December 24, 1968: Apollo 8 Genesis Reading and Earthrise

History ^ | December 24, 2021

[Ezekiel]

December 24, 1968: Apollo 8 Genesis Reading and Earthrise

"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."

Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Broadcast - Genesis Reading (1968)

Apollo 8 Genesis reading

Earthrise is a photograph of Earth and some of the Moon's surface that was taken from lunar orbit by astronaut William Anders on December 24, 1968, during the Apollo 8 mission.

Earthrise

[Williams]

A great moment in history, and in my life.

[BiglyCommentary]

So politically incorrect. If they did that today it would be a super aggression.

[BiglyCommentary]

Was just watching a tech talk about the AGC (Apollo Guidance Computer) yesterday. 2k ram. The infamous 1201,1202,1203 errors upon Apollo 11 decent were caused due to the real time scheduler falling behind and going past it q depth of 7.

[Ezekiel]

Apollo 8 (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed spacecraft to leave low Earth orbit, and also the first human spaceflight to reach another astronomical object, namely the Moon, which the crew orbited without landing, and then departed safely back to Earth.[1][2][3]

These three astronauts—Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders—were the first humans to witness and photograph an Earthrise.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8

These three astronauts are still living.

[V K Lee]

Our orb appears so lonely. Beautiful, aloof, but lonely.

[Bloody Sam Roberts]

James Lovell has always been one of my heroes.

[Regulator]

My Mom thought it was intereting.

She dated Borman in high school, said he never came off as religous.

Apparently he was inspired that day...

[ealgeone]

I think NASA did catch some grief over this.

[ealgeone]

If you’re orbiting the moon you might be moved to seek God....knowing what all could go wrong.

[cyn]

Perfect! Such a lovely photo always, puts & keeps everything in needed *perspective*.

[pfflier]

I was a junior in high school. This was one of the most meaningful events is my life. It cemented my desire for a career in the military and aerospace.

[Sicon]

Few young people today can really appreciate what an incredible achievement the entire Apollo program was, the skill and expertise of the astronauts and everyone involved on the ground, the level of danger/risk, and the significance of it all.

[nascarnation]

Designed with slide rules.
Drawn on mylar with pencil.
Fabricated by high school graduates running manually controlled machine tools.

Yeah baby!

[gnickgnack2]

High school classmate of my uncle, but looks like Regulator has a closer connection.

[katana]

She dated Borman in high school, said he never came off as religous.

Better to pray quietly in a closet alone than to beat one's chest in the Temple. I think I read that somewhere.

Broadcasting Genesis to all of Planet Earth? That was just plain terrific. Merry Christmas!

[gnickgnack2]

Great photo, and also an excellent song from proggers Camel.

[ground_fog]

“I’m a committed Christian,” he said. “I was before I left, but the view of the Earth from over the lunar horizon was certainly significant for me. But by the same token I love the view of the Bighorns on a cold morning. I think God’s work is everywhere, not just in space.”

https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/50-years-later-apollo-8-commander-talks-the-cold-war-faith-divisiveness-and-american-greatness/article_40d28210-a02c-5f04-9a4a-2292c9735a19.html

[rlmorel]

One of my favorite Apollo stories is that of Apollo 8 as they came out from behind the mood and saw Earthrise over the lunar surface. Apparently, they were completely unaware of the significance, and were gazing, open-mouthed for a few seconds at the beauty of what was being seen by human eyes for the first time, before someone's brain kicked in and realized the import of what they were seeing and they had to struggle to get the image.

Funny...Anders was the first to see the amazing sight unfolding beautifully, but I believe Lovell completely understood immediately the absolutely historical importance of what they were seeing, to the point Anders and to tell him to calm down!

From the official NASA site:

---

On December 24th 1968, Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to orbit the Moon, and the first to witness the magnificent sight called "Earthrise."

It happened a few minutes after 10:30 am Houston time, as Apollo 8 was coming around from the far side of the Moon for the fourth time. Mission Commander Frank Borman was in the left-hand seat, preparing to turn the spacecraft to a new orientation according to the flight plan. Navigator Jim Lovell was in the spacecraft's lower equipment bay, about to make sightings on lunar landmarks with the onboard sextant, and Bill Anders was in the right-hand seat, observing the Moon through his side window, and taking pictures with a Hasselblad still camera, fitted with a 250-mm telephoto lens.

Meanwhile, a second Hasselblad with an 80-mm lens was mounted in Borman's front-facing window, the so-called rendezvous window, photographing the Moon on an automatic timer: a new picture every twenty seconds. These photographs, matched with LRO's high-resolution terrain maps, show that Borman was still turning Apollo 8 when the Earth appeared. It was only because of the timing of this rotation that the Earthrise, which had happened on Apollo 8's three previous orbits, but was unseen by the astronauts, now came into view in Bill Anders's side window.

Here's what it looked like, as recreated from LRO data by Goddard's Scientific Visualization Studio. You'll hear the astronauts' voices as captured by Apollo 8's onboard tape recorder, beginning with Frank Borman announcing the start of the roll maneuver, and you'll see the rising Earth move from one window to another as Apollo 8 turns.

BORMAN: All right, we're gonna roll. Ready… Set…

ANDERS: The impact crater with uh - at uh - just prior to the subsolar point on the south side, in the floor of it, uh, [unintelligible], there is one dark hole. But I couldn't get a quick enough look at it to see if it might be anything volcanic.

ANDERS: Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There's the Earth comin' up. Wow, is that pretty!

BORMAN: Hey don't take that, it's not scheduled. [shutter click]

ANDERS: You got a color film, Jim? Hand me a roll of color, quick, would you?

LOVELL: Oh man, that's great.

ANDERS: Hurry.

LOVELL: Where is it?

ANDERS: Quick

LOVELL: Down here?

ANDERS: Just grab me a color. A color exterior. Hurry up. Got one?

LOVELL: Yeah, I'm looking' for one. C 368.

ANDERS: Anything. Quick.

LOVELL: Here.

ANDERS: Well, I think we missed it.

LOVELL: Hey, I got it right here [in the hatch window].

ANDERS: Let me get it out this one, it's a lot clearer.

LOVELL: Bill, I got it framed, it's very clear right here! [shutter click]

LOVELL: Got it?

ANDERS: Yep.

LOVELL: Take several, take several of 'em! Here, give it to me!

ANDERS: Wait a minute, just let me get the right setting here now, just calm down.

LOVELL: Take -

ANDERS: Calm down, Lovell!

LOVELL: Well, I got it right - aw, that's a beautiful shot…Two-fifty at f/11. [shutter click]

ANDERS: Okay.

LOVELL: Now vary-vary the exposure a little bit.

ANDERS: I did, I took two of 'em here.

LOVELL: You sure you got it now?

ANDERS: Yeah, we'll get - well, it'll come up again, I think.

For the astronauts, seeing the Earthrise was an unexpected and electrifying experience, and one of the three photographs taken by Bill Anders became an iconic image of the 20th century.

How could seeing something like that not make someone feel the presence of God, and be closer to it? God bless those men for giving us that, and the beautiful reading of Genesis.

[cgbg]

The lunar module (used in later missions) looks like it was put together with aluminum foil and duct tape....scary stuff....