Apollo 8
| Mission Insignia
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| Mission Statistics
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| Mission Name: | Apollo 8
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| Call Sign: | Command module:
Apollo 8
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Number of
Crew: | 3
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| Launch: | December 21, 1968
12:51:00 UTC
Kennedy Space Center
LC 39A
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| Lunar Orbit: | Dec 24 09:59:20 UTC–
Dec 25 06:10:16 UTC
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| Splashdown: | December 27, 1968
15:51:42 UTC
8° 6' N — 165° 1' W
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| Duration: | 6 d 3 h 0 min 42 s
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Number of
Lunar Orbits: | 10
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Time in
Lunar Orbit: | 20 h 10 min 13.0 s
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| Mass: | CSM 28,817 kg;
LTA 9,026 kg
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| Crew Picture
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 Apollo 8 crew portrait (L-R: Lovell, Anders and Borman) |
| Apollo 8 Crew
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Apollo 8 was a manned mission of the Apollo space program. Apollo 8 was the first mission that carried humans beyond Earth orbit, and the first time anyone was closer to another celestial body than they were to Earth.
Crew
(1) number of spaceflights each crew member has completed, including this mission.
Backup crew
Support crew
Mission parameters
Translunar injection burn
The Saturn V, S-IVB third stage, was fired for a second time. It burned for a total of 318 seconds. The Apollo 8 was propelled from an earth parking orbit velocity of 7792.8 meters per second to a translunar trajectory velocity of 10,822 meters per second.
See also
Mission highlights
The Apollo 8 astronauts were the first human beings to venture beyond low Earth orbit and visit another world. The mission after Apollo 7 was originally meant to be an Earth orbital test, like the Apollo 9 mission would be. However, it was becoming clear the Soviets were trying to preempt the first lunar flyby with their Zond program, which aimed to fly a stripped down Soyuz on a Proton rocket carrying one or two cosmonauts. The Soviets conducted a partially successful unmanned test in September 1968, which spurred NASA into redesignating the Apollo 8 mission for lunar orbit on short notice. It was only the second Apollo manned mission and it lacked the safety of the redundant systems of a lunar module (which later enabled the crew of Apollo 13 to survive a serious malfunction in the service module which would have killed the Apollo 8 Crew).
The Apollo 8 crew rode inside the command module, with no lunar lander attached. They were the first astronauts to be launched by the Saturn V, which had flown only twice before. The booster worked perfectly, as did the SPS engines that had been checked out on Apollo 7. Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit on the morning of December 24, 1968. For the next 20 hours the astronauts circled the Moon, which appeared out their windows as a gray, battered wasteland. They took photographs, scouted future landing sites, and on Christmas Eve/Morning (depending on location on Earth) read from the creation story in the Book of Genesis, broadcast to TV viewers around the Earth. They also photographed the first Earthrise as seen from the Moon. Apollo 8 proved the ability to navigate to and from the Moon, and gave a tremendous boost to the entire Apollo program.
- Launched: December 21, 1968 from Pad 39A
- Returned: December 27, 1968
- Crew members: Frank Borman, commander; Jim Lovell, command module pilot; William A. Anders, lunar module pilot
The command module is displayed at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry, Chicago, Illinois. The service module was disposed of before re-entry, and no lunar excursion module was used.
Apollo 8 maneuver summary
| T+ Time
| Event
| Burn Time
| Delta-Velocity
| Orbit
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| T+00:00:00 | Lift-Off | . | . | .
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| T+00:02:06 | S-IC Center Engine Cut-Off | 132 seconds | . | .
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| T+00:02:34 | S-IC Engine Cut-Off | 160 seconds | +2,304 meters/second | .
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| T+00:02:36 | S-II Ignition | . | . | .
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| T+00:08:44 | S-II Engine Cut-Off | 318.4 seconds | +4,108 meters/second | .
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| T+00:08:45 | S-IVB Ignition | . | . | .
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| T+00:11:25 | S-IVB Cut-Off | 160 seconds | +980 meters/second | .
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| T+00:11:35 | Orbital Insertion | . | . | 191.3 x 181.5 km
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| T+02:50:37 | Second S-IVB Ignition | . | . | .
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| T+02:55:55 | S-IVB Cut-Off | 318.4 seconds | +3,040 meters/second | .
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| T+02:56:05 | Trans-Lunar Injection | . | . | .
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| T+03:21:00 | CSM/S-IVB Separation | . | . | .
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| T+11:00:00 | Mid-Course Correction | 14.6 seconds | 2.6 meters/second | .
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| T+60:59:55 | Mid-Course Correction 2 | 12.8 seconds | . | .
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| T+69:12:27 | Lunar Orbit Insertion 1 | 246.9 seconds | -894 meters/second | 312.1 x 110.9 kilometers
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| T+73:35:07 | Lunar Orbit Insertion 2 | 9 seconds | +41 meters/second | 112.4 x 110.6 kilometers
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| T+89:19:17 | Trans-Earth Injection | 203.7 seconds | +1,067 meters/second | .
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| T+103:59:54 | Mid-Course Correction 3 | 14 seconds | . | .
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| T+146:28:48 | CSM Separation | . | . | .
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| T+146:46:13 | Re-Entry Interface | . | . | .
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| T+147:00:42 | Splashdown | . | . | .
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 Earth as seen from Apollo 8, December 22, 1968 (NASA)  Apollo 8 - SIV-B rocket stage. (NASA)
References
External links
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