50 years ago a daring NASA mission helped save 1968 | Commentary

And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.

– Apollo 8 Commander Frank Borman, Christmas Eve,1968

The astronauts in the cramped capsule of Apollo 8 were astonished by the alien landscape that lay before them. Astronaut Jim Lovell said that “we were like three schoolkids looking into a candy store window. Our noses were pressed against the glass.”

For the first time in history, human eyes were gazing down on the far side of the moon. However, it was something totally unexpected that captivated the crew even more, as the beautiful blue Earth began rising above the desolate lunar landscape. Astronaut Frank Borman said that the “most awe-inspiring moment of the flight was when we looked up and there, coming over the lunar horizon, was the Earth. The Earth looked so lonely in the Universe.”

This Christmas season marks the 50th anniversary of the most daring expedition in human history: the Apollo 8 voyage to orbit the moon. In mid-1968 CIA intelligence reports indicated that the Soviet Union might attempt a manned lunar mission by year’s end. NASA scrambled to devise a counter mission as the U.S. was determined to take back the lead in the Cold War space race, and beat the Soviets to the moon. The Apollo 8 crew of Borman, Lovell and Bill Anders, all former fighter pilots, readily accepted the risky and dangerous mission proposed by NASA. For the first time, astronauts would ride the powerful Saturn V rocket and venture beyond the safe confines of Earth orbit and head to deep space. Privately, NASA Director Chris Kraft gave the men a 50 percent chance of returning safely.

Apollo 8’s Christmas Eve broadcast from lunar orbit was one of the most watched television events to date. My father and my brother Jerry skipped midnight mass to follow the historic mission. They listened in stunned silence as the crew read from the book of Genesis. “To hear those tinny, analog voices on our kitchen radio coming from so far away … it was daring, incredible and just awesome,” Jerry told me as he remembered that night. CBS’ Walter Cronkite struggled to hold back tears as the crew signed off.

1968 was a year rocked by war, assassinations, street riots and protests. However, it closed with a cautious message of hope and optimism from the crew of Apollo 8. “The impact of seeing the Earth as a planet, as a very small, very distant and, apparently to the astronauts, fragile-looking ball in the blackness of space … is a moment that ranks up there with any in the human species,” said space historian Andrew Chaikin.

The goal of the mission was to test the hardware and techniques needed to eventually land men on the moon before the Soviets. However, its unanticipated achievement was demonstrating to the world the incredible future that might await humanity, while starkly revealing the precarious nature of our existence.

In a year marred by violence and turmoil, it’s ironic that 1968 might always be remembered by our descendants for the peaceful exploration of the moon by three courageous astronauts. Borman received a telegram that summed it up best. It read simply: “Thanks, you saved 1968.”

The tumultuous world we live in today is very reminiscent of 1968. The continuing war in Afghanistan, the current social turmoil wrought by stark political differences, and the recent domestic terrorism attacks in the U.S. sadly remind us that little has changed in 50 years. Unfortunately, today we have no daring human space missions that can help lift our spirits, but Apollo 8 did leave us with a lasting Christmas gift: an iconic image of the rising Earth that will forever remind us of humanity’s potential to achieve great things in the face of overwhelming adversity.

Take a moment this holiday season to gaze at the famous photo from Apollo 8 and remember that the blue world you see is the only one we know of that has life. In this tiny little corner of the vast Cosmos, we are alone. The beautiful, but very fragile Earth that’s floating in the forbidding cold and darkness of space is the only home that we have, and it’s up to each one of us to make it a better place to live.

Merry Christmas and happy holidays to all of us — all of us here on the good Earth.

Chris Gibbons is a Philadelphia writer and a member of the Planetary Society. He can be reached at gibbonscg@aol.com.