The First Broadcast from the Moon

 On this day, Christmas Eve, in 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to orbit our nearest neighbor, the moon. Astronauts Frank Borman (Commander)  Jim Lovell (Command Module Pilot), & William Anders (Lunar Module Pilot) undertook this historic journey to make their marks in history and pave the way for the actual landing on the moon by Apollo 11 the following year.  

Apollo 8 crew from left to right Lovell, Anders, Borman

On their ninth orbit, the crew began their second television broadcast from the cabin of the command module.  Each took a turn to describe what they were seeing and experiencing. Borman reportedly said it was ".. a vast, lonely, forbidding expanse of nothing". Once these comments were complete, Anders stated the crew had a message to share with the people of Earth. 

Each read a portion of the creation story in Genesis with the following transcript:

Bill Anders

We are now approaching lunar sunrise, and for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to 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 heaven 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.

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.^(*)

It is hard to imagine how fast and far we have fallen from the ability to give God credit publicly and in conjunction with a government agency like NASA while broadcasting to the entire world. To be an astronaut you had to be elite, an upper echelon in intellect and decision making. Not all were Christians, but it is clear here in this case at least, these 3 men were humbled by their mission. They realized the impact on humanity this program would have and thus used it as a platform to give God the glory. May we all learn from this and repeat it.

Merry Christmas

Apollo 8's reading of Genesis

(*) Woods, David; O'Brien, Frank (December 27, 2008), "Day 4: Lunar Orbits 7, 8 and 9:" The Apollo 8 Flight Journal  NASA History Division