Amy Shira Teitel Instagram – Apollo 8, properly speaking, was the C’ (C Prime) mission. Each Apollo mission had a letter designating its goals on the path to the landing. The C mission was the Earth orbital test flight of the Command Module, then D was the Command and Lunar Modules tested in Earth orbit. E was the same mission but at a very high orbital altitude. F was meant to be the first lunar mission, a full dress rehearsal of the landing.
When the Lunar Module was so behind, NASA created the C’ flight — Command Module only lunar flight — then returned to Earth orbit for the D mission, then scrapped the E mission entirely. It was a huge risk that paid off.
Bill Anders who took the Earthrise image, and who died just last week, said of the image that we went to the Moon and what we discovered was ourselves.
And 1968 was not a great year for America! There were riots, MLK and RFK were assassinated, Vietnam… in all the fan mail NASA got after Apollo 8, one woman simply wrote, “You saved 1968.”
So yeah. This was an amazing one to see at the @msichicago! #author #history #apollo #nasa | Posted on 17/Jun/2024 23:16:18
