the first manned voyage to a celestial body.

Its three-man crew of Mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to see the far side of the Moon.

The mission also involved the first manned launch of a Saturn V rocket, and was the second manned mission of the Apollo programme.

Originally planned as a low-Earth orbit Lunar Module/Command Module test, the mission profile was changed to the more ambitious lunar orbital flight in August 1968 when the Lunar Module scheduled for the flight became delayed. The new mission's profile, procedures and personnel requirements left an uncharacteristically short time-frame for training and preparation.

After launching on 21 December 1968, the crew took three days to travel to the Moon. They orbited ten times over the course of 20 hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV programme ever. Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U.S. President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.

Category:

Science & Technology

Tags:

• iaf
• 1968
• space
• nasa
• apollo

[witness2history]

@Jcpate2010 The glare of the Sun overwhelmed the stars, just as it does on earth during day time. Those who claim that the flights were hoaxes like to point to the lack of stars in the sky as "proof" as though NASA wouldn't and couldn't fake that, so that the pictures would look like all the cheesey sci-fi movie version of space travel. I was there for the launch. If they could pull that off, they certainly wouldn't forget to fake a few stars!

[antonyhilliard]

Young James Burke on the BBC! (anyone else watch "Connections"?)

[dirac33]

Apollo 8 wins the silver medal for logos after gold-medalist Apollo 11. I think I would give the bronze to Apollo 15.

[dirac33]

For Christmas 1968, I received from Santa Dad and Mrs. Claus a 4-lane Aurora HO race car kit. We opened presents in my family on Christmas Eve. So there I am sitting in front of the TV watching a broadcast from the Moon, setting up my top-of-the-pyramid HO set. Was I in heaven? I think so :)

[lcs1956]

@Jcpate2010 In your brain. 

[altfactor]

If only some of these long-range lenses could have been connected to live color-TV cameras serving as part of the ABC/CBS/NBC network pool coverage, what great shots we could have seen on live TV!

[07yensid]

Amen to that!!! I wish we could get our EARS on every second of ever mission!!!!

[youvebeenthunderstru]

Yes, but Anders was still designated LMP regardless and did fulfill some of the functions of being an LMP.

[youvebeenthunderstru]

I love listening to mission control conversation. Anybody can read the Houston to Apollo transcripts but to get Flight talking to EECOM or whatever is just great.

[maddcatone]

hehehe