What a Blast on Christmas!

We’ve all had some great Christmases in our time, but this Christmas is one to remember. On that Christmas Eve many years ago in the year of 1968, three men were to orbit 10 times around the celestial body in outer space, we call the moon. As they were reaching the moon in a formal fashion they were astonished by what they were seeing before their own eyes. All this new imagery they were seeing was hard to describe to the world without them there in person. So otherwise they photographed all they could of the views they had and decided to broadcast all over the world.

According to the famous astronaut Frank Borman, “‘We were told that on Christmas Eve we would have the largest audience that had ever listened to a human voice,’ recalled Borman during 40th-anniversary celebrations in 2008. ‘And the only instructions that we got from NASA was to do something appropriate’.” (Apollo 8: Christmas at the Moon Par 3) So they decided to do a live broadcast to the Earth from their Saturn V module. In that broadcast they decided to show the world the pictures they had taken and share this experience with them on this Christmas Eve. Continuing in the process of this live broadcast they decided to read a famous scripture that is remembered still today by this event, Genesis 1:1-10. They described earth from another angle, an angle in which millions and even billions of people upon the earth would never get to see. (Apollo 8: Christmas at the Moon)

Leading up to NASA in the United States launching this mission into space, previous knowledge is what changed the purpose for this mission. Before acquiring knowledge about Russia’s space program through rumors, the original intent for the Apollo 8 mission was to test the equipment. Plans to test all the module’s components and instrumentation before future missions, which were to press toward landing on the moon as we now know was accomplished in July of 1969. With this knowledge in mind, they extended their itinerary to orbit the moon 10 times and gather more data at the same time. This mission became a multi-purpose mission and received much more out of it than what they had intentionally planned for.

The image to the left is another part of what made this mission so famous. For the image that not only gave them the new perspective of outer space, but of Earth itself. The image was named “Earthrise”, where the Earth was rising into their view from their orbital position. This image continued to reiterate around the world for many people to see, becoming a new way to look at the Earth’s surface and mapping it out. As we see things now in many instances, is only because of this image allowing us to have a new perspective as a human being living on this planet. Just as Bill Anders, one of the astronauts on the mission said, “‘that despite all the training and preparation for an exploration of the moon, the astronauts ended up discovering Earth.’” (Apollo 8: Christmas at the Moon Par 5). A planet that seems to be so small compared to the rest of this galaxy.

This galaxy is only one in millions as we’ve been taught by many famous scientists and astronomers. We continue to live in this world never knowing when it’s our last and yet we continue to press on exploring creation. Apollo 8 lead to many future explorations that allowed us to discover many new things and allowed for further missions thereafter. For example “The ten-day Apollo 9 mission was designed to qualify the lunar module and to demonstrate combined spacecraft functions for manned lunar flight.” Without knowing previous information such as orbiting around the moon or landing back on earth from the Apollo 8 mission, this mission may have been less possible. Things like this gave inspiration to NASA and their massive teams of astronauts, future crew members, engineers, team leaders, and all the supporters of the program.

So after seven days of being in outer space orbiting the moon, it was time to come home. “As they re-emerged, Lovell called out, ‘Please be informed there is a Santa Claus,’ signaling they were headed back to Earth.” (Howell Par 15) While landing back on Earth, what the NASA engineers and team calls the splashdown due to landing in water, the team was filled with excitement and good spirit. Declaring there is a Santa Claus, code meaning that they had landed back on Earth and was safe and sound.

Works Cited

“Apollo 8: Christmas at the Moon” NASA. 19 Dec 2014, NASA.gov/topics/history/features/apollo_8.html. Accessed 18 Sept 2016

“Apollo 9 Mission: Mission Overview” Lunar and Planetary Institute 2016, http://www.lpi.usra.edu/lunar/missions/apollo/apollo_9/overview/.
Accessed 29 Sept 2016

“Earthrise” NASA. 24 Dec 1968,
http://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1249.html.
Accessed 29 Sept 2016

Howell, Elizabeth “Apollo 8: First Around the Moon” Space.com. 29 Aug 2012, http://www.space.com/17362-apollo-8.html. Accessed 18 Sept 2016