From NASA:
Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the Moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts; Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders did a live television broadcast from lunar orbit, in which they showed pictures of the Earth and Moon seen from Apollo 8. Lovell said, "The vast loneliness is awe-inspiring and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth." They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.
William Anders:
"For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you".
"In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."
Jim Lovell:
"And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."
Frank Borman:
"And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."
Borman then added, "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you - all of you on the good Earth."
Video of this — it’s a bit grainy, but must have been astounding in its day, and anyway the audio is what matters — is below the fold. Merry Christmas to all.
(Hat tip on the NASA link to Sean Curnyn at Right Wing Bob.)
Comments (4)
I downloaded the plug-in manually, but for some reason the site won't recognize that I have it. But it's a really amazing Christmas event. Wouldn't happen today, which is sad. But it was a great way for them to wish Merry Christmas.
Merry Christmas to all, here.
Posted by Lydia | December 24, 2008 11:56 AM
They ended the broadcast with the crew taking turns reading from the book of Genesis.
A great link.
nostalgia (Gr. nostos + algos), pain in longing to return home. It will always happen when someone has experience a real Christmas.
Posted by KW | December 24, 2008 1:05 PM
Aha! Here's a youtube link that has the audio.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oJ6WmPHnT20
Posted by Lydia | December 24, 2008 2:00 PM
I remember it vividly, though I was just a child. I used to pretend I was one of the Apollo 8 astronauts. Everything seemed so possible then, as though we really were headed for the stars, one step at a time. What a tragic disappointment our space program has become. And can you imagine any astronauts getting away with reading something like that live, on the air, these days?
Oh well. :-)
Merry Christmas, everybody!
Posted by Gary Keith Chesterton | December 26, 2008 12:47 AM