What Was The Benefits Of Apollo 8 Mission

On December 21st, 1968 Apollo 8 launched off of the surface of the Earth. It was the second mission in the United States Apollo space program involving human spaceflight. Three brave men departed the planet on the spacecraft, Lunar Module Pilot William Anders, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Commander Frank Borman. These brave astronauts made history in several ways; they became the first human beings to be launched out of low Earth orbit, they were the first humans too see the entire Earth as a planet, the first to witness the far side of the moon with their own eyes, and the first to view Earthrise. The mission of course received ample press coverage from newspapers, magazines, and television stations from all over the country. The
The media, and the American public, were fascinated by this new frontier of human exploration. The press coverage focused largely on the astronauts who were largely lauded as heroes, sacrificing their lives for their country and for humanity as a whole. Other articles focused less on the astronauts and more on the mission itself. Painting a thrilling picture of adventure, jaw clenching suspense and robust intellect, this category of press coverage entranced the mind and ignited the imagination. This combination of heroism, adventure, and intellect led other magazine articles to question if the potential advantages of a mission such as Apollo 8 outweighed the potential cost, in matters of both finance and human life. Most of the press coverage seemed united around a common goal to enhance the already booming public support for the space program. Until this point, the United States had been trailing the Soviet Union in a race to the top during the recently commenced space age. This was America’s time to pull ahead, to shine and to prove that American exceptionalism was more than a phrase or state of mind. The media certainly played a role in crafting this image and
They detailed the history and family life of each man, including his past history in aviation and previous spaceflight experience. However, the overall tone of the article was like that of many others from the period, one of reverence and respect. These men were viewed, rightly so, as pioneers of the human race. The article begins by giving a brief history of the previous space experience of astronauts Frank Borman and James Lovell. The author is keen to note that the two men “have a total of 7551 hours in space, about 125 man-hours more than all the Russian cosmonauts combined have compiled during their ten manned space flights. ” This is one of the first points made in the article, in the first paragraph in fact. This played into the cold war era mentality of competition with the Soviet Union. Ensuring Americans that though their country had the most elite space program in the world was of the upmost importance to the government and the media. The article also makes a point to mention that Frank Borman was a religious man, stating, “Between training sessions he is a lay reader in an Episcopal church. ” This was an attempt to show the astronauts, though they enjoyed celebrity like status, were ordinary men. This made them more relatable to the average American. Given the