[MUSIC] Following the very successful Gemini program, NASA was full of confidence since the Apollo program was initiated. The Apollo program's goals were to land men on the moon, and return them safely to Earth. There was plenty of reason for optimism that this ambitious goal would be carried out before the end of the decade. After all, to the American public, and much of the world. It seemed as if the space flight, with its docking missions and exciting space walks, was almost routine. However, the Apollo program got off to a tragic start with the Apollo 1 fire, in which three crewmen lost their lives during ground-based testing of the Apollo capsule. It was over a year and a half after the Apollo fire that NASA put another astronaut in space. However, once the U.S. space program regained its bearings, the missions leading up to the moon landing went relatively smoothly. On July 20th, 1969, the crew of Apollo walked on the moon. There were six additional Apollo missions to the moon, although the crew of Apollo 13 never landed on the moon due to an oxygen tank exploding, severely damaging the spacecraft. Many scientific experiments were conducted during the the Apollo missions, including Earth observations, and the returning of moon rocks by the crews. The public enjoyed watching the astronauts hop across the moon surface and space suits, and drive the moon buggy over the Terrain. However, having won the space race against the Russians, and with seemingly no tangible earth based benefits resulting from the moon missions, the American public and politicians eventually lost interest in supporting the Apollo program, and planned flights after Apollo 17 were cancelled. The last man on the moon left on December 14, 1972. No human has set foot on the moon since. This unit covers the Apollo program with the exception of the Apollo 11 moon landing mission. That mission is covered in unit seven. Unit 14, titled, Space Flight Disasters, which is part of the second half of this course, provides more in depth coverage than this unit of the Apollo 1 and Apollo 13 disasters. [MUSIC] At 6:31 PM, on January 27th, 1967, during a routine testing session inside the Apollo 1 capsule, a fire was reported. Within moments, crew members Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffey were dead of smoke inhalation. The fire started by an arching wire, over the piping from the urine collection system, located below the crew's feet. Since, at that time, NASA used 100% oxygen for the environment. The fire quickly moved through the capsule, and the crew was dead within a minute. An extensive investigation was conducted. And several important changes were made to the capsule. Flammable materials were replaced by safer ones. The redesigned hatch could be opened from the inside, and nitrogen was added to the environment prior to the continuation of the Apollo program. [SOUND] >> This is Cape Canaveral, or as it was known in 1967 Cape Kennedy. It was renamed in 1963 as a tribute to the assassinated president, but reverted to its original name ten years later. [MUSIC] And this is the burnt out shell of the Apollo 1 spacecraft. Also known as the Apollo Saturn 204, it went up in flames on the 27th of January, 1967 during a training exercise at Launch Pad 34. The AS 204 had includes three Astronauts, all of them died in the accident. The spacecraft was due to be launched ontop of a Saturn 1B rocket. As the first maned flight of a 1 Apollo capsule toward the Earth. Scheduled for the first quarter of 1967, the flight was intended to launch operations, ground checking in control facilities as well as monitored the performance of the Apollo center. On the 27th of January however, the only plan was to simulated watch. The three astronauts, Virgil Grissom known as Gus, Edward White, and Roger Chaffee were all strapped into their seats and hooked up to the capsule's systems. Straight away there were problems. As the air in the capsule was being replaced by pure oxygen, the crew members began running through their checklist of space activities while a communication problem was attended to. At just after half past six, one of the crew was heard saying, we've got a fire in the cockpit. A cry of pain was heard shortly after, before transmission cut out. Ed White was seen on the television monitor trying to open the hatch. It is believed that the fire was due to a spark somewhere in the capsule some 50 kilometers of wiring. With pure oxygen in the cabin, it quickly raged out of control. Under the hatch that could only be opened from the outside. And the three men didn't stand a chance. The command pilot, Gus Grissom Bruce had had a close shave before. He was chosen as one of the seven Project Mercury astronauts in 1959 after extensive testing. Promoted to the rank of lieutenant colonel while involved in the space program. As the pilot of the Mercury-Redstone 4, or Liberty Bell 7, he nearly drowned during the splashdown when the explosive bolts blew off the hatch prematurely. The spacecraft sank, but Bruce was saved by helicopter, insisting he had done nothing And to detonate the explosives. He was believed by NASA officials and having cleared his name was soon selected to be the command pilot for the Project Gemini mission in 1964. Edward H. White II was the senior pilot onboard the Apollo I. He had an impressive record, even amongst astronauts he was considered a high-flyer by NASA and was selected as pilot of the second group of astronauts in 1962. Following on from Grissom, he was the pilot of the Gemini 4, and accordingly on the 3rd of June 1965 he became the first American to make a space walk. He was also the backup command pilot for Gemini 7 and because of the usual crew rotation process, he was due to pilot Gemini 10, which would have made him the first of his crew to fly twice. Instead he was promoted in 1966 to be the command module pilot for AS204. The final member of the crew was pilot Roger B. Chaffee, a rookie. Chaffee was a left-handed commander in the United States navy flying the [INAUDIBLE] 3Ds. He gained official recognition for his contribution during the [INAUDIBLE] although his exact role was never made clear. In 1963, he was picked to join the third group of astronauts and had yet to make a space when he was selected as a linear module pilot for Apollo 1. Back up crew for maintenance December 1966 with James McDibbit, David Scott and Rusty Schreiber all later flew on Apollo 9 and the back up crew from December 1966 to January 1967 consisted on Walter Shearer, Don Zeeley and Walter Cunningham. After the tragic end of AS204, a number of changes were made to the Apollo modules including a slower change over to 100% oxygen, a hatch that can be opened from within and a few other. In seconds and flammable materials being replaced with [INAUDIBLE]. Launch Complex 34 was more or less dismantled but the reinforced platform still stands today. On its side are a couple of plaques commemorating the three men who died. The second one closes with the words, God speed to the crew of Apollo 1. >> It was all over in one stunned horrifying second. Astronauts Gus Grissom, Ed White, and Roger Chaffee, the prime crew of Apollo 1, our first manned Apollo flight At T minus ten minutes in a simulated countdown for the flight at Cape Kennedy. It was 6:31 PM Eastern time last night, after delays caused by minor problems they had reached the climactic moments of the countdown. Plugs out. The spacecraft was on its own internal power, disconnected from Pad 34's electrical supply. Apollo's instrument valve with hundreds of switches and dials was in front of them. As the count progressed each crew man flipped switches. Then they got into a hold and suddenly the moment of death. An electrical spark apparently shot out and ignited the 100% oxygen in the cabin that they were breathing as in a real space flight. Their face plates were down, Apollos hatch sealed. On closed circuit TV screens 218 feet below in the Black House. Horrified engineers watched the burst of flames and smoke envelop Grissom, White, and Chaffee. They heard their last words of shock and surprise. It was over in an unbelievable microsecond. The flames enveloped Apollo 1 burning the couches, charring the space suits. The crewmen never had a chance. Scores of pad safety workers rushed up the elevators of the launch tower. They battled the smoke, fought their way up to the hatch. One by one, they toppled from the fumes despite their smoke masks. But it was too late. It had been too late from the beginning. Despite all the safety precautions, the elaborate launch escape system, this was the one none escape situation. With the launch system inactivated, the spacecraft locked in the gantry tower, hatches closed, you can't get out in a hurry. It was six hours before their bodies were removed earlier this morning. The crushing irony is hard to believe. 16 US manned space flights have ticked off in these last six years. No pilot has even been scratched in flight. Three have died in aircraft accidents during Gemini and now Gus Grissom, the tough, wiry veteran of Mercury, 41 years old and Gemini was gone. Ed White, 36, our first space walker, who believed so strongly you could feel it in his words, and Roger Chaffee, at 32, ready for his first flight. So eager that Gus and Ed kidded him constantly. All their lives snuffed out in the moment that was never supposed to happen. As dawn rose this morning over the sands of Canaveral, we have tasted tragedy. An official space agency board of inquiry has been at it all night. The scene at the Cape now, from pool correspondent Jim Hartz. >> Flags at Cape Kennedy are flying at half-mast on this cold, windy morning, and tight security has been placed around Launch Complex 34. Where the big Saturn booster and the charred Apollo space craft still stand empty now except for the investigators who are searching for the cause of the tragic fire. The launch pad is about three miles to the northeast of where I'm standing. And we haven't been allowed to go any closer and we won't be until they, NASA personnel, and engineers from North American Aviation, makers of the Apollo have finished their work. They've been going over the spacecraft and booster switch by switch, valve by valve, trying to recreate a picture of what it was like in the moments leading up to the intense flash fire which took the lives of the three astronauts. Their bodies were removed from the command section of the Apollo, a little before 2:00 this morning. They were badly burned. All of the data for the simulation have been impounded for the special board of inquiry which will be named this morning. The data includes tapes of telemetry and voice communications, video tape if any from the closed circuit television cameras in the white room surrounding the space craft and film from motion picture cameras which were aimed at it. Before the bodies of the astronauts were taken out detailed photographs were made of the position of every switch inside the spacecraft, and it's assumed that the Apollo will be completely dismantled to check its components. The sources close to the project say that the spacecraft is badly burned, charred on the inside, blackened on the outside, needless to say it's beyond repair and will never fly. They know this much that a problem with the communication system developed during the test before the fire, that the interior of the spacecraft was pressurized with 100% oxygen and that it had been switched to its own power supply. Grissom, White, and Chaffee were inside their inflated suits and the hatchets of the craft were bolted shut. The test had progressed normally except for a few minor problems. And according to a NASA spokesman, the first indication that anything was wrong came when they saw a flash from the television cameras inside the spacecraft, the cameras in the white room, the flash inside the space craft. There was voice communication with the astronauts but what they said has been classified. This is Jim reporting from Cape Kennedy. >> After the Apollo 1 fire, there were a series of six unmanned Apollo flights designed to test the functionality and safety of the technology being built to achieve the moon landing. The Apollo 4 mission was significant, in that it saw the first launching of the giant Saturn V rocket. This mission demonstrated the structural integrity of the rocket, and it's ability to achieve a translunar trajectory, which is necessary to fly to the moon. [MUSIC] In some ways the successful launch of the Saturn V rocket, was the culminating event of Operation Paperclip. The name was given to the United States government clandestine program that brought German scientists and technicians to America after World War 2. In some cases, these people had to have the records of their relationship with the Nazi Party destroyed and be provided new identities. This program was designed to provide the U.S. with highly skilled individuals, who were immediately put to work on miliary projects. And was to ensure these people were not captured by the Soviets for use in their military programs. The chief designer of the Saturn 5 rocket Verner Von Braun entered the United States through operation Paperclip. Apollo Missions 5 were unmanned missions designed to assess the Lunar module ascent and descent propulsion systems and demonstrate separation of launch vehicle stages. Apollo 5 accomplished all of its objectives. However, due to an early cutoff of S2 rocket engines, an overburn of the S4B engine, the flight did not achieve the planned verification of Saturn 5 propulsion, guidance and control, and electric. Systems. Apollo 7 the first man mission of the Apollo program. The mission objectives were to demonstrate command and service module or CSM and crew performance, demonstrate crew, space vehicle and mission support facilities performance during a crude CSM mission. and demonstrate CSM rendezvous capability. All of the missions objectives were successfully accomplished. In addition, Apollo 7 sent the first real time television pictures into the home's of the viewing audience. [NOISE] It was on a clear morning almost 11 days earlier at the Kennedy Space Center's launch pad 34 in Florida that we witnessed the beginning of the first manned mission in the United States Apollo program to land astronauts on the moon. The purpose of the flight of Apollo 7 could be stated very simply, prove that the spacecraft command and service modules would function properly in space long enough to carry men to the moon and back. [NOISE] >> Flight booster go. >> We appear we may be slightly marching on rocks with. >> Okay stand by, cut off. J2, cut off. >> Beautiful. >> Fido? >> Flight Fido, forward go. >> Go [CROSSTALK] >> MC flight. Five, five, three, H, Dodd is minus four balls one. >> [SOUND] >> Temple Seven we have you go for orbit. You're go for orbit. [SOUND] >> Next the spacecraft and S4B stage were separated. The question now was whether the astronauts could turn their spacecraft around and control it to the degree required for future physical link ups with equipment in space. For this too would have to be done in the lunar flight. And again the answer was yes. [SOUND] >> Something that will not be seen in the lunar flight or in any other forthcoming Apollo mission were the panels at the top of the S4B stage. They will simply be jettisoned in the future but they drew comment in Apollo 7. >> And the panel at the top left and bottom are opened, and I would at a 45 degree angle at the panel on the right just opened maybe 30 degrees. That's very good. >> Roger. Looks like you're looking at a four-jawed angry alligator. >> Then as we were to see in some of the most dramatic film ever returned from space, the crew would settle down to a weightless life in a space craft with four times more room than Gemini. >> [INAUDIBLE] AC. >> There would be a host of other tests under a hosts of other conditions, the equipment and systems required to sustain men's lives. To guide and control and propel the spaceship, to provide electric power, to communicate with those on Earth would time and again prove their mettle. The propulsion system for example, was burned eight times and it behaved perfectly every time. >> Off, down, and drive. >> There were also those problems to which man is susceptible but cannot control, like the common cold. >> Not very good, I got a couple small items for you. I probably took a couple aspirin or Actifed. I took one Actifed only. My nostrils are a little dry smells good. >> Always before we've had to be content with merely listening to our astronauts during their flights. In Apollo VII through the medium of television we could actually see them in space for the first time. And become better acquainted with weightless life aboard a spacecraft. >> If you pick it up I can read it, now just a minute. It says lovely Apollo something you guys should write [CROSSTALK]. >> I don't know. I everything. I everything. >> Looks good, I can see Wally now and Don has a smile on his face and there's Walt. [SOUND] >> The astronauts became accustomed to their home high atop everything. They had a chance to evaluate it as a place to live and work in space. >> [INAUDIBLE] >> Is that all? >> In less than an hour after touch down in the Atlantic Ocean, the flight crew emerged from helicopters which had brought them to the recovery ship, the carrier USS Essex. [MUSIC] [SOUND] [MUSIC] And the next manned Apollo flight can be undertaken with confidence that our brand new space craft is, as Commander Walter Schirra reported, a magnificent flying machine. >> Believe me suffering cold symptoms in one of these 120 miles in space with no doctor in sight was no picnic. My nose was stuffy, sinuses plugged. I was miserable. So I took Actifed. An Actifed containing triprolidine gave me fast effective relief. Actifed is the cold tablet that was specified most by doctors for ten years, for relief of nasal congestion, runny nose, and sneezing, before being available over the counter. Try Actifed, it's the same strength I used in space. Available to you without a prescription. Only one cold tablet can say it relieved my stuffy nose in space, only Actifed. >> Only one cold tablet can say it relieved my sneezing in space, only Actifed. >> Only Actifed has been on every manned US space flight since Apollo VII. It comes to you full strength without a prescription. Only Actifed is the cold tablet most recommended by doctors. >> Only one cold tablet can say all that. >> Only Actifed. [MUSIC] >> [NOISE] The definition is pretty good down here, I can see the center hatch. Actually, I'm amazed. It looks real good. [SOUND] Hey Don, how about saying something, since you're panned. >> [SOUND] Say again. >> Hey I can read you, read you loud and clear. It really looks good, I'm amazed. >> Is someone [INAUDIBLE]. >> Lean back a little bit, you're too close to the camera, there you are. Gonna have down here directed. >> I forgot to shave this morning. Lost my razor. >> Yeah, it's real good. I can look out, see Wally's rendezvous window. I can see the up there and the ball. >> Gulf coast. >> Okay, what's the next one? Little closer Wally. It says keep those cards coming. Keep those cards and letters coming in, folks. It's loud and clear. [SOUND] >> Be advised. >> Control here. Among the more interested viewers of these live pictures as they come in is Wally Schirra's wife [SOUND] light a second cigarette in the course of this task. She's with Marjorie Slayton, the wife of [CROSSTALK] >> Well, there is no doubt that those pictures. [INAUDIBLE] That seven and a half inch camera had been made from an airplane and RCA, which manufactured the camera, at a cost of about half a million dollars or so we believe, had said that the pilot in the airplane didn't know how to operate the camera properly and therefore the pictures weren't very good. And RCA was confident that there wouldn't be good pictures. Indeed, the pictures from inside the spacecraft were exceptionally good. [INAUDIBLE] we expected to get, like outside again, looking down at Florida. [SOUND] There are a number of camera mounts. [INAUDIBLE] One of them on the lower equipment bay looking up at the astronauts. One on the window looking outside, another which gives the ground controllers a view of the control panel in the spacecraft. So they can sort of look over the shoulders of the astronauts and keep an eye on what they're doing. That we understand is one of the things that Wally Schirra didn't appreciate too much. [SOUND] Course this camera broadcasts only [SOUND] 20 watts of power so as it's received on the ground it's only one one hundred millionth as powerful as the picture that you receive, the signal that you receive in your home from your commercial television station. This is the first real test of this four and a half pound camera. It is not the camera that will be used on the lunar landing and even more extensive program is underway to develop that camera. About a $5 million program that will develop a camera that will be taken down to the surface of the Moon. And then once the astronauts have erected an S-band antenna, they'll be able to use that camera on the surface of the Moon to broadcast back live pictures of themselves. The two of them will go down, going about the business of taking lunar samples and so forth. The astronauts haven't been to eager to go into this experiment, at least Wally Sharah was not and even this morning was complaining that it was going to interfere with one of the experiments that had been scheduled for this pass. But now they certainly should be reassured that the pictures from space are very good and the space agency should be reassured that the use of television in space is even from a distance of 138 miles can be very valuable. CBS news coverage of the Apollo Seven mission will continue in a moment. >> The mission objectives for Apollo Eight included a coordinated performance of the crew. The command in service manager, or CSM, and the support facilities. The mission also was the first to orbit the moon, making the crew the first humans to see the dark side of the moon. This flight may be best known for it's 1968 Christmas Eve broadcast to five continents. Which contained readings from the Bible's book of Genesis and wished viewers good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God Bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth. >> The crew of Apollo 8 now settle down to the routine of the outward flight. Systems checks, observations, navigational star sightings. >> Jim, they've just been looking at your marks with respect to accuracy and they figure they're within a couple thousandths of a degree of the theoretical optimum. >> Lovell's proficiency in navigating the spacecraft with its onboard optical instruments would eventually earn him the nickname The Man with the Golden Fingers. His speed was such that he would be requested to slow down so that the Earthbound machines recording the data could keep up with him. The accuracy of his sightings was virtually flawless, symbolic of the entire mission. A mission so accurate that several of the planned mid-course corrections would be dropped as unnecessary. Then, on the second day out, the world looked in on the crew via television. >> This transmission is coming to you approximately halfway between the Moon and the Earth. We've been 31 hours, about 20 minutes into the flight. We have about less than 40 hours left to go to the moon. >> So Apollo 8 glided on silently, farther from Earth than man has ever before been. A microscopic drop of light in the cosmic void. Then, on the day before Christmas, the network zeroed in on the spacecraft television antenna for the second broadcast to Earth. >> All right, you're all looking at yourselves as seen from 180,000 miles out in space. >> Mike, what keep imagining is, if I'm a lonely traveller from another planet, what I'd think about the Earth from this altitude. Whether I think it would be inhabited or not. >> Don't see anybody waving, is that what you're saying? >> Well I'm just kind of curious whether I would land on the blue or the brown part of the Earth. >> You better hope we land in the blue part. >> Lunar orbit insertion would take place on the back side of the Moon. With the moon between the spacecraft and the Earth, all contact would be lost, until it appeared on the other side. In mission control, they anticipated LOS, loss of signal from Apollo 8. [SOUND] >> See you on the other side. >> Now, mission control and the world could only wait. Wait for the first contact with Apollo Eight as it emerged from behind the moon. >> We've got it, we've got it. Apollo 8 now in lunar orbit. There's a cheer in this room. This is Apollo Control Houston switching now to the voice of Jim Lovell. >> Good to hear your voice. >> The burn was as close to perfect as possible. Later burns would circularize the orbit and the 3 astronauts would circle the moon 10 times in 20 hours. Sunrise, sunset, every two hours on an alien world. >> Okay, Houston, the moon is essentially grey. No color. Looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand. We can see quite a bit of detail, the craters are all rounded off. There's quite a few of them, some of them are newer. Many of them, especially the round ones look like a hit by meteorites or projectiles of some sort. >> On schedule with command module jettison the service module to expose the main heat shield. Align itself to entry altitude and slammed into the atmosphere at 25,000 miles per hour. Faster than man had ever travelled until Apollo 8. A tracking aircraft took these films of re-entry. The spacecraft seen as an incandescent fireball. >> [SOUND] The crater you see on the horizon is the Apollo 8. Now you're reading [INAUDIBLE]. >> All clear Apollo 8, and we have a picture that's good. [SOUND] >> Roger, we're getting a lot of static, the sea of [INAUDIBLE] is in front of us on the horizon. [INAUDIBLE] can be seen in the middle. We're now breaking the Moon's sunrise, or the spacecraft's sunset. [INAUDIBLE] the sun has just recently come up on the moon. See the body we're over now has a Model work about it, but not very heavily cleared so it must be relatively new. This is the Sea of Fertility, and we're coming up on a large crater, the delta rim variety. Has a strange circular crack patterned around the middle of it. [NOISE] Where you're seeing now is about 30 to 40 miles across. How's your picture quality, Houston? >> This is phenomenal. >> It's interesting, it's real, directly in front of the spacecraft now. Running along the edge of a small mountain. Rather shape with right angle turns. [NOISE] But [SOUND], this area just to the west of the Sea of is called the Martin Sleep. And to the west of that is the Sea of Tranquility. Can you see the fracture pattern going across the line of the? >> It doesn't quite stand out. >> Well, there is a series of cracked across the. >> The men on Laramie, they drop down in about three steps to the south. The parallel fault static to the north as it drops down in the center. I hope that all of you back on Earth can see what we mean when we say it's a very foreboding dark and unappetizing looking place. We're now going over one of our future landing sites, selected in a smooth region to called the Sea of Tranquillity smooth in order to make it easy for the initial landing attempt. In order to preclude having to dodge mountains. Now you can see the long shadows of the lunar sunrise. We are now approaching lunar sunrise. And for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8. As a message that we would like to send to you. In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, let there be light, and there was light. And God saw the light, and it was good. And God divided the light from the darkness. And God the light, day. And the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called the firmament heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day. [NOISE] >> And God said let the waters under the heaven be gathered in together to one place. And let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry landm, Earth. And the gathering together of the waters he called Sea. And God saw that it was good. And from the Crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night. Good luck. A Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you. All of you on the good Earth. >> Finish for this. [SOUND] From their. As we saw for the first time a lunar sunset as they reached in for the dark part of the moon over an area called the earth glow on the moon, which is almost as dark as the dark side itself. But that is the sunset of the moon. And we heard first and then Jim Lovell, and finally Frank Borman, reading from the book of Genesis, the Bible. And that final word, good luck, and that God bless Earth. That they are continuing now around the moon. Continuing across the face of the moon. But the dark part of the face of the moon as we view it tonight in that the crescent shaped moon that we see from Earth. And they will go around now one more time and then at shortly after one o'clock this morning, fire the engines that will return them to earth and we will be reporting that of course. Coretta King and Mrs. Robert Kennedy. 60 Minutes, which is normally scheduled to be on now will follow this broadcast and during that 60 minutes, Harry Reesner and Mike Wallace will be spending Christmas Eve. With those two gallant ladies, Coretta King, and Mrs. Robert Kennedy. CBS News color coverage of the flight of Apollo 8 will continue in a moment. So, another remarkable look at the moon. Pictures taken by man as he flew over that surface. >> And the spacecraft which has been the first to reach the moon from Earth. Apollo 8, now on its next to last orbit of the moon, the crew, admitting fatigue after their historic adventure, resting up for the most critical maneuver of their flight, the one that starts them back to Earth. At about 1:06 AM Tomorrow. That's just two hours from now, in the early hours of Christmas morning while Apollo 8 is behind the moon, out of touch with the ground control again. The astronauts are to start up that big rocket engine that powered them into lunar orbit. It must work perfectly again, because if it fails to start or doesn't work long enough, Apollo Eight could be caught in that lunar orbit. That, of course, is not expected to happen. The engine has worked perfectly in a total of the six firings so far, it should work on the seventh. Our next progress report will be at one AM Eastern time when we'll wait and watch with you. To see that everything does work perfectly. Apollo 8 is indeed on the way home after it's historic ten orbits of the moon. This is Guide with the CBS news space center, in New York. >> This has been a CBS news special report. The flight of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 is also remembered for the iconic photograph of the Earth rising as they came out from the dark side of the moon. Discovering the scene from their space capsule, one astronaut exclaimed, oh my God, look at the picture over there. Here's the Earth Coming up. Wow. Is that pretty! The crew scrambled for a camera. The photographs first appeared in print in January, 1969. Earthrise and images like it are widely credited with inspiring the environmental movement and indirectly, the start of the environmental Protection Agency in 1970. [MUSIC]