50 years ago today, the astronauts of Apollo 8 entered lunar orbit for the first time and took the famous “Earthrise” photo. Nature photographer Galen Rowell declared it “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.”
On Christmas Day, 1968, as they lit the SPS engine to return home, Command Module Pilot Lovell transmitted from the far side of the moon: “Please be informed… there is a Santa Claus.”
I have his flown heel restraint on display at work, part of the Apollo space collection. Lovell is the only person to have flown to the Moon twice without landing (Apollo 8 and 13).
“Although Apollo 8 had originally been envisioned as an Earth-orbit checkout mission only, NASA decided to attempt an ambitious round-trip flight to the Moon instead.
Apollo 8 successfully marked the world’s first manned flight to, and manned orbit of the Moon and featured the first manned launch of the Saturn V launch vehicle.
It was also the world’s first manned flight to escape the influence of Earth’s gravity. Achieving a top speed of 24,593 m.p.h., Apollo 8 broke existing manned speed records, as well as topped the existing distance record that humans had traveled away from Earth.
And, for the first time, astronauts were able to view the entire Earth from space, as well as view the far side of the Moon.
On Christmas Day, December 25, 1968, again on the far side of the Moon, the spacecraft’s SPS engine was ignited to accelerate it out of lunar orbit. Astronaut Lovell remarked, “Please be informed…there is a Santa Claus,” as the spacecraft began its way back to Earth.” —http://www.spaceline.org/flightchron/apollo8.html
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