On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched from Kennedy Space Center.
This mission was the second manned spaceflight mission in the Apollo program, and the first to leave low Earth orbit, travel around the moon and safely return to Earth. It was also the first human spaceflight launched from Kennedy Space Center.
The mission was originally planned for early 1969 but was moved up to December 1968 because the more ambitious lunar orbiter that was supposed to launch first wouldn’t be ready in time. As a result, the crew had two to three months less training than they had expected. The astronauts that would go on the mission were Frank Borman, James A. Lovell Jr., and William Anders.
On the night before their launch, the crew had a special visitor – Charles Lindbergh, who’d famously flown solo across the Atlantic Ocean 41 years earlier. Lindbergh had asked how much fuel the rocket needed to get into space and was told 20 tons per second. He then smiled and said to the astronauts, “In the first second of your flight tomorrow, you’ll burn 10 times more fuel than I did all the way to Paris.”
The following day at 12:51 pm, the crew became the first to launch into space aboard the Saturn V rocket. Once in earth’s orbit, they performed the necessary checks and then received the “go” from NASA to head toward the moon. Getting the craft into lunar orbit was difficult, but the crew was able to do it on schedule.
Shortly after entering the moon’s orbit on Christmas Eve, the crew shared what they saw with the world through a public broadcast. One astronaut called the moon a “vast, lonely, forbidding type of existence,” while another mentioned Earth’s “grand ovation to the vastness of space.” After that, they took turns reading passages from the Bible. That television broadcast was the most watched TV event up to that time.
Shortly after the readings, the crew happened to see the Earth rising above the moon. No one had thought to take photographs of the Earth part of the mission. However, the crew recognized the importance of preserving this sight for all mankind and snapped the amazing photograph that appears on the stamp above.
Beginning their return trip after emerging from the far side of the moon, one of the astronauts called out on Christmas morning, “Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus.” The Apollo 8 returned home safely on December 27.
The success of Apollo 8 was a major stepping-stone in the Apollo program. Apollo 10 would bring a lunar lander close to the moon’s surface to simulate a landing, and Apollo 11 would land the first men on the moon. Today, the Apollo 8 spacecraft is on display at the Chicago Museum of Science and Industry.
Click here for more info and images about the Apollo 8 mission.
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The endeavors of NASA to reach the moon landing in 1969 were spectacular to watch. From 1963 to 1969, the advance was amazing. I had just graduated from high school when we landed on the moon. I still have the newspaper for that event.
Same here. The Apollo missions sparked my interest in physics and astronomy. I started college a couple months after the moon landing, took an intro astronomy course, and eventually earned a PhD in astronomy and enjoyed a 40 year career in the field. Thank you, NASA!
Absolutely agree with Rod. There’s no words to describe the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. I grew up watching it all. It was so important that when in school our teachers brought in tv’s so we could watch the coverage. It was the greatest accomplishment in human history. The moon landing was so big that Dodger Stadium interrupted a game to show it on its video board. Being from Indiana, we took pride in the fact many of the astronauts went to Purdue and that Gus Grissom was raised in the small southern town of Mitchell. Sad day when he died in the Apollo capsule test fire. I’ve been to his hometown and visited the Memorial to him there. Grissom Air Force base in Indiana is named in his honor. I still have many of the magazines from that period including the Life special edition of the landing. I can’t remember another time in my life that brought people from around the world together in awe of it all. You had to be there to understand the feeling it gave to everyone.