Apollo 8 - 40th Anniversary

Apollo 8 was the first manned space voyage to another celestial body on 21 December 1968.

The three-man crew of Mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes, as well as the first humans to see planet Earth from orbit about another celestial body.

The mission involved the first manned launch of a Saturn V rocket, originally planned as a low-earth orbit Lunar Module/Command Module test, the mission profile was changed to the more ambitious lunar orbital flight.

After launching on December 21, 1968, the crew took three days to travel to the Moon. They orbited ten times over the course of 20 hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis.

The crew timed this reading to coincide with a full view of planet Earth hanging in the empty blackness of space while clearly showing the rich diversity of the living planet as indicated in Terran colors, seas, landforms, and weather patterns, rising over the dull gray horizon of the lifeless Moon. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever.

The Crew spent a total of 20 h 10 m 13 s In Lunar orbit spalshdown was on December 27, 1968.

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[uzimodem]

back when this country had balls and the abiltity to do something.now, we are hitching rides with the Russkies, and China will most likely beat us back to the moon. so beyond pathetic.

[ApolloWasReal]

Anders told this same story about the scratched helmets in San Diego and got quite a laugh. I asked him later if the depiction of staging as shown in the movie "Apollo 13" was more or less accurate and he said it was.

[reformationboy]

Thank you for this compilation. A great addition to their book about the mission.

[soberek]

Badasses.

[freethinkerbell]

Real heroes.