Source: Robert Kurson. Rocket Men - The Daring Odyssey of
Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon (2018)
Apollo 8 and the Astronauts Who Made Man's First Journey to the Moon (2018)
Through all the celebrations, most didn’t realize how successful Apollo 8 had been, since all the mission objectives had been reached, and the command and service modules performed beautifully. Deep space communications had worked very well, so much more was learned about the Moon, and the Saturn 5 rocket performed almost flawlessly on its third launch. As soon as possible, NASA started its analysis of Apollo 8’s photographs and filmed footage of the Moon, all of which was developed by hand rather than machine, which was painstaking but necessary in order to assure that the film could be salvaged if mistakes occurred.
NASA selected one of the best “Earthrise” photos that Anders took, and on 30 December 1968 it appeared on the front page of newspapers worldwide. Days later that photo would appear in color magazines and special newspaper editions, and in 1969 the US Postal Service issued a stamp called “Earthrise”. In a year that featured so many horrible photos, Earthrise captured the imagination of millions in a positive way. As 1968 turned to 1969, the crew of Apollo 8 had a series of NASA debriefings, and the three covered all aspects of what they did, saw, and felt, including their recommendations for future Apollo missions.
NASA selected one of the best “Earthrise” photos that Anders took, and on 30 December 1968 it appeared on the front page of newspapers worldwide. Days later that photo would appear in color magazines and special newspaper editions, and in 1969 the US Postal Service issued a stamp called “Earthrise”. In a year that featured so many horrible photos, Earthrise captured the imagination of millions in a positive way. As 1968 turned to 1969, the crew of Apollo 8 had a series of NASA debriefings, and the three covered all aspects of what they did, saw, and felt, including their recommendations for future Apollo missions.
The three astronauts remained busy. Each was awarded the NASA Distinguished Service Medal from LBJ at the White House. Afterwards, the three rode in a motorcade through an adoring crowd to Capitol Hill, where they provided an informal briefing to a Joint Session of Congress, after receiving a 2.5 minute standing ovation. Then the three astronauts went to the State Department where they held a press conference. Before answering any questions, a NASA spokesperson announced that Borman had been named a deputy director of Flight Crew Operations, which would involve in part advising the White House on the goings on at NASA. A reporter asked when the US would land on the Moon, and Borman responded saying it would happen during the upcoming summer with Apollo 11.
On 10 January 1969, the crew of Apollo 8 were honored with a ticker tape parade in NYC, an appearance at the United Nations, and a celebration at the Waldorf-Astoria with the NYC mayor and NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Additional celebrations and parades followed the next week in Newark, Chicago, Houston, and even in Miami during Super Bowl III. On 20 January 1969, the same day Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th President, NASA announced that Lovell and Anders would be on the back-up crew for Apollo 11. That likely meant that the two would be going to the Moon on Apollo 14, with Anders as the command module pilot orbiting the Moon while Lovell and another astronaut walked on the Moon. Anders had mastered the command and service module systems to the point where NASA was not going to let him do anything else.
On 10 January 1969, the crew of Apollo 8 were honored with a ticker tape parade in NYC, an appearance at the United Nations, and a celebration at the Waldorf-Astoria with the NYC mayor and NY Governor Nelson Rockefeller. Additional celebrations and parades followed the next week in Newark, Chicago, Houston, and even in Miami during Super Bowl III. On 20 January 1969, the same day Nixon was inaugurated as the 37th President, NASA announced that Lovell and Anders would be on the back-up crew for Apollo 11. That likely meant that the two would be going to the Moon on Apollo 14, with Anders as the command module pilot orbiting the Moon while Lovell and another astronaut walked on the Moon. Anders had mastered the command and service module systems to the point where NASA was not going to let him do anything else.
President Nixon sent Borman and his family on an international goodwill tour of Europe, and he was greeted as a hero at every stop, while NASA prepared for the Moonshot with Apollo 9 and Apollo 10, full of confidence and with momentum. NASA asked Borman to talk about the space program and Apollo 8 at university campuses, but he was by far more often than not shouted down by protesters that viewed him as the enemy, a military man on their campus. At Columbia University Borman was pelted by marshmallows and then overrun on stage by students dressed in gorilla costumes. Borman’s worst experience was at Cornell University, where Carl Sagan had invited both Frank and his wife Susan to his home for a roundtable discussion with students. The Bormans were treated to an evening of attacks on America and its conduct in Vietnam, all of it encouraged by Sagan, of whom Borman would never forgive.
After Apollo 9 (March 1969) and Apollo 10 (May 1969), a mission that took the same risks as Apollo 8 but didn’t receive nearly the same attention or accolades, Nixon sent Borman and his family to the USSR for another goodwill tour. The Soviet Ambassador to the US had extended the invitation, and Nixon saw the tour as a way to lessen tensions with the USSR (Detente). Borman was the first astronaut to ever visit the USSR; ironically, he was greeted and treated so much better in communist Russia than he was on US college campuses.
Borman was treated like a rock star, even touring the top secret Star City near Moscow, where cosmonauts lived and trained. Borman discovered that he liked the Russian people, and he held cosmonauts in the highest regard. To a man, every cosmonaut that Borman talked to was generous in acknowledging that the US had won the race to the Moon, which was another feather in his cap in terms of achieving his goal of defeating the USSR in the Space Race.
After Apollo 9 (March 1969) and Apollo 10 (May 1969), a mission that took the same risks as Apollo 8 but didn’t receive nearly the same attention or accolades, Nixon sent Borman and his family to the USSR for another goodwill tour. The Soviet Ambassador to the US had extended the invitation, and Nixon saw the tour as a way to lessen tensions with the USSR (Detente). Borman was the first astronaut to ever visit the USSR; ironically, he was greeted and treated so much better in communist Russia than he was on US college campuses.
Borman was treated like a rock star, even touring the top secret Star City near Moscow, where cosmonauts lived and trained. Borman discovered that he liked the Russian people, and he held cosmonauts in the highest regard. To a man, every cosmonaut that Borman talked to was generous in acknowledging that the US had won the race to the Moon, which was another feather in his cap in terms of achieving his goal of defeating the USSR in the Space Race.
On 16 July 1969, NASA launched Apollo 11 from Cape Canaveral, with astronauts Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, and Michael Collins. While orbiting the Moon, Armstrong gave a shout-out to Apollo 8, and especially to Lovell, when he told Mission Control that “We’re over Mount Marilyn at the present time” (Lovell named it after his wife). On 20 July 1969, Apollo 11’s LEM set down on the lunar surface in the Sea of Tranquility, one of the sites scouted by Apollo 8, and Armstrong told Mission Control “The Eagle has landed”. Six-and-a-half hours later, Armstrong was the first man to walk on the Moon, and said “That’s one small step for [a] man; One giant leap for Mankind”. Aldrin joined Armstrong on the lunar surface a few minutes later. Only eight years had passed since JFK’s “Triple Dog Dare” to land on the Moon before the end of the 1960s.
By the time Apollo 11 returned to Earth, Slayton had shuffled future Apollo crews. Anders, believing that he would never be allowed to walk on the Moon given his expertise with the command and service modules, accepted a job at the National Aeronautics and Space Council in DC. The NASC was chaired by the Vice-President, which at that time was Spiro Agnew. Before he formally accepted the position, Anders had a condition that he wanted met, in that he still wanted to be classified as an active astronaut in case a miracle occurred where he was assigned to walk on the Moon. Lovell had been advanced from Apollo 14 to Apollo 13, mostly due to the NASA doctors diagnosis of an ear infection with Alan Shepard. Borman accepted a position with Eastern Airlines as a special advisor.
By the time Apollo 11 returned to Earth, Slayton had shuffled future Apollo crews. Anders, believing that he would never be allowed to walk on the Moon given his expertise with the command and service modules, accepted a job at the National Aeronautics and Space Council in DC. The NASC was chaired by the Vice-President, which at that time was Spiro Agnew. Before he formally accepted the position, Anders had a condition that he wanted met, in that he still wanted to be classified as an active astronaut in case a miracle occurred where he was assigned to walk on the Moon. Lovell had been advanced from Apollo 14 to Apollo 13, mostly due to the NASA doctors diagnosis of an ear infection with Alan Shepard. Borman accepted a position with Eastern Airlines as a special advisor.
Following what was perhaps the most flawless Apollo mission of them all, Apollo 12's landing on the Moon, in April 1970 Apollo 13 launched, with Lovell as commander. Lovell’s crewmates were Fred Haise and Jack Swigart, who replaced Ken Mattingly, who was erroneously diagnosed with the measles and not allowed to be on the crew; it was another strike against the NASA medical doctors in the eyes of the astronauts.
Apollo 13 was a miracle, in that the astronauts, repeatedly, should have died in mission, but they returned to Earth due to the actions and decisions in Mission Control, the private sector, and the astronauts themselves. One of the decisions was to slingshot Apollo 13 around the far side of the Moon in order to return the astronauts to Earth, a plan originally devised for Apollo 8 in the service module engine didn’t ignite. Apollo 13 did not dare to ignite the service module engine since there had been an explosion in that module not long after starting their trek towards the Moon. Everyone at NASA, especially Lovell, understood that all three astronauts survived because the LEM was used in its back-up capacity as a lifeboat. If an explosion in the service module would have occurred on Apollo 8, Borman, Lovell, and Anders would have never survived, since they didn’t have the LEM.
NASA made four more Moon landings after Apollo 13, with the last being Apollo 17 in 1972, with Gene Cernan the last astronaut to walk on the Moon. In one of the last interviews of his life, Neil Armstrong called Apollo 8 “An enormously bold decision” that catapulted the US Space Program forward. Michael Collins compared Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, saying “I think Apollo 8 was about leaving and Apollo 11 was about arriving, leaving the Earth and arriving at the Moon . . . I think probably you would say that Apollo 8 was of more significance than Apollo 11”. Ken Mattingly, who played a key role in helping Apollo 13 return, and was the command module pilot for Apollo 16, said “ . . . being a part of Apollo 8 [as CapCom], it made everything else anticlimactic”. Kraft simply said that “It took more courage to make the decision to do Apollo 8 than anything we [NASA] ever did in the Space Program”.
Apollo 13 was a miracle, in that the astronauts, repeatedly, should have died in mission, but they returned to Earth due to the actions and decisions in Mission Control, the private sector, and the astronauts themselves. One of the decisions was to slingshot Apollo 13 around the far side of the Moon in order to return the astronauts to Earth, a plan originally devised for Apollo 8 in the service module engine didn’t ignite. Apollo 13 did not dare to ignite the service module engine since there had been an explosion in that module not long after starting their trek towards the Moon. Everyone at NASA, especially Lovell, understood that all three astronauts survived because the LEM was used in its back-up capacity as a lifeboat. If an explosion in the service module would have occurred on Apollo 8, Borman, Lovell, and Anders would have never survived, since they didn’t have the LEM.
NASA made four more Moon landings after Apollo 13, with the last being Apollo 17 in 1972, with Gene Cernan the last astronaut to walk on the Moon. In one of the last interviews of his life, Neil Armstrong called Apollo 8 “An enormously bold decision” that catapulted the US Space Program forward. Michael Collins compared Apollo 8 and Apollo 11, saying “I think Apollo 8 was about leaving and Apollo 11 was about arriving, leaving the Earth and arriving at the Moon . . . I think probably you would say that Apollo 8 was of more significance than Apollo 11”. Ken Mattingly, who played a key role in helping Apollo 13 return, and was the command module pilot for Apollo 16, said “ . . . being a part of Apollo 8 [as CapCom], it made everything else anticlimactic”. Kraft simply said that “It took more courage to make the decision to do Apollo 8 than anything we [NASA] ever did in the Space Program”.