Dec. 10, 2018 – Fifty years ago this month, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, NASA astronauts, celebrated Christmas Eve as they orbited the moon during their Apollo 8 mission. It was the first time humans had left Earth’s orbit. To honor the anniversary, Smithsonian’s National Air and Space Museum will present the “Spirit of Apollo” Tuesday at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. Jim Lovell, now 90, will participate. NASA will stream the event live.

The 1960s were turbulent times in America. President John F. Kennedy, who challenged the nation in 1961 to land on the moon, would not live to see his goal met. He was assassinated in 1963.

President John F. Kennedy delivers his challenge to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade to a Joint Session of Congress on May 25, 1961. To his left is Vice President Lyndon B. Johnson. To his right is Sam Rayburn, Speaker of the House. (Photo: NASA archives)

But President Lyndon B. Johnson, Kennedy’s vice president who became president on Nov. 22, 1963 within hours of Kennedy’s assassination, did not abandon Kennedy’s goal.

Kennedy Space Center in Florida is named after President Kennedy and Johnson Space Center in Houston is named after President Johnson.

Why was President Kennedy focused on space?
In February 2018, Student News Net interviewed Bill Barry, NASA’s chief historian, and asked him why President Kennedy decided on such a bold goal. The idea that man would orbit the moon and then land on it was pure science fiction at the time.

After the Soviet Union launched Sputnik, the world’s first unmanned satellite to orbit the Earth, in 1957, the space race between the Soviet Union and the United States was on.

On April 12, 1961, Yuri Gagarin, a Soviet Union cosmonaut, became the first human to orbit the Earth.

President Kennedy wanted a bold project to win the space race.

On May 25, 1961, President Kennedy addressed a Joint Session of Congress and challenged the country to land a man on the moon and bring him safely back to Earth before the end of the decade. NASA began operating in 1958 so its mandate to explore space was well established.

But many NASA scientists wondered how they would be able to meet Kennedy’s challenge.

They took a monumental task with many unknowns and broke it down into component programs that would build to a successful landing on the moon.

Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo space programs
The Mercury and Gemini programs tested equipment and human spaceflight. By 1967, NASA was ready to begin testing equipment that would ultimately land on the moon. They chose the name Apollo for the moon program. Each Apollo mission advanced the body of knowledge and gave astronauts valuable experience.

NASA Photo: Left: Apollo 8 crew and senior NASA managers pose as the Saturn V begins its rollout. Kneeling, left to right: James Lovell, William Anders, and Frank Borman; Right: View of the Saturn V rollout from atop the VAB (Vehicle Assembly Building)

On Dec. 21, 1968, the Apollo 8 mission launched to test the powerful Saturn V rocket for the first time. To leave Earth’s orbit, scientists and engineers built the most powerful rocket ever made.

On Christmas Eve, the three Apollo 8 astronauts orbited the moon ten times. NASA had asked them to address people on Earth with a Christmas message.

    The “Space Window” at the National Cathedral in Washington DC. (Photo: Student News Net, 2018)

According to NASA, as their command module orbited the moon, the astronauts beamed back images of the moon and Earth and took turns reading from the book of Genesis, closing with a wish for everyone “on the good Earth.”

“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.”

“The first ten verses of Genesis is the foundation of many of the world’s religions, not just the Christian religion,” added Lovell. “There are more people in other religions than the Christian religion around the world, and so this would be appropriate to that and so that’s how it came to pass.”

In addition to their Christmas message, Apollo 8 would become famous for one photo. While Borman maneuvered the Apollo spacecraft during the fourth lunar orbit, Anders was taking pictures of the surface. He then glanced at the moon’s horizon.

“Oh, my god, look at that picture over there,” Anders said. “Here’s the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty.”

No Apollo 8 photograph was more stunning than his image, according to NASA. It has come to be known as “Earthrise.”

On Christmas morning, NASA’s mission control on Earth waited anxiously for word that Apollo 8’s engine burn to leave lunar orbit had worked. They soon got confirmation when Lovell radioed, “Roger, please be informed there is a Santa Claus.”

The Apollo 8 crew splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on Dec. 27, 1968 as the world watched. The mission to the moon brought humanity together after a tumultuous year marked by: 1) the escalation of the Vietnam War, 2) violent protests at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago during the summer, and 3) the assassination of Rev. Martin Luther King, Jr. in April and Robert Kennedy, President Kennedy’s brother, in June.

Upon returning to Earth, Anders remarked that they had set out to explore the moon only to discover Earth.

President Kennedy’s goal would be met on July 20, 1969 when Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first two humans to step foot on the moon.

“Spirit of Apollo” program – Tuesday, Dec. 11, 2018
Tuesday’s program begins at 8 p.m. ET and will include a Word of the Day choral performance recreating the Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast, remarks by Jim Lovell, video presentations, and a lighting of the National Cathedral and its space window.

To view the program, visit NASA TV.