Who remembers Apollo 8? Isn't it true that Apollo 11 was a "milk run" when compaired to what Apollo 8 faced?

Question

Why has history marked Apollo 11 for greatness when it was Apollo 8 who was suddenly cast into the role of being the first to leave Earth and sent to the moon in an untested spacecraft on an untested rocket to preform duties not yet attempted by unmanned Apollo spacecraft? The only thing that prevented Apollo 8 from lunar landing was the fact the lem was yet to be delivered to NASA. Apollo 8 paved the way, took all the risks involved with untested equiptment and reached the moon over 6 months before Apollo 11 was launched. Yet Apollo 11 gets all the glory while history forgets Apollo 8. Does that seem fair?

Answer 1

Each Apollo mission made it possible for the next. Even though Apollo 11 did what the program intended (land and walk on the moon), every Apollo mission was historic!

Now, lets step back a bit....and I'll tell you this from what I remember as a 7 and 8 year old child!!!

1. Apollo 7 tested a brand new Service Module (SM) and Command Module (CM) during a week in orbit around the earth. They tested everything they could on that system, including starting and stopping the hypergolic fueled 22,000lb thrust engine on the SM to ensure it would work once they got to the moon. Apollo 7, although it is never talked about, paved the way for a mission to the moon with Apollo 8. Apollo 7 was a phoenix that rose from the ashes of Apollo 1 where three of our astronauts died in a tragic fire.

2. Because of Apollo 7's resounding success, and some worries about the Russians beating us, they threw the dice and came up with the plan to send Apollo 8 to the moon. So on December 21, 1968 (I was 7 and remember watching this on the TV), Apollo 8 was launched and became the first manned spacecraft to break away from the bonds of Earth's gravitational field. Apollo 8 was the FIRST manned flight of the Mighty Saturn V rocket with its first stage (SV-1) and 5 F-1 engines pumping out 7.5 million pounds of thrust; its 5 J-2 engines, the first engines designed to operate on liquid hydrogen and oxygen in the vacuum of space, on the 2nd stage (SV-2), and finally its lone J-2 engine on the 3rd stage (SVB-IV) that placed them in a parking orbit around the earth, and then restarted and sent them on their merry way to the moon. They were put in a free return trajectory meaning that once they got to the moon, they could if they wanted to, slingshot around its backside and then come home. They didn't do that. At the precise time the 22,000 hypergolic engine on the SM fired and placed them in orbit around the moon! For the first time ever, man saw the backside of the moon! They orbited the moon 10 revolutions during Chrismtas eve and Chrismas day, re-fired that 22,000 engine to break away from the moon's gravitational field and came home and splashed down close to the Christmas Islands.

Who says Apollo 8 is not remembered. Just look at that picture of earthrise. That was a first from Apollo 8's cameras & astronauts. Who can ever forget them reading from the book of Genesis as they orbited the moon. I certainly won't!

3. Apollo 9 was the 2nd flight of the Saturn V rocket and they placed a brand new Lunar Excursion Module (LEM, shortened to LM for Lunar Module) in Earth's orbit and proceeded to test the LM until they were satisfied it worked properly. This meant 2 astronauts leaving their mother ship (CM) and riding around above our atmosphere in a ship with no heatshield and a ship that's walls were made of mylar about as thick as a trojan rubber! The mission was a resounding success.

4. Apollo 10 was the 3rd flight of the Saturn V and they took a LM to the moon and tested it. Part of the mission called for using the descent stage of the LM and getting very close to the surface, but not landing. They did that and then fired the ascent stage to see if it would work. Unfortunately, a switch was in a wrong position and the craft started bucking and wobbling all over the place, leading Gene Cernan to say "son-of-a-*****" in response to the wild gyrations of the LM. Needless to say, NASA was not happy with that, but they were glad the 2 astronauts found the switch, changed its position, and then docked with the Apollo 10 CM and came home.

5. So with Apollo 7's success came Apollo 8, then 9, then 10 and because they were all resoundingly successful in proving the rockets and the equipment, they (Apollo 11) were able to land on the moon and walk on its surface 6 months before the end of the decade and fulfilling John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the moon and returning him to earth safely.

Now you go look all that up. I did it from memory and now you will know what inspired me to study math, physics, and engineering!

Answer 2

The goal in every bodies hearts was to see a man walk on the moon. Apollo 8 was a practice run - a systems check. Nobody at the time thought of it in any other way. That is why history treats it so.

Do we celebrate the James town colonization? No.

Answer 3

where did you get your information ? Apollo 8 was an incredible accomplishment. but it was only one vehicle. Apollo 11 was two vehicles one of which not only had to land on the moon safely but get off it. this represents a quantitative jump in complexity.

Answer 4

Well I certainly remember Apollo 8 -- Borman, Lovell, Anders -- and I think anyone who was alive at that time will remember it too.

Answer 5

I don't think any trip into space should be considered routine.

Someone has to take the glory, and we shouldn't mess with the books at this point.