First Crewed Lunar Orbiting Mission Apollo 8 Launched Dec. 21, 1968

Summary: First crewed lunar orbiting mission Apollo 8 launched Dec. 21, 1968, made 10 lunar orbits and splashed down Dec. 27.

North American Rockwell artist’s concept illustrates Command Service Modules (CSM), still attached to Saturn V third stage (S-IVB), heading away from Earth at approximately 24,300 miles per hour; NASA ID S68-51304: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Generally not subject to copyright in the United States, via NASA Image and Video Library

First crewed lunar orbiting mission Apollo 8 launched Dec. 21, 1968, made 10 revolutions around Earth’s moon and successfully splashed down Dec. 27 in the North Pacific Ocean.

The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) configured the Apollo 8 mission as “its first mission designed to orbit men around the Moon,” according to the agency’s Apollo 8 Press Kit (page 1), released Dec. 15, 1968. The Press Kit described Apollo 8 as “the second manned flight in the Apollo program and the first manned flight on the Saturn V rocket, the United States’ largest launch vehicle.”

About two and one-third months earlier, the Saturn IB rocket had launched Apollo 7 on Friday, Oct. 11, 1968, at 15:02:45 GMT/UTC (11:02 a.m. EST) from Launch Complex 34 (LC-34) as the first crewed Apollo space mission. The Apollo 7 crew of Commander Walter “Wally” Marty Schirra Jr. (March 12, 1923-May 3, 2007), Command Module Pilot (CMP) Donn Fulton Eisele (June 23, 1930-Dec. 2, 1987) and Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) Ronnie Walter Cunningham (born March 16, 1932) completed 163 low Earth orbits. Splashdown occurred Tuesday, Oct. 22, in the North Atlantic Ocean.

Apollo 8 launched on time Saturday, Dec. 21, 1968, at 12:51:00 Greenwich Mean Time/Coordinated Universal Time (7:51 a.m. Eastern Standard Time). The launch, which took place at central Florida’s John F. Kennedy Space Center (KSC), marked the first use of Launch Pad 39-A. The mission’s astronauts were Commander Frank Frederick Borman II (born March 14, 1928), CMP James “Jim” Arthur Lovell Jr. (born March 25, 1928) and LMP William Alison Anders (born Oct. 17, 1933).

The Saturn V launch vehicle’s S-IVB third stage achieved translunar injection after one and one-half Earth orbits, according to freelance space writer Richard Orloff’s Apollo by the Numbers, published by NASA in 2000 (page 35). Translunar injection occurred at 15:47:05 GMT/UTC (10:47 a.m. EST), 2 hours 56 minutes 05.51 seconds after liftoff (002:56:05.51 Ground Elapsed Time GET). The injection occurred at a velocity of 35, 504.41 feet per second (fps; 24,207.55 miles per hour) and at an altitude of 187.221 nautical miles.

A maneuver 24 minutes 54 seconds later by the Apollo 8 mission’s service module reaction control system (RCS) separated Command-Service Module (CSM) 103 from the S-IVB. The separation occurred at 16:11:59 GMT/UTC (11:11 a.m. EST; 003:20:59.3 GET).

Two evasive maneuvers, instigated by the service module’s reaction control system (RCS), were performed to keep the spacecraft at a safe distance from the S-IVB. The first maneuver was performed at 16:31:01 GMT/UTC (11:31 a.m. EST; 003:40:01 GET), at 1.1 feet per second. The second maneuver occurred at 17:36:01 (12:36 p.m. EST; 004:45:01 GET), at 7.7 feet per second.

The separation was intended to place the S-IVB on a slingshot trajectory for a flyby of the moon’s trailing edge prior to insertion into a solar orbit. The slingshot maneuver was initiated at 17:35:56 GMT/UTC (12:35 p.m. EST; 004:44:56.63 GET).

The S-IVB made its closest lunar approach, at 682 nautical miles, Christmas Eve, Tuesday, Dec. 24, at 10:49:55 (5:49 a.m. EST; 069:58:55.2 GET). The selenographic coordinates of the closest approach were 19.2 degrees north latitude at 88.0 degrees east longitude. Apollo by the Numbers details the S-IVB’s solar orbit with a periodicity of 340.8 days and with apsides of 79.770 million nautical miles for aphelion and 74.490 million nautical miles for perihelion.

Insertion of CSM-103 into lunar orbit happened Christmas Eve at 09:59:20 GMT/UTC (4:59 a.m. EST; 069:08:20.4 GET). NASA’s Apollo 8 Mission Report states: “Ten revolutions were completed during the 20 hours 11 minutes spent in lunar orbit” (1-1).

The mission’s trans-Earth injection for leaving lunar orbit for a return-to-Earth trajectory began with ignition of the service propulsion system (SPS) engine at 06:10:16 GMT/UTC (1:10 a.m. EST; 089:19:16.6 GET) on Christmas, Wednesday, Dec. 25. The 203.7-second maneuver was initiated at an altitude of 60.2 nautical miles.

The command and service modules separated Friday, Dec. 27, at 15:19:48 GMT/UTC (10:19 a.m. EST; 146:28:48.0 GET). Apollo by the Numbers noted the unavailability of radar tracking data for the service module’s re-entry into Earth’s atmosphere but suggested a good correlation of photographic coverage information with the service module’s predicted trajectory.

The command module splashed down at 15:51:42 GMT/UTC (10:51 a.m. EST; 147:00:42.0 GET) in the North Pacific Ocean. NASA’s Apollo 8 Mission Report noted: “The total flight duration was 147 hours 42 seconds” (1-2). The recovery ship, USS Yorktown, reached the command module at 18:13 GMT/UTC (1:13 p.m. EST; 149:22 GET). The Mission Report placed splashdown at “8 degrees 8 minutes north latitude and 165 degrees 1 minute west longitude, as determined by the primary recovery ship USS Yorktown” (1-2).

The takeaways for first crewed lunar orbiting mission Apollo 8’s launch Dec. 21, 1968, is that the spaceflight of 147 hours 42 minutes demonstrated the viability of crewed flight to the moon and suggested the possibility of lunar landing missions in the near future.

North American Rockwell artist’s concept illustrates starting of 20,500-pound thrust engine over lunar far side in preparation for return to Earth; NASA ID S68-51302: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Generally not subject to copyright in the United States, via NASA Image and Video Library

Acknowledgment

My special thanks to talented artists and photographers/concerned organizations who make their fine images available on the internet.

Image credits:

North American Rockwell artist’s concept illustrates Command Service Modules (CSM), still attached to Saturn V third stage (S-IVB), heading away from Earth at approximately 24,300 miles per hour; NASA ID S68-51304: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details-S68-51304

North American Rockwell artist’s concept illustrates starting of 20,500-pound thrust engine over lunar far side in preparation for return to Earth; NASA ID S68-51302: National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA), Generally not subject to copyright in the United States; may use this material for educational or informational purposes, including photo collections, textbooks, public exhibits, computer graphical simulations and Internet Web pages; general permission extends to personal Web pages, via NASA Image and Video Library @ https://images.nasa.gov/details-S68-51302

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