50th Anniversary of Apollo 8
December 2018 :
Fifty years!?! Could it really have been fifty years since we first traveled to the Moon, showing us it was a very viable possibility.
The Apollo 8 craft, with veteran and friend astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, and first-timer Bill Anders, made history, leaving the Earth just days before Christmas, on a mission to do what had never been done: To make it to the Moon, and, most importantly, return home. They would also, for the first time ever, be out of radio contact, as part of their voyage took them around the Moon, separating themselves from Mission Control by the diameter of the Moon, through which radio waves couldn’t pass.
On their trip, which is very well documented in the book Apollo 8, by Jeffrey Kluger, the astronauts were the first persons to ever see the far side of the Moon; they also took the first picture of the Earth from the great lunar distance, and, in a very reverent, gripping Christmas Eve address, quoted from Genesis, finally wishing the best to the citizens from the crew of the Apollo 8 to “all of you on the good Earth.”
The image of Earth taken by the astronauts was chosen by Life magazine as the first of their 100 photographs that changed the world: It also became the major feature of the postal service’s stamp issued in Apollo 8’s honor; They also were named Time’s Men of the Year for 1968; And, they also were the first astronauts ever invited to say the Pledge of Allegiance to start a Super Bowl, Number III, on January 12th, 1969, at Miami’s Orange Bowl. The New York Jets won, 16 – 7, over the Baltimore Colts.
Many historians feel this was the most important of the Apollo missions, as it showed that man could leave the Earth, travel out into a new place, and return home safely. This precedent setting journey allowed the next set of adventures, the actual landings on the Moon, to take place.
