Astronomy

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As we celebrate the golden anniversary of humanity’s

first trip to the Moon, command module pilot

Jim Lovell recounts the epic voyage. by Richard Talcott

APOLLO 8

Astronomy: Thank you,

Captain Lovell, we really

appreciate you being here

today and talking with us

about Apollo 8, whose 50th

anniversary is coming up in

just a few months. NASA’s

original plans were to test the

lunar module in Earth orbit

on your Apollo mission, but

delays in the lunar module

program changed those plans.

How lucky did you feel that

the mission order changed

and you were able to go to the

Moon instead of testing the

lunar module?

Lovell: I guess there’s a certain

amount of luck in everybody’s

life, and we were originally

going to be Earth orbital. And

of course I had been Earth

orbital for 14 days in Gemini

VII and then Gemini XII....

But the change, due to some

intelligence we got about the

Russians and also due to the

fact that Grumman could

not get the lunar module

ready, actually changed things

completely.

I felt elated, to tell you the

truth, because [otherwise] I

was going to be going around

the Earth several times, and

so this was entirely new to

me. And all admiration to

NASA hierarchy that they

were able to look at the

spacecraft and take the

chances and to make a very

successful flight.

Astronomy: Apollo 8 was

the first of nine missions that

went to the Moon, and there

were a lot of things that no

one had ever done in history.

I’m curious what it felt like to

be the first people to f ly on the

Saturn V and feel the power of

that rocket underneath you.

Lovell: We were the first

people, and it was the third

Saturn V built. The first two

were test vehicles, and both

of them had problems. So

one of the things that NASA

“IT WAS THE BEST OF TIMES, IT WAS THE WORST OF TIMES.”

With these dozen words, Charles Dickens launched A Tale of Two Cities. Anyone

who looks back to 1968, however, would have to be wearing rose-tinted glasses to

see much good. A divisive war, tragic assassinations, and appalling riots rocked

the United States. Even 50 years later, it’s hard to find much worth celebrating.

Until the final two weeks of the year rolled around, that is. On the morning of

December 21, astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, and Bill Anders soared off

the launchpad at Florida’s Kennedy Space Center and later that day became the

first humans to slip the bonds of Earth’s gravity. Apollo 8 would go to the Moon,

orbit our satellite on Christmas Eve, and return safely to Earth on December 27.

This was Lovell’s third trip into space. He had teamed with Borman on

Gemini VII in December 1965, when they performed the first rendezvous with

another manned spacecraft, and with Buzz Aldrin on Gemini XII in November

1966 in that program’s final mission. Anders was a rookie who would not f ly again.

Recently, I had the honor to interview Captain Lovell about the Apollo 8

mission at the Lake Forest Library in Illinois. At 90, he remains as sharp and

engaging as he was during the glory days of spacef light a half-century ago.

“When the

engine

stopped and

we were up to

a little bit over

23,000 miles

an hour, you

look back and

see the Earth

shrinking.”

Jim Lovell sat down to chat with

Astronomy magazine in June 2018.

ASTRONOMY: DAVID J. EICHER