by Acer
The flight to the Moon, as I’m sure everyone knows by now, will take two and a half days. This has been a 350 million dollar effort getting Apollo 8 up and so far everything seems to be going perfectly.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
There are some 2.5 to 3 million parts in that Saturn 5 rocket and you can’t have even a 1% error, because you can see how many parts that would mean malfunctioned. There had to be virtually no errors and thankfully, this time, there were none. Or very few anyway.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
We are now two hours and ten minutes into what may become a 147-hour, 6-day flight to the Moon and back. That decision will be made soon. The decision to go or not go to the Moon must come by 10.15 a.m. EST—just 14 minutes from now.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Then, if the mission is given a GO (and it appears it will be since everything has gone perfectly so far) ignition of the third stage engine will come at 10.41 EST.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
That burn, if it comes, will happen while Apollo 8 is passing overhead just east of Hawaii while it is still dark out there, so it is very likely that the people of Hawaii will see it as that big 230-pound engine fires up.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The 5 minute and 41 second burn should then take Apollo 8 out of Earth orbit and on the way to the Moon.
Leo Krupp @LKTestastronautRockwell
Right now, while the astronauts are sweating out the GO/NO Go decision, the astronauts will be going over their trans-lunar insertion and separation checklist.
Leo Krupp @LKTestastronautRockwell
Frank Borman has a lot of switches to be setting up on his panel. In addition, he will be setting up the S-IVB monitoring system by keying in the increased velocity (around 10,000 feet per second) that the spacecraft should achieve after the burn.
Leo Krupp @LKTestastronautRockwell
Frank will be closely monitoring the increased velocity on his small accelerometer display to ensure that the S-IVB engine cuts off when the exact increased velocity is achieved. The spacecraft will then be travelling at approximately 25,000 mph.
Leo Krupp @LKTestastronautRockwell
If the S-IVB engine does not shut off automatically as it should when the optimum increased velocity is achieved, the commander then has two back up procedures he could use to shut off the engine manually.
Leo Krupp @LKTestastronautRockwell
They should stay with the S-IVB for 13 or 14 minutes after cut off of the engine. During this time, the S-IVB attitude system will be putting the vehicle in the proper attitude for separation which is the maneuver that will follow the trans-lunar insertion burn.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
This flight is a so-called ‘open ended’ mission, meaning that it has many ‘commit points’ along the way. Two of them have been passed now: first the GO for launch and then the GO given for orbital insertion around the Earth.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
The next commit point is the one when they will declare GO (or NO GO) for trans-lunar injection—that is, firing off the third stage engine again with 230,000 pounds of thrust to boost Apollo 8 out of Earth orbit.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
At that point, they will come almost close to escape velocity from the Earth’s gravity. But not quite. They don’t want to do that. If they escape from Earth’s gravitational pull entirely, they would have to depend entirely on their single remaining engine to get home.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
This way, they can go out to the Moon, be captured by the Moon’s gravity. Then, in a sort of slingshot maneuver, the Moon’s gravity should pull them halfway around the Moon but should not be strong enough to hold them in orbit.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
So they would fly off around the Moon and come back to be captured by the Earth’s gravity and return to Earth if they did nothing more after that trans-lunar injection burn.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
But they do intend to do more. They plan to fire off their service propulsion engine on the far side of the Moon, when they will be out of touch with Mission Control, to put Apollo 8 into a lunar orbit.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
That’s a ‘retrograde maneuver’ so-called. It will slow down the spacecraft so that they do not fly off from the Moon and back to Earth but instead be captured by the Moon’s gravity putting Apollo 8 into lunar orbit.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Then that engine has to fire one more time and that’s the important one. After they have made their 10 orbits of the Moon, that engine has to fire on the far side of the Moon, taking the spaceship out of lunar orbit and back towards Earth.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
At least, that’s the theory and the plan based on the theory. We will not know until those ‘commits’ are made and whether those critical maneuvers were performed successfully or not.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
If the engine does not work on the far side of the Moon, the astronauts will be caught in lunar orbit. Their life support system aboard the spacecraft would only last 5 or 6 more days, and that would be the tragic termination of this mission.
Leo Krupp @LKTestastronautRockwell
While the upcoming S-IVB engine burns, Frank Borman will also be monitoring the flight direction attitude indicator. This tells him the vehicle attitude. It has 3 gauges to tell him the roll, the pitch and the yaw of the spacecraft.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The three astronauts are now riding in their 210 cubic feet spacecraft. That’s about 70 cubic feet per man so we can see just how much space they have to live in during this next historic week.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Not much space at all. But in the Gemini program they had only 40 cubic feet per man. In the Mercury program they had 55 cubic feet.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
This spacecraft does have more conveniences than previous crafts. They have hot and cold running water. They have vacuum cleaners to keep the dust down and the debris from floating around.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The center couch can be folded up to provide standing room so that they can perform navigational sightings, get a little exercise and take photographs. Cameras and other equipment can be stowed under the seats.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
We are standing by for TLI burn in 6 minutes from now at 2 hours and 48 minutes into the flight.
Frank Renolds @FRABCNews
So we now wait for the firing of that engine which will, if all goes well, take Apollo 8 and its 3 crewmembers out of Earth orbit and set them on a course for the Moon.
Frank Renolds @FRABCNews
If the burn is successful and the spaceship leaves Earth orbit, those three astronauts will become the first humans ever to truly leave the Earth.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Following this burn, the spacecraft will accelerate from 17,500 mph to almost 25,000 mph in 5 minutes. That’s pretty snappy acceleration right there!
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
There has been a little bit of hilarity between the spacecraft and Mission Control in the past few minutes when Commander Borman mistakenly referred to his spacecraft as Gemini 8. This, of course, is Apollo 8 and there’s quite a bit of difference between the two vehicles.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
We are told that the official Soviet news agency, TASS, has reported the launch of Apollo 8 although they did not go into any detail about the mission or broadcast pictures of the launch.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Before the mission controllers in Houston finally commit to the burn to take the ship out of Earth orbit and set it on a course for the Moon, they need to be absolutely sure that everything on the spaceship is working perfectly for this
the longest journey ever undertaken by man.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
This includes the environmental controls, the system that purifies the air taking out the carbon dioxide, odors and particles in the air, using lithium hydroxide canisters turning bad air into good air again.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Also the water - the fuel cells’ by-product; the fuel cells being the power source for the spacecraft that is created though a mixture of liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen. The by-product of the mixture creates the water that keeps the astronauts alive.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The engineers have been testing the auxiliary propulsion system, the attitude control systems on the third rocket stage as well as the attitude control systems in the command module.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The only propulsion control system they cannot test is the service propulsion system - that’s a very important one because that’s the one that puts them into lunar orbit and gets them out again.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
We are now polling all mission controllers in the room for their final GO/NO GO decisions for the TLI burn to take the spacecraft out of Earth orbit. Looking good so far with a chorus of GOs up to now.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
I can now confirm that we have a unanimous final GO for the Moon!. Great!
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Apollo 8 is now 2 hours and 26 minutes into the flight and Mike Collins has now informed the astronauts that they are GO for the trans-lunar insertion (TLI) burn.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
The TLI burn will add about 10,500 feet per second to the spacecraft’s velocity. Duration of the burn will be slightly more than 5 minutes.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
So everything has been tested, checked out, and the astronauts have now been given the GO for the burn. A GO for the burn that will take them out of Earth orbit - the first time this has been ever attempted with a manned vehicle.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
In previous missions, should something go wrong, the crew had a chance to return to Earth in a matter of a few hours. After this burn, with the spaceship en-route to the Moon, any attempt to return to Earth would take a matter of several days.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
So they do have the final GO for the Moon - that’s the big one! About 22 minutes from now, they will fire that third stage engine.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
With the boost of that 230,000 pounds of thrust, accelerating them an extra 6,700 mph in 5 minutes and 11 seconds, they will escape from Earth orbit – they will become the first humans to truly escape the Earth!
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
We now see a television graphic (not the real thing of course) of Apollo 8 as it passes at an altitude of 119 miles nearing western Australia as we approach that crucial burn - the burn that will take them out of Earth orbit and on their way to the Moon.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
This decision to GO means that everything has been thoroughly checked out: the propulsion systems, the life support systems, the guidance and control systems, the navigation, the means of measuring the inertial attitude.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Also, the power supply—those 31 fuel cells, the 28-volt DC batteries. Three of those being the three pyrotechnic batteries that fire off the charges that separate the various stages and eject the parachutes for the final landing.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Apparently, it all works! Everything is working. The spacecraft, its third stage rocket and service propulsion system are ready for the historic burn that will take men, for the first time, out of the sphere of Earthly influence and onwards toward another world.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
The upcoming TLI burn will add 10,500 feet per second and occur just west of Hawaii.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Shortly now, man will make his first trip through the deep radiation of space out beyond the so-called Van Allen belts. These are belts at the outer fringes of our atmosphere that protect the Earth from harmful radiation.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The Van Allen belts capture the radiation from the solar system and hold it. Of particular concern are solar flares which erupt periodically from the Sun. Astronomers around the world are monitoring the Sun now in the hope that no such flares occur during this mission.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
The crucial firing is now just 9 minutes away and, if all goes well, will take place over the Hawaiian islands at 10.41 our time.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
I have been demonstrating for the benefit of our TV viewers (and viewers around the world) just what will occur in the next several minutes as the spacecraft leaves Earth orbit.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
Shortly after leaving Earth orbit, the command module and service module will separate from the S-IV booster. They will then turn around, ever so slowly and, even more slowly, approach the S-IVB.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
This is so they can practice lining up, docking with and extracting the lunar module which, on later missions, will be housed in the nose of the S-IVB. There is no lunar module on this flight though due to delays in its production.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
A full flight test of the completed lunar module, including docking, extraction, separation, independent flight, re-docking and jettisoning of the craft will be carried out on the next Apollo flight - that of Apollo 9.
Frank Renolds @FRABCNews
These 3 men are about to be the first humans to ever leave Earth orbit and therefore to truly leave the mother planet. Tensions are high in Mission Control, Houston as we wait for this critical burn.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Immediately following the burn, we should get a detailed report on it from Frank Borman. During the course of the burn, Bill Anders will operate the onboard flight recorder which will record any of the crewmembers’ comments as the burn progresses.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Thirty seconds to TLI burn. All eyes at Mission Control are on the two big charts here which dominate the front of the room and which will display the velocity versus altitude data as it climbs.
Walter Cronkite @WCCBSNews
This is the one that will determine whether or not the astronauts can get on their way to the Moon or if they will have to abort the mission.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Twenty seconds to ignition… fifteen seconds…
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
Ten seconds to burn… 6… 5… 4… 3… 2… 1… IGNITION!
Jim Lovell @JLCMPApollo8
Engine is burning! Thrust is building. Looks okay.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
We see ignition. Lovell confirms ignition. We are watching the thrust build. Borman says: “We are looking good!”
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
We are now 1 minute into the burn for trans-lunar injection and 2 hours, 51 minutes and 30 seconds into the flight. Apogee now is 800 miles and climbing.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
One minute into the burn and Flight Dynamics indicate they look good. Watching the thrust build and keeping a close eye on trajectory.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Flight Dynamics continues to indicate all values for Apollo 8 are nominal or just exactly what we hoped they would be. Engine cutoff should be as predicted – 2 hours 55 minutes and 58 seconds into the flight.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Present altitude is now 300 miles and we are GO as these three crewmembers are now travelling faster than man has ever flown.
Frank Borman @
CDRApollo8
Forty seconds to engine cut off.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Velocity is now up to 33,000 feet per second. We are getting reports from Hawaii that people are observing the burn from on the ground.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Present altitude is 350 miles. The spacecraft is now moving at an incredible 35,000 feet per second. Engine cut off should be in 10 seconds.
Frank Borman @CDRApollo8
4.. 3.. 2.. 1.. we have engine shutdown.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Engine cut off was right on the second. Altitude is now approaching 400 miles.
Paul Haney @PHPublicAffairsNASA
Director of Flight Operations, Chris Kraft, has just messaged the Apollo 8 crew: “You are on your way! You are really on your way now!”
Bill Humphries @BHNewcastleUNI
35,000 feet per second? I had a hard time visualizing that, so I broke out my trusty slide rule.
In the days before personal computers and even pocket calculators, the slide rule was the most widely used device for performing complex mathematical calculations. It was not only used by students, laymen and engineers but also by the Apollo 8 astronauts themselves inside their capsule.
