This is a video we shot at the Kennedy space centre in the summer of 2007. That was our last day in Orlando. Shaleen drove us in our rented car to the Centre. After 6days of covering the theme parks, one on each day, we saw the Space Centre on our last and seventh day. It was a fantastic experience. I am sharing this experience of the Apollo 8 launch with you.
The furthest destination for a human spaceflight mission has been the Moon, and as of 2009 the only missions to the Moon have been those conducted by NASA as part of the Apollo program. The first such mission, Apollo 8, orbited the Moon but did not land. The first Moon landing mission was Apollo 11, during which—on July 20, 1969—Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the Moon. Six missions landed in total, numbered Apollo 11–17, excluding Apollo 13. Altogether twelve men walked on the Moon, the only humans to have been on an extraterrestrial body.
Apollo 8 was the first human spaceflight mission to achieve a velocity sufficient to allow escape from the gravitational field of planet Earth; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to planet Earth from another celestial body - Earth's Moon. The three-man crew of Mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes, as well as the first humans to see planet Earth from beyond low Earth orbit. The mission was accomplished with the first manned launch of a Saturn V rocket. Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo Program.
After launching on December 21, 1968, the crew took three days to travel to the Moon. They orbited ten times over the course of 20hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis. The crew timed this reading to coincide with a full view of planet Earth hanging in the empty blackness of space, clearly showing the rich diversity of the living planet, as indicated in Earth's colors, seas, landforms, and weather patterns, rising over the dull gray horizon of the lifeless Moon. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U.S. President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon.
Apollo 8 was the first human spaceflight mission to achieve a velocity sufficient to allow escape from the gravitational field of planet Earth; the first to be captured by and escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first crewed voyage to return to planet Earth from another celestial body - Earth's Moon. The three-man crew of Mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes, as well as the first humans to see planet Earth from beyond low Earth orbit. The mission was accomplished with the first manned launch of a Saturn V rocket. Apollo 8 was the second manned mission of the Apollo Program.
After launching on December 21, 1968, the crew took three days to travel to the Moon. They orbited ten times over the course of 20hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis. The crew timed this reading to coincide with a full view of planet Earth hanging in the empty blackness of space, clearly showing the rich diversity of the living planet, as indicated in Earth's colors, seas, landforms, and weather patterns, rising over the dull gray horizon of the lifeless Moon. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill U.S. President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon.
5 Comments:
So glad you made it to the Kennedy Space Center. It represents where America was headed, which was the right direction, until they lost focus. Space exploration, especially the moon rockets went into oblivion as America lost interest, the Soviets never caught up with the Moon and that killed the competition. Americans lost interest and NASA lost funding. With the Space Shuttle project, they lost the focus of inter planetary exploration as the shuttle had limited role. With the shuttle fleet retiring soon and no real replacement, the US Astronauts to the Space Station will ride piggyback on old but reliable Russian rockets. What irony.
Anup I saw a programme on Discovery where they showed an astronaut going up in a Russian rocket it was so small and cramped!! After walking through the life size model of Discovery space shuttle, which they have at Kennedy Space centre, the russian rocket looked ridiculously small. I just realised as an aviator you must be feeling quite strongly about these things.
Yes indeed, as an aviator and space buff, I do think the US could have gone way ahead in terms of space exploration that they have done now. US has from time to time, taken their eyes off the ball so to speak, and missed developing technology. Impressive as it is, the shuttle design was never improved upon, over the years, and a replacement was never ready to replace it when they shut down the shuttle program. As you know, the shuttle's days are numbered and all of them will end up as Museum pieces soon. Lack of a design replacement for the shuttle was a disappointment to me.
If the momentum had carried on from the moon landings and if they had developed better rockets, manned missions to Mars would have become a reality by this time perhaps. Private players like Richard Branson's Virgin Galactic is closer to near earth orbiters than NASA is at this time. Perhaps private investment in space vehicles will only be relegated to near earth orbit "tourist" flights.
Now that is a new viewpoint for me. It does seem true that maybe man may have landed on Mars and maybe colonized it like some of the sci fi movies, if US had kept up their space program. We might have made a tourist journey to space then. In terms of space exploration mankind seems to be taking a few steps backwards over the years. On watching these videos I can feel the excitement people must have felt back in 1968.
Hi, ur blog is really nice & informative, while reading I truly like it. I just wanna suggest that u should go for blog advertising & marketing there is a site which is offering very unique features at affordable prices there are expert advertising team who will promote ur blog & affiliate ads through all over the networks which will definitely boost ur traffic & readers. Finally I have bookmarked ur blog & also shared this blog to my friends.. i think my friend might too like it hope u have a wonderful day & !!happy blogging!!.
Post a Comment