Apollo 8

Hey everyone,

The end of the decade was quickly approaching as the Apollo Program moved forward. The second manned Apollo was meant to test the Lunar Module, but its construction was behind schedule. A bold plan was instated. They would switch the Apollo 8 and 9 missions and add to the new Apollo 8 mission. Just before the end of 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 would journey to the moon and back, assuming all went well. The crew would include Commander Frank Borman, CMP Jim Lovell, and LMP Bill Anders. Borman and Lovell had flown together before on Gemini VII, but this was Anders first spaceflight. The Saturn V rocket would be used for this flight. However, with the quick change, the crew didn't have as much time to train and spent seven hours in training for every actual hour of the mission. However, in a year fraught with unrest, assassinations, and an escalation in Vietman, the nation looked to Apollo 8 as a sign of hope. They launched on December 21, 1968 and were the first men to escape low Earth orbit as they began their journey to the moon. The flight to the moon was fairly lackadaisical except that Borman became sick. He experienced vomiting and diarrhea; however, he soon recovered and the mission continued without incident. The crew journeyed around the moon and entered orbit, and, for the first time, man saw the far side of the moon with their naked eyes. While orbiting the moon, they surveyed the surface looking for future landing sites. As the fourth orbit approached, the crew witnessed an Earthrise leaving them speechless and providing one of the most common images from space. During their ninth orbit, they addressed Earth and, famously, read from Genesis. After wishing the Earth a merry Christmas, they signed off. Before they could leave the moon's orbit, they had to perform a burn to return them to Earth which was the most critical aspect of the mission. If it failed, they would be stuck in orbit and would eventually die. However, the burn worked, and they returned to Earth. Lovell would accidentally cause the craft to deviate off course, and they would have to manually re-align on their return journey. After this, the mission finished without a hitch and a normal splashdown. After landing, the crew was named Time's Man of the Year even though their feat had occurred just before the new year. They won because they were the first men to travel to leave Earth's orbit, travel to another celestial being, and return from that celestial being. However, their feat would be topped soon enough.