Quotes About Lovell

Early on December 25, Houston time, Lovell missed a step. He meant to enter Program 23 and then select Star 01. Instead, he entered Program 01 into his computer. An alarm rang out. Suddenly, Apollo 8's guidance system reset itself, losing all memory of how the ship was oriented in space. As a result of Lovell's mistake, the guidance system now believed Apollo 8 to be back on the launchpad at Cape Kennedy.

Fortunately, the complex separation maneuver would be made somewhat easier because part of the procedure was preloaded, which meant the computer had all of the nouns memorized. All Lovell needed to provide were the verbs.

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