Apollo 8, Artemis 1 & 2 Orbit Comparison

The orbital trajectories in this video were recreated using a combination of simulation and real flight data. Apollo 8 and Artemis 2 were numerically propagated using NASA's General Mission Analysis Tool (GMAT) with multi-body gravitational force models — Earth, Moon and Sun.

Apollo 8's trajectory was built from mission report data: initial orbital elements, TLI/LOI/TEI burn parameters, and reentry flight path angle targeting. Artemis 2 uses NASA's published mission timeline with differential corrector targeting for the lunar flyby. Artemis 1's trajectory comes directly from NASA's official as-flown post-TLI ephemeris data in CCSDS-OEM format — no simulation required.

The Moon's position for each mission was sourced from NASA JPL Horizons via astroquery. GMAT output ephemerides and NASA flight data were then imported into Blender via custom Python scripts that build the scene geometry, animate the spacecraft and Moon positions, and place mission event markers at accurate times along each trajectory.

Sources and further reading

• Siddiqi, Asif A. Challenge to Apollo: The Soviet Union and the Space Race, 1945–1974 (2000)
• End-to-End Trajectory Optimization
• GMAT (General Mission Analysis Tool)
• JPL Horizons
• NASA Artemis I
• NASA Artemis II
• Apollo 8 Flight Journal