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NEWS NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION WASHINGTON, D.C . 20546 FOR RELEASE: suNDAY December 15, 1968 PROJECT: arotto 8 contents MISSION OBJECTIVs SEQUENCE OF EVENTS. Launch Window---« MISSION DESCRIPTION. FLIGHT PLAN----~. ALTERNATE MISSIONS~ ABORT MODES-- PHOTOGRAPHIC TASKS- SPACECRAFT STRUCTURE SYSTEMS. SATURN V LAUNCH VEHICLE---~-------~- APOLLO 8 LAUNCH OPERATIONS~: MISSION CONTROL CENTER-- MANNED SPACE FLIGHT NETWORK. APOLLO 8 RECOVERY- APOLLO 8 CREW~: LUNAR DESCRIPTION-- APOLLO PROGRAM MANAGEMENT/CONTRACTORS-~. APOLLO 8 GLOSSARY: 12/6/68 Tes. NEWS NATIONAL AERONAUTICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION. WO 2-4155 WASHINGTON, D.C. 20546 WO 3.6925 FOR RELEASE: sunpay December 15, 1968 RELEASE NO: 68-208 FIRST MANNED LUNAR ORBIT MISSION The United States has scheduled its first mission designed to orbit men around the Moon for launch Dec. 21 at 7:51 a.m. EST from the National Aeronautics and Space Administration's John F. Kennedy Space Center, Florida. The mission, designated Apollo 8, will be the second manned flight in the Apollo program and the first manned flight on the Saturn V rocket, the United States' largest launch vehicle. Crewmen for Apollo 8 are Spacecraft Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr. and Lunar Module Pilot William A. Anders. Backup crew is Commander Neil A. Armstrong, Command Module Pilot Edwin E. Aldrin, Jr. and Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise, Jr. -more- 12/6/68 -2- Apollo 8 is an open-ended mission with the objective of proving the capability of the Apollo command and service modules and the crew to operate at lunar distances. A lunar module will not be carried on Apollo 8 but Lunar Test Article (ITA-B) which is equivalent in weight to a lunar module will be carried as ballast. ‘The mission will be carried out on a step-by-step “commit point" basis. This means that decisions whether to continue the mission or to return to Earth or to change to an alternate mission will be made before each major maneuver based on the status of the spacecraft systems and crew. A full duration lunar orbit mission would include 10 orbits around the Moon. Earth landing would take place some 147 hours after launch at 10:51 a.m. EST, Dec. 27. Earlier developmental Apollo Earth-orbital manned and unmanned flights have qualified all the spacecraft systems --ineluding the command moduje heat shield at lunar return speeds--and the Apollo 7 ten-day failure-free mission in October demonstrated that the spacecraft can operate for the lunar-mission duration. -more-

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