WWW.ASTRONOMY.COM 31you left Earth’s gravity, being
the first people ever to leave
Earth’s gravity behind and go
toward the Moon? What was
that feeling like?
Lovell: Actually, we were so
busy doing things, we went
around the Earth first of all
to test out our spacecraft,
that we were concentrat-
ing on how the Saturn was
working and everything like
that. We knew that we were
going to the Moon, but it was
only at the end of the Earth
orbit when everything on the
spacecraft was fine, when we
lit... the third stage of our
engine, and it gave us enough
velocity and the proper course
to coast all the way to the
Moon, that I suddenly real-
ized, “Hey, we’re leaving the
Earth. We’re not just going to
Earth orbit.”
And then looking back,
right after that, when the
engine stopped and we were
up to a little bit over 23,000
miles an hour, you could look
back and see the Earth
shrinking.... It was sort of
like if you’re in an automobile
and you’re going through a
tunnel, [when] you look in the
rearview mirror and you can
see the tunnel opening slowly
closing and closing. That’s
exactly what that felt like.Astronomy: Was it a little
scary?Lovell: No. For some reason,
I never worried. I took it that
this was going to be a suc-
cess from the beginning and
I was maybe, blasé? I didn’t
tell my wife, Marilyn, “Hey,
you know I only have a 50–50
chance of coming back and
here are the keys to the car.”Astronomy: Yo u w e r e t h e
navigator on Apollo 8. Was
it easy or difficult to actually
sight the stars through the
spacecraft window?Lovell: Much easier than I
thought. What I did, my job
was to go to Boston, to MIT... and they taught me the
navigation. Because we had
to change the navigation all
around. From Earth orbit to
going to the Moon was entire-
ly different. [It’s] somewhat
like shipboard navigation
except it is three dimensional,
not two, and so I had to learn
to use the sextant, and I had to
learn to use the computer, and
learn the stars, of course, to
figure out what they were like.
And when we first got up into
space, we sent back our results
because most of the initial
navigation... was done by the
ground. They were tracking
us, they knew where we are
by my work on the computer
to keep the gyros from [drift-
ing]. And so they would get
the information and they were
very much pleased, especially
MIT, with the results of their
system and navigation. And
they said, “Oh, Jimmy, you’re
doing a good job.” I said,
“Well, why not, I was up here
last week to practice.”Astronomy: I gather Frank
got sick on the way to the
Moon. Did that create any
concerns on your part that it
might be more than a 24-hour
bug kind of thing?Lovell: No. I knew what it
was — he had motion sick-
ness. Although he was a
strong Air Force captain... I
was with him for two weeks
[on Gemini VII and he got
a little queasy]. My biggest
regret was not to have called
Mission Control and said,
“Look it, I know that Frank
has only motion sickness.
He’s going to join us in a lit-
tle while. We are not turning
back. Let there be no thought
about stopping this mission
now. Apollo 8 is going to
go to the Moon, we’re going
to do those things assigned
to us, and we’re going to go
with your help.” But I didn’t
do that. I just let it f loat back
and forth.
And the doctors were
thinking about the return
trip. Quite frankly, both my
f lights, 8 and 13, we had never
really practiced the return
f light.... I think I tried it
once or twice on the com-
puter.... I much rather would
have gone right around the
Moon and come home.The three Apollo 8 astronauts walk through a hallway on their way to the
launchpad.
Above: The Saturn V rocket that
would send Apollo 8 on its way to
the Moon makes the slow journey
from the Vehicle Assembly Building
to Launch Pad 39A.Left: Seagulls scatter as Apollo 8
lifts into the skies above Florida’s
east coast December 21, 1968.