40 Years Later, Apollo 8 Moon Mission Still Awes
On Christmas Eve in 1968, Americans turned on their TV sets to watch something unprecedented: a live broadcast from outer space.
Three astronauts were orbiting the moon, sending back images of the gray craters and mountains that were passing by about 70 miles below their tiny spacecraft.
Never before had humans left Earth to circle another celestial body, one that was more than 200,000 miles away. The Apollo 8 mission changed the way that earthlings saw themselves and their world.
After describing the moon, the three astronauts read the first 10 verses of the King James Bible. That was a choice made by Commander Frank Borman, who had asked a friend for a suggestion. He knew the broadcast from lunar orbit would have the biggest audience in history.
"The only instructions that we got from NASA was to do something appropriate," Borman said recently. "That, to me, has always been the epitome of what this country's all about."
At the time, NASA was racing the Soviet Union to the moon. Borman says that "if my name would have been Leonov or Titov, I would have been extolling the virtues of Stalin or Lenin or somebody else."
A Bold Move To Beat The Soviets
Borman and his crewmates, James Lovell and William Anders, recently recalled their famous mission at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum in Washington, D.C. They explained that NASA originally planned for them to stay low in Earth's orbit, like all the previous missions, to perform in-space tests of a lunar lander.
But development of that vehicle was delayed. And NASA suspected the Soviets might soon try to send a cosmonaut into lunar orbit. So in August 1968, the agency's top officials made a bold decision: Apollo 8 would try to get to the moon first.
On the morning of the Dec. 21 launch, Lovell said he was standing near the top of the Saturn V, a new rocket taller than a 36-story building and more powerful than any ever ridden before. The sun hadn't risen, and he recalled looking down and seeing the lights of the press corps far below: "And I looked at the press corps and I said, 'These people are really serious! We're going to go to the moon!' It suddenly dawned on me that this was not another Earth orbital flight."
Far Away And Tiny In The Darkness
The rocket blasted off with a huge spread of flame and hurled the men into space. They became the first earthlings to watch their home planet grow smaller and smaller and smaller, until it was floating far away and tiny in the darkness.
NASA flight controller Glynn Lunney watched the Christmas Eve broadcast at Houston's Mission Control. He says he was startled and deeply moved to hear the familiar words of Genesis beaming back from an alien world.
"It's almost like thinking about the human race growing up, coming out of the caves, growing up, making all the mistakes that we do, and then somehow having the intellectual ability to create something that goes to the moon," Lunney says. "It's sort of like ... it's our best."
It came at a time when Americans needed to be reminded that the best was still in them. "There was a lot of stuff that preceded Apollo 8 in the calendar year of 1968," Lunney says. "Almost all of it was bad."
A Happy Success In A Tough Year
The year started with the shock of the Tet offensive in Vietnam. Martin Luther King Jr. and then Robert Kennedy were shot dead. It was a year when, if you turned on your television, you might see people rioting in the streets.
Roger Launius, a space historian at the Smithsonian, says that because Apollo 8 came at the end of such a desperate time, "I would contend that it may have been even more of a striking success from a public perspective than the Apollo 11 landing was the next year."
He notes that the mission also is linked with the famous photo called "Earthrise" that shows a small, far-away Earth rising over the lunar horizon. The image of a beautiful, fragile Earth floating alone in a vast darkness helped jump-start the environmental movement, Launius says.
These days, the U.S. and Russia cooperate in space, with each other and with other nations. The partners have almost completed construction of a massive space station that is inhabited year-round. NASA's aging shuttles take different people back and forth a few times a year.
"I know people have gotten used to shuttle flights, and it's hard to distinguish one shuttle flight from another today," says Lunney of NASA. The agency wants return to the moon and someday go on to Mars. Even so, it's not clear if anything could recapture the transformative power of missions such as Apollo 8.
"Hopefully, we will have more Apollo 8 moments in the future," Lunney says, "but I would grant you that it seems on the surface that opportunities for that are relatively a handful in number."
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RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Over the Christmas season 40 years ago Americans did all the traditional things - decorated trees, lit candles, drank eggnog. And on that Christmas Eve, many added one very modern touch. They looked up to the heavens and imagined three men orbiting the moon.
This was the first time that anyone had ever ventured so far from our home planet. As part of our ongoing series, Echoes of 1968, NPR's Nell Greenfieldboyce recalls the Apollo 8 mission and how it changed the way earthlings saw themselves and their world.
NELL GREENFIELDBOYCE: Christmas Eve, 1968, prime time TV - across the nation and the world, people were tuned in to a live broadcast from outer space. The astronauts pointed a camera to show the view out their window, the moon's gray craters and mountains passing by around 70 miles below. That was staggering enough, but then people heard this.
(Soundbite of radio transmission)
COMMANDER FRANK BORMAN (Commander, Apollo 8 mission): 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.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: The decision to read the first ten verses of the King James Bible came from Commander Frank Borman. He knew the broadcast would have the biggest audience in history.
COMMANDER BORMAN: The only instructions that we got from NASA was to do something appropriate. That to me has always been the epitome of what this country's all about.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says, remember, NASA was racing Russia to the moon.
COMMANDER BORMAN: I was absolutely convinced that if my name would have been Leonov or Titov or something, I would have been extolling the virtues of Stalin or Lenin or somebody else.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Borman recently told this story at the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum. He and his two crew mates explained that NASA originally planned for their mission to stay in earth's orbit, like all previous missions. But in August of 1968, the agency's top officials made a bold decision. NASA suspected the Russians might soon try to send a cosmonaut into lunar orbit. So, Borman says, Apollo 8 would try to get there first.
COMMANDER BORMAN: The whole concept of changing our mission and getting ready in four months was done because that we were in that program, the can-do program, beat the Soviets to the moon.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: His crew mate Jim Lovell recalled the morning of the lunch, December 21st, he was standing near the top of the Saturn V, a new rocket taller than a 36-story building that was going to blast them away from earth. Noone had ever ridden a rocket this powerful. The sun wasn't up yet. Lovell looked down at the ground and saw the lights of the press corps.
Mr. JAMES LOVELL (Astronaut, Apollo 8): And I looked at the press corps, and I said, these people are really serious. We're going to go to the moon! And it suddenly dawned on me that this was not another earth orbital flight.
(Soundbite of rocket launch television broadcast)
Unidentified Male #1: 4 - 3 - 2 - 1 - 0. We have...
Unidentified Male #2: It's now moving. A huge spread of flame and smoke now reaching out. The booster is...
GREENFIELDBOYCE: The rocket hurled their tiny capsule towards the moon more than 200,000 miles away. As they moved out into space, the men became the first earthlings to watch their home planet grow smaller and smaller and smaller.
(Soundbite of radio transmission)
COMMANDER BORMAN: This is Apollo 8.
Unidentified Male #3: Go ahead.
COMMANDER BORMAN: I'm looking out my center window, which is a round window, and the window is bigger than the earth is right now.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Three days later, the night before Christmas.
COMMANDER BORMAN: This is Apollo 8, coming to you live from the moon.
Mr. GLYNN LUNNEY (Former Flight Director, NASA): Gee, you know, first time in history, human beings were away from the earth, they were orbiting around, you know, another body in our solar system.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Glynn Lunney was a NASA flight director. He was watching the TV broadcast at Houston's Mission Control. He says he was startled and deeply moved to hear the familiar words of Genesis beaming back from an alien world.
Mr. LUNNEY: It's almost like thinking about the human race growing up, coming out of the caves, growing up, making all the mistakes that we do, and then somehow having the intellectual ability to create something that goes to the moon. It's sort of like - it's our best.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: And it came at a time when Americans needed to be reminded that the best was still in them.
Mr. LUNNEY: There was a lot of stuff that preceded Apollo 8 in the calendar year of 1968, and almost all of it was bad.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: The year started with the shock of the Tet offensive in Vietnam. Martin Luther King Jr. was shot, then Robert Kennedy. People were rioting in the streets.
Roger Launius is a space historian at the Smithsonian. He says because Apollo 8 came at the end of such a desperate time...
Mr. ROGER LAUNIUS (Space Historian, Smithsonian Museum): I would contend that it may have been even more of a striking success from a public perspective than the Apollo 11 landing was the next year.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: Because Apollo 8 was more than just a step closer to the moon. It was also a step towards a more true understanding of our own home planet.
(Soundbite of radio transmission)
COMMANDER BORMAN: Oh my God, look at that picture over there. There's the earth coming up. Wow, that's pretty.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: The astronauts saw a small, far away earth rising over the lunar horizon. They captured the image with a camera. The earth looked so beautiful and so fragile. The environmental movement was just beginning, and these photos made a lot of people see that, hey, the earth might actually need protecting. This vision of the earth also reminded the divided world of 1968 that everyone shared something important. The poet Archibald MacLeish published a Christmas day essay in the New York Times.
(Soundbite of poetry reading)
Mr. ARCHIBALD MACLEISH (Poet, Writer): To see the earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold. Brothers who know now they are truly brothers.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: These days, the U.S. and Russia cooperate in space with each other and with other nations. The partners have almost completed the construction of a massive space station, someone lives up there 24/7, and NASA's aging shuttles take different people back and forth a few times a year. Glynn Lunney says, for the public, it's become routine.
Mr. LUNNEY: I know people have gotten used to shuttle flights, and it's hard to distinguish one shuttle flight from another today.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: NASA wants to return to the moon and someday go on to Mars, but even so, it's not clear if anything could recapture the transformative power of missions like Apollo 8.
Mr. LUNNEY: Hopefully we will have more Apollo 8 moments in the future, but I would grant you that it seems on the surface that opportunities for that are relatively a handful in number.
GREENFIELDBOYCE: He says he doesn't know what the next one might be.
Nell Greenfieldboyce, NPR News.
MONTAGNE: And you can see video and other images from the Apollo 8 mission, including that famous earth photo at npr.org.
(Soundbite of radio transmission)
COMMANDER BORMAN: 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.
MONTAGNE: This is NPR News. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright National Public Radio.
