65: 2. The Apollo 8 Crew, Cold War Context, and Reliance on the Saturn 5 Booster. Bob Zimmerman introduces the Apollo 8 crew—Commander Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and rookie William Anders—set against the backdrop of the intense global Cold War in late 1968. Bo

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🗓️ 8 November 2025

⏱️ 12 minutes

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Summary

2. The Apollo 8 Crew, Cold War Context, and Reliance on the Saturn 5 Booster. Bob Zimmerman introduces the Apollo 8 crew—Commander Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and rookie William Anders—set against the backdrop of the intense global Cold War in late 1968. Borman was selected for his honesty and dedication to duty, ensuring the mission's success after his role in investigating the Apollo 1 tragedy. Lovell was known as a "space cadet" eager to explore, and he and Borman had proven human endurance in space during Gemini 7. The mission was a high-risk endeavor, utilizing the Saturn 5 rocket, which had only flown twice before, with the second flight experiencing problems. Wernher von Braun's team fixed these issues, and NASA decided to proceed, confident they could demonstrate that free people could achieve success better than the top-down Soviet system. The astronauts' wives accepted the mission despite the widely believed 50/50 chance of return.
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0:00.0	This is CBSI in the world. I'm John Batchel.
0:08.1	Bob Zimmerman, his new book, Genesis, is a book from the late 20th century, but it's always fresh
0:14.3	when you consider where the program that was Apollo is now.
0:18.9	It's in Boca, Texas.
0:20.3	It's around the world at all the new spaceports.
0:22.7	That's where Apollo 8 is. But we need to go through the details because in 1968 there was a war on
0:32.0	and it was a global war. It was called the Cold War. And events had built up to both sides thinking apocalyptic about the other.
0:41.2	And then there was the NASA program.
0:43.9	NASA was meant to get to the moon, thanks to a speech by President Kennedy, early in his time in office,
0:51.8	assigning the task to his vice president, Lyndon Johnson.
0:55.7	We now are at the moment where both sides believe they've prepared everything for a
1:03.0	circumlunar mission or even a moon landing eventually. It is late 1968. We need to introduce
1:10.1	the three men who will be the astronauts on board Apollo 8 because they come from a background of war. Frank Borman, William Anders, and Jim Lovell. Let's meet the two oldest first, Borman and Lovell. Frank Borman is a phenomenon, Bob. He's a West Point graduate
1:30.2	eventually, and they make fun of him as a ground pounder. I note that his parents moved him to
1:35.9	the southwest because he had asthma early on. What do we need to know about his personality and how
1:42.2	he conducted himself right up to the moment that he's
1:45.0	on board Apollo 8? I have labeled a Frank Bourman, an old-fashioned American of the highest order.
1:54.3	He went to West Point. He was ingrained deeply with the idea of duty on a country, the army's philosophy.
2:03.0	He became an aeronautical instructor at West Point.
2:07.3	He was very well trained in test pilot work as well as aviation.
2:15.7	But he was known most of all for being utterly and totally honest in a very charming way.
2:22.3	So if you were dealing with Frank Borman and you prefabicated in any way, even slightly, he would spot it.
	...

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