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Apollo 8 was planned as the "D" mission, a test of the LM in a low Earth orbit in December 1968 by James McDivitt, David Scott, and Russell Schweickart, while Borman's crew would fly the "E" mission, a more rigorous LM test in an elliptical medium Earth orbit as Apollo 9, in early 1969. The "F" Mission would test the CSM and LM in lunar orbit ...
The first three lunar missions (Apollo 8, Apollo 10, and Apollo 11) used a free return trajectory, keeping a flight path coplanar with the lunar orbit, which would allow a return to Earth in case the SM engine failed to make lunar orbit insertion. Landing site lighting conditions on later missions dictated a lunar orbital plane change, which ...
Apollo 8 was reclassified from its original assignment as a D-type mission, a test of the complete CSM/LM spacecraft in Earth orbit, to a "C-prime" mission which would fly humans to the Moon. Once complete, it obviated the need for the E-type objective of a medium Earth orbital test.
He did not go into space until Dec. 21, 1968, when Apollo 8 lifted off on the first crewed mission to leave Earth orbit and travel 240,000 miles (386,000 km) to the moon.
The Apollo program was the third human spaceflight program carried out by NASA. The program's goal was to orbit and land crewed vehicles on the Moon. [62] The program ran from 1969 to 1972. Apollo 8 was the first human spaceflight to leave Earth orbit and orbit the Moon on December 21, 1968. [63]
First in-person observations of Earth from a distance. First Trans-Earth injection. USA (NASA) Apollo 8 [25] 24 December 1968 First human flight to another celestial body (the Moon) and to enter its gravitational influence. USA (NASA) Apollo 8 [25] January 1969: First docking between two crewed spacecraft in Earth orbit. First crew exchange in ...
The Earth-orbit test would become Apollo 9. [32] The crew who had been scheduled for Apollo 8, led by Jim McDivitt, became the Apollo 9 crew, [33] and Worden became part of that mission's support crew along with Mitchell and Jack Lousma. [34] Worden was named as backup command module pilot (CMP) for the Apollo 12 flight.
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