Another first for the astronauts happened as they left the influence of the earth's gravity and entered that of the moon.
They could see the entirety of the earth that faced them and attempted to show this to television viewers. Apparently it's not easy keeping a camera steady in zero gravity.
What may have been the best news for his family was that Frank Borman's illness was essentially over.
From the Arizona Daily Star, Tuesday, Dec. 24, 1968:
Apollo 8 Leaves Earth Gravity, Enters Moon's
Astronauts Are First Men To Be Free From Realm Of This Planet's Attraction
By JOHN NOBLE WILFORD
1968 New York Times News Service
HOUSTON ─ Apollo 8 sped across the great celestial divide Into the moon's sphere of gravitational influence and closed in Monday night for man's first voyage around earth's only natural satellite.
The three astronauts thus became the first men to depart the realm of space where earth gravity dominates.
From nearly as far out, the astronauts again focused their television camera on earth, showing the half of it in bright reflected sunlight a sort of large misshapen basketball that kept bouncing around and sometimes off the television screens of millions of earthbound viewers.
The astronauts reported they could make out the royal blue of earth's oceans, dark brown land and certain landmarks, such as Lower California and the mouth of the Mississippi River. Never before had live television pictures been taken of earth at such a distance.
Speaking to his commander, Col. Frank Borman of the Air Force, Capt. James A. Lovell Jr. of the Navy raised the question:
"Frank, what I keep imagining is if I am some lonely traveler from another planet what I would think about the earth at this altitude. Whether I think it would be inhabited or not."
Overhearing this at the control center, Lt. Col. Michael Collins, the capsule communicator, quipped: "Don't see anybody waving, is that what you're saying?"
Then as they began falling faster and faster toward the moon, Borman, Lovell and the third crewman, Maj. William A. Anders of the Air Force, were assured by ground controllers here that all spacecraft systems were "go" for an attempt to maneuver into lunar orbit at 4:59 a.m. Tuesday.
Clifford E. Charlesworlh, the flight director, reported at a news conference :
"The spacecraft is performing beautifully. The crew are all feeling fairly well. We are hopeful for lunar orbit insertion." Earlier, Borman, known as a perfectionist, radioed to the flight controllers: "I hope you'r looking us over carefully. The one thing we want is a perfect spacecraft before we consider the LOI (lunar orbit injection) burn."
If all goes well, Apollo 8 is set to orbit the moon 10 times in 20 hours. During 45 minutes of each 2-hour orbit, the spacecraft will be out of range on the moon's far side and no radio communications will be possible.
To accomplish this Apollo 8 would fire its main rocket engine for about four minutes of braking. The pull of lunar gravity will have accelerated the vehicle to about 5,700 miles an hour, and to enter the desired lunar orbit it must slow down to 3,720 miles an hour.
For the first two orbits the astronauts plan to fly a path dipping as low as about 69 miles from the ancient lunar surface and out as far as 196 miles. Then an additional rocket firing is scheduled to place them in a 69-mile circular orbit.
From there the astronauts expect to photograph what Samuel Butler said were the "lands and seas Columbus and could never compass."
If their circumnavigation of the moon goes as planned, this is what the astronauts should see:
On the moon's far side, where they first begin orbiting, the sun is now shining with noontime intensity. Far to their left, south of the lunar equator, is a large crater named after Jules Verne, who a century ago wrote a prophetic account of an imaginary flight around the moon by three men.
Minutes later, the crater Tsiolkovsky with its very dark floor should come into view. It was discovered during the space age by the Russians and named for the late Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, their philosophical father of rocketry, who once remarked: "The earth is the cradle of the mind, but one cannot live forever in a cradle."
By then the spacecraft will round the right side of the moon and soar over the face that is always presented to earth viewers. There will be the crater Langrenus, one of the many they will see with distinctive peaks rising from the floor.
Next the astronauts will pass over the Sea of Fertility, then the broader Sea of Tranquility. The sun will be low on the horizon and behind the astronauts' backs, affording them good conditions for photographing this plain as a likely spot for future manned landings.
Unfolding below them, as they enter the lunar nighttime, will be the famous terraced walls of the crater Copernicus and, off to the right, the crater Aristarchus whose periodic red flares intrigue scientists. Earth shine will enable the astronauts to take some pictures of the darkened parts of the moon. No attempt will be made to provide artificial illumination.
Apollo 8 Is scheduled to begin its return trip to earth early Christmas morning. The splashdown is set to take place in the Pacific Ocean Dec. 27.
There were no medical problems standing in the way of orbiting ─ the primary purpose of the six-day mission.
Doctors reported here that Col. Borman, who was struck earlier with a virus-like illness, was "considerably improved." There had been no recurrences, they said, among any of the crewmen.
The condition or the spacecraft windows caused some concern. Lovell reported that the center window was almost "opaque" as a result of fogging over.
Two other of the five windows also were a little hazy, but the two side windows remained clear. These are the windows through which the astronauts had planned to take most of their television, movie and still pictures of the lunar surface.
Scientists here said that the still and movie pictures, many of them in color, would be the most useful scientifically of the mission. They will be brought back with the astronauts and processed a few days after splashdown.
But the television pictures were expected to convey initially the drama of the historic voyage. At least two transmission periods were planned during the 20 hours of orbiting.
Since the moon has no distorting atmosphere and will be only 69 miles or so away, the television pictures were expected to be much sharper and more detailed than the astronauts' earth pictures.
For Apollo's second telecast of earth, the astronauts stabilized the spacecraft's slow rolling motion. On the trip the spacecraft generally makes one complete rotation each hour to keep any one part of the vehicle from getting too hot from the sun's rays. Borman then maneuvered the spacecraft so that it was flying broadside to earth and the astronauts could point their 4.5-pound television camera back at their native planet. The pictures were taken out of Borman's left window.
The telecast began at 2:58 p.m. and ran about 25 minutes.
Because of the spacecraft's motion and some mounting problems with a bracket, the astronauts often had trouble keeping the bright "half-earth" on target.
Transmission over such distances reduces the quality of the pictures, but it was still possible to pick out swirling clouds and some dark areas that were land and sea. The spacecraft was almost directly over South America.
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One might think it would be a bit boring cooped up in a tiny spacecraft for several days, but there was plenty to do to make sure the craft was in perfect running order.
The crew also had to be prepared the enter lunar orbit, take lots of pictures and report on their experiences.
From the Star of the same date:
Astronauts Plan Busy Day In Space
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) ─ Here are the major events scheduled today for the flight of Apollo 8 (all times Eastern Standard):
4:59 a.m. ─ Main spacecraft engine fired to inject spacecraft into initial egg-shaped lunar orbit ranging from about 70 to 200 miles above moon's surface. Crew photographs lunar terrain below.
7:30 a.m. ─ Live television transmission, expected to last 15 minutes showing moon from Apollo 8's window.
8:10 a.m. ─ Another burst of spacecraft engine changes orbit to circular path about 70 miles high. Navy Capt. James A. Lovell begins series of navigation experiments using lunar landmarks as reference points.
11 a.m. ─ While Air Force Col. Frank Borman points Apollo 8's nose toward the lunar ground, Air Force Maj. William Anders begins taking "stereo" pictures of moon Clicking the shutter every 20 seconds to get a continuous "strip" picture of landscape in sunlight.
1:10 a.m. ─ (Christmas day) Vital re-start of main spacecraft engine to propel Apollo 8 out of lunar orbit and back toward earth.
In every occupation there is jargon ─ the terms people use that are understood to others of the same occupation, but are confusing to outsiders.
The words spoken by Mission Control and the astronauts may have sounded to many like a foreign language. So the Star published a glossary.
From the Star, Dec. 24:
New Lingo Created For Moon Flight
SPACE CENTER, Houston (AP) ─ Apollo 8's around-the-moon journey Tuesday spotlights new space-age terms. Here is a glossary of lunar lingo expected to be heard in spaceship-to-earth conversations:
Apocynthion: Point at which an object in lunar orbit launched from a body other than the moon, such as earth Is farthest from the moon's surface.
Cislunar Space: Area of space between earth and the moon.
Impact craters: Moon craters created by meteor hits.
Penumbra: Semi-dark portion of a shadow in which light is partly cut off, yet still partly visible. See "umbra."
Pericinthion: Point at which an object in lunar orbit launched from a body other than the moon, such as earth Is nearest the moon's surface. Opposition of apocynthion.
Rills: Trench-like fault zones on the lunar surface.
Selenographic: Adjective meaning "related to physical geography of the moon."
Selenocentric: Adjective referring to orbit having moon as center.
Umbra: Darkest part of a shadow in which light is completely absent.
Johanna Eubank is an online content producer for the Arizona Daily Star and tucson.com. Contact her at jeubank@tucson.com
About Tales from the Morgue: The "morgue," is what those in the newspaper business call the archives. Before digital archives, the morgue was a room full of clippings and other files of old newspapers.
Johanna Eubank
Online producer
