KCSC #0029: Apollo 8 TLI (Trans Lunar Injection) Procedures Flight Data File
Place of Origin: National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Date of Origin: ~1968; Launch date was December 21, 1968
Dimensions: 8” long x 6” wide
Weight: less than one pound
Source: Kansas Cosmosphere
Description: This 66 page, three-ring book was designed for the Apollo 8 crew, the second Apollo flight and the first to reach a celestial body, the Moon. The Apollo 8 crew’s mission was a lunar orbit. Inside the book are typed procedures which guided the astronauts to the far side of the Moon. Handwritten notes adorn the outside edges of several pages.
Historical notes: The Apollo 8 mission was the second mission to commence since the Apollo 1 tragedy. Apollo 8 was the first Apollo flight to be lifted into orbit by the Saturn V rocket, the most powerful launch vehicle ever made. Originally, the Apollo 8 mission was planned as a low-earth orbit Lunar Module/ Command Module test, but the mission profile was changed to the more ambitious lunar orbital flight in August 1968 when the Lunar Module scheduled for the flight was delayed. This left the entire crew and all of NASA with little time to adjust to the new mission. After launching on December 21, 1968, it took the crew three days to travel to the Moon. They orbited 10 times over the course of 20 hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast that included a reading of the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 11 to fulfill President John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade.
The crew for the Apollo 8 journey was Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders. They were the first men to see the dark side of the Moon.
Curatorial Comments: As you go through the Cosmosphere keep your eye out for Frank Borman’s Gemini suit and Jim Lovell’s Apollo 13 suit. And don’t forget to stop by the gift store and grab From the Earth to the Moon, where these men, along with other Apollo astronauts, are portrayed in the history-based mini-series produced by Tom Hanks.
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