233 a
NASA / Unidentified Photographer

Reentry into the Earth’s atmosphere and recovery in the Pacific Ocean on board USS Yorktown of the first manned spacecraft coming back from another world

Apollo 8, December 27, 1968

One vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA MSC caption on the verso, numbered “NASA S-69-15592” in black in top margin; and one vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-68-56310” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin

233 b
NASA / Unidentified Photographer

The first humans back from another world

Apollo 8, December 27, 1968

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-68-56335” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

233 a
Chaikin, Voices (second photograph).

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Lot Essay

233 a
The spacecraft had to fly a precise path through the Earth’s atmosphere. Too steep an entry and the craft would be torn in pieces by the forces of deceleration. Too shallow and the crew would die a lonely death in the depths of space. But Apollo 8 slammed into the atmosphere precisely on schedule and on target, bringing history’s first Moon voyagers home.

[NASA caption, first photograph] This Apollo 8 re-entry photograph was taken by U.S. Air Force Airborne Lightweight Optical Tracking System (ALOTS) camera mounted on a KC-135-A aircraft flown at 40,000 feet altitude. Apollo 8 splashed down at 10:51 a.m. (EST) Dec. 27, 1968, in the central Pacific approximately 1,000 miles south-southwest of Hawaii.

The capsule was hoisted onto the recovery ship USS Yorktown following splashdown (second photograph).

“The thing I remember about reentry is being inside the flame, and wondering if it was going to scorch my back. I must say, I kept feeling it was getting hotter back there but it really wasn’t. But every now and then what looked like a large chunk would fly off, the size of your fist. And I thought, jeez, you can’t stand many of those. Later I realized that even the tiniest little grain, when ionized, makes a big ball of flame,” recalled William Anders (Chaikin, Voices, p. 129).

233 b
The Apollo 8 astronauts stand aboard the carrier USS Yorktown, prime recovery ship for the historic Apollo 8 lunar orbit mission.

“Borman thanked the crew for giving up Christmas so that the carrier could serve as the prime recovery ship” (NASA SP-350, p. 183).

“I think you all overemphasize this emotional, what-does-it-do-to-the-psyche and all that sort of stuff. We’re engineers and we’re test pilots. You’re not doing anything different from taking up an airplane. And going out to the Moon is certainly a first, and it’s awe-inspiring, and it’s great. But I mean, there’s no great emotional change. Nothing in zero gravity or space changes anything you think, or anything like that. [...] I mean, it’s just another extension of our exploration,” said James Lovell (Chaikin, Voices, p. 162).