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THE UNIVERSITY DAILY KANSAN
Wednesday, November 13, 1968
Apollo 8 to circle moon at Christmas
CAPE KENNEDY (UPI)—The United States announced yesterday it will send the three Apollo 8 astronauts on a historic Christmas flight around the moon, shaving up to three months off the lunar landing timetable.
The daring lunar orbit reconnaissance run will begin Dec. 21 and end six days and four hours later, with a Pacific Ocean splashdown after man's fastest return to the earth's atmosphere.
Astronauts Frank Borman, 40, James Lovell, 40 and William Anders, 35, plan to circle the moon 10 times, blazing the trail for the landing of Americans on the pock-marked lunar surface as early as next July.
Gemini veterans
"We've been training very hard for this flight and we've happy
The pilots were practicing in a spacecraft trainer at the moonport when Dr. Thomas Paine, acting administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) announced the decision in Washington.
the performance of Apollo 7 and other considerations that led to this decision permit us to go," said Apollo 8 commander Borman. He and Lovell are Gemini spaceflight veterans.
By sending Apollo 8 to the moon instead of having it repeat the earth orbital flight of Apollo 7, NASA will be able to test the moonship in a lunar environment ahead of schedule and increase the chances for success on the initial landing attempt.
the astronauts will beam back
Saturn 5 rocket
Apollo 8 will be launched by the first of the giant Saturn 5 moon rockets to be manned. The Saturn 5 is five times as powerful, and twice as big, as the Saturn 1B that orbited Apollo 7 Astronauts Walter Schirra, Donn Eisele and Walter Cunningham Oct. 11.
to earth live telecasts of the moon from as close as 9 miles.
The plan calls for Apollo 8 to circle earth twice and then use the top stage of the Saturn 5 to give the astronauts the acceleration needed to coast the 250,000 miles to the moon.
Life not 'supreme' - Quinn
Apollo 8 is scheduled to swing into an egg-shaped orbit around the moon Dec. 24. After two lunar loops, the pilots will adjust their orbit to a circular path 69 miles high.
Life is not a supreme value, Prof. Dennis P. Quinn, associate professor of English, director of Pearson College and recent recipient of the Hope Award, said.
Quinn, sponsored by SUA, presented his philosophical views of life to about 70 persons, mostly students, last night in the Kansas Union Forum Room.
We think of life as something to be preserved rather than something to be lived. There is a preoccupation with the avoidance of death, he said.
"I don't consider myself an expert on life," he said. "Too often we try to make life more than it is, and have really lost our sense in the value of that subiect." he told the group.
ance of death, he said.
He would prefer a short but happy life, living it as well as possible rather than extending it as long as possible. "Therefore it would be a thing of value," Quinn said.
He said, if there are things for which we will give life, then they must be of more value than life.
"Many men have died, in fact, rather than forsake these values." he said.
"It seems there are things which are worse than death," he said. "Common experience testifies to this. One of the things is life without some of the goods which belong to life—life without hope, health, sanity. They render life not worth having."
He said he disagreed with Albert Schweitzer, who said all life is holy. "It seems to me the only holy thing is God," he said.
Spanish poetry is SUA feature
A visiting lecturer from Chile, Ivan Droguett, and Prof. Andrew Debicki will read poetry in Spanish and English at 4:30 p.m. tomorrow in the Kansas Union Forum Room.
Early Christmas morning, Apollo 8 will fire its main propulsion engine to break free of the moon's gravitational pull and
The poetry hour is sponsored by Student Union Activities and the Latin American Club.
Jr. year abroad applications due
Twelve to 15 students will be selected to spend their junior year abroad in Bordeaux, France, from applications received by Dec. 6 in 224 Strong Hall.
"Candidates should have a strong over-all academic average," Sandra Traversa, foreign study adviser, said. Students must also complete 60 credit hours and four semesters of "B" work in French by September.
Mrs. Traversa said students will spend their first six weeks with French families before moving to residence halls or Bordeaux family homes.
Sponsored by the University of Colorado, in cooperation with KU and the University of Nebraska, the cost of the program is $2,000. Students may apply for scholarships, Mrs. Traversa said.
begin the 58-hour flight back to earth.
Apollo 8 will dive back into earth's atmospheric blanket at 24,749 miles per hour—more than 7,000 m.p.h. faster than the reentries of previous American and Soviet spacemen.
Apollo Program Director Samuel C. Phillips said its crewmen will have more fuel at their disposal throughout the six day mission "and a large margin for unknowns and errors."
Since a moon landing spacecraft will not be carried by
The maneuver sending Apollo 8 back to earth from lunar orbit is the most critical of the entire mission.
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