Apollo 8 Launch 

@@geocam2 Yeah i forgot to mention that one.

How would it ever be easy to become bored with stuff like this?

@@electricpaisy6045 When I said it's easy to get bored with it, I was definitely NOT referring to myself. I could watch this stuff for hours on end and never get tired of it. But I've watched the reaction of many others when they see this, and they're like, "Yeah, yeah, another moon flight, big deal. Those were the old days. Seen one, seen 'em all". I have a hard time understanding that kind of attitude as well. For me, watching them go to the moon was the most incredible, most fascinating time of my life. I wish i could go back to that time and watch them all over again. I think the entire Apollo program was the greatest single event in the history of the entire planet.

did not last long in the old days, Many were bored for #12, perhaps causing #13 historical badluck. And still not much for#14, troubles at least in US during those old days.

@@wildboar7473 I couldn´t agree more. I was 18 at the time and I remember having been intrigued by Apollo 11. But my interest quickly wore off, which I don´t understand now as an old man.

Great story Spirit. Skipped three days of law school and drove a thousand miles straight from NY to FL in a crumbling old car to make it to the 17 Press Site at KSC. Only Saturn V to ever fly at night. Only Apollo mission to NOT go on time (two hour delay past midnight for a vent door "glitch"). Last men on the Moon and beyond awesome. Wouldn't have missed it for the world.

Dont forget this was a moment filled with emotion we were about to leave our planet for the first time and whitness another from really close , i get emotionel when i see the apollo 8 launch now let alone of youwere there mak8ng history yourself that day , its the most important launch ever in history certainly after the apollo 1 accident just a year before this needed to go right and it was flawless so many nuts and bolts and it went without a doubt FUCKING UNBELIEVEBLE

That guy yelled that at every Apollo launch, including 7.

The first time man left low earth orbit.

Strictly speaking, yes. But don't forget the earlier (1966) mission of Gemini 11, which fired the engine of the Agena target vehicle it was docked with to raise its LEO orbital apogee up to 850 miles. It later returned to a lower, circular orbit and came home with some really fabulous photos of a very round Earth far, far below.

Ah yes I vaguely remembered something like that, so I guess strictly speaking I'm wrong, Perhaps saying apollo 8 was the first time man left earth orbit is more accurate.

Ah... I can't resist: none of the Moon flights (including Apollo 8) ever really left Earth orbit either. After all, the Moon is very much in Earth orbit! The way many of the space historians put it is... Borman, Lovell and Anders were the first to leave the Earth to visit another world. All semantics and point of view , I suppose. Whatever SLS is going to do on its first flight, it should be memorable. See you down here in 20 months.

Haha yes you're right I suppose I've just finished watching Earthrise: the first lunar voyage, either way it was an awesome accomplishment I wish I'd been around to see it.

There is a whole documentation about Apollo 8 ending after an hour with the original astronauts commenting the launch scene. I think it gives it a fair amount of credit. And don't forget the famous earth picture and the Christmas speech and all the environment protection demos it caused on earth.

True, high risk first outside trip, all the way to Moon!

And it was launched on a lark. It was literally "the LM isn't ready, let's test in an all-up fashion the entire stack except for the LM, let's go around the moon to test the tracking". Unbelievably bold, Apollo 11 indeed seems (almost) like cakewalk in comparison

@@alex-internetlubber exactly. Literally everything was tested before hand except the actual landing.

Apollo 8 is probably my favorite mission of all time with Vostok 1. First time humanity truly left Earth.

Hey Bob. I was on the riverbank in Titusville that morning (Christmas week, 1968) -- with about one million of our closest friends. Unforgettable event. Later, I watched dozens of shuttle launches from the same spot. It's 11.6 miles from KSC Pad 39A so the sound takes nearly a full minute to arrive -- but you're right: You can't miss it when it gets there !! Maybe I'll see you in T-Town for the first SLS launch in 2017, from Pad 39B. Until then... take care.

Is that SLS launch still on schedule for 2017? I never made it to America to see a shuttle launch and I'd sure like to see the new generation of nasa Rockets.

Devonian: Spoke with a Senate space aide 24 hours ago. One of the things he said was that NASA and its contractors are shooting for the initial SLS launch from KSC in November, 2018. And, as far as we can tell down here, the agency still intends to assemble the first full-size SLS "test article" inside the VAB and roll it over to launch pad 39B for critical "fit tests" before the end of this year. No doubt the videos of THAT will make it onto the nightly network news... : ]

Thanks a lot, glad to hear NASA is still active.

I wish I could've experienced that, witnessing a Saturn V launch. Especially Apollo 17

that is very cool my friend

Yeah, something like a Venus fly-by could've been possible with a standard Saturn V but imagine the sort of potential those planned uprated Saturn V variants with stretched stages and added boosters could've had. If I recall correctly some variant had a LEO payload capability as much as excess of 200 tons. That sounds like a mission to Mars to me.

there is not enough motivation now its up to the president, funders, or private companies to go above and beyond

If anything that was a first for America beating the Russians to be the first to leave low earth orbit.

I wish people in general, not only Americans, still had this determination to explore

Right you are, FN. And 50 years ago today (December 24th - Christmas Eve), Apollo 8 dropped into Lunar Orbit !! Tomorrow (50 years after they started home) my Christmas dinner is going to be the same as theirs: a hot and yummie turkey, mashed potato and gravy "TV Dinner." : ]

@@russells9687 And one of the most famous pictures in history, known as _Earthrise,_ was taken from Apollo 8 on Christmas Eve in 1968 by astronaut Bill Anders. upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg

@@fromnorway643 Yup. Led directly to the first Earth Day in 1970. I had the Earthrise poster up on my wall at home for nearly 40 years. My girlfriend glued a small piece of paper to it with this quotation (T.S. Eliot, 1942): "We shall not cease to explore... and the end of all our exploring will be to arrive where we started and know the place for the first time."

The part ending up in orbit (3. stage plus Apollo spacecraft) was a lot smaller, but still almost twice as heavy as an empty space shuttle.

@@fromnorway643 That's right; I phrased it wrong.

I've wondered that as well.