In the Shadow of the Moon: A Challenging Journey to Tranquility, 1965-1969 by Francis French;Colin Burgess

Author:Francis French;Colin Burgess
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Astronautics
ISBN: 0803229798
Publisher: Bison Books
Published: 2010-01-02T00:00:00+00:00

The Apollo 7 and 8 crews at the White House in December 1968. Front row (from left): Walt Cunningham, Donn Eisele, Wally Schirra, Bill Anders, Jim Lovell, Frank Borman. At rear: Charles Lindbergh, Lady Bird Johnson, President Lyndon B. Johnson, former NASA Administrator James Webb, and Vice President Hubert Humphrey. Courtesy NASA.

As if to underscore the historic nature of the journey they were about to undertake, Charles Lindbergh visited the crew two days before the launch. Anders greatly enjoyed the meeting, but with the mission so close there was little time to appreciate it. "He was really a fine guy, one of my heroes. Now that I am into old airplanes I would have enjoyed it even more. But we were so busy training, getting ready, that I won't say Lindbergh was a distraction, but it wasn't the event that it could have been if it had been later."

In the hours before launch, at sunset, Anders caught a glimpse of the crescent moon, a view that he would not forget. He was not nervous about flying a spacecraft far beyond where any human had previously ventured. He was a pilot with a job to do, and he felt that much of the piloting he had undertaken in the air force had been far more dangerous than this mission. His confidence came from a thorough knowledge of the machines and systems in which he trusted his life. In fact, Anders felt that his engineering background gave him far more insight into the spacecraft and booster than many of his test-pilot colleagues. He had implicit faith in these engineering marvels.

Despite his self-assurances and trust in the Apollo 8 hardware and systems, Anders realized it would be foolhardy to imagine that the flight would be without risk, and there was an undeniable chance that the crew might not return safely to Earth. He therefore made two audio messages for Valerie before he left-one that she should play on Christmas Day, but also one to play if he did not make it back to Earth.

The countdown for the first manned Saturn V launch began five and a half days before scheduled liftoff, with final preparations carried out on the morning of 21 December 1968. Lying strapped into a spacecraft on top of the biggest and most powerful booster ever used for spaceflight, and about to become one of the first three humans to put it to the test on humankind's first trip to another world, Anders was surprised at how calm he actually felt. That all changed when the moment of launch came.

Frank Borman and Jim Lovell had ridden a Titan booster before, and they found the first stage of a Saturn V launch an amazingly smooth ride by comparison. Anders, however, was surprised at the noise and sheer violence of the initial moments of launch, especially when the rocket engines corrected their direction and threw the astronauts around despite their ultratight harnesses. He felt like he was on the end of a car radio antenna, being whipped around during a high-speed drive.

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