Apollo 8

Kluger, Jeffrey. Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon. New York: Holt 2017. Print

First Sentences:

August 1968 

The last thing Frank Borman needed was a phone call when he was trying to fly his spacecraft. 

No astronaut ever wanted to hear a ringing phone when he was in the middle of a flight, but when the spacecraft was an Apollo, any interruption was pretty much unforgivable. 

Description:

I admit it. I love books about space, NASA programs, and memoirs from astronauts. Here's a great book to add to any fellow space-lover's reading list: Jeffrey Kluger's Apollo 8: The Thrilling Story of the First Mission to the Moon. This well-researched book is chock full of inside stories, data, interviews, and photos about the first manned space flight to the moon. Apollo 8 details every thrill, problem, and personality to allow readers to experience every aspect of this history-making flight.

In 1968, the United State was experiencing difficult times. Assassinations, Vietnam, civil rights protests, and the Cold War filled the newspapers. Even NASA was on shaky ground after the fiery deaths of astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee on the Apollo 1 launchpad. Therefore, NASA scrapped the next two Apollo missions to revamp all safety procedures, and used unmanned spacecraft for the Apollo 4-6 flights. Apollo 7, the first three-man Earth orbital mission, had problems with both the spacecraft and the crew who complained constantly during their flight about the craft and conditions. (NASA made sure none of these men was allowed to fly into space again.)

NASA needed some good publicity to increase interest from the citizens and government. They therefore decided to upgrade the mission of Apollo 8 from a simple Earth orbit into one that would head to the Moon. It would be humankind's first flight outside our own orbit. NASA even decided to add orbits of the Moon to take photos of potential landing sites and, for the first time ever, bring back scenes from the dark side of the moon. These ambitious goals would certainly catch the interest of the world!

Frank Broman, Jim Lovell, Bill Anders were the crew. NASA hoped these men would rise to the challenge of the more complex flight plan and the revamped training necessary to succeed in the daring mission. And NASA wanted these astronauts and flight to succeed with such perfection that Americans would recover from the Apollo 1 deaths and Apollo 7 sloppiness to again feel proud of the US space program. As a bonus, such an ambitious flight would make the Russians realize how far the US was pulling ahead in the space race.

There were 5.6 million separate parts in the command and service module...which meant that even if everything functioned 99.9 percent perfectly, 5,600 parts might go bad. 

The mission required Apollo use the giant, untested Saturn V rocket to break Earth's orbit. Designer Wernher von Braun assured NASA that the rocket would be ready for the 16-week launch date. Now all that was needed was for :

1. The Earth to be at the precise spot in its rotation for launch, orbit, moon shot to achieve the proper angles;
2. The Atlantic or Pacific Ocean to be in position under the returning spacecraft 6 days later for splashdown;
3. The Moon to be in proper phase for illumination of possible landing site photos

Astronauts and Mission Control staff practiced simulations of every procedure and problems thrown in. Trainers would disable three of the Saturn engines just after launch, kill communications systems, have individual systems break down and give the men three minutes to solve the problems.

In-flight problems still arose. For example, Commander Bormann was nauseated throughout the flight. Stored bags of urine leaked. Temperatures inside sun-facing spacecraft stayed at a steady 80 degrees. Along with the reality of three men living for six days in a small space, these factors combined to produce a definite ripeness to the air in the spacecraft. 

Many more fascinating details emerge from Apollo 8, including the history of the formation of the moon. Author Kluger describes how 4.5 billion years ago a passing body collided with Earth to knock it off its axis to create our seasons and send a ring of dust around our planet that after a billion years condensed into the Moon.

The highlight of the mission was the Christmas TV broadcast from Moon orbit where each man gave his personal impressions of Moon to the vast audience on Earth. Each recited portions of the Genesis biblical verses ("In the beginning God created the Heavens and the Earth..."), and the listeners were awestruck.

There is so much more, but I will prevent myself from revealing additional wonderful details to those who want to read and savor this historic account for themselves, and to stop myself from boring any who are not space enthusiasts. Apollo 8 is an important piece of the space program puzzle that eventually put humans on the Moon. I found Apollo 8 to be a fascinating documentation of this flight. It was riveting for an armchair astronaut like me to be part of each step for this particular mission.

Happy reading. 

Fred

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If this book interests you, be sure to check out:

Burrows, William E. This New Ocean: The Story of the First Space Age  

The most complete history of the space program, from initial experiments with rockets to landing on the moon and beyond. Loads of conversations, memos, speeches, flights, triumphs and failures, and the people behind all of these. Interesting because it draws on documents from the Soviet Union to follow the birth and development of their space program as well. 

Cernan, Eugene and Don Davis. The Last Man on the Moon  

Biography of Gene Cernan and his adventures in NASA from Gemini to Apollo to setting the final footprints on the moon. Wonderfully narrated by Cernan as he recalls the training, excitement, frustrations, and eventual rewards for his first space walk and eventual moon walk. (previously reviewed here)