Apollo 8 was launched on December 21st, 1968, entered lunar orbit on
December 24th, and returned to Earth on December 27th. Apollo
8 was the first manned space craft to orbit the Moon. Its crew consisted of
Frank Borman, commander, William Anders, lunar module pilot, and James Lovell,
command module pilot. The mission objectives of Apollo 8 were primarily
engineering. These were to demonstrate crew/space vehicle/mission support
facilities during manned Saturn V/CSM mission, demonstrate translunar
injection, CSM navigation, communications, and midcourse corrections, assess
CSM consumables and passive thermal control, demonstrate CSM performance in
cislunar and lunar orbit environment, and demonstrate communications and
tracking at lunar distances. High resolution photographs were taken of possible
landing sites on the lunar surface.
Two memorable events took place during the Apollo 8 mission.
First, the image of the Earth rising over the desolate lunar surface as
transmitted from the spacecraft caught the imagination of the world, which in
1968 had been wracked by turmoil, war, and civil violence. Second, the
astronauts decided to celebrate Christmas Eve in lunar orbit by reading the
story of creation from the Book of Genesis during a world wide broadcast. Mission
commander Borman concluded with, "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."
Apollo 10
Apollo 10 was launched on May 18th, 1969, entered lunar orbit on May 21st,
and returned to Earth on May 26th. Apollo 10 was the final dry run
before the moon landing attempt planned for Apollo 11 and consisted of the
command and service modules, dubbed “Charlie Brown” and the lunar module,
dubbed “Snoopy.” Its crew consisted of mission commander Thomas P. Stafford,
command module pilot John Young, and lunar module pilot Eugene Cernan.
While orbiting the Moon, Stafford and
Cernan entered the lunar module, separated it from the command and service
module, and conducted a series of tests of all of the lunar module’s systems.
Several low altitude passes were made over the lunar surface, one being just 14
kilometers high, and extensive photography was conducted of some of the planned
Apollo landing sites.