The Apollo 8 crew prepared for the Lunar Orbit Insertion burn. The risky manoeuvre had to be performed on the far side of the moon, out of contact with Mission Control back on earth. 
Mission Control would only know if it had gone well if the crew emerged at an exactly calculated moment. They cleared the crew for the Lunar Orbit Insertion, with the reassuring words "you're riding the best bird we can find" - James Lovell signed off with "we'll see you on the other side".

We'll See You On The Other Side

The cruise back to earth would last about 2 and a half days. For most of it, the crew were able to relax. On Christmas day, they did another television transmission, giving a tour of the spacecraft. 
The only blip was that at one point, Jim Lovell accidentally erased some of the computer's memory while using the computer to view various stars. He had to perform a series of manual navigational corrections to realign the command module, using the position of the stars as guidance. This was to prove to be very valuable practise for when he had to perform this procedure in far more urgent conditions in the Apollo 13 mission.

Cruise Back To Earth

Reentry went as planned, with the spacecraft's computer controlling the descent and Frank Borman ready to take over in the event of any problems. Like the rest of the mission, it went well and the command module landed in the North Pacific Ocean, initially upside down, before being corrected by the spacecraft's inflatables. The crew and command module were picked up by the aircraft carrier USS Yorktown.
1968 had been a turbulent year for the world, but thanks the success of this mission and the bravery and ingenuity of Borman, Lovell and Anders, the year ended on a high.

Reentry And Splashdown

As the crew orbited the moon, they made a television transmission led by Frank Borman, with each astronaut describing the moon and wishing the world a merry Christmas.
The last operation was Trans Earth Injection, in which one more burn was required to get out of the moon's orbit and back towards earth. As with Lunar Orbit Insertion, the burn had to be performed on the far side of the moon and it was critical that it went successfully otherwise the crew would have been left stranded. Again, Mission Control had to wait for the space craft to emerge to know if everything had gone to plan.
The command module had been magnificent for the whole mission and did not let them down - it went perfectly. The crew then began their journey back to earth on Christmas day.

Trans Earth Injection

30 Knots

Apollo 8 Launch

Lunar Orbit Insertion

Time and Tide

Earth

Rain

Flying Cloud

Composer, classically trained singer, educator - loves most genres, particularly electronic, folk and film music.
I love turning adventures and stories into music.

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