Known as Earthrise, William Anders captured this photo of Earth slowly rising above the Moon's surface. The astronauts later said they went to study the Moon but discovered Earth.Apollo 8 was originally supposed to be a test of the lunar module and command module in Earth orbit. The lunar module was behind schedule (surprise!) and there were rumors that the Soviets were planning a Moon mission, so NASA decided to go for a lunar orbit mission in August leaving a much shorter training period than usual. It was also the first manned launch on a Saturn V.
I believe it was the series "When We Left Earth" where they interviewed Lovell's wife. She asked someone (I forget who) from NASA what he thought the odds were of her husband coming back alive and he told her 50%. She was relieved..."I thought it would be much lower" she said. It was not seen as a sure thing to say the least.
The mission went well. They got the famous Earthrise photo. And, in a live Christmas Eve broadcast, the crew gave a truly moving reading of the first 10 verses of Genesis. I have heard it dozens of times but still sometimes tear up hearing the emotion in those voices coming over that crackly radio broadcast. Thanks to the magic of Youtube, we can all watch it again on today's 40th anniversary of that historic broadcast.
Reprinted with permission from the Half-Astrophysicist Blog.
Posts
4 comments:
That was one of my most favorite photos...earth from the moon. It shows how insignificant we are. Let's take care of it.
I remember that Christmas Eve broadcast 40 years ago, as I do all of the moon missions. I choked up when I heard it then, and it still has the same effect on me today. 40 years has brought us much in the way of scientific progress, but absolutely none in the human heart.
I'm too young to remember this,but it gave me the chills...
One of my friend just pointed out that the astronauts did not end with "God bless America" but "God Bless all of you...all of you on the good Earth", a much more inclusive salutation.
I was too young to remember Apollo 8, though I do remember later Apollo missions. I remember watching the Moon buggy and the night launch of Apollo 17, staying up WAY past my bedtime. I vaguely remember something being wrong with a rocket which I assume was Apollo 13.
Post a Comment