Apollo 8
Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth. These three astronauts—Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders—were the first humans to witness and photograph the far side of the Moon and an Earthrise.
| Mission type | Crewed lunar orbital CSM flight (C') |
|---|---|
| Operator | NASA |
| COSPAR ID | 1968-118A |
| SATCAT no. | 3626 |
| Mission duration | 6 days, 3 hours, 42 seconds |
| Spacecraft properties | |
| Spacecraft |
|
| Manufacturer | North American Rockwell |
| Launch mass |
|
| Landing mass | 4,979 kilograms (10,977 lb) |
| Crew | |
| Crew size | 3 |
| Members | |
| Callsign | Apollo 8 |
| Start of mission | |
| Launch date | December 21, 1968, 12:51:00 UTC |
| Rocket | Saturn V SA-503 |
| Launch site | Kennedy LC-39A |
| End of mission | |
| Recovered by | USS Yorktown |
| Landing date | December 27, 1968, 15:51:42 UTC |
| Landing site | North Pacific Ocean 8°8′N 165°1′W |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Perigee altitude | 184.40 kilometers (99.57 nmi) |
| Apogee altitude | 185.18 kilometers (99.99 nmi) |
| Inclination | 32.15 degrees |
| Period | 88.19 minutes |
| Epoch | December 21, 1968, ~13:02 UTC |
| Revolution no. | 2 |
| Lunar orbiter | |
| Spacecraft component | CSM |
| Orbital insertion | December 24, 1968, 9:59:20 UTC |
| Orbital departure | December 25, 1968, 6:10:17 UTC |
| Orbits | 10 |
| Orbital parameters | |
| Periselene altitude | 110.6 kilometers (59.7 nmi) |
| Aposelene altitude | 112.4 kilometers (60.7 nmi) |
| Inclination | 12 degrees |
|
Left to right: Lovell, Anders, Borman | |
Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968, and was the second crewed spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program after Apollo 7, which stayed in Earth orbit. Apollo 8 was the third flight and the first crewed launch of the Saturn V rocket, and was the first human spaceflight from the Kennedy Space Center, located adjacent to Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida.
Originally planned as the second crewed Apollo Lunar Module and command module test, to be flown in an elliptical medium Earth orbit in early 1969, the mission profile was changed in August 1968 to a more ambitious command-module-only lunar orbital flight to be flown in December, as the lunar module was not yet ready to make its first flight. Astronaut Jim McDivitt's crew, who were training to fly the first lunar module flight in low Earth orbit, became the crew for the Apollo 9 mission, and Borman's crew were moved to the Apollo 8 mission. This left Borman's crew with two to three months' less training and preparation time than originally planned, and replaced the planned lunar module training with translunar navigation training.
Apollo 8 took 68 hours to travel the distance to the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times over the course of twenty hours, during which they made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 10 and, with Apollo 11 in July 1969, the fulfillment of U.S. president John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. The Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27, 1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the northern Pacific Ocean. The crew members were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return.