Post by Chicago Astronomer - Astro Joe on Dec 19, 2005 9:35:46 GMT -6
Remembering Apollo 8's Christmas message
NASA told them to say something.
And so they did.
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth. . .
The trio of astronauts of Apollo 8, speaking from space on Christmas Eve in 1968, quoted from Genesis, the first book of the Bible.
the Christmas mission of Apollo 8 was the first time a human completely escaped Earth's gravity and, with his own eyes, saw the dark side of the moon. The flight was a worldwide phenomenon, thanks to Apollo 8's providing the first pictures of the planet taken by man from deep space, and the first live TV coverage of the moon's surface up close.
In Moscow, the government newspaper published only a brief report, and there was no live TV coverage. But in England, one front-page story began, "They've Done It!'' In Austria, people gathered around Vienna shop windows to watch the TV pictures of Earth. "Magnifique!'' Parisian office workers shouted.
The flight was enormously important at the time, if only to give Americans an emotional boost, Lovell said.
"Sixty-eight was a very poor year, a chaotic year,'' Lovell said, noting the assassinations of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy, the Vietnam War and the riots during the Democratic National Convention in Chicago.
"But we ended the year on an upbeat, we ended doing something progressive, something positive,'' Lovell said.
He said he hopes visitors to the Adler looking at the flight manual and the words of Genesis will get the same boost today.
Full story here: www.suntimes.com/output/news/cst-nws-adler18.html
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I am honored to have met Lovell and have the flight items so close here at the Adler!... ;D