Nov 16 1968
From The Space Library
U.S.S.R.'s Proton IV, largest unmanned scientific satellite to date, was launched into orbit with 472-km (293.3-mi) apogee, 248-km (154.1-mi) perigee, 91.7-min period, and 51.5° inclination. Satellite weighed 17 metric tons (37,478 lb), including 12.5-metric ton (27,557.5-1b) scientific payload to continue studies of cosmic rays. Equipment was functioning normally. (AP, W Star, 11/17/68, A18; Kamm, NYT, 11/17/68, 1; SBD, 11/19/68, 72-3; GSFC SSR, 11/30/68)
Apollo 8 prime crew-Astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders-held press conference at MSC on Apollo 8 flight plan. Commander Borman explained that an important feature of mission's flight plan was establishment in advance of decision points when crew could decide whether to continue mission as planned or return to earth: ". .. the first one [decision point] will be whether we commit to translunar injection [from parking orbit] or not. . . . But even if we do commit . . . we have regular abort times along the course to the moon, so that we could-in case of a system problem - . . stop at any time and come back. Then we finally reach a point where it would be swifter to just go on around the moon than it would be to try to abort. The next great point is before we burn lunar orbit injection." Once in lunar orbit crew would receive abort data regularly and have option to return to earth every two hours. "The mission, if all works well, will be a relatively simple one," Borman said. ". . we designed Apollo, we said we were going to the moon, and . . . finally when we get down to examining the details and saying we are really going, people start getting a little queasy about it. But I have no hesitancy about the hardware." (Transcript; O'Toole, W Post, 11/17/68, A8)
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