Apollo-8 is in lunar orbit
Reuter adds: The crew reported their rocket engine had burned on time, for just over four minutes.
Cape Kennedy (florida): America’s Apollo-8 astronauts today became the first men to orbit the moon when a burst from their rocket engine sent the spacecraft skimming above the lunar surface.
A tense period of waiting, as the space craft swung behind the rugged dark side of the moon, was broken at 1555 (IST) when a jubilant space official announced, “We have got it. Apollo-8 is in lunar orbit.”
AFP adds: While still behind the moon, the spaceship fired its main rocket to decelerate, slowing down to give lunar gravity a chance to pull it into orbit. The operation worked. When the Apollo began emerging from behind the moon, it was on an elliptical lunar orbit, as planned. “We’ve got it.” was the cry that went up at the Houston Space Center when resumption of radio contact with Apollo confirmed that the ship had performed as planned.
Reuter adds: The crew reported their rocket engine had burned on time, for just over four minutes.
The astronauts reported they had gone into an orbit of 60.5 nautical miles by 169 nautical miles. This was almost exactly the planned orbit of 60 by 170 nautical miles. In a dramatic Christmas eve signal, astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders confirmed to ground controllers that all was well aboard.
Anders voice sounded as cool and calm as on a training exercise as he read out the technical condition of the spacecraft.