Apollo 8

Apollo 8 was a mission in the Apollo program in December 1968. It was the first crewed spaceflight to leave Earth orbit and first to orbit the Moon. Commander Frank Borman, Pilot Jim Lovell and Bill Anders transmitted a television show while they were in orbit. The Apollo Lunar Module that could land on the Moon had not yet been built, so they went in the Apollo Command/Service Module and photographed and studied the Moon from above. Ten orbits around the Moon took twenty hours. After that, they fired their rockets and returned to Earth.

Apollo 8

Earthrise taken from Apollo 8 by William Anders
Mission type	Crewed lunar orbiter
Operator	NASA
COSPAR ID	1968-118A
SATCAT no.	3626
Mission duration	6 days, 3 hours, 42 seconds[1]
Spacecraft properties
Spacecraft	Apollo CSM-103 Apollo LTA-B
Manufacturer	North American Rockwell
Launch mass	CSM: 28,870 kilograms (63,650 lb)[2] CM:5,621 kilograms (12,392 lb) SM:23,250 kilograms (51,258 lb) SC/LM Adapter (connects LTA to CSM): 1,840 kilograms (4,060 lb)[3] LTA: 9,000 kilograms (19,900 lb)[4]
Landing mass	4,979 kilograms (10,977 lb)
Crew
Crew size	3
Members	Frank F. Borman II James A. Lovell Jr. William A. Anders
Callsign	Apollo 8
Start of mission
Launch date	December 21, 1968, 12:51:00 (1968-12-21UTC12:51Z) UTC
Rocket	Saturn V SA-503[n 1]
Launch site	Kennedy LC-39A
End of mission
Recovered by	USS Yorktown
Landing date	December 27, 1968, 15:51:42 (1968-12-27UTC15:51:43Z) UTC[5]
Landing site	North Pacific Ocean 8°8′N 165°1′W[5]
Orbital parameters
Perigee	184.40 kilometers (99.57 nmi)
Apogee	185.18 kilometers (99.99 nmi)
Inclination	32.15 degrees
Period	88.19 minutes
Epoch	December 21, 1968, ~13:02 UTC
Revolution no.	2
Lunar orbiter
Spacecraft component	CSM
Orbital insertion	December 24, 1968, 9:59:20 UTC[6]
Orbital departure	December 25, 1968, 6:10:17 UTC[5]
Orbits	10
Orbit parameters
Periselene	110.6 kilometers (59.7 nmi)
Aposelene	112.4 kilometers (60.7 nmi)
Inclination	12 degrees
Left to right: Lovell, Anders, Borman Apollo program ← Apollo 7 Apollo 9 →

Related pages

• Apollo program
• NASA

Notes

1. Serial numbers were initially assigned by the Marshall Space Flight Center in the format "SA-5xx" (for Saturn-Apollo). By the time the rockets achieved flight, the Manned Spacecraft Center started using the format "AS-5xx" (for Apollo-Saturn).