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This meant they were clear to fire their engines and aim for the moon. After settling into orbit around Earth, they performed their final checks and received the "go" from NASA for trans-lunar injection. The crew were the first astronauts to be launched into space by the Saturn V rocket. When Lindbergh heard that the rocket would consume 20 tons of fuel a second, he smiled and said, "In the first second of your flight tomorrow, you'll burn 10 times more fuel than I did all the way to Paris."Īs expected, Apollo 8's journey across the Atlantic Ocean took only minutes. He asked how much fuel they would need to get into space, according to Robert Zimmerman's account in his book " Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8 (opens in new tab)" (Dell, 1999). Lindbergh, whose nickname was "Lucky Lindy," was the first person to fly solo over the Atlantic Ocean, which he'd done 41 years before. The night before launch, aviation pioneer Charles Lindbergh paid a visit to the Apollo 8 crew. But after months of discussion, NASA decided to move forward with an Apollo 8 moon mission on Nov. The decision was further complicated by Apollo 8's need for a more powerful rocket, called the Saturn V, which had never been tested on a crewed launch. "NASA officials realized that this was risky, since Apollo 7 had not yet qualified the spacecraft when their tentative decision was made," a NASA historical document reported. But sending Apollo 8 to lunar orbit after only one previous Apollo mission, which had remained in Earth orbit, was a difficult decision. And NASA - while keeping crew safety in mind - wanted to take the necessary steps to bring Americans to the moon as soon as possible. At the time, the United States and Russia were engaged in a "space race," endeavoring to demonstrate their technological prestige in space exploration.
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Initially, the agency planned to test the lunar and command module components of the Apollo spacecraft first before striking out for the moon. This historic mission happened because of a last-minute decision from NASA management.