Apollo 8 Forty Years Later

[jim48]

<strong>The December 17th issue of <em>USA Today</em> had an excellent guest editorial by Andrew Chaikin on the 40th anniversary of the famous "Earthrise" shot taken from Apollo 8. Chaikin is an excellent writer on NASA history. He has&nbsp; a new book out, entitled <em>A Passion for Mars: Intrepid Explorers of the Red Planet</em>. But first read the <em>USA Today</em> piece. Amazing what we were doing <br /><img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/Content/images/store/15/12/5f1c58b1-7e19-4d3d-ac12-7307579da7f1.Medium.jpg" alt="" /><br />back then when I was a kid and what we're not doing today when I'm fifty.</strong> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[newtons_laws]

<p>Indeed it was a truly amazing mission.<img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-cool.gif" border="0" alt="Cool" title="Cool" />&nbsp; I was 14 at the time and remember the excitement when NASA announced their intention to send Astronauts around the Moon(the LM was not yet ready for testing in Earth orbit, so they opted for a lunar mission with the CSM only). Bear in mind that up to that point human beings had never left LEO, and now people were going to travel a quarter of a million miles to orbit the Moon and return to Earth<img src="http://sitelife.space.com/ver1.0/content/scripts/tinymce/plugins/emotions/images/smiley-surprised.gif" border="0" alt="Surprised" title="Surprised" />.&nbsp; I watched the live coverage of the launch on the BBC, and never having seen a Saturn V launch before when the ignition sequence started 5 or 6 seconds before liftoff, with exhaust "flames" coming out of the rocket base but the rocket not moving, I feared for the worst!&nbsp; Then the slow&nbsp;ascent of the rocket (10 seconds to clear the tower!)&nbsp;and reaching orbit, followed by the TLI burn.&nbsp; The black & white TV broadcasts from the crew as they journeyed to the Moon and went into lunar orbit,&nbsp;and then the nail biting wait to hear if the return burn had been successful.</p><p>Fantastic days, and after Apollo 13 the sober realisation that if the same accident had occurred on Apollo 8,&nbsp;Borman, Anders and Lovell would never have returned alive.</p><p>&nbsp;</p><p>&nbsp;</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>

 

[aphh]

<p>They were amazing days, amazing era. I was not quite around, but my parents told it was an era of huge optimism.</p><p>I just wish we stopped crashing stuff on the Moon. When we go back to the Moon, we can not bear the mentality of the colonialists. &nbsp;</p>

 

[shuttle_guy]

<p><BR/>Replying to:<BR/><DIV CLASS='Discussion_PostQuote'>................................ and after Apollo 13 the sober realisation that if the same accident had occurred on Apollo 8,&nbsp;Borman, Anders and Lovell would never have returned alive.&nbsp;&nbsp; <br />Posted by newtons_laws</DIV></p><p>If the Apollo 13 accident had happened after their lunar landing the crew would also have not made it back.</p> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> </div>