APOLLO 8 Modern doc Read online

  A Hashtag Histories Book

  Fact-filled accounts of important historical events written in the form of today’s social media

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  The Hashtag Histories books so far:

  1. Berlin 1945: The Final Days of Hitler’s Third Reich

  http://smarturl.it/berlin45

  2. Tokyo 1945: The Final Days of World War II (The Pacific War)

  http://smarturl.it/tokyo45

  3. Havana 1962: The Cuban Missile Crisis-To the Brink of Nuclear War

  http://hyperurl.co/nmd783

  HASHTAG HISTORIES Box Set, Vol. 1

  http://hyperurl.co/4790ru

  4. Apollo 8 – The Longest Journey

  http://hyperurl.co/b80n7f

  5. Apollo11- When Men Walked on the Moon

  http://smarturl.it/houston69

  THE APOLLO COLLECTION – Apollo 1 to Apollo 11

  http://hyperurl.co/kmzoz1

  6. Apollo 13: The Miracle Journey

  http://hyperurl.co/422z8v

  See all the books at: http://www.hashtaghistories.com/

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  Table of Contents

  A Hashtag Histories Book

  INTRODUCTION

  THE BEGINNING

  BUILD UP TO LAUNCH

  LAUNCH DAY

  LIFT OFF

  INTO ORBIT

  TO THE MOON

  FIRST MID-COURSE CORRECTION BURN

  INTO LUNAR ORBIT

  THE JOURNEY HOME

  RECOVERY

  AFTERWORD

  Major Sources for Apollo 8

  Other Hashtag Histories books you may enjoy

  Berlin 1945: The Final Days of Hitler’s Third Reich

  A gentle reminder

  Apollo 8

  The Longest Journey

  INTRODUCTION

  What if there had been social media during the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon in 1968?

  This account will put you believably back inside those six tense and dramatic days over Christmas in 1968. It is the story of the first manned mission to the Moon told in the form of today’s social media, allowing us to witness the unfolding drama of the mission as if we were following it in real time and as if the participants and observers were sharing their thoughts and actions with us directly.

  In December 1968, so much remained unknown.

  Would the first manned launch of the massive Saturn V rocket lift off and successfully deliver three astronauts into Earth orbit? Would humans be able to survive passing through the Van Allen belts of radiation between the Earth and the Moon? What would happen when the astronauts passed around the far side of the Moon out of contact with Earth? Would the single engine needed to boost the spacecraft out of lunar orbit and on a course back to Earth fire as hoped? Would the first nighttime recovery of a spacecraft from the Pacific Ocean be successful?

  If the Apollo 8 mission was to be successful, the astronauts on board would become the first humans to travel so incredibly far and so incredibly fast. They would be the first to leave the Earth’s sphere of influence and the first to see the whole planet Earth from space. They would be the first to orbit the Moon, first to set eyes on the far side of the Moon and the first humans to witness the spectacular Earthrise over the lunar landscape.

  The narrative of this account is based on actual astronaut recollections, NASA transcripts of the fascinating continual communications with the astronauts, broadcasts of the main TV networks covering the mission and the thoughts of many laypeople observers. There is an extensive list of major sources at the end of the book.

  THE BEGINNING

  May 25, 1961

  John F. Kennedy (1917–1963)

  John Fitzgerald Kennedy (often referred to as JFK, and ‘Jack’ to family and close friends) became the youngest ever elected president of the United States following his election in 1960. Although he was assassinated before he could complete his first term in office, Kennedy is credited with setting the wheels in motion for the wildly ambitious program to achieve a manned Moon landing before the end of the 1960s. He formally announced this momentous goal to a joint session of Congress on May 25, 1961.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  I believe that this nation should commit itself to achieving the goal, before this decade is out, of landing a man on the Moon and returning him safely to Earth.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  We propose to accelerate the development of the appropriate lunar space craft. We propose to develop alternate liquid and solid fuel boosters, much larger than any now being developed.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  We propose additional funds for other developments - explorations which are particularly important for one purpose which this nation will never overlook: the survival of the man who first makes this daring flight.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  No single space project in this period will be more impressive to mankind, or more important for the long-range exploration of space; and none will be so difficult or expensive to accomplish.

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  16 months later

  September 12, 1962

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  When the president laid out that incredibly ambitious goal to Congress back in May last year, the American space program had yet to even match the achievement of the Soviet Union in putting a single man into low Earth orbit.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  The flights of Mercury Program astronauts Alan Shepherd and then Gus Grissom had been suborbital flights lasting a duration of barely 15 minutes. Basically, going straight up into space and then straight back down again.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  Since then, two more Mercury astronauts (John Glenn and Scott Carpenter) have each flown in actual orbit around the Earth. Those flights lasted just 5 hours each.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  The next Mercury mission will be a flight intended to carry astronaut Wally Schirra on a nine-hour, six-orbit flight scheduled for early next month.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  There will then be just one more flight in the Mercury Program before NASA begins its Gemini Program, the goal of which is to send two astronauts on each mission to carry out a wide range of tasks to be accomplished while in orbit around the Earth.

  Walter Cronkite (1916-2009)

  Walter Cronkite was best known as the main anchorman for the American CBS television news network during much of the Cold War in the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s. Often referred to as “the most trusted man in America”, Cronkite was the face of American news during the Cuban Missile Crisis, the assassinations of Martin Luther King, John F. Kennedy and Robert Kennedy; throughout the American space program, Moon landings and the war in Vietnam.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  Now, 16 months after President Kennedy laid out the goal for NASA, there have still only been only four manned American flights into space and only two of those were able to put an astronaut into Earth orbit.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  There is still an awful long way to go before we will be able to achieve NASA’s now-stated goal of sending not one or two but three men all the way to the Moon and back.

  Walter Cronkite @WCronkiteCBSNews

  Today the president is in Houston, Texas where he will receive an honorary doctorate and deliver an address to the assembled alumni of Rice University there.

  Walter Cronkite @WCronkiteCBSNews

  Houston is the city soon to be the home of NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center, therefore home to thousands of engineers and technicians as well as the NASA astronauts and the hub for all of America’s future space exploration.
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  Walter Cronkite @WCronkiteCBSNews

  The president is taking the podium now.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  This great city of Houston, was not built by those who waited, rested and looked behind. And so it will be with space. Space will be conquered by those who move relentlessly forward.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  The exploration of space is one of the greatest adventures of all time, and no nation which expects to be the leader of other nations can expect to stay behind in the race for space.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  The eyes of the world now look into space, to the Moon and to the planets beyond, and we have vowed that we shall not see it governed by a hostile flag of conquest, but by a banner of freedom and peace.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  To be sure, we are behind the Soviets now, and will be behind for some time in manned flight. But we do not intend to stay behind, and in this decade, we shall make up and move ahead.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  We shall send to the Moon, 240,000 miles away from the control station in Houston, a giant rocket more than 300 feet tall, the length of a football field, made of new metal alloys, some of which have not yet been invented.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  We choose to undertake this work and this endeavor, to go to the Moon in this decade and do many other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard.

  John F. Kennedy @JFKennedy

  This great endeavor will be planned, developed and executed largely from this very city of Houston, where in the last 24 hours we have seen the facilities now being created for the greatest and most complex exploration in man’s history.

  Walter Cronkite @WCronkiteCBSNews

  “We choose to go to the Moon, not because it is easy – but because it is hard.” The words of President Kennedy there, speaking today at Rice University in Houston, Texas.

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  4 years later

  16 November, 1966

  Walter Cronkite @WCronkiteCBSNews

  With the safe return yesterday of astronauts Jim Lovell and Buzz Aldrin aboard Gemini XII, we now see the conclusion of the 18-month Gemini Program.

  Walter Cronkite @WCronkiteCBSNews

  Between just March 1965 and November 1966, NASA has launched an incredible 10 successful two-man missions into space with launches taking place roughly every 1 to 3 months.

  Walter Cronkite @WCronkiteCBSNews

  What an astonishing schedule the NASA program is on to meet President Kennedy’s goal of landing man on the Moon before the end of the decade just 3 years from now.

  Walter Cronkite @WCronkiteCBSNews

  Up next in NASA’s quest for the Moon is the Apollo Program, each of which flights will carry three astronauts into space and, hopefully, eventually to the Moon.

  APOLLO 1 to APOLLO 7

  The Apollo program to put a man on the Moon could hardly have got off to a worse or more disastrous and tragic start. On 27 January, 1967, while seated in the Apollo 1 capsule on the launch pad for a routine test in preparation for the first low Earth orbital test of the command and service module the following month, the three astronauts (Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee) were killed when a stray electrical spark ignited the oxygen-rich command module causing an inferno inside the cabin. They would become the only astronauts to die during the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs.

  Grissom, White and Chaffee on the launch pad of Apollo 1

  Apollo 4

  Following the disastrous Apollo 1 accident, and while a congressional enquiry was held into the causes and the necessary improvements made, a series of unmanned flights of the Apollo spacecraft were carried out. The first of these was Apollo 4 (there were no missions designated Apollo 2 and Apollo 3), on 9 November, 1967. This flight was the first test of all three stages of the Saturn V rocket and successfully employed the Saturn IV-B third stage. It carried an Apollo command and service module into orbit and successfully tested the command module’s heat shield and many other command module systems during its fiery, high speed re-entry through the Earth’s atmosphere.

  The Saturn V rocket (with the command and service modules contained in its nose) was the largest rocket ever built.

  Apollo 5

  On 22 January, 1968, the unmanned flight of Apollo 5 deployed an early version of the lunar module (without its landing gear) into space. While in Earth orbit, the lunar module successfully fired the vehicle’s descent and ascent stage engines. At the end of the 11-hour mission, both lunar module stages were left in orbit, eventually re-entering Earth’s atmosphere and disintegrating. The mission confirmed that all systems in the lunar module could function effectively in space.

  Apollo 6

  On 4 April, 1968, the unmanned Apollo 6 mission was the final exhaustive test of all the systems on board the three stages of the Saturn launch vehicle, the command module, service module and a partial lunar landing module. The mission evaluated stage separations, propulsion, guidance and control, structural and thermal integrity, electrical systems and command module recovery.

  During the mission, there were several serious problems. The Saturn V booster went through unprecedented intense vibration during its initial ascent, the lunar module adaptor lost some of its structural panels and two of the five second stage engines shut down prematurely. The planned Earth orbit was not reached and, after two lower Earth orbits, the third stage failed to re-ignite, so the command module propulsion system was used to boost the vehicle into a higher orbit from which the high speed re-entry simulation could be evaluated. At just under 10 hours after launch, the command module splashed down 80 km off target and was successfully recovered.

  Apollo 7

  Apollo 7 was the first U.S. manned space flight after the Apollo 1 disaster on the launch pad, and thus became the first Apollo mission to carry men into space. On 11 October, 1968, astronauts Donn F. Eisele, Walter (Wally) Schirra, and R. Walter Cunningham lifted off on a mission primarily to test procedures that had originally been intended for the ill-fated Apollo 1 mission 19 months previously.

  The Apollo 7 astronauts: Eisele, Schirra and Cunningham

  The flight was an 11-day mission intended to check out the re-designed Apollo command and service module, test the first launch of the Saturn IB vehicle and was the first mission to put a three-man crew into space. It was also the first time a live TV broadcast had been made from space and the first time hot food had been consumed in space. The command and service module proved to be durable for a longer time than a mission to the Moon would require and all technical aspects of the mission were deemed completely successful, giving the NASA managers the confidence to go ahead with the next and most ambitious mission yet – an expedition to take men a quarter of a million miles, all the way to the Moon, into lunar orbit and return them safely to Earth. This would be the mission of Apollo 8 – the longest and most perilous journey into the unknown ever attempted by man.

  BUILD UP TO LAUNCH

  20 December, 1968

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  The countdown for the Apollo 8 mission to the Moon is on! The countdown started exactly on time for this historic first journey to Moon.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  The launch is scheduled for exactly 7.51 am tomorrow morning. Earlier today, problems with the spacecraft’s fuel cells threatened to delay the launch, but those problems were solved.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  There was worry about the weather. Fog was predicted for launch time, and because visual tracking is a must for the first few seconds of the launch, that could have caused a delay.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  But during the night, the forecast improved and chances appear bright for an on-time departure for the Moon tomorrow morning.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  If the mission should have to b
e cancelled tomorrow, another try can be made on Sunday morning. That would put the astronauts in orbit around the Moon on Christmas day.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  This mission will be the most difficult ever attempted - and the most dangerous. It starts with man’s first ride atop that massive 36-storey Saturn V rocket. Two unmanned Saturn Vs have been launched successfully and the rocket is now believed to be ready to carry men.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  From the launch pad into orbit takes 11 and a half minutes ending with Apollo 8 still attached to the rocket’s third stage. It will stay in Earth orbit for almost two revolutions while its crew make sure that everything is working satisfactorily.

  Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews

  Then, almost three hours after lift off, while in orbit over Hawaii, Commander Frank Borman will ignite the third stage engine, taking Apollo 8 out of Earth orbit and on its way to the Moon.