The crew would have likely chosen Columbiad, the name of the giant cannon that launches a space vehicle in Jules Verne's 1865 novel From the Earth to the Moon.
They talked about how, before his 1927 flight, Lindbergh had used a piece of string to measure the distance from New York City to Paris on a globe and from that calculated the fuel needed for the flight.
The crew members were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return. ==Background== In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was engaged in the Cold War, a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union.
On October 4, 1957, the Soviet Union launched Sputnik 1, the first artificial satellite.
Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the 1960s.
The crew members were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return. ==Background== In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was engaged in the Cold War, a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union.
This configuration could be launched by the Saturn V rocket that was then under development. ==Framework== ===Prime crew=== The initial crew assignment of Frank Borman as Commander, Michael Collins as Command Module Pilot (CMP) and William Anders as Lunar Module Pilot (LMP) for the third crewed Apollo flight was officially announced on November 20, 1967.
The Apollo11 CM was named Columbia in part for that reason. ==Preparations== ===Mission schedule=== On September 20, 1967, NASA adopted a seven-step plan for Apollo missions, with the final step being a Moon landing.
It had been decided as early as May 1967 that there would be at least four additional missions.
When it was erected in the Vehicle Assembly Building on December 20, 1967, it was thought that the rocket would be used for an uncrewed Earth-orbit test flight carrying a boilerplate command and service module.
Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, and also the first [spaceflight] to reach another astronomical object, namely the Moon, which the crew orbited without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth.
These three astronauts—Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders—were the first humans to witness and photograph an Earthrise. Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968, and was the second crewed spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program after Apollo7, which stayed in Earth orbit.
The Apollo8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27, 1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the northern Pacific Ocean.
The crew members were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return. ==Background== In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the United States was engaged in the Cold War, a geopolitical rivalry with the Soviet Union.
Collins was replaced by Jim Lovell in July 1968, after suffering a cervical disc herniation that required surgery to repair.
Apollo7, scheduled for October 1968, would be a "C" mission, a crewed Earth-orbit flight of the CSM.
Apollo8 was planned as the "D" mission, a test of the LM in a low Earth orbit in December 1968 by James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell Schweickart, while Borman's crew would fly the "E" mission, a more rigorous LM test in an elliptical medium Earth orbit as Apollo9, in early 1969.
The "F" Mission would test the CSM and LM in lunar orbit, and the "G" mission would be the finale, the Moon landing. Production of the LM fell behind schedule, and when Apollo8's LM-3 arrived at the Kennedy Space Center (KSC) in June 1968, more than a hundred significant defects were discovered, leading Bob Gilruth, the director of the Manned Spacecraft Center (MSC), and others to conclude that there was no prospect of LM-3 being ready to fly in 1968.
George Low, the Manager of the Apollo Spacecraft Program Office, proposed a solution in August 1968 to keep the program on track despite the LM delay.
Since the next CSM (designated as "CSM-103") would be ready three months before LM-3, a CSM-only mission could be flown in December 1968.
The net result was that only the "D" mission had to be delayed, and the plan for lunar landing in mid-1969 could remain on timeline. On August 9, 1968, Low discussed the idea with Gilruth, Flight Director Chris Kraft, and the Director of Flight Crew Operations, Donald Slayton.
There was speculation within NASA and the press that they might be preparing to launch cosmonauts on a similar circumlunar mission before the end of 1968. The Apollo 8 crew, now living in the crew quarters at Kennedy Space Center, received a visit from Charles Lindbergh and his wife, Anne Morrow Lindbergh, the night before the launch.
Apollo6 had suffered several major problems during its April 1968 flight, including severe pogo oscillation during its first stage, two second-stage engine failures, and a third stage that failed to reignite in orbit.
The team modified the igniter lines and fuel conduits, hoping to avoid similar problems on future launches. The teams tested their solutions in August 1968 at the MSFC.
The effect of lunar mass concentrations ("mascons") on the orbit was found to be greater than initially predicted; over the course of the ten lunar orbits lasting twenty hours, the orbital distance was perturbated to by . Apollo 8 achieved a maximum distance from Earth of . ===Launch and trans-lunar injection=== Apollo 8 was launched at 12:51:00 UTC (07:51:00 Eastern Standard Time) on December 21, 1968, using the Saturn V's three stages to achieve Earth orbit.
Apollo8 was planned as the "D" mission, a test of the LM in a low Earth orbit in December 1968 by James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell Schweickart, while Borman's crew would fly the "E" mission, a more rigorous LM test in an elliptical medium Earth orbit as Apollo9, in early 1969.
Indeed, it was possible that delivery would slip to February or March 1969.
Following the original seven-step plan would have meant delaying the "D" and subsequent missions, and endangering the program's goal of a lunar landing before the end of 1969.
Instead, in order that the spacecraft would have the correct weight and balance, Apollo8 would carry LM test article, a boilerplate model of LM-3. Added pressure on the Apollo program to make its 1969 landing goal was provided by the Soviet Union's Zond5 mission, which flew some living creatures, including Russian tortoises, in a cislunar loop around the Moon and returned them to Earth on September 21.
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