Read Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8 Online

Authors: Robert Zimmerman

Tags: #History, #United States, #20th Century, #test

Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8 (31 page)

BOOK: Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8
7.09Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

 

Page 166
Note the rilles inside and cutting across the largest crater.
it. Frank was as close to the moon as she was to Jim and Margaret Elkins in Houston. The distance and remoteness of it only fed her fear and pessimism.
She got up and left the house, keeping a beauty parlor appointment she had made previously. She'd be damned if she would allow her fears to conquer her.
<><><><><><><><><><><><>
With the show over, Borman and Anders prepared for the second orbital burn, scheduled for when they were behind the moon. This would lower the high point of their orbit from 194 miles to seventy, thereby circularizing it.

 

Page 167
Eroded mountain. Impact craters.
Lovell took the mike and continued the description of the lunar surface, reporting: "The view at this altitude is tremendous. There is no trouble picking out features we learned on the map . . . I wish we had the TV still going." In lunar orbit Lovell's job was to study the lunar surface from the perspective of navigation. Could the navigational charts, created from Lunar Orbiter photos, be used to find one's location on the lunar surface? Were the prime landing spots for future Apollo missions acceptable? Or were there any unidentified obstacles that might cause problems? And could an astronaut see those obstacles and pilot his way through them?

 

Page 168
He described such features as the Sea of Tranquility, the crater Taruntius, and the mountains that skirted both. "The mountain range has got more contrast, because of the sun angle," he noted. Then he inexplicably said, "I can see the initial point right now, Mount Marilyn."
2
Though Mike Collins on the ground responded, "Roger," he had no idea what Lovell was talking about. His knowledge of the area around the Sea of Tranquility included no such mountain.
Until Lovell had arrived that had been true. The ancient astronomers had never named Mt. Marilyn with their earthbound telescopes. NASA hadn't given it a name when their unmanned probes had photographed it. And neither Borman nor Anders had noticed it when they had studied the maps prior to launch.
Just as he had promised, Jim Lovell had brought his wife with him to the moon. Even if some bureaucrat in some scientific institution might not consider the name Mt. Marilyn official, it was now that mountain's name to him.*
Much like Anders, Lovell had chosen shrewdly. Placed on the edge of the Sea of Tranquillity just east of the Apollo 11 lunar landing site, Mt. Marilyn would be on all the maps used by Armstrong and Aldrin when they made their historic approach six months later. In fact, they would fly right over it as they came in for a landing.
The astronauts slipped behind the moon for the third time. As they had on the first orbit, Anders and Borman worked their way down a long checklist, making sure everything was right for the engine burn, while Lovell programmed the computer. Thirty minutes later the S.P.S. engine fired for the third time, burning for twenty-one seconds and lowering their orbit. It would now take them an hour and forty minutes to circle the moon instead of two hours.
* For what seem to be political and to this writer somewhat petty reasons, the scientific organization which has taken upon itself the task of officially naming astronomical objects, the International Astronomical Union (I.A.U.), rejected all of the chosen by both Anders and Lovell. Instead, the I.A.U. named three small craters after the Apollo 8 astronauts in a part of the moon the astronauts never saw.
A map showing the location of both Bill Anders's named craters as well as Lovell's Mt. Marilyn is included in this book as my statement of disagreement with the I.A.U. It seems to me that the explorer, the person who risked his life to discover a new world (rather than some bureaucrat on earth) should always be given the prerogative of choosing the names.
Regardless, it will be up to posterity to decide. I include the maps here for the record.

 

Page 169
This is the Lunar Orbiter photo that Jim Lovell 
gave to Marilyn two nights before launch. Mt. 
Marilyn is the triangular-shaped mountain at 
the bottom of the photograph just to the right 
of center. It is located slightly north of the 
lunar equator. The crater Secchi is to the east, 
just out of frame. Tranquility Base, also near 
the equator, is about 150 miles to the west. 
See endsheet map.
The pace was unrelenting. Even as the men finished this burn they immediately resumed their photography and reconnaissance of the barren lunar surface. And when they came out from behind the moon, Borman and Lovell once again went through the tedious but critical routine of taking down new numbers for the computer, while Anders reviewed the status of the fuel cells and life support systems with the ground.
Just before 10 AM, Frank Borman decided it was time to do something slightly less technical. He asked if Rod Rose was around.
Mike Collins told Borman that "Rod Rose is sitting up in the viewing room. He can hear what you say."
A month earlier, just before Borman had left for Florida, he attended Sunday church services at his local parish, St. Christopher's Episcopal Church in

 

Page 170
League City, Texas. As one of the church's lay readers who routinely read aloud to the congregation during church services, Borman had planned to participate in the Christmas day services. When NASA made the sudden decision to send Apollo 8 to the moon, he found he had to explain why he couldn't be there. "We kidded Frank about going to such lengths all the way to the moon to get out of . . . services," said his reverend, James Buckner.
3
The conversation soon turned serious. Borman really wanted to participate in that Christmas Day service, but didn't have any idea what he could do. Fellow parishioner Rod Rose, an engineer at mission control, offered a solution. He would put together a short prayer that Borman could read from orbit, tape Borman's recitation, and then play the tape back at church. For Borman, the practical test pilot, this plan was perfect. Rose cobbled together a prayer from a number of verses in the Bible, and went over it with Borman until both were happy.
Now, Borman waited until Lovell and Anders finished passing some new data to the ground. Then he began, a little self-consciously. "This is to Rod Rose and the people at St. Christopher's, actually to people everywhere." Borman took a breath. "Give us, O God, the vision which can see thy love in the world, in spite of human failure. Give us the faith to trust the goodness in spite of our ignorance and weakness. Give us the knowledge that we may continue to pray with understanding hearts, and show us what each one of us can do to set forth the coming of the day of universal peace. Amen."
"Amen," Mike Collins echoed softly.
Now Borman sheepishly added, "I was supposed to lay-read tonight, but I couldn't quite make it."
"Roger," said Collins. "I think they understand."
Susan, already back from the beauty parlor, heard the prayer and felt only relief that one more possible disaster had passed. She had become so pessimistic that even so simple a thing as Frank reading a prayer aloud seemed a miracle.
In the spacecraft the work went on. As soon as Borman finished reading his prayer, Collins asked him when they had last chlorinated their water. The astronauts' drinking water was produced as a byproduct of the generation of electricity by their fuel-cells. This water was transferred into a tank, and

 

Page 171
periodically the crew manually injected chlorine into it to keep the water free from bacteria. Borman confirmed that they had done so ninety minutes earlier. "Jim spilled a little, and it smelled like a bucket of chlorine in here."
Ten minutes later they slipped behind the moon for the fourth time. It was now midmorning, Tuesday. Except for those short naps twelve hours earlier, they had all been awake since early Monday morning.
But it wasn't yet time to sleep. Now Anders's photography became the prime mission focus. Though Borman's word was law when it came to running the overall mission, Anders usually supervised the taking of photographs. If someone else wanted to take a picture, they generally cleared it with him first to make sure it fit into the mission's objectives. Mostly, however, they left the photography to him.
As Anders worked he logged his subject by announcing what he was doing out loud, recording the information on the onboard tape recorder. "Okay, definitely frame 114, target of opportunity, extremely fresh impact crater. Time 75:39:30." For forty minutes, the other two men kept quiet, letting Anders do his job. Borman would continually adjust the spacecraft's attitude so that its nose always pointed downward, thereby keeping the lunar surface visible in the least obstructed windows.
Just before they came out from behind the moon, Anders finally stopped. Borman needed to roll the spacecraft so that Lovell could do a navigational sighting, and he and Lovell had been waiting patiently for Anders to finish. With only seconds before they reacquired earth signal Anders gave the okay, and Borman started the roll.
To do this Borman gazed out his window, using the moon's horizon as a reference point. Suddenly he noticed a blue-and-white fuzzy arch edging from behind the moon's sharp horizon line of dreary gray. This growing round patch was the only color in a black-and-white universe. "Oh my God!" Borman cried out. "Look at that picture over there! Here's the earth coming up!" He stared at the earthrise in wonder. "Wow, is that pretty."
Lovell gaped. "Oh man, that's great!"
Suddenly, they all realized that they had to get a picture. Of all the objectives NASA had set before launch, no one had thought of photographing the earth from lunar orbit. Borman grabbed the nearby floating camera that
BOOK: Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8
7.09Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

More Pleasures by MS Parker
The Bound Bride by Anne Lawrence
Her Mistletoe Cowboy by Alissa Callen
Devil's Sin by Kathryn Thomas
Chasing Happiness by Raine English
The Pursuit of Jesse by Helen Brenna
The melody in our hearts by Roberta Capizzi
Death Claims by Joseph Hansen
The Distance Beacons by Richard Bowker