Re: BBC Radio 4 Program about Apollo8



Bill wrote:

Just listened to it and found it very interesting. I think the show
did a good job in putting things in perspective, which is the point of
the series "Thing We Forgot to Remember". For those who are interested
but never saw it, there is a good section on Apollo 8 and the decision
to go circumlunar on an old PBS Nova program called "To The Moon"...
the boldest command given in the history of spaceflight was "go for
TLI" on Apollo 8.



I think the risks inherent in Columbia's first flight made those of Apollo 8 pale by comparison.
You were flying a vehicle into orbit that had never been flown in its true space configuration, or even been flown under power, that had a virtually ineffective escape system during ascent, on a new booster's first test flight, using maneuvering and retrograde burn systems that had never been tested in zero G and vacuum, while relying on a thermal temperature system that had never been test flown, and doing a reentry type whose profile had never been done outside a computer simulation to a unpowered one-shot landing. That makes firing Apollo 8's SM engine to enter and leave lunar orbit look like nothing by comparison. If it hadn't been for NASA's reluctance to make the Shuttle incapable of flying a mission unmanned, it certainly should have been tested unmanned like Buran was.

Pat
.

Relevant Pages

  • Re: BBC Radio 4 Program about Apollo8
    ... there is a good section on Apollo 8 and the decision ... >You were flying a vehicle into orbit that had never been flown in its ... >first test flight, using maneuvering and retrograde burn systems that ... >enter and leave lunar orbit look like nothing by comparison. ...
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