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  #1  
Old 12-21-2018, 04:55 PM
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Earl Earl is offline
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Default Apollo 8 50th Anniversary

As many here will probably already know, today marks the 50th anniversary of the launch of Apollo 8, which marked the first time man truly left his home planet.

Coming at the end of a very turbulant year beginning with the bloody Tet Offensive in Janurary that year, followed by President Johnson's surprise announcement in March that he would not run for reelection that Fall, to the assissinations of King and Kennedy in April and June respctively, followed by the bloody protests at the Democratic convention in Chicago that summer, 1968 was headed toward the history books as a year that many quickly wanted to forget.

Alas, at the conclusion of a very daring mission, which was flown on the very first manned Saturn V flight and only the second manned Apollo flight, the engineering and space exploration milestones of Apollo 8 have sometimes been forgotten in the rapid succession of flight accomplishments that followed it in 1969, including the first moon landing only three missions later.

And maybe most significantly, for the first time the people of Earth were able to see a 'self portrait' -- from lunar distances -- in the famous Earthrise photo made during the mission.

I was only six at the time and do not remember a great many specifics of those days, but I recall it being kind of magical that men were 'flying around the moon' at Christmas time.

These 50 years later, many of those pioneers that made it all happen have left us. In fact, the crew of Apollo 8 and 9 are the only completely surviving crews left. All other Apollo crews have lost at least one member, and some like Apollo 12 have no surviving members at all.

It was indeed a tough year 50 years ago, and to many it may have seemed like the world was tearing apart at it's seams. But in one daring feat, we saw some of the 'better good' that man is capable of.

As Apollo 8 mission commander Frank Borman mentioned in his autobiography concerning his favorite post-flight telelgram received aboard the recovery ship in the Pacific Ocean: "Thank you and your crew. You saved 1968."


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Last edited by Earl : 12-21-2018 at 11:09 PM. Reason: spellin' fix
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Old 12-21-2018, 05:48 PM
matthew matthew is offline
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Thanks for the reminder.
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Old 12-21-2018, 08:39 PM
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Nice account of events leading up to the Apollo 8 mission. I was 16, and so I remember this as vividly as I do the Apollo 11 moon landing. It was probably so memorable because people were not expecting it, and it was simply magical to watch.

I just read an article in Air &Space Smithsonian about George Low, who pushed hard to get the moon missions underway. Time magazine gave the Man of the Year award to the three Apollo 8 astronauts in their January 3, 1969 issue. They also called for special recognition for George Low. Time proclaimed that if it were not for Low, there would have been no Apollo 8 flight to the moon.

The article goes on to say that without Low, President Kennedy may never have committed the nation to a lunar landing.

Interesting read.
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Old 12-22-2018, 12:35 AM
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I launched my Dr. Zooch Saturn V at the December club launch in memory of Apollo 8. We are planning to show the "1968" episode of From the Earth to the Moon to the grandkids, probably on Christmas Day. It ends with that comment about saving 1968.
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Old 12-22-2018, 09:51 AM
stefanj stefanj is offline
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I was seven years old, but remember the time well.

We spent a bunch of the time at my grandmother's apartment in New Jersey, so it was doubly exciting; Christmas with nearby cousins plus TV pictures from space!
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Old 12-24-2018, 09:21 PM
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Never thought I'd do it, but I've spent the last few hours watching C-SPAN 3. They are running old interviews with Lovell, Borman, and the 68 CBS special hosted by Chronkite.
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Old 12-31-2018, 05:13 PM
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I remember 1968 very well. I could give details about the entire year with my family and friends but I'll only say this. That November, we had Thanksgiving dinner in the first house my father bought and my first Christmas and New Years were there too in that house. My dad finally sold the house in 2003. I spent 25 years of the thirty five years my dad owned that house. Moving out in 1980 and moving back in in 1990. I miss the house and the 6 acres it sat on. I Built many model rockets and model airplanes in that house. Watch all of the moon landing on a big old 27 " RCA color television. I have some great memories there.
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