Astronomy

34 ASTRONOMY • DECEMBER 2018

all happened. When we got
to Hawaii, we were getting
things from our wives, our

friends, and just the people
there.

But the sense of Apollo 8
took a little while to sink into
me. We knew it was a winner,

it was a success, but then the
flow of telegrams started
coming [in]. And the one

which was iconic — you’ve
probably heard [of it] — all

it said was, “You’ve made
1968.” It gave us in three
words just what had hap-

pened. So throughout the
years, up to now, this is really
the high point of my space

career. Even though 13 was
more of a challenge, 8 was
the very first one, the first

expedition going to new
lands. That was the one I

like the most.

Astronomy: Last year the

International Astronomical
Union made it official and
finally named one of the

lunar features you used for
navigation as Mount Marilyn,

after your wife. Could you
tell us about the mountain’s
importance during that first

lunar f light?

Lovell: Well, yes, let me lead

up to that. While we were

training to go to the Moon on

Apollo 8, we had photographs

of the Moon.... As we looked

at the nearside — and our job

was to look for suitable land-

ing spots through photogra-

phy and eyesight — the gen-

eral consensus of the people,

the geologists, and everybody

[else was they] wanted the

first flight to land in the Sea

of Tranquillity. That looked

like a pretty good area; it was

on the nearside of the Moon.

And as I looked around and

we planned our trajectories

on the photograph, we came

over this little triangular

mountain, and it was unusual

in the fact that it sort of stood

out. It was on the shoreline

of the Sea of Tranquillity.

And so, during one of the

days, I said, “I’m naming that

Mount Marilyn, after Marilyn

Lovell.” No one said anything.

In fact, we put it in the f light

plan and all that.

And on Apollo 8 we went

over Mount Marilyn, and

looked at the fact that it

led the way into the Sea of

Tranquillity. And then Mount

Marilyn stayed on the paper-

work that was followed up on

10 and 11, and... they started

looking and said that this was

a good spot. And the astro-

physicists, the people that

were looking at the trajectory,

said yeah, because that looks

like if you start at 60 miles

and do the initiation there,

somewhere in that vicinity,

you’re separated from the

command module and you

fire the lunar module engine,

it will take you down into

the areas that we want you

to land, which is basically

flat areas.

And so it turned up on the

paperwork of Apollo 10, and

they did their descent-abort

mission. In fact, there’s a pic-

ture taken from the lunar

module looking back at the

command module just after

they passed Mount Marilyn,

and behind the command

module is Mount Marilyn.

[See the photo on p. 33.] And

then of course on 11 they

came by and, sure enough,

that’s what they had used —

it was a steppingstone, initial

point, of Apollo 11.

Well, it was there for years,

informally, but it got a life of

its own.... It was in books; it

was in my book, of course;

and it was in the early part of

the movie Apollo 13 when the

two characters, Tom Hanks

and [Kathleen Quinlan], were

looking up and she says,

“Where’s my mountain?”

“It’s up there.” And so around

2014, a good friend of mine,

an astrophysicist by the name

of Mark Robinson out in

Arizona, said, “Let’s see if we

can get the International

Astronomical Union [IAU] to

give it an official name.” So

we applied the proper way.

“No, no, no. I mean, come on,

we’re naming these [craters]

after astronomers, physicists,

people like that.” So we got a

very polite denial. And mean-

while I had looked up all the

mountains on the nearside,

how they were named, and

they were mostly very famous

people. There was one moun-

tain named after a woman,

and it was pulled from

mythology: Mount Agnes.

And so I thought about it for

a while. Then Robinson said,

“Let’s try it again. Let’s really

push it, because it has certain

meanings to Apollo 11.”...

And so we did.

And funny, there was

agreement because other peo-

ple in the IAU also started to

turn their heads, and so it

turned out that they finally

named it and said, “Really,

you know, there ought to be

a little romanticism in the

spacef lights. I mean, not

A camera aboard a U.S. Air Force plane captured the fiery re-entry of Apollo 8, as the first manned mission to
the Moon plummeted through Earth’s atmosphere December 27, 1968.

“So from

that day on,

in perpetuity,

looking

down at me

long after

I’m gone, will

be this little

triangular

mountain

named Mount

Marilyn.”