Spacecraft: Apollo Command Module, Saturn V rocket

Launch Pad: 39 – A, Cape Kennedy, Florida

Payload: Command Service Module 103

Launch: 7:51 am, EST., December 21, 1968

Lunar Orbit: Completed 10 orbits of the Moon at an altitude of 312 kilometers

Maximum Distance: 376, 745 kilometers

Mission Duration: 6 days, 3 hour, 0 minutes, 42 seconds

Landing: December 27, 1968 at 8 deg 7.5 min North, 165 deg 1.2 min West

The primary mission objectives for Apollo 8 was to demonstrate crew and space vehicle support facilities during a manned mission to the Moon, as well as demonstrate translunar injection, Command Service Module navigation, and communication and midcourse corrections. Others included evaluating the spacecraft’s performance during lunar orbit, demonstrate communications and tracking at lunar distances, and return high resolution photographs of possible Apollo landing sites and areas of scientific interest. ission, and all but one of the secondary objectives were met.

Frank Borman, Commander

Frank Borman was born in Gary, IN, on March 14, 1928. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Military Academy, West Point, in 1950 and a Master of Science degree from the California Institute of Technology in 1957. He completed the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program in 1970. Borman was a career Air Force office from 1950 to 1970, when he retired with the rank of colonel. He served as a fighter pilot in the Philippines, as an operational pilot and instructor with various squadrons in the United States, as an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid dynamics at West Point and as an experimental test pilot at the USAF Aerospace Pilot School. Borman was selected to be a NASa astronaut in 1962. His first spaceflight came during the Gemini 7 flight, which docked with Gemini 6. His last mission was Apollo 8, retiring from NASA in 1969.

James A. Lovell, Jr.

Jim Lovell was born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 25, 1928. He attended the University of Wisconsin, received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1952 and completed the Advanced Management Program at Harvard Business School in 1971. Lovell attended the Test Pilot School at the Naval Air Test Center, Patuxent River, Md., and spent four years at the center as a test pilot, serving as program manager for the F4H Phantom Fighter. He graduated from the Aviation Safety School of the University of Southern California and was assigned as safety engineer with Fighter Squadron 101 at the Naval Air Station, Oceana, VA. Lovell was selected to be an astronaut in 1962, and went on to fly four space missions. His first was Gemini 7, followed by Gemini 12. He flew on Apollo 8 and later Apollo 13, the near-disaster that almost cost Lovell and the rest of the crew’s lives. Lovell retired from NASA in 1973.

William Anders

Anders was born October 17, 1933, in Hong Kong. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1955 and after graduation was commissioned in the U.S. Air Force, serving as a fighter pilot in all-weather interception squadrons of the Air Defense Command. He received a Master of Science degree in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology and was assigned responsibility for technical management of nuclear power reactor shielding and radiation effects programs at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory. He holds the rank of major general in the Air Force Reserve. Anders was selected as a NASA astronaut in 1964 and flew on only one mission, Apollo 8. Anders left NASA after that mission and from 1969 to 1973 he served as executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council. In 1973 he was appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission. Following reorganization of national nuclear regulatory and development activities in 1975, Anders was named by President Ford to become the first chairman of the new Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Ford later named him U.S. ambassador to Norway. Anders left the federal government after 26 years service in 1977 and assumed a series of management positions with the General Electric Company. He later held top management positions with General Dynamics Corporation before retiring in 1996. He is president and director of The Anders Foundation, a philanthropic organization.

Click here: Portrait of Astronaut Jim Anders.
Click here: Portrait of the crew of Apollo 8.
Click here: A view of the full Moon from Apollo 8.
Click here: Launch of the Apollo 8 mission.
Click here: Apollo 8 sits on the pad waitng for launch.
Click here: The patch for Apollo 8.
Click here: Recovery of the Apollo 8 Command Module.
Click here: Portrait of Astronaut Frank Borman.
Click here: A view of the Earth from Apollo 8.
Click here: The famous Apollo 8 Earthrise.
Click here: Portrait of Astronaut James Lovell.
Click here: A view of the Moon from orbit.
Click here: Another view of the Moon from Apollo 8's lunar orbit.
Click here: A large rayed crater as seen from Apollo 8.
Click here: Large craters on the Moon as seen from Apollo 8.

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Biographical Information on Jim Lovell

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NASA Gemini - Titan VII Page

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NASA Gemini - Titan XII Page

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NASA Apollo 8 Page

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NASA Apollo 13 Page

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