Apollo 8's Christmas Miracle

everyone has Christmas traditions for some it's rereading a classic Like A Christmas Carol for others it's movie marathons throughout the whole month of December for me who doesn't really have much by the way of holiday traditions it's thinking about Apollo 8 Apollo 8 was the first human mission to the moon it's the mission that gave us this famous earthrise photo and to the Chagrin of some gave us a reading from The Book of Genesis from lunar orbit on Christmas Eve what I think is really incredible about this mission is how it came to be at all because NASA never intended to fly a mission like it the crew didn't have a full spacecraft Apollo was never supposed to have this first lunar Mission look quite like this but it did and in the process it gave us a mission whose Legacy is arguably saving 1968 I'd intended to do a super quick video about Apollo 8's Origins to Mark the laundry anniversary but then while I was writing it I ended up down the rabbit hole rereading the entire Mission transcript so the back like 2third of this video is going to be a good oldfashioned shortened retelling of the flight with archival footage and TV transmissions and sounds grabs and all the other kind of fun stuff I could dig up this isn't the usual type of video that I do but I really love going into the human side of these missions so I did and I had fun with it I hope you guys enjoy it too but anyways let's get started with the origins of Apollo [Music] 8 the Apollo program born before Kennedy challenged America to land a man on the moon within the 1960s took on an urgency after the presidential Proclamation but never really felt painfully rushed with the Mercury and gemin programs the agency built on its knowledge of living and working in space with each successive Mission so at the start of 1967 it felt confident that that Trend would continue into Apollo that each Mission would serve as a further stepping stone on the path to the Moon then on January 27th 1967 NASA's whole plan fell apart the agency seemed like it was going to fall apart a fire broke out in the Apollo 1 spacecraft during a routine pre-launch test of the rocket running on its own internal power the plugs connecting it to the ground were out hence its name the plugs out test as had been the norm with Mercury and Gemini the spacecraft was pressurized with pure oxygen in flight this wasn't a problem the cabin was pressurized at 5 lb per square inch or PSI but to reach the equivalent pressure differential at level during a pre-launch test the cabin was pressurized at 16.7 PSI at that concentration and that pressure a spark quickly turned into an inferno the pressure inside the cabin built up so high that neither the crew nor ground crews could open the hatch before it ruptured the crew never stood a chance the resulting investigation found a host of problems from technical issues with the spacecraft and bad design decisions to flaws in management and Leadership NASA had gotten sloppy as the end of the decade deadline approached Frank Borman was among the astronauts plural who testified before Congress about NASA's competence going forward after the fire and he somewhat famously said you are asking us do we have confidence in the spacecraft NASA management our own training and our leaders I am almost embarrassed because our answers appear to be the party line we are trying to tell you that we are confident in our management and in our engineering and in ourselves I think the question is really are you confident in us he made a plea on April 17th 3 months after the fire to stop the Witch Hunt and let NASA get on with the business of going to the Moon NASA's recovery saw some major changes to the spacecraft for one the pure oxygen environment at launch was replaced with an oxygen nitrogen mixture that was slowly bled out and replaced with pure oxygen for the flight the hatch was totally redesigned the two-part hatch was replaced with a fast opening integrated hatch that could be opened in a matter of seconds by the crew but there was a bigger change NASA had intended to test Apollo systems in Earth orbit in a version of the spacecraft called The Block one a version that was never intended to go to the Moon after the fire the agency decided there was no sense in testing this version it should only fly the lunar capable block 2 spacecraft the one that included the postfire changes and went through some substantial redesigns NASA put all its energies into this new version of the Apollo Command Module but it would take time to build and have one be flight ready the agency forcibly threw its entire Apollo flight plan out the window NASA managers needed a plan to get back on track that plan came from Owen Maynard the chief of the lunar module engineering office in the Apollo program office he pitched a sequential series of missions each designated by a letter the program would begin with a missions these would be unmanned tests of the Saturn 5 rocket and the command and service modules they'd be high altitude missions to simulate a return from the Moon flights with Apaches of about 10,315 mil or 16,6 km and they'd be short these missions would last about 8 and 1 half hours next would come the B missions these would be unmanned tests of the lunar module on the smaller Saturn 1B rocket again this would be a short Mission about 6 hours and because the lunar module wasn't coming back to Earth these could be low earth orbit missions just to gather data in space up next were sea missions the first human flights evaluation missions with only the command and service modules The Command Module is the Gumdrop shaped bit that has the crew and the surface module is the cylindrical bit with the engine that housed their fuel cells their gases that let them breathe and also the fuel that let the engine burn and do things like adjust their course and go into orbit around the moon for safety and simplicity these emissions would fly in low earth orbit as well which meant they too could launch on the smaller Saturn 1B rocket but to test the cruise systems they'd have to be longer Missions at least 11 days to check the fuel cells human factors and ground Crews Readiness to support a fulllength lunar Mission the de missions would be a repeat of the C missions but with a lunar module included even though it was a heavier payload it was still only going to Earth orbit so it could launch on a Saturn 1B or on a Saturn 5 the E missions would repeat the D missions but at a high Earth orbit to test the last piece of the puzzle with a crew the fast return to Earth this was the first manned mission that had to launch on a Saturn 5 by necessity the Saturn 1B just wouldn't be able to get that mission High Enough the F mission would repeat the E Mission but go in to lunar orbit the G mission was the ultimate goal this was the first lunar Landing after the landing H missions would be further lunar Landing missions I missions would be lunar survey flights J missions would be lunar Landings with upgraded Hardware this rough plan allowed NASA to fly as many missions of one type as it needed to feel ready for that all important G mission one of the questions that came up right away was whether to add a simulated lunar Landing to the plan the man spacecraft Center AKA Houston was in favor of the added mission to test every part of the landing before actually touching down on the moon but management argued it was pointless to go toward the surface with a lunar lander and not actually land that major question aside Owen Maynard's plan was widely accepted at Nasa the first a mission came a little over a month later at 7:00 in the morning on November 9th 1967 to show Congress and the American people that it wasn't losing steam after the fire NASA decided to press forward with an all up test of a Saturn 5 Apollo Saturn pattern 501 officially Apollo 4 carried a block one Command Module with a block two heat shield and hatch installed and a simulated lunar module for weight the S1 first stage and the S2 second stage got the spacecraft into orbit then the s4b third stage pushed the spacecraft to its peak altitude of 11,242 Mi or 18,9 2 km where it spent 4 and 1/2 hours in the Deep cold of space it re-entered the atmosphere going 24855 m per hour or 40,000 km an hour and it landed safely in the Pacific 9 hours after launch Apollo 4 boosted NASA's feeling that it was on the road to recovery so did Apollo 5 on January 22nd 1968 a b mission that saw a legless lunar module fly in Earth orbit to test The Descent engine Crews would use to land on the Moon it was so successful that NASA decided it didn't even need another luner module test flight Apollo 5 was meant to be the first of six Apollo launches in 1968 but management started airing on the side of caution saving rockets and hardware for man missions prioritizing having the means to land on the moon within the decade the agency did want another Saturn 5 test though as much for the rocket as to give pad crws another dress rehearsal before launching men into deep space Apollo 6 launched on April 4th 1968 and it was not a great Mission the rocket Pogo in essence the pipes feeding the fuel into the engine are like organ pipes that have resonant frequencies and will oscillate the rocket structure is kind of like a giant tuning fork if you strike it right the whole thing will oscillate longitudinally up and down that's what happened to Apollo 6 it bounced like a giant pogo stick then one of the engines on the second stage failed and the spacecraft didn't quite get into the right orbit it wasn't the best flight but at least Engineers could solve the problems on the ground and likely wouldn't need another test launch after Apollo 6 in the middle of 1968 NASA's chances of landing on the moon by the end of the decade were about 50/50 on top of the issues with the Saturn 5 the lunar module was badly behind schedule management started talking about Shortcuts To The Moon cutting a letter out of the mission plan to get there sooner maybe there was some logic in cutting out the E Mission and going ahead with the F mission without a lunar module just to learn about the moon's environment first the command and service modules were fine when the first set arrived at Cape canaval it was in pretty good shape and another one was on track to be flight ready by the end of the year on August 7th manager of the Apollo spacecraft program office George low asked director of flight operations Chris Craft to figure out a c Prime mission one that would go to the Moon without a lunar module this kicked off a series of meetings about a new Mission with all the key players man spacecraft Center Director Robert Gil Ruth George low Chris Craft coordinator of astronaut activities Dee Slayton Saturn 5 architect waran Brown and many others a dozen men met in Huntsville to discuss whether the lunar orbit mission was viable and necessary Pros were many testing Communications navigation thermal control and general training in the lunar environment would be useful in the leadup to the first landing the other big benefit was time George low said it plainly launching a lunar orbit mission in December might be the only way to get to the Moon by the end of the decade the lunar module might not make it by the deadline so at least they could get to the Moon with no firm commitment the mission took shape the ideal launch date would be around December 20th or 21st to a daytime launch and the moon would be in the right phase all Landings would take place during the lunar day so the astronauts could see Engineers figured that a simple Cross Beam in the s4b in place of the lunar module would suffice for mass and balance deak Slayton eyed Frank borman's crew for the assignment This Crew Frank foran Bill Anders and Mike Collins was already training for the High Altitude flight what was going a little further away Warner and brown said the rocket wasn't a problem once the Saturn 5 launched it didn't care whether its payload went into a high Earth orbit or all the way to the moon the more managers talked about it the more they agreed that it might be the right decision so in August they agreed if Apollo 7 was successful in testing the spacecraft in Earth orbit Apollo 8 would go to the Moon they just had to convince NASA administrator Jim Webb that it wasn't a stupid idea Jim Webb initially bristled at the idea but soon softened directing his Deputy Tom Payne to plan for the lunar orbit flight but make no public statement about it NASA couldn't say anything about a potential lunar mission unless Apollo 7 was successful and it was Apollo 7 launched on October 11th it was a technical success but a bit of a crew disaster about 15 hours into the mission Commander Wally shat got a head cold while Cunningham and Don Eisley got sick pretty shortly thereafter the problem with a head cold in space is that your mucus doesn't drain because there's no gravity so the crew was incredibly uncomfortable and that made them Moody no one slept very well and shirra was pretty irritated that they were meant to pause their demanding schedule for frivolous items like TV broadcasts but he eventually relented issues aside it was a great Mission and very important the spacecraft was sound and warnerfan Brown's team had solved the Pogo issue on the Saturn 5 Apollo 8 was a step closer to going to the Moon a final change was to the crew Mike Collins had a bone spur in his neck that needed surgical removal so he was swapped out for Jim level from the backup crew the new Apollo 8 crew was commander Frank Borman Command Module pilot Jim level and lunar module pilot Bill Anders who didn't have a lunar module to Pilot on November 7th 1968 a certification board looked at every part of Apollo spacecraft rocket launch support teams mission control space suits everything and determined that everything was go for the moon but would it go to the moon or would it orbit the Moon Tom Payne thrust into the role of acting administrator after Jim Webb's somewhat surprised retirement before Apollo 7 which charged with making the final decision the question came down to the service module's main engine properly the service propulsion system or SPS the one that would slow Apollo 8 into lunar orbit then fire again to punt the crew back home if it failed they die stuck in lunar orbit but out of 3,200 attempts to fire the SPs engine only four had ever failed and never because of anything characteristic of the engine the spacecraft was up for the mission on November 10th managers picked December 21st as the target launch date and George Miller head of the office of man space flight asked representatives from every piece of Apollo whether they felt going into orbit was the right move for Apollo 8 and some of the answers these guys gave in the meeting are fantastic so I'm just going to read them Stark Draper from MIT said No Reservations TA Wilson from Boeing said we have confidence in the hardware it is right to go for lunar orbit Leland Atwood from North American AV who built the Command Module said this is what we came to the party for Thomas fmo from Chrysler said we have no Hardware on this Mission and perhaps we can be even more objective I believe we should go for lunar orbit but the public should be aware that there are risks Joseph Gavin of Grumman who was building the lunar module said we also have no Hardware on this Mission except a test article but the design of the mission makes a lot of sense it is one we should do Gerald Smiley from General Electric said morale is now High less than lunar orbit would impact this Morale on November 11th Tom Payne called Frank Borman and got the final opinion on going to the Moon his crew had been training for this Mission since August when it was first on the table Borman said they were in full support of the mission Apollo 8 was going to the Moon okay now it's time to go through the mission in detail on the morning of December 21st Frank bourman Jim level and Bill Anders woke up in their crew Quarters at 2:36 a.m. eastern standard time they had breakfast suited up and started Ingress at 4:58 a.m. first Frank Borman then Bill Anders at 502 and finally pilot Jim level stepped inside at 50:7 the hatch was closed at 5:34 a.m. a little over 2 hours later Apollo 8 lifted off the Launchpad it was the first time humans ever rode a Saturn 5 and the first time a Mann Mission ever set out for the moon Borman said It felt a lot like riding a giny Titan 2 level agreed adding it seemed to slow down after it got off the pad the rocket was so big you can see that it takes time to really build up enough thrust to get moving Anders who'd never been in space before said it felt like an old freight train going down a bad track launch day was busy it always was on Apollo missions because there were a lot of touch and go points but the mission passed its first major hurdle at 11 minutes and 34 seconds Apollo 8 reached orbit and settled in for the business of checking that everything was working well enough to leave the relative safety of Earth orbit and go to the moon and already we get some fun little flavor from the crew 25 minutes into the flight Jim level asks well how about let's take off our gloves and helmets huh I mean let's get comfortable it's going to be a long trip we also get our first little incident Jim level caught a life vest on a strut and it inflated Oh shoot what was that my life jacket no kidding is it blowing up it's too early that's CO2 in there yes CO2 CO2 yes I think we ought to just leave the vest just the way it is this seems silly but it's actually kind of a big deal for one thing it was bulky and there wasn't a lot of living space in the Command Module second and more importantly it was filled as they discussed with carbon dioxide if they released that into the cabin it could saturate the lithium hydroxide canisters that get that toxic gas out of the air they had other canisters but they didn't want to start swapping them out immediately before they'd even left for the moon at 2 hours and 27 minutes into the flight Mike Collins serving as Capcom gave the crew the update everyone involved in Apollo had been waiting years to hear all right Apollo 8 you are go for tli tli is the translunar injection burn this is the burn of the upper s4b stage that gives the spacecraft the velocity it needs to get to the moon but it's not really going out of Earth orbit technically speaking what this burn does is put the spacecraft into a really h High Earth orbit one with an apigy of 310,000 Mi or about 500,000 km what happens on these missions is the spacecraft's new orbit intersects the moon's orbit in about 3 days time the burn lasted for 5 minutes and 18 seconds and it accelerated the spacecraft to about 3555 ft per second which is about 24,27 mph or 38960 km per hour the next big item on an Apollo mission is transposition and docking which is the fancy technical term for getting the lunar module out of its storage space and connecting it to the Command Module so the crew can take it to the moon of course Apollo 8 didn't have a lunar module but they still had to separate from the s4b they're a little late in doing this but it's nothing that will throw off the mission and of course it was an excellent opportunity for photographs man where's that s4b anyone see it now oh there it is you found it right in the middle right in the middle of my window there's not a panel around wow what a view looks pretty good huh Jim level took a series of pictures of the retreating s4b though Frank Borman felt that it was sticking a little too close for comfort he estimated it was about 500 to 1,000 ft away but still it's pretty gorgeous at 3 hours and 35 minutes Apollo 8 was further from the earth than any human had ever been shattering the 850 M record Pete Conrad and Dick Gordon had hit on gmany 11 so of course Borman called down to Mike Collins tell Conrad he lost his record it's about this time that the view starts to to get really insane the crew is now on their way to the moon but there's still a lot going on the first day was always pretty busy before things felt settled Frank Borman is still a little nervous that the s4b is too close for comfort and wants to do a little burn of their SPS engine to gain some distance Mike Collins asks the crew if they can get some feel for where the Earth is to which Borman replies as soon as we find the Earth we'll do it that according to the NASA public affairs office narrating the mission brought a loud clap of laughter in control the crew did find the Earth about 4 hours and 36 minutes into the flight and took these pictures marking the first time a human ever directly photographed our planet in a single frame the dominant area in this shot is South America and about half an hour later Frank Borman got this view which shows the s4b is still trailing them it's right down there in the corner it is not a UFO seeing the Earth like this got level waxing a little bit poetic boy it's really hard to describe what this earth looks like I'm looking at my Center window which is a round window and the window is bigger than the earth is right now I can clearly see the Terminator I can see most of South America to which Collins replies Good Grief that must be quite a view their views aren't actually the best though their windows are getting pretty foggy window 3 is pretty much useless before long and window 5 is getting very hard to use nearly 6 hours into the flight the crew is a little behind schedule when Mike Collins calls up with an unwelcome update you may have to delay your lunch a little bit by this point the crew should be out of their bulky suits but they aren't and Jim level wants to do some navigation exercises before he settles in and gets undressed so he's still up there in his giant suit maneuvering around in this teeny space it's all business on board even though they've been up at this point for a very exciting 11 hours they finally eat 7 hours and 11 minutes into the flight with this as the view mind you at this point they're about 43,9 193 Mi or 7,800 km away from the earth they also have the spacecraft in PTC role at this point which stands for Passive thermal control also referred to as a barbecue roll space is cold but when unfiltered sunlight hits something it gets hot eventually that thing in this case the spacecraft will radiate out that heat that it's absorbing eventually radiating out as much as it's getting the side in Shadow will always radiate heat but it won't be replenished what you end up with is temperature extremes something really bad when the object subjected to those extremes contains the gases and electronics to keep humans alive the service module held oxygen and hydrogen that combined to make Fuel and also water as a byproduct used for cooling and drinking it actually made so much water that it had to be vented periodically so these life providing things need to be regulated the solution was to evenly heat the spacecraft by Rolling it like a piece of meat on a spit slowly and continuously while they were just passively flying toward the Moon it wasn't wasn't fast only about 0.1 de per second but it worked another interesting thing about the flight to the Moon that I don't think people realize is that the spacecraft loses speed for a good chunk of the iboard trip after the tli burn they were going at about 24,27 miles per hour a little less than 8 hours into the flight they're already down to about 6,800 mph or 1100 km per hour the Earth is still trying to draw them back the outbound trip to the moon also involved a lot of housekeeping they did a lot of checking up on their attitude or orientation of the spacecraft so their navigation checks would be correct they checked transmissions and onboard systems they needed to make sure everything was running well for Mission events the biggest of which during the translunar coast was midcourse Corrections these were Burns of the SPs engine to slightly adjust their orbit to make sure they intersected the moon's orbit exactly where they needed to but they also had a lot of downtime to chat and talk about Earthly matters sports scores were a big thing on AP poly Missions at 8 hours 15 minutes Ken maddingly now on Capcom called up to the crew and a final score is 31 to2 Cleveland beat Dallas in a football game another really important thing was tracking the ground tracked the spacecraft using the dobler shift of theband radio they used for communications and the changing comms delay tracking stations on the ground which were set around the globe to account for our planet's rotation sent a signal up to Apollo 8 with a known frequency if you really care to know it was 2,164 40625 MHz the spacecraft didn't generate its own carrier for the down link back to Earth but instead multiplied the received frequency by 240 over 221 giving it a known and stable down link frequency of 22875 MHz again for the five people watching this who even know what that number means that's the frequency that tracking stations locked on to but the spacecraft is retreating changing the frequency of the radio waves as it does the Doppler effect since ground stations know what frequency the spacecraft is using they can figure out the deviation from that known number which helps tracking the signal delay also increases as a spacecraft gets further away because signal needs time to get to the spacecraft and back measuring the time delay also helps with tracking Ground tracking is part of Apollo 8 knowing where it is but so is onboard navigation it checked against the guidance computer this is Jim level's job this is the navigation stuff he wanted to do before getting out of his bulky space suit I've got a video explaining how that works right here it's a lot it's kind of complicated but this explains it pretty solidly another part of Apollo missions we don't really think about the missions landed during the lunar day when a large portion of the earth facing side is illuminated that meant for the crews approaching the moon they were seeing it side on as a sliver they weren't going to the Moon as we see it so they didn't have a gorgeous full moon to see 10 hours and 1550 minutes into the flight the crew did one of these midcourse correction Burns it was just 2.4 seconds long and had the effect of lightly adjusting the spacecraft's altitude as it went behind the Moon and of course every burn came with checking that all the systems were still in good shape [Music] afterwards 11 hours and 20 minutes into the flight Ken maddingly brought up that it was time for Frank Borman to sleep sleep on Apollo was a bit of a to-do the initial plan for Apollo was to have one man awake at all times to keep the ground apprised of anything going on and that was still the arrangement on Apollo 8 but remember the Command Module was small and they didn't have a lunar module for extra living space on this flight so one guy trying to sleep while the other two are working we're in for some rough sleep periods figuring he might need some help Borman asked to take a seel tablet a short acting sleeping pill he's well past his sleep period according to the flight plan and he needs to be in good form for the mission and what the ground doesn't know at this point is that he's been sick and he's not feeling much better when he wakes up a few hours later after a fitful sleep he vomits twice and has diarrhea which is going to make the spacecraft smell pretty horrific and get pretty messy luckily liquids in microgravity turn into little balls thanks to surface tension but they still need to Corral the orbs of vomit and feces so they don't hit anything and bring to smaller orbs that could mess up the equipment or generally be really gross Frank Borman is kind of out of it so Jim level and Bill Anders do the vomit orb chasing and somehow in all of this disgusting chaos Anders takes a moment to be completely fascinated by the physics of vomit in space now that Borman is awake and the crew has had the fun of vomit wrangling we have a shift change Borman stays up while level and Anders get some sleep which they desperately need at this point they've been awake for about 24 hours and they finally hit their first rest period Luckily everything is looking great at this point Apollo 8 is set on a free return trajectory which means if they do nothing once they've reached the moon they'll whip around the far side and come straight home it is an excellent safety measure about 25 hours into the flight we're officially on day two now the whole crew is awake and they're discussing whether or not to tell the ground about borman's expelling of fluids the problem is they're live to the world and he doesn't really want to talk about being sick in space with journalists listening Borman also doesn't want to do anything that could jeopardize the mission he doesn't want them to cancel the lunar orbit goal just because he had a 24-hour bug at the time there was a Hong Kong strain of the flu going around he was sure that was it Bill Anders finally convinces Borman to talk about it in the voice track that gets dumped down to managers so the ground will know about it but it will be shielded from the media Meanwhile we're also back to Morning News updates and chatter with Mike Collins back on Capcom we understand that bill Anders will be in private conversation or communication today with an old man who wears a red suit and lives at the North Pole to which Anders replied Roger with reference to the first we saw him earlier this morning and he was heading your way Mike Collins also let them know that David Eisenhower and Julie Nixon had just gotten married Collins also called up I've got another score for you when you're ready to copy are you ready to copy standby go ahead Navy 14 Army 21 would you like me to repeat that you are very garbled Houston am unable to read we'll call you back in another year interservice rivalry is a constant theme on not just Apollo missions but also geminy missions this clip from geminy 6 and seven in orbit together is a great example and the inner service thing will come back Frank borman's illness is finally up for discussion 30 hours into the flight and in this conversation it comes out that Jim level and Bill Anders had also been feeling unwell though neither had vomited or had diarrhea they just felt a little bit woozy when they first got out of their couches and started undressing what NASA is learning in this conversation is that when you're in a spacecraft large enough to really move around in the disorientation and adaptation to weightlessness makes you sick your vestibular system which is in the inner ear that controls your balance is pretty well attuned to conditions on Earth taking away gravity throws that system for a loop while your eyes still see things normally this is the same kind of disorientation that causes seasickness Apollo 7 might have dealt with this but their head colds took over for any other symptoms Chuck Barry the flight surgeon got on the line and went over Frank's symptoms the crew is prescribed ltil to treat diarrhea and marazine to treat nausea and of course the public affairs officer did tell the world about it later on at 31 hours and 10 minutes Apollo 8 did their first TV transmission the TV camera on board was a simple black and white camera with two lens lenses the wide angle was best for inside the cabin and the narrow angle lens helped capture the earth when they were retreating the TV transmission done Jim level tries to sleep again with the plan for Bill Anders to follow shortly thereafter neither of them have slept more than 4 hours since launch and they're approved to take SEC canel tablets to help them this time around they opted to stagger their sleep cycle so that the whole crew would be back on track by day three the trans lunar Coast had a bit more freedom in terms of scheduling they need to be on the flight plan when they get to the moon at 37 hours and 21 minutes there was an interesting call from Apollo 8 Frank Borman said we're going to need to dump some urine overboard there I wonder if that's going to foul your trajectory up or can we go ahead and do it dumping urine actually imparted enough force that ground tracking stations noticed the change liquids expand rapidly when they hit space and that turns into thrust it's a tiny amount but enough to cause very small perturbations in the spacecraft trajectory and affect tracking on Earth as the day wore on the were more updates from home Jerry Carr took over on Capcom and let the crew know that they'd all gotten together for eggnog at Charlie Duke's house Carr assured the crew that they did a great job on TV though admitted they were upstaged by Santa in El Lago a suburban community near the man spacecraft Center in the classic American tradition the local fire department blared its siren driving around the neighborhood with Santa perched on the roof of the fire truck waving and tossing candy to Children day three started with more of the same news updates and going into housekeeping the big stories were 21 convicts had broken out of a prison in New Orleans and lynon Johnson had been discharged from the Bethesda naval hospital after succumbing to the flu and Mike Collins let everyone know that their families were doing well 52 hours and 50 minutes into the flight Collins asked for health updates but the crew by now was feeling fine no one had taken any more drugs everyone had eaten and was drinking plenty of water at this point level added happiness is bacon squares for breakfast to which Collins replied if you don't eat them all bring them back we'll polish off here bacon squares were a favorite food item on Apollo missions Apollo 8 started a second TV transmission at 55 hours and 7 minutes and this time we actually get a pretty amazing picture of the Earth it's easy to look at it now and scoff we have infinitely better images and videos but this is the first time the world got to see what our planet looks like all right looking at yourselves at se from 180,000 miles out in space Mike what I keep imagining is if I'm a some lonely traveler from another planet what I think about the Earth from this altitude whether I think it' be inhabited or not don't see anybody waving is that what you're saying I'm just kind of curious uh whether I would land on the blue or the brown part of the earth you better hope we land in the blue tell him so are we so are we babe always for land Landings at 55 hours and 38 minutes Apollo 8 hit one of my favorite points of any lunar Mission equa gravasphere this is the point of gravitational equilibrium between the Earth and the moon and it marks the moment that Apollo 8 falls under the moon's gravitational influence the Moon is now exerting the greater pole and the crew will start to speed up flight director Jerry Griffin once told me that someone in mission control often made a BK sound when the mission passed this point at 56 hours 43 minutes I like this line Ander said on board Jim level is engaged in an activity which I sh describe so I think I'll cut this short and get my oxygen mask in other bathroom news at 61 hours and 57 minutes Frank Borman let Ken maddingly know they were going to dump more urine remember it's something they have to warn Houston about the day was by and large pretty calm mostly everyone was gearing up for the big event going into orbit around the moon the following day 68 hours and 4 minutes in Jerry Carr back on Capcom gave another one of those big exciting calls your go for Loi the go no-o decisions come from polling all the controllers guidance environmental comms flight Dynamics everyone about readiness for a mission event if they all say go then that's passed up to the spacecraft if someone says no go they have to explain their issue and then they work through it to get to the go point in this case the go no go is for Loi or lunar orbit insertion the burn that will slow the spacecraft down enough that it can be captured by the moon to go into orbit otherwise Apollo 8 will whip around the far side and come home almost an hour later Borman got a big personal update the custard is in the oven at 350 it was a coded message from his wife Susan to reassure him that she was supporting him and the family while he was off on the flight there were a lot of these little moments on Apollo missions families passing up messages or their little inside jokes I find it very sweet the big moment on Apollo 8 came at 68 hours and 57 minutes level called we'll see you on the other side as a spacecraft went behind the moon for the first time the all-important LOI burn happened behind the moon which meant they were out of contact Houston wouldn't know if the burn was successful or not until they came out from around the moon the timing of contact would tell them whether it was a good burn or a no burn once alone on the far side the crew kicked up activity they'd already gone through all the checklist for the big burn with Houston hence the go decision but they still double checked everything before actually igniting the SPS engine 69 hours 8 minutes and 16 seconds into the flight the service modules engine ignited and burned it was a 4minute burn done while the crew kept a watchful eye on everything every system the thrust was a little lower than expected so the crew burned a little longer than planned when they stopped they still had 19 minutes before Houston could hear them so the crew chatted about the moon and I love these little bits of dialogue because you get a pretty good sense of their awe and wonder what hey I don't see a thing where are we it looks like a big looks like a big beach down there holy cow it's completely blank here don't we we have a lot of time for looking let's get those cameras out hey you know something it's gray huh the crew has two cameras for photographing the lunar surface and they start using them at 69 hours and 33 minutes Jerry Carr called for Apollo 8 hoping they'd respond to meaning the burn had been successful and Jim level answered the burn was good they were in orbit by all accounts there was a lot of excitement and Mission Control at this moment day four started with the crew giving their impressions of the Moon Jim level described it as looking gray having no color and reminding him of plaster of Paris it's one of the most enduring descriptions from the flight which certainly does not do the moon's fascinating landscape Justice the crew took a lot of photographs in orbit one of their goals was to image potential Landing sites for future Missions at one point Jim level exclaims man this is really exciting some of their chatter on board gives us an insight as to why we don't see stars in images of the moon at 70 hours 25 minutes Anders notes that his camera is at f2.8 and the shutter speed at 1250th of a second that's really fast and a pretty small aperture designed to resolve details of the bright moon which means the tiny relatively dim Stars won't show up there's a lot of excitement from the crew passing over the moon trying to recognize landmarks and discern where they are at 71 hours and 40 minutes during their second orbit they did another TV transmission and here is an amazing view at 74 hours they passed over Mar tranquilatus or the Sea of Tranquility figuring out whether it would be a good spot for a future Landing it was coming out from the moon's Far Side on the fourth orbit that we got the historically most important image of the mission or at least the most enduring Bill Anders looks out of window 5 and sees the earthrise it's 75 hours 47 minutes 30 seconds he says oh my God look at that picture of over there here's the Earth coming up wow is that pretty there's a little bit of a scuffle on board you got a color film Jim hand me that roll real quick will you oh man that's great hurry hurry quick gee it's down here just grab me a color that color exterior hurry up got one yeah I'm looking for one hey I got it right here let let me get out this window it's a lot clearer level can see the Earth rise but Anders has the clearer window and the color camera he takes this picture and then this one which is also amazing but less famous there's a lot of landmark tracking and photographing future sites and also a lot of excitement on board which can you blame them Frank Borman as Commander basically has to order the crew to sleep so they can be rested to start the trip home the following day leaving the moon's orbit was another important mission event and he needed his guys in Top form but imagine trying to sleep when you have such a short time to spend at the moon at 83 hours 3 minutes Borman seems to just about yell go to bed I don't care go to to bed no you get to bed get your ass to bed you quit wasting one don't want to talk about it shut up go to sleep both of you guys another little moment I like at 84 hours and 39 minutes Borman asked Ken maddingly how he managed to pull Duty on Christmas Eve it always happens to the Bachelors every time doesn't it he asks maddingly says I wouldn't be anywhere else tonight the crew manages to sleep a bit just a couple hours nap at 85 hours and 43 minutes they start another TV transmission and this is probably most famous Apollo transmission after the clip of Apollo 11's Landing we are now approaching lunar sunrise and uh for all the people back on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to you in the beginning God created the Heaven and the Earth and the Earth was without form and void and darkness was upon the face of the deep and the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said let there be light and there was light and God saw the light that it was good and God divided the light from the darkness and God called the light day and the Darkness he called night and the evening and the morning were the first day and God said let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters and let it divide the waters from the Wat and God made the firmament and divided the waters which were under the firmament and the waters which were above the firmament and it was so and God called the firmament Heaven and the evening and the morning were the second day and God said let the waters under the heaven be gathered together into one place and let the dry land appear and it was so and God called the dry land Earth and the Gathering GA of the waters called these seas and God saw that it was good and from the crew of Apollo 8 we close with good night good luck a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you all of you on The Good Earth the transmission done the crew went into their final orbit around the Moon we got a lot to do [Music] the crew busied themselves prepping for the most important moment the transar injection burn or Tei maneuver this is the LOI burn in Reverse speeding up to get out of the moon's gravity and fall back to Earth it's actually really neat to think about it from the Earth's perspective like if you could look up at the moon and see them the burn is cancelling the moon's orbital motion bringing Apollo 8 to a stop if you could see it the moon would look like it was sliding out from under the spacecraft leaving Apollo 8 to fall back to Earth Apollo 8 got a go across the board and the public affairs officer said the mood in Houston was one of relaxed confidence and again like the LOI burn the Tei burn would happen on The Far Side of the Moon the burn started at 89 hours and 19 minutes and 13 seconds and ended at 89 hours 22 minutes and 40 seconds at 89 hours 34 minutes level called to Houston please be informed there is a Santa Claus before saying good night on Christmas Eve Bill Anders promised that he was hanging his stocking right next to his Teddy Bear Christmas day about 98 hours into the mission started with the regular chatty updates though this time they were kind of the biggest news story going around and there was another TV broadcast on schedule that day and in discussing whether or not it was okay to keep it on the schedule Forman said yeah we can have it on schedule we don't have much to do but we'll perform for you we're just going to have to show you the inside today because there's no good shots of the moon or the Earth the sun's too bright Lille added to that I think it's raining out there that TV transmission came at 104 hours and 24 minutes and as promised it was mostly about life on board Apollo 8 there are a couple of other fun exchanges on the day 108 hours and 22 minutes into the flight we got this from Mike Collins we've just been HED by the presence of Mr Neil Armstrong who's now standing by at the Capcom console alert and eager rolling down safe fully I do not know what that's about I'm just going toy talk that up to an astronaut inside joke 111 hours and 34 minutes into the flight Borman and Ken maddingly were debriefing about the day Milt says we're in a period of relaxed vigilance Milt being Milt Windler the flight director on shift very good Borman replied we'll relax you be vigilant at 115 hours and 20 minutes Ken maddingly remembered something that I'll bet anyone still watching this video has forgotten about and we realized we never did find out what happened to that may West did you leave it blown up or did you dump it we dumped it it's been over a 100 hours and they just followed up on this Apollo 8 was coming home on such a good path that they actually skipped one of the planned midcourse correction burns the weather was also looking really good at the Landing site they also took these very interesting filtered pictures of the moon red and blue as part of a filter series but they weren't meant to do it on colored film I imagine the idea was to get more contrast with these filters instead we have this really weird series of images that I've always kind of liked they did more news updates they did another TV transmission at 128 Hours and this might be my favorite exchange of the entire trans Earth Coast Jerry this is Apollo 8 Apollo 8 go Roger I just got on the SE now looking at Texas and the weather man is right it looks like a pretty good day little clouds down there but not bad real fine Jim can you see the kids out in the yard waving would you tell p Conrad to get his kids off my roof he as the mission came to an end and this happened with every flight we get to the point where the teams on shift and Mission Control are on their last shift there's always a nice signing off between the ground crew and the crew Jerry Carr let Jim level know at 129 hours and 13 minutes that the next voice they'd hear would be the smiling Irishman AKA Mike Collins 10 hours later Collins let Anders know that the Green Team would be signing off we've enjoyed it and look forward to seeing you back in Houston we have sure enjoyed it too troops and you guys really done a good job really do appreciate it like I said you get this on every Apollo Mission as they get closer to home but I just love this palpable sense of camaraderie the last day started well with just a few hours to go conditions were looking good in the mid-pacific weatherwise too Apollo weight was also beautifully On Target just 0.06 Dees off from their entry Target angle at 144 hours and 27 minutes Anders asked does that mean we're go for entry when they didn't reply Borman called Houston Apollo 8 at 144 hours and 32 minutes Ken maddingley finally replied Apollo 8 Houston you're cleared with entry attitude at this time which was really good that he did because when they'd initially called down they'd already separated the command and service modules this was kind of the last big thing the service module that Powerhouse with the big engine that stored their fuel cells and their gases and the water and everything they needed was not designed for reentry also the heat shield that would protect them from the heat of re-entry was with the way they were flying but between the two modules so right before they hit the atmosphere they jettison to the service module now it was just the Gumdrop left and I feel like this is a wild part that a lot of people don't understand this is the rocket that launched Apollo H to the moon this is the only part that came back that's the same on every Apollo flight the modules separated and 20 seconds later Apollo 8 entered the atmosphere less than half a minute later they lost Communications with the ground every Mission went through this ionization blackout ionized gases created by the heat of re-entry surround the spacecraft and block all Communications in or out as they entered the atmosphere 146 hours and 50 minutes into the mission Bill Anders noted on board it's a real glow I can see our gagan shine a minute later they are back in touch with the ground as they fell the spacecraft reached 31,8 24 ft per second or 9,700 m per second subjecting the crew to 6.84 GS which is a fair bit the drug parachutes opened at 23,000 ft to start slowing them and then the main parachutes a minute later Apollo 8 splashed down 147 hours after launch on the nose two and a half hours after hitting the water Frank Borman Jim level and Bill Anders were on board the USS Yorktown Apollo 8 turned 1968 from a shaky year of recovery for NASA into a massive success it also gave America something to feel good about after a particularly rough year a year that saw increased tensions over the war in Vietnam and the assassinations of RFK and MLK the crew was presented with NASA's distinguished service medal at a White House ceremony in January of 1969 they were greeted with parades in New York Miami and Houston incoming president Richard Nixon was quick to Leverage The Crew sending Frank Borman and his family on a Goodwill tour of Europe visiting London Paris Brussels the heg Bon Berlin Rome Madrid and Lisbon at every stop he shared his impressions of Earth as a shared spacecraft that needed International cooperation to thrive where Apollo was concerned all that was left was for the lunar module to go through some rigorous testing after Apollo 8 NASA was well on the cusp of achieving the lunar Landing goal okay admittedly a bit of an odd video for me but I really love going into the detail about Apollo a flights so I hope you had some fun special shout out to my patreon supporters for helping make these videos possible if you'd like to help keep these videos coming and I do have a few that I'm writing right now the link to my patreon is in the description and I'm also trying to figure out how to make YouTube memberships work both should actually now be linked to private channels in my Discord where I do talk a little bit about what's coming down the pike whatever you celebrate this time of year and however you celebrate it I hope it's lovely and filled with reminiscences about Apollo 8 I'll see you guys in the next one Pete Conrad we've talked about this you have got to keep your kids off gym level's roof okay [Music] [Applause] [Music]