NEWS NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION
WASHINGTON, D.C . 20546
FOR RELEASE: suNDAY
December 15, 1968
PROJECT: arotto 8
contents
MISSION OBJECTIVs
SEQUENCE OF EVENTS.
Launch Window---«
MISSION DESCRIPTION.
FLIGHT PLAN----~.
ALTERNATE MISSIONS~
ABORT MODES--
PHOTOGRAPHIC TASKS-
SPACECRAFT STRUCTURE SYSTEMS.
SATURN V LAUNCH VEHICLE---~-------~-
APOLLO 8 LAUNCH OPERATIONS~:
MISSION CONTROL CENTER--
MANNED SPACE FLIGHT NETWORK.
APOLLO 8 RECOVERY-
APOLLO 8 CREW~:
LUNAR DESCRIPTION--
APOLLO PROGRAM MANAGEMENT/CONTRACTORS-~.
APOLLO 8 GLOSSARY:
12/6/68Tes.
NEWS NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION. WO 2-4155
WASHINGTON, D.C. 20546 WO 3.6925
FOR RELEASE: sunpay
December 15, 1968
RELEASE NO: 68-208
FIRST MANNED LUNAR ORBIT MISSION
The United States has scheduled its first mission
designed to orbit men around the Moon for launch Dec. 21 at
7:51 a.m. EST from the National Aeronautics and Space
Administration's John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida.
The mission, designated Apollo 8, will be the second
manned flight in the Apollo program and the first manned
flight on the Saturn V rocket, the United States' largest
launch vehicle.
Crewmen for Apollo 8 are Spacecraft Commander
Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr.
and Lunar Module Pilot William A. Anders. Backup crew is
Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Edwin E.
Aldrin, Jr. and Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise, Jr.
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12/6/68-2-
Apollo 8 is an open-ended mission with the objective
of proving the capability of the Apollo command and service
modules and the crew to operate at lunar distances. A lunar
module will not be carried on Apollo 8 but Lunar Test
Article (ITA-B) which is equivalent in weight to a lunar
module will be carried as ballast.
‘The mission will be carried out on a step-by-step “commit
point" basis. This means that decisions whether to continue
the mission or to return to Earth or to change to an alternate
mission will be made before each major maneuver based on the
status of the spacecraft systems and crew.
A full duration lunar orbit mission would include 10
orbits around the Moon. Earth landing would take place some
147 hours after launch at 10:51 a.m. EST, Dec. 27.
Earlier developmental Apollo Earth-orbital manned and
unmanned flights have qualified all the spacecraft systems
--ineluding the command moduje heat shield at lunar return
speeds--and the Apollo 7 ten-day failure-free mission in
October demonstrated that the spacecraft can operate for the
lunar-mission duration.
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