Apollo 8

[HAL9000]

'It was the only colourful thing in the Universe'


In December 1968 Apollo 8 went into orbit around the Moon, but the astronauts on board were more impressed by the sight of the Earth rising in the distance, than by their close-up view of the lunar surface. Colonel Frank Borman, Commander of Apollo 8, remembers the flight.


BBC World Service - Witness, 'It was the only colourful thing in the Universe'

 

[Sprocket.]

I remember being fascinated with this mission as a wonder filled 11 year old.
I had that poster on my wall for many years.

 

[a_chap]

It has always been my opinion that Apollo 8 was the most remarkable manned space mission. After Yuri Gagarin's, naturally.

 

[HAL9000]

Its impressive what was managed with 1960's technology, at 1 minute 43 seconds you see an astronuat doing this...... (according to another website, its Jim Lovell)

The astronuat is a using a high tec version of a sextant, used to update the navigation computer....

 

[a_chap]

Yes, that's Jim Lovell.

Space sextants were used in the Gemini program too as NASA learned how to perform rendezvous in space.

Interestingly the space sextant was instrumental (no pun intended) in helping the crew of Apollo 13 make the necessary course-correction manoeuvres to bring them safely home. Apollo 13 was, of course, commanded by... Jim Lovell.

 

[HAL9000]

Hour long radio program about Apollo 8

Apollo 8: Christmas on the Far Side of the Moon - BBC Sounds

 

[ferrelhadley]

Its impressive what was managed with 1960's technology, at 1 minute 43 seconds you see an astronuat doing this...... (according to another website, its Jim Lovell)

The astronuat is a using a high tec version of a sextant, used to update the navigation computer....

The US Navy reintroduced celestial navigation to its officer courses in 2015 due to the risks of GPS jamming, while ICBMs and some space probes used variations of it to update their inertial guidance systems. You need the Sun plus at least one other star to get a fix on your attitude and position. The SR-71 also had an automated system that used a star position to keep the inertial guidance up to date.

The ISS has a current experiment to use xray pulsars as navigation tools in a similar fashion.
Station Explorer for X-Ray Timing and Navigation (SEXTANT) | Space Technology: Game Changing Development