Apollo 8 Enters Orbit: First Humans Circle the Moon

Astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders became the first human beings to orbit another world when Apollo 8 fired its service propulsion engine behind the far side of the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968 and slowed into lunar orbit. For thirty-six agonizing minutes, Mission Control in Houston lost all communication as the spacecraft passed behind the Moon, unable to confirm whether the engine burn had succeeded or whether the crew had been flung into deep space. The signal returned precisely on schedule, and Lovell radioed back: "Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus." The crew spent twenty hours circling the Moon in ten orbits at an altitude of roughly sixty nautical miles. From that vantage point, William Anders took the photograph known as "Earthrise," showing the blue-and-white Earth rising above the gray lunar horizon against the blackness of space. The image would become one of the most reproduced photographs in human history and is widely credited with catalyzing the modern environmental movement. During their ninth orbit, the crew conducted a live television broadcast watched by an estimated one billion people, the largest audience for any broadcast at that time. As the lunar surface scrolled beneath them, the astronauts took turns reading the first ten verses of Genesis: "In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth." The broadcast ended with Borman saying, "Good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth." Apollo 8 proved that the navigation, communication, and life support systems required for a lunar mission worked reliably. The crew returned safely on December 27 after a flawless trans-Earth injection burn. The mission gave NASA the confidence to attempt a lunar landing just seven months later with Apollo 11. Time magazine named the Apollo 8 crew its Persons of the Year, calling their flight the most hopeful moment of a year battered by assassinations, riots, and Vietnam.