On Dec. 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launches with Capt. James A. Lovell Jr. as command module pilot. During the mission, Lovell is one of the first two people to see the far side of the moon. The mission lasts six days and three hours. Recovery is executed by HS-4 helicopters from USS Yorktown (CVS 10). The Apollo 8 crew became the first to ride the Saturn V rocket, and first to travel to the Moon. The craft entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. The engine was then fired again to enter a 60 nautical mile circular orbit around the Moon. On Christmas Eve, the crew broadcast black-and-white TV pictures of the lunar surface back to Earth. They made 10 orbits of the Moon in 20 hours and ten minute and began their return home on Christmas Day with a rocket burn on the far side of the Moon, out of radio contact with Earth. When contact was re-established, Lovell broadcast, "Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus." Gulf Coast Note: Lovell was one of 50 members of the 783-strong graduating class of the U.S. Naval Academy and initially selected for naval aviation training. He went to flight training at Naval Air Station Pensacola, Fla., from October 1952 to February 1954. He was designated a naval aviator on February 1, 1954, upon completion of pilot training.
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