Exploring the Unknown: Selected Documents in ... - The Black Vault

430 Project Apollo: Americans to the Moon
George Low, “the meeting was adjourned with the conclusion that a firm recommendation
to fly the Apollo 8 mission to lunar orbit would be made the next day
to the Acting Administrator.” (II-63) That recommendation came the next day
in the form of a memorandum from Sam Phillips to George Mueller. (II-64) On
11 November, there were a series of internal NASA meetings in which Thomas
Paine heard the same briefings as had been given the previous day. In a first,
large meeting, George Mueller continued to play the devil’s advocate. A second
meeting involved Paine, Associate Administrator Homer Newell, who had been
with NASA since its beginning and was respected for his judgment, Mueller, and
the NASA Center Directors. A third meeting involved only Paine, Newell, and
Mueller. At its conclusion, Paine announced that he had approved the plan to
make Apollo 8 a mission to go into orbit around Moon. (II-65) The launch date
was set for 21 December, which meant that the Apollo spacecraft would go into
lunar orbit on Christmas Eve.
As the launch preparations for Apollo 8 went forward, there was continuing
concerns that the Soviet Union might still launch a flight around the Moon. Soviet
Union had modified its new Soyuz spacecraft so that it could carry cosmonauts in
a flight around the Moon (but not into lunar orbit). They designated the modified
spacecraft Zond. It would be launched on its circumlunar trajectory by a version
of the Proton rocket. The original hope was that the first flight with cosmonauts
aboard could occur on the fiftieth anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution in
October 1967, but a failure in April 1967 of the Earth-orbital version of the Soyuz
spacecraft, resulting in the death of cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov, delayed testing
of the Zond spacecraft into 1968. A September 1968 Zond-5 did go around the
Moon and returned its passengers— turtles and insects— to Earth, still alive.
But a November Zond-6 mission had several failures; if there had been a crew
aboard, they would have died. Even so, the cosmonauts scheduled to make the
first crewed Zond mission asked permission from the Soviet Politburo to make an
attempt at the next launch window in early December, but that permission was
never given. The way was thus clear for Apollo 8 to be the first spacecraft to reach
the Moon with humans aboard. 67
The five first stage engines of the Saturn V booster rumbled into action at
7:51 a.m. on 21 December, lifting Frank Borman, James Lovell, and Bill Anders
on their historic journey. Less than three hours later, the engine on the third
stage of the launch vehicle fired, injecting the Apollo 8 spacecraft on a trajectory
that would take it to the vicinity of the Moon three days later. Once it arrived at
the Moon, the engine on its service module fired, placing the Apollo spacecraft
into lunar orbit, where it remained for 20 hours.
The public highlight of the mission came on Christmas Eve, as the crew
televised the view of the lunar surface from their spacecraft back to millions of
people on Earth. Then, to the surprise of almost everyone, including the mission
controllers back on Earth, the crew took turns reading the first verses from the
67. For more information on the failed Soviet circumlunar program, see Logsdon and Dupas,
“Was the Race to the Moon Real?” and Marcus Lindroos, “The Soviet Manned Lunar Program,”
http://www.fas.org/spp/eprint/lindroos_moon1.htm (accessed 10 September 2006).