Proud to say my dad worked on the Lunar Excursion Module(prototype). This was an option for a poor kid from Bergen County, who became one of the first generation computer programmers.
6
QUESTION OF THE DAY: On December 24, 1968, in what was the most watched television broadcast at the time, the crew of Apollo 8 read in turn from the Book of Genesis as they orbited the Moon. Name the three crew members.
https://twitter.com/dbiz4u2/status/1077291258912026625
I remember that day. The Apollo 8 spacecraft is located at the Museum of Science and Industry in Chicago. What began with such hope reached a climax with Apollo 11 and a crisis with Apollo 13 before ending with a whimper with cancellation of the final Apollo missions based upon costs.
NASA's budget was repeatedly slashed. Relative to the past it is minuscule in relation to the federal budget. Yet our rocket scientists have worked miracles.
What went right? What went wrong? Why?
NASA was a Cold War creation of the best Nazi German rocket scientists who chose to surrender to America at the end of World War II. John F. Kennedy had little interest in NASA or space exploration beyond the Cold War contest with the Soviet Union. NASA focused on complexity and pushing the technology.
American arrogance led to the Soviet Union taking the early lead in space exploration.The Soviet Union's space program relied on a rocket scientist named Sergei Korolev whose identity and existence was a state secret until after his death. Korolev was released from the Soviet gulag in order to lead the Soviet Union space program. Korolev's death at 59 years old in 1966 was a blow that crippled the Soviet program. The Soviet space program focused on reliability, simplicity and costs.
Some space exploration is beyond the ability of any single nation. Some space exploration can be done by free market capitalism.
See " Mars" series on National Geographic channel.
1
I could gaze at that photograph for hours.
16
It would take far more faith to believe that this beautiful Earth just happened than to believe that it was created by an almighty God.
3
I noticed on the NBC News coverage of this last night, that the Biblical verses were "Tweeted out."
Well, probably not.
Here's what I remember of that mission (and this dates me):
Watching the report on the Huntley-Brinkley TV news broadcast
(and I might have been stoned). Huntley, I think, giving the basic
facts of the lunar orbiting, and then the audio of Borman reading
from Genesis. Then Brinkley says, as near as I can remember:
"In Rome, a man ran out of his house and grabbed the first American
he saw (you can tell us by the way we dress) and shouted
'fantastico!'...and in any language, that's what it was."
8
NASA rotated the image by 90 degrees.
1
Beautiful!!!
4
The Apollo VIII earthrise photo is indeed iconic and in full color. However, it was NASA's unmanned Lunar Orbiter that took the first photos of our planet from its orbit around the Moon. Lunar Orbiter I took a telephoto image of the crescent Earth with its 610mm lens on August 23, 1966 as it was about to pass behind the Moon on its 16th orbit. On August 8, 1967 Lunar Orbiter V took a photo image of the nearly full Earth with the 610mm lens that showed much of Eurasia, India, The Arabian peninsula and central and eastern Africa as well as some of the eastern Mediterranean. These photos showed the power of Lunar Orbiter's camera system. Its main goal was site survey for future landing sites for the Apollo lunar landers. In more recent years photo scientists have been digitizing much of the five Lunar Orbiter photo missions for further study of future manned landings on the Moon. More can be learned in NASA's TMX-3487 "Destination Moon: A History of the Lunar Orbiter Program", published in 1977 and available through the NASA website.
2
The photo and the sentiments indeed move me to tears, but Aldo Leopold words best represent my thoughts:
"One of the penalties of an ecological education is that one lives alone in a world of wounds. Much of the damage inflicted on land is quite invisible to laymen. An ecologist must either harden his shell and make believe that the consequences of science are none of his business, or he must be a doctor who seeks the marks of death in a community that believes itself well and does not want to be told otherwise."
10
Thank you Mr. Overbye - your writing as ever, is sublime...in this case, just like that magnificent photo.
1
So Beautiful not even a deity could conceive of such a sight!
Where are the images of Flat Earth from outer space from the Flat Earth Society?
That film of life surrounding the Earth is a great description with the atmosphere not much more than a film that keeps us all alive and in comfort from space. It's a shame we are so eager to destroy that thin film of protection.
4
Magnificent, timeless, I could only admire, speechless. Every one of us is only a transient inhabitant on this beautiful and one and only one planet that exists from time infinity before to, one hopes, time infinity in future. No one has the right not to look after it well, no one.
4
I weep to see that magnificent image, hardly able to see to type this comment. I weep partly in joy but also partly in dismay because of the way this fragile earth has been treated--and even with attempts to put it in danger through hideous neglect on top of active damage through selfish greed. My hope is that most people will realize a responsibility to have responsible leaders to help keep every one of us safe, down through time and generations.
12
The element of unquenchable astonishment easily beggars any rational quantification of one's abiding sentiment upon exposure to such humongous thrills in our lifetime.Viewing the cosmic canvas with millions of stars and galaxies woven into the matrix of space time continuum,the significance of earth recedes into its minuscule niche ,and with it,we ,the earthlings too fade in importance.-But, the aura of humanism cannot be whittled away by such enigma as being pitted against an ever expanding universe because what is presented as an astronomical phantasmagoria stands equalled by the strength of our inner spirit shouldering human existence. We ,for sure,could retain in the competitive component of the strength of our souls to measure up to any massiveness of the cosmos.And,as the British poet,Alfred Tennyson ,asserted in his swansong,"we hope to see the Pilot face to face
when we have crossed the bar."
1
and we are still fighting poverty and discrimination...
2
@r. martinez (1) As poverty has a relative definition, we will be fighting it forever. (2) Many want to fight discrimination with discrimination -- and for how long? See point 1.
2
One can only imagine what it must have been like to be the first humans, in the history of the species, to view our home planet in its magnificent wholeness. IMHO, the most iconic photograph. On the Earthly human level, where far too many people are enraptured with celebrities and their lavish lifestyles, this photograph starkly illustrates what an illusion all that is.
7
Has anyone ever attempted to show what Earthrise looked like to the astronauts with stars in the background?
2
@Scott Fantozzi They probably wouldn't have seen many, or maybe even any at all. The Earth would be *very* bright -- much brighter than the moon is to us -- which would probably be enough to wash out the stars even without the sun in the sky 'above' the shot.
It looks like a night sky in the photo, but in lighting terms it's broader daylight than we'll ever experience on the ground.
6
The only planet we can be sure has life on it in the entire universe is earth. And regardless of whether there might be live on other planets, no planet could have the life earth has, because life on earth is the product of trillions of geologic, cosmologic, biologic and evolutionary events that will never happen again in precisely the same way.
And yet, we're poisoning the air, land, and water. We're killing the other species who evolved with us, especially the larger mammals. We're breeding like rats. We're bulldozing, damming, mining, logging, bombing, burning, genetically modifying, vivisecting, paving and otherwise abusing the biosphere and all other species.
We're a mass extinction event. If we continue on our current track, we'll commit ecocide within 100 years.
This is the most important issue of all time.
16
Worthy leaders lift us up and expand horizons; they do not drag us down into the swamp.
Vote well and let the Earth rise rather than the seas.
9
As a 14 year old on that day, I can remember being astonished at what we had achieved. I can also remember the pride we took as Americans at these achievements, and the perception that regardless of the instigating reasons, we pursued these goals "for all mankind".
How proud I felt then as an American. How ashamed I feel now. These pictures make me weep for joy and sadness.
16
Today is Christmas Eve. Fifty years ago today, the crew of Apollo 8 performed the first manned orbit of the moon. 1968 was a year completely foreign to 2018 and at the same time eerily similar. But for a few hours we came together as a planet to celebrate what was, at the time, the most amazing achievement of our species. And while we read from the bible on our journey it was the physics textbook that brought us there.
But how many of us remember this? Certainly not enough. This morning, as I watch the morning talking heads on television, I am reminded of the importance of "national eggnog day" but not of our amazing journey to another world. We drown ourselves with the meaningless minutiae of invented occasions and forget those things that make our civilization truly remarkable.
Merry Christmas. Tonight, with the just-past-full moon filling the night sky, look up. But look not for an imaginary figure promising loot. Look up and remember that once, we traveled among those stars. And, if we are brave enough, one day we may travel them again.
14
It's amazing how JFK's goal to put a man on the moon in 8-9 years was successfully met by NASA with American know-how and determination. In meeting its goal, the space effort also invented lots of useful materials, like freeze-dried foods, adjustable smoke detectors, and water purifiers.
Why do we lack the political will today to set stretch goals like combating global warming and try to solve them by applying a nation-wide effort similar to the moon landing?
9
@Pacific Pacifist
...and battery operated power tools!
2
As a pre-teen, I watched Mercury & Gemini rocket launches, then Apollo missions on a black and white TV console with wonder. Teachers would interrupt class, roll in a TV, and we'd watch rocket launches and Moon walk broadcasts live in wonder. Images beamed back from space missions were surreal. They showed a celestial body (Moon) so close up that it seemed science fiction became real beyond Hollywood TV episodes of Star Trek or tales by Heinlein, Asimov and others.
Apollo 8's color photograph of Earthrise was truly awe inspiring. It let us humans see our world from space looking back. The universe around our planet was a cold, depth-less black yet our globe was blue and alive. The picture made human life on that tiny little blue dot more precious.
Back on Earth, environmentalists were envisioning a new government department, the U.S. EPA, to protect our air, water and land resources. Many of us worried this tiny blue world might be a one and only place for life in our solar system and beyond, so humans better not mess it up. Today, global climate change is dire because humans cannot travel to another life sustaining world, regardless of literal science gains or science fiction dreams. To any one individual walking on Earth, it seems huge, but 7 billion of us (and growing) multiply our individual deeds into Earth changing impacts.
Quick sidebar question: How do "flat Earthers" presume we don't live on a spherical, water-covered rock?
11
For those interested in a broader contextualized rumination on this photograph, I cannot recommend highly enough Robert Poole's 2010 book "Earthrise". It is one profound book that has probably affected this old space cadet's thinking about the space program and its broader significance more than any other book on the subject.
1
A truly breathtaking photo, and one of the most significant ever taken. Then compare it to the Pale Blue Dot (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot) taken from 3.7 billion miles, and we truly see how lost we are in a vast void. Yet, we argue, fight, even steal and kill over tiny specs on that blue dot.
7
Last of My Kind
I will stand, your last sibling, among the dead
in this paradise we turned into an oven by
innocent degrees of greed and sloth.
I will finish off the last cylinder of processed
air and drink my final water ration.
There are no affairs left to settle, except
this one, so I raise my arms to some heaven
above this apocalypse and speak for all of us:
"You made us keepers of the land,
trusted us with its embroidered beauty,
it's unbounded abundance;
put great lakes and rivers in our charge,
valley meadows, mountain streams,
ancient forests, their gods all happily contented;
you gave us one another to have and to hold
through every circumstance, to raise a barn
for our neighbor and rebuild when it burned down,
mend fences, unbuild walls, and walk in our enemy's
shoes as if they were kin for a day or two;
And now, I stand here in this dust
that once nourished infinite forms of wonder
and raise my hands to the sky where lovers
and astronomers lost themselves in bliss
and dreams of romance and adventure and hope
too naïve to ponder the end of hope.
Yet, the apology wilts in the ferocious sun
and there is no repentance where there is
nowhere to turn around, so I stand here
in the last seconds of human consciousness
with nothing but the words, "We're sorry,"
immersed only in grief—
We had the whole world in our hands,
We had the whole wide world in our hands,
We had the whole world in our hands,
We had the whole world in our hands.
7
We know who started NASA and all the good that came from it like the moon exploration and moon landing. Does anyone know who ended NASA? And now after a long time it is being restarted by whom?
1
Great God...it's as flat as a pancake.
2
Fact check, please. Apollo 8 was not the the first crewed flight since the Apollo 1 disaster; Apollo 7 was and was a shakedown on the new capsule and Saturn 5. And no photos could be transmitted from the flight. It would have to wait to be developed on the ground, like all other photos at that time.
Fact check:
Apollo 7 was launched by the Saturn 1b, which would not have been capable of reaching the moon with astronauts onboard.
Saturn V was the much larger moon rocket, first manned (“crewed “ in current parlance) by Apollo 8.
1
Nice article. Small quibble: to my knowledge that photo was not "transmitted" from space as the article says (in the second paragraph). It was brought back on old fashioned film and not published until after the astronauts returned. (Do correct me if I am wrong.)
1
proof it's as flat as a flapjack
1
The untold story, now told by Allegra (daughter of John) Huston:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XA7b98NTof8
So, just another platform to attack Trump.
3
@JQGALT
So, just another Trump cultist who reads an article about the moon mission, astronauts, and the rare miracle our earth is, and whines about someone mistreating a grifter improperly.
10
@Steve Davies Thank you. JQGALT could be thanked for providing a great example of the pettiness of Trump and his ilk, in any case. They provoke criticism because of hideousness and then whine when they get it. And the use of the concept of "cultist" is now fully justified.
4
Just like Apollo 8 is remembered for Earth Rise:
Mr. Tillerson's tenure would be remembered for his two word description of the current WH occupant.
And Mr. Mattis would be remembered for his intelligent resignation letter.
7
10 years old in 1968. Glued in front of the TV for the whole Apollo 8 mission. I remember being awe struck that people were going so far away from the Earth for the first time, as well as being out of contact when they went around the back of the moon. Would they even re-appear?
I didn't become aware of the amazing "Earthrise" photo until much later. There was only black and white TV and newspapers.
I followed all the Apollo fights fanatically. Apollo 8 and 13 were the most memorable. Apollo 11 was a bit of an anticlimax for me at the time. You made it look too easy!
4
I am 75, and this was, and has remained, the most stunning photograph of my lifetime. It calms and comforts me to see it today in the midst of our national chaos. I think I need to frame it.
9
If we are not brought to our knees in humility to our insignicance in the universe with these stories and images, we don’t deserve to exist in these worlds.
11
Would someone please show this to Elon Musk?
4
When I look at the picture of this beautiful earth taken from outer space, I can not but wonder how petty some individuals are in fighting over a boarder wall and a government shutdown.
4
The entire population of the world living and dead, save for three, are framed in this photograph
13
Certainly humans will ruin Earth the way they manage their affairs so destructively and uncooperatively,
4
You, of course, being an exception.
This photo gave new meaning to the word “perspective”. Glad the NYT is covering the story behind the scenes. Iconic, indeed.
1
it is still astonishing...
2
I had this poster on my bedroom wall when I was a girl. Space, the final frontier...
1
@Lisa
Peace on earth is the final frontier.
1
As Mr. Overbye says, fragile and miraculous as a soap bubble. One earth. One chance. And by greed, overpopulation and general stupidity, we're blowing it.
7
Humans catch a ride
Passengers on pale blue dot
Ours to save...or lose
4
How absurd that a man of science reads from Genesis. You would think he was a critical thinker. Or was he a scientist or just another fighter jock. Being a pilot really does not require a great deal of intelligence, I know I've dealt with plenty of airline pilots in my decades at the airlines, some were downright idiots.
1
@Paulie
Couldn‘t make it as an airline pilot, eh?
1
All three were also men of faith.
2
Baggage handler, possibly...
Nice place to visit........
1
Yes, it's nice to look at things from far away; we can't see dirty details. What about looking at America from the other side of the wall?
Space exploration brought all mankind together that Christmas Eve. Sad to think in half a century we have reduced the dream of humankind's journey to the stars to celebrating space as an exclusive playground for the ultra rich and then the ultimate high ground for the "Space Force" in our next world war.
7
Really great. We need this perspective to release us from the "Make America Great Again" quagmire we're experiencing today that has me feeling so paralyzed. Though they dressed up the White House for Christmas the spirit has been subjugated by a bully and what is transpiring is a strong unification of the opposition to this harmful faction of our society, and bringing us together stronger than ever before. May we all exercise the spirit of Christmas with all humans always in this beautiful marble we call earth.
4
Looking at these pictures I can't help but reflect how we still have people arguing that the earth is flat, that we never went to the moon, that the entire space program was a hoax. We've become a society that elects Trumps. We used to be a society that elected Kennedys.
18
Still amazing and wonderful and splendid.
5
So many of the comments are about that wonderful feeling of hope that this image and the times gave. I was just shy of my 2nd birthday when this happened but I remember that feeling of hope the night that Barack Obama was elected. I held my 2-year-old baby and cried that his first memories of his President would be of this great leader and we would leave the awful Bush years behind. It sounds downright quaint now.
5
A picture of our home, blue and white, seeming to hang in space. We need to remember what we are capable of and not sink into the trump morass of soon to end, 2018. The stars beckon. Let's go! We are designed for better things.
3
Interestingly, you omit the fact that the Apollo 8 astronauts also read Genesis 1: 1-10 for Christmas Eve. Theirs was not just a celebration of environmentalism but a celebration of creation.
3
Actually, this is in the article: "Seventeen hours later, on Christmas Eve, what NASA has described as the biggest broadcast audience in history was listening when the opening lines of Genesis came crackling down from the heavens. 'In the beginning, god created the heavens and the Earth . . . And God saw that it was good.' I had tears in my eyes when I heard that."
2
@JOHN ?? From the article:
Seventeen hours later, on Christmas Eve, what NASA has described as the biggest broadcast audience in history was listening when the opening lines of Genesis came crackling down from the heavens.
“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the Earth,” Major Anders began.
1
One more. JFK. What a contrast to today’s rhetoric:
We set sail on this new sea because there is new knowledge to be gained, and new rights to be won, and they must be won and used for the progress of all people. For space science, like nuclear science and all technology, has no conscience of its own. Whether it will become a force for good or ill depends on man, and only if the United States occupies a position of pre-eminence can we help decide whether this new ocean will be a sea of peace or a new terrifying theater of war. I do not say that we should or will go unprotected against the hostile misuse of space any more than we go unprotected against the hostile use of land or sea, but I do say that space can be explored and mastered without feeding the fires of war, without repeating the mistakes that man has made in extending his writ around this globe of ours.
[snip to fit]
We choose to go to the Moon! We choose to go to the Moon in this decade and do the other things, not because they are easy, but because they are hard; because that goal will serve to organize and measure the best of our energies and skills, because that challenge is one that we are willing to accept, one we are unwilling to postpone, and one we intend to win, and the others, too.
16
@N15663
I still get choked up when I read or hear that speech.
2
Fantastic article and great photographs. Tragically, mankind is destroying Earth, the beautiful blue planet.
6
My husband and I thought surely people would see how fragile it all is and love and care for our home, Earth.
5
Thank you very much again. Beautiful.
2
After the first paragraph sunk in — with its deliciously selection of words — I did not need to read more. Thank you for that. Those first words will stay with me, undiluted by the this-and-that to follow.
Earth has oceans, air, clouds of water. Earth is alive. The moon is a dead world.
We need an article, every day, on the front page of the NYT that talks about climate change, and this photograph should be part of every one.
We have no lifeboat for our planet. It is our only home: Biosphere 1. The moon is a deadly place. Water is frozen in the surface, but we don't know where most of it is, and it would take an inordinate amount of energy to heat it into liquid form for us to use. Since the moon has no atmosphere, micrometeorites rain down at tens of thousands of miles per hour. Light from the sun (UV, x-rays) will kill an astronaut (cancer), even with the best environmental suit, in a matter of weeks. There is no air to breathe. People would be forced to live in caves or underground. And Mars is no better.
Popular films make us think we have it better than we do. "Arrival" implies aliens will come to save us, or at least teach us to treat each other better. But they are not coming. "Interstellar" wants us to believe a magical wormhole and planets in a far-off galaxy will be there for us, and spaceships and space stations will be our salvation. None of this is true. "The Martian" would have us imagine that an astronaut, through tenacity and resourcefulness, will survive alone on Mars for a year. Maybe, but the odds are steeply against it.
Earth is all we have. This is it. Climate change is our most urgent existential problem. If it cannot unite us, then we are doomed.
6
@Blue Moon
I like most of your comment, but climate change is not our most urgent problem. Our most urgent problem is what's causing climate change: human population growth, and its inevitable increase of consumption and pollution.
6
I wish we could dream big dreams again.
5
Indeed, a powerful image that speaks volumes (to those who are listening). So is the Pale Blue Dot image (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pale_Blue_Dot). And yet we continue with our petty arguments and conflicts.
1
love your writing style, Thank you, Dennis, and Merry Christmas!
Love this poignant article but was surprised that there was no link to or a mention of the latest poignant documentary: Earthrise by Emmanuel Vaughan-Lee that was published on the Opinion page of the NY Times October 2nd 2018.
The film and this article go together, so that was a disappointment.
https://www.nytimes.com/video/opinion/100000005831656/earthrise.html
3
Only problem is a quarter of the country doesn't believe we went to the moon. Not sure what the president believes.
8
"Picture a bright blue ball
Just spinning, spinning free
Dizzy with eternity
Paint it with a skin of sky
Brush in some clouds and sea
Call it home for you and me
A peaceful place or so it looks from space
A closer look reveals the human race
Full of hope, full of grace, is the human face
But afraid, we may lay our home to waste"
(John Barlow, Grateful Dead)
9
A poster of this shot was printed back then. My sister had it on her bedroom wall in Towson, Maryland - for YEARS!
I just showed it to a contemporary here in Ireland : she wasn't familiar with the photo AT ALL.
Makes me realize once again that thing we think of in America as "everywhere," just .... aren't.
Susan
Expat in Waterville Ireland
4
Nice to hear the Christmas greeting from Apollo 8. Reminds of a time when our nation was one. I had such warm memories of those times, we were a nation of shared experiences watching one of four T.V. Channels, and having different views, but one nation...shame it’s a memory. Maybe if we can get past our differences we can join once more...peace on earth, good will towards Man.
2
I was in middle school at the time of Apollo 8. The images of the earth and moon were incredible to see in real time; but even as someone that was headed for a STEM based education, I did not appreciate then the effort that went into the Apollo program. The scope of engineering—much of it performed with slide rules and pencils—was all first-of-a-kind with so many unknowns that it taxes the brain’s reality. And it worked. The planet owes a debt to all the scientists, engineers, pilots, crafts and technicians that brought it all together.
I have a fear that such inspirational adventures are over for this planet.
11
One of the books about the Apollo 8 mission describes Anders' orientation when taking the picture--remember there is technically no up or down in space--as being 90 degrees from how the photograph is traditionally printed. The earth was not so much "rising" as emerging from behind the moon's surface to the right, and that is how Mr. Anders displays the picture in his home. Tilt your head and look at it that way. The earth "floats" in a way that leaves a different and equally satisfying impression.
9
I have always loved this photo. It's breathtaking to realize how vast existence is and how insignificant each of us is in the total scheme of things.
Everything in existence is dependent on everything else in the great unknown puzzle of life. It's a sobering thought. Makes our petty differences seem ridiculous.''
Thanks to all the scientists and others who are exploring greater things and identifying new universes. Just imagine the knowledge we will have in a century if we don't allow anyone to destroy civilization as they have done for centuries.
5
As a seven-year old growing up in India, I was memmerized by Apollo mission. I remember sitting up by my window trying to find Apollo rocket racing towards the moon. I was awestruck just thinking that there was a rocket up in the sky taking humans all the way to the moon and bring them back to earth. It gave me goosebumps and inspired me to study science. I think America's approach to science also had something to do with my decision to eventually move to the US.
Yes America, our investment in science and technology, including space exploration, inspires people all over the world. And it is a shame that now we have moved away from a scientifuc mindset. We now reject evidence based knowledge (e.g., vaccines are bad; climate change is a hoax; tax-cuts-lead-to-increase-in-tax-revenue; etc.).
How did this happen in my life time?
15
The crater in the closeup photo with rilles or channels across its floor is Goclenius. It is 54 x 72km diameter.
3
One of the AARP publications had an interview with Jim Lovell, another of the astronauts on Apollo 8. This line really jumped out at me:
"Suddenly it dawned on me that we went to heaven when we were born! We arrived on a planet that had the right amount of mass to have the gravity to contain water and an atmosphere, just at the proper distance from a star. It appeared to me that God had given mankind sort of a stage to perform on."
If only more people had that sense of the fragility of our world, it might not be covered in plastic garbage with ice caps melting before our very eyes.
God, I wish there were something to feel optimistic about this Christmas!
10
@Ambient Kestrel
I agree with your sentiment. When I get really in the dumps, I mentally kick myself in the butt and actually say out loud -"Hey dummy. You are alive. Take in all of God's beauty and appreciate, hug and love those most important to you for NO ONE is guaranteed tomorrow.
Optimism is a very fluid emotion. It comes and goes. The only constant in life is that nothing lasts forever - good or bad.
3
In the 1980’s Joseph Campbell wrote that this photograph was a turning point in the history of religion and myth. The sense of the world being one place, bounded and alone which anyone seeing the photograph felt, immediately challenged the idea of individual religions and myths being universal. The world was suddenly seen as it is, a global village. But instead of coming together the reaction of many was to put up barricades in their neighbourhoods — fundamentalism. He said that back in the 1980’s, and who can argue with this today? Consciously, we know that we live in a profoundly interconnected world, and that the great problems we face can only be overcome together. Yet, unconsciously, so many still hang on to the old myths of tribe, religion, and nation state. Are we witnessing the ascendency of the old myths, or the birth pangs of the new?
11
I was a junior in high school and I remember sitting up past midnight with my father watching the live broadcast of the Apollo 8. it was magical. Thanks for this story. 1968 was the most amazing year.
8
"...this transmission is coming to you..."
I was 10 years old in 1968 and I remember that picture. It was in the newspaper my parents bought. It was something to see Earth from space.
5
The 20th century may be mankind's greatest 100 years and I feel very lucky to have seen all the great events of the last half of this century.
The space race and man landing on the moon certainly stand out as amazing achievements, equivalent to Columbus' discovery of the new world. Only I was there, able to watch it live while it happened.
I remember this Christmas Eve it like it was yesterday, watching on TV while the lunar landscape rolled by and listening to the astronauts recite Genesis.
I was only 12 years old and 1968 was a horrible and scary year. But this event was reassuring and left me feeling like everything would be okay.
9
@Ex New Yorker
If you think that the century that had 2 world wars and the holocaust was mankind's greatest 100 years, I suggest that you think again. Last month we commemorated the 100th anniversary of WWI and it is less than 75 years from Auschwitz.
Despite wonderful scientific achievement and great medical advances, the evil in human nature (mentioned in Genesis two chapters later than the quoted passage) utilized science and technology for monstrous purposes.
1
Both 1968 and 2018 were tumultuous years, each with one unbelievable shocking event after another. The events were more tragic and further spaced apart in '68. That year had the MLK and RFK assassinations, civil unrest, the Democratic convention riots, all with the atrocities of Viet Nam humming along in the background. 2018, on the other hand, has been a non-stop, steady assault on our democracy by the GOP. 1968 ended on a positive note with Apollo 8. I hope the results from the mid-term elections turn out to give a happy ending to 2018.
14
A really gutsy mission, especially given the tragedy of Apollo 1 and with the space race heating up. However, the Americans were bringing online the technology to make such an expedition and subsequent landings possible (a superbooster in Saturn V, new computing technology, etc.), while the Soviets were hitting a wall with developing their N-1 rocket (and with the passing of Sergei Korolev). Personally, if the second Zond mission didn't have an accident, I suspect the Soviets would have tried at least a flyby, say by a single person. Even with Korelev dead, they may have still had that "take a chance" attitude that Khrushchev went for in the late 1950s/early 1960 (even with Brezhnev in power by then).
2
There is some blending of memories here. The famous Earthrise photo was taken with a still camera and first viewed after the crew brought the film home. In the television broadcast that same day, the crew read Genesis while pointing a TV camera out the window at the moon passing beneath them. There is no earthrise in the TV broadcast.
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I’m surprised a movie hasn’t been made about Apollo 8 yet. It’s really a great story of history and adventure. All the events of 68 mentioned here and to send the first humans into deep space and orbit the moon on Christmas Eve? What a story. It’s miraculous really, this mission was incredibly risky; many firsts. The astronauts themselves only gave it 50/50.
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@N15663 The HBO series "From the Earth to the Moon" had an episode on that gutsy mission.
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Every time I look at the picture I get chills, truly every time. So beautiful, so magical, so pure from a distance.
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This country, and our world, was not a great place in 1968. Fifty years later, I vividly recall most of it. I was thirteen years old, and absorbing everything I could from AM Newsradio, a black and white TV, and the print edition of this newspaper, delivered to my school every day for the subsidized price of one nickel.
I had followed spaceshots with a transistor radio from the first Mercury launches. There were those who said exploring space was a waste of money, needed more at home.
For me, the Apollo missions were a gift, a break from all of the bad news coming from Memphis, Los Angeles, Chicago, and Vietnam.
How brave these astronauts were. How brilliant and creative these scientists. After the events of the last few days, how I miss those days, problematic though they otherwise were. If only we could think boldly again, and dream big.
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Even from the relatively low altitudes of a airplane, the earth looks like a beautiful place. As long as you can momentarily forget the horrors that occur on its surface.
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Many have commented so eloquently here.
I was 12 and I remember that “radio silence” as a transfixed family, town and nation held their collective breath waiting for Apollo 8 to emerge from the far side of the moon.
Our family was not religious, but it was truly a spiritual moment when we all exhaled, and listened to the astronauts!
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@Karen, perfectly said. Thanks.
I was young, but remember well the entire family gathered around the TV. The collective family gasp during the Christmas Eve broadcast when the Earth appeared as it truly is- a bright blue so fragile globe adrift in a sea of black. The moment changed my view of living and our place in it. It’s always been a treasured Christmas memory. But I never knew the backstory until now. Thank you! And to those brave astronauts, who reminded us of our small humanity in the cosmos.
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@Maureen C
My parents too let my sister and me stay up late for this they knew how important this was. I remember watching on our big console b&w tv how amazing it all was. Stil amazes to this day.
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Wonderful picture! I'm looking forward to the Apollo 11 50th anniversary. Maybe I'll host a neighborhood party and play archival footage on TV.
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What an extraordinary, extraterrestrial picture and how sad that more humans have not been awed by its beauty and meaning. If they were they might see the universe more like Carl Sagan.
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What a wonderful article and a great video piece.
Many thanks.
I did not shed a tear listening to Genesis - but had goose bumps of excitement and wishing I could be there.
I am pushing 70 but I was not living in America then. In India - I have no memory of it being televised or even broadcast. Come to think of it - my mother did not even have a tv.
But your report made it come alive.
Not stealing their line:
Merry Christmas.
7
I was 27 and had travelled from Boston to Connecticut to be home for Christmas. It was evening and the family wasn't all that interested in the first live TV broadcast from the moon but I insisted that it was a big deal. We watched impatiently during the "black-out" and were in awe of the scene unfolding live before us and the millions of other earthlings watching live as emerged from the back side. Like others have mentioned when Genesis was read I teared up immediately. The most memorable Christmas Eve of my life.
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Thank you for a wonderfully written article. It’s amazing what NASA and these incredibly brave astronauts achieved. Humans are capable of amazing achievements, but we seem to spend a lot of time focusing on killing one another and worrying about the Kardashians. Let’s hope we do more amazing things.
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@R Johnson. Very well said sir!
Apollo 8 capped off a horribly tragic year with a very high note. Fast forward 50 years and we are capping off another turbulent year with a government shutdown by a mentally ill U.S. president who only wants to build a border wall. We, as a country, have taken a giant leap backwards.
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My first book was a kids book on the Moon landings. It had lots of pictures and was a fun read for a kid. Fast forward 35yrs later, I still have shelves groaning under the weight of books, documents and DVDs on the same subject, all still fascinating to a big, grown-up kid at heart. The wonder never goes.
15
I stared at that image positioned on the Whole Earth Catalog for weeks. It caught my eye as it sat on the coffee table. My first glimpse of the alternative lifestyle.
Thank you, Mom and Dad!
17
I worked sorting mail at the main Post Office on 8th Ave and West 33rd St the following summer. A large portion of the envelopes I handled had the new six-cent postage stamp with the Apollo 8 photo.
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I was a child at the time, 11 years old, and was so inspired and optimistic about the world and the future.
What a difference 50 years make...
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@Shelley Diamond
I would recommend 'The Hot Gate', but read the first 2?, first!
Great photo right place at the right time, probably shot on a hasselblad would be interesting to find out on what film... was it taken in the craft or through a window, what lens?
That aside we better start looking at the world in a new way...again, a lot of the worlds ice has melted since 1968. Many think the early 1970's was when we crossed the environmental threshold of what the planet could take before decline.
Look at this photo and and see what it is like in the foreground we don't want that do we?
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@Gregor From what I've read they developed specific film for the space missions to capture the extreme contrast differences and withstand any radiation issues (if I recall correctly.) Similarly, all the film footage of nuclear testing were done on specially made films as the blasts were way too bright for any standard film.
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@Gregor Yes, the photo was taken through a window. According to https://www.history.nasa.gov/apollo_photo.html , Apollo 8 color photos were made with Hasselblad EL cameras loaded with thin Kodak Ektachrome film made especially by Kodak for NASA. The site also has information on the lenses.
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And the camera they grabbed and clicked away with . ..
. . . was made by Victor Hasselblad AB, the manufacturer of medium-format cameras, in Gothenburg, Sweden.
Yes, a human took this inspired picture, among the 2-3 most reproduced in history, with Earth's finest camera-and-lens system. I earned my living with a Hasselblad and never, ever forgot their legacy and contribution to our space program.
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@Christopher Springmann
The beauty of the comment section, is that someone like Christopher would know the Hasselblad model and would take the time to respond. Bless the New York Times...and may they (and you) have a good year.
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@David
Ditto!
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In an instant, it should be clear from this picture that Earth is where we should want to be. Let's hope we have the capacity to keep it our fertile home for generations to come.
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@Blue Moon
The Midrash for Bershit 1 says that G-d showed Adam around the Garden of Eden and said, “Look at my works! See how beautiful they are — how excellent! For your sake I created them all. See to it that you do not spoil and destroy My world; for if you do, there will be no one else to repair it.”
2
A small ironic point. When on the moon, there is no Earthrise; the Earth sits in the same place in the sky all the time. The astronauts saw the Earth rise only because they were in orbit. Still, a really great picture.
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@Jeff Hasty
Good point, Jeff. But then again, there is no real sunrise on the Earth as the sun appears to rise only because the Earth rotates. Earthrise and sunrise are just events based on a frame of reference.
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@Jeff Hasty
But can't we also say that on the Earth, there is no real sunrise either yet each morning we see the Sun 'rise' just because the Earth is in orbit?
@Jeff Hasty Thank you reminding us of that. The man-on-the-moon residing on Sinus Medii would always have the earth directly overhead while the man-on-the-far-side-of-the-moon wouldn't even know the earth exists.
2
Thank you for introducing this to younger readers and reminding older readers.
A more spectacular photograph is hard to come by, and this is a perfect image for today -- the winter solstice and longest night of the year.
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I was 7 at the time. The future was bright. Possibilities seemed to have no limits. Star Trek was the rage in my household. My uncle was an engineer on the team designing the Lunar Lander (LEM) for NASA.
I always want it to feel like 1968-69, no matter the chaos here on earth.
Here's to the future my brave compatriots.
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A transformative photograph.
There's our home.
And there we all are.
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@Lawrence and the best comment award goes to: Lawence!
1
I remember this photo and the optimism of the late 60's and you really didn't have to get high to appreciate “2001: A Space Odyssey” but it did help. At that time I looked forward to the year 2000 and beyond never imagining that we would ever have a president like Trump. I miss that optimism and fear the direction this country is now headed.
We need men and women willing buck the evil that is in our current society to bring back that optimism then America will truly be great again.
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Just a few days ago, we had the privilege of listening to Apollo 8 astronaut Jim Lovell give a talk about that mission and that photograph at Washington's National Cathedral.
As we again face strong environmental and political headwinds, both globally and domestically, that picture starkly reveals what is still at stake.
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That picture of the earth still reminds me of Romeo’s partial quote from *Romeo and Juliet*, when he first beheld the fair Juliet:
“Oh, she doth teach the torches to burn bright. It seems she hangs upon the cheek of night. Like a rich jewel in an Ethiope’s ear. Beauty too rich for use, for earth too dear...”
With a touch of literary irony, up until then, we had been craning our necks upwards to behold otherworldly, celestial beauty, too dear for the mundane earth. That picture showed us that the same celestial beauty had always been right here, under our feet, in our lungs, we, its very children.
The home planet was, and is, radiantly beautiful. And she doth teach the torch of the Sun to burn bright, as she is the universe reflecting back on itself, understanding, comprehending. She and each one of us give meaning to the Sun.
It also reminds me of the quote from Dickens’, *A Christmas Carol*, when Tiny Tim says at the end, “God bless us, every one”. The word “God” leaves room for interpretation, as there is that vast Cosmos in the picture in which the planet and Moon are suspended, a Cosmos probably not fully dreamt of in our philosophies.
But, at the time, Genesis brought tears to my young eyes.
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@DaveG
My favorite post. Your words are as beautiful and eloquent as is this magnificent picture of Planet Earth. Thank you for sharing such beauty.
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@DaveG
So right! If you haven't read it, I'd recommend to you Robert Poole's book Earthrise (in another comment, if published).
For 50 years I've wondered what it is we saw when the picture was published. Now I think of it as though a person blind from birth has recovered sight, and seen for the first time mother's face, and she is beautiful.
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@DaveG This image has given us pause. Then it became a cliche. Then somewhat forgotten until its current resurrection. It has returned to remind us of the confluence of beauty and our capacity to perceive it. At its most intense, the basis for regarding the sacred. The space missions were also about conquest. There must be an ancient fable about possessing beauty only to have it disintegrate.
4
For those interested, there's a fairly lengthy article about Earthrise in the June 2011 issue of American Historial Review: Benjamin Lazier, "Earthrise; or, The Globalization of the World Picture"
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But we can't see stars so it must be faked!!
Nah, just messing with you, I understand light and photography.
13
From an astronaut:
“You develop an instant global consciousness, a people orientation, an intense dissatisfaction with the state of the world, and a compulsion to do something about it. From out there on the moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’”
Edgar Mitchell
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Great!!!!! Erik Frederiksen
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@Erik Frederiksen
I agree with you, send a few Congressional climate change deniers into space. Then ask see if they're willing to ignore science showing ever-accelerating climate shifts are not "natural patterns" so we need to improve societal behaviors.
Terra-forming distant worlds is not an option. Our fragile water-covered rock with a thin atmosphere in the "Cinderella zone" of our solar system is all we have ....so knowingly screwing it up would be idiotic.
5
Remember the atheists losing their minds when they read from the Bible.
3
Nope. Atheist here and I appreciated the sentiment and the beauty,given the chaos of 1968. In my mind and heart I know there is no god and the Bible is just a book. Your religious beliefs are no threat to me.
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@Ruckweiler
Actually, that isn't what I remember, rather what I remember was "Beginning... the World... and Good".
That and that mankind, science, and technology could change our vision and our world.
We need the similar effort with global warming, right?
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Rucweiler yes, because we expect scientist to not believe in fairy tales. Those on that flight were not scientists though. They could have easily sent monkeys that would have performed their duties just as well. Instead they sent guys that do one thing well, push buttons when someone one the ground tells them to.
1
In 1968, the school I attended in a small Georgia town had just desegregated the year before. In my short life up until then I had seen the separate water fountains and restrooms begin to disappear. This image filled me with hope for the future, hope that's gotten dashed over and over again in the past 50 years as I watched our country fall back into racism and hatred and greed and ignorance. But I still crawl back to hope again, hope now for the planet and the young people who deserve the chance to have a good and fulfilling life.
50
From a country that dared to do great things, to one that can’t keep the government open or denounce nazis. I weep for the lost opportunities we’ve squandered while arguing about nothing
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Simply wonderful and majestic. And to think what a mess this 'blue marble' is in today.
And consider what we've learned since with the Hubble Telescope, et al.
.....there are Trillions (not 1000's or a million) and Trillions (capital Ts) of galaxies (not stars or planets). Mankind is not even a grain of sand in this grand scheme. The cosmos has existed for 11Billion (with a capital B) years and goes on and does not care one wit about human lives.
Atoms — the stuff of you, me and the stars — account for only 5 percent of the cosmos by weight. Mankind and for sure its belief systems (made up religions, ideologies) are totally unimportant and irrelevant to everything in the universe.
Merry Christmas? Sure, why not.
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This very important photograph helped to kick start the entire environmental/save the earth movement as well.
Mr. Anders is an amazing human too. Very humble. He is now 85 years young. Great photo of him here.
20
Arguably, the most important photograph ever taken.
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Absolutely @Tom Sullivan Timeless and royalty-free. FREE, courtesy of US and NASA! Little wonder the picture appeared on the cover of the Whole Earth Catalog among thousands, maybe millions of places. Important because it puts everything in perspective, however you interpret that phrase.
8
Isn’t that a hoax!
2
I don't believe this is an actual photo, there seems to me there are so many unexplained anomalies. The moon, the earth, the black emptiness, etc.
dennis,
great piece.
bruce
3
This iconic image says one thing to me: Perspective. Can you imagine that (1) how lucky we are? (2) how lucky we are to be alive at this moment? (3) how lucky we are to be alive in such a heavenly world? (4) how trivial and transient our lives are? and our problems? And finally, how easily we forget about all this?!
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@kirk Amen.
Thank you for commemorating this extraordinary moment.
For an incredibly moving short film on these events and the iconic photo, I recommend Earthrisefilm.com -- this really helped me understand the significance and the emotional power of the photos and voyage.
13
My mom woke me on Christmas eve to come and watch the astronauts orbiting the moon and reading from Genesis. It was late at night, and Santa was supposed to arrive soon, but this was something I shouldn't miss, my mom said. As a boy in love with rocketry and space exploration, I was in awe, thoroughly transfixed. We were the first humans to see the moon so close up, in real time. Thanks, mom, for not letting me sleep through that moment, I remember it so clearly.
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@JS
I love your comment.
Such a beautiful Christmas gift from your mom.
11
An amazing moment for humanity. To paraphrase my college professor who was a map historian, "the cartographers had got it right."
12
I was ten at the time but I remember this well. Sadly, the U.S. has turned away from science to such a degree that now there's a substantial percentage of Americans who think the moon landings were faked. I wouldn't be surprised to find a comment here saying the lack of stars in the photograph is cause for suspicion, something they'd understand if they had even a modicum of science education. The Bible reading was out of place. It belonged in a "A Charlie Brown Christmas," not in a space expedition.
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@Bridgman Neither Science nor the Bible should be worshiped as absolutes as they each can cut both ways.
1
In 1968, I was 12 years old. I clearly remember sitting with my family around the television in utter awe watching Borman, Lovell and Anders reading from the Book of Genesis on live feed. It was an end to an eventful year--including the Detroit Tigers winning the World Series--as well as as all of the bad things that seem to happen once a month , from Tet, the assassinations of King and Kennedy, local boys dying in Vietnam and the the election of Nixon. But we could do things, meaningful things like a space program.
But lots of things happened since that evening.
50 years later, we have a 12 year old in the White House and the prospect of another 1968 type of year ahead of us. We are more divided than ever. We can't seem to do anything, let alone agree on anything. We avoid the complex. We want simple and easy. The media that brought this feat to the living rooms of the World has become a curse and a fount on nonsense.
But I'm not betting on the Tigers any time soon.
25
I think I remember reading somewhere that "Earthrise" is the most popular photograph of all time. I wonder if that's still true? If so, it gives me hope, albeit very small, for the future of the human race.
8
I am confused by your saying Apollo 7 was uncrewed - the flight was manned with Walter Schirra in Command and also Donn F. Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham. Otherwise I enjoyed the article.
4
@E No, here's the quote: "The Apollo 8 flight was not approved until October, after a crewed flight of Apollo 7 had tested the newly rebuilt command module."
An amazing view of this amazing planet that we treat with such disrespect. The words the crew read from the Old Testament were really quite lackluster. They failed to describe the significance of this remarkable view of earth, as Joseph Campbell aptly pointed out.
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@Andrew Macdonald
The main part of the TV cast when Genesis was quoted was looking at the Moon. Being on film, the "earthrise" photo did not make itself known until after return to Earth.
Still and always a fantastic shot! It is reminiscent of a time when America was full of hope, wonder, exploration, and excitement. So many kids in my grade school wanted to grow up and become an astronaut or at least work at NASA. The dream of getting close to the stars and the Moon was paramount on their wish list.
These days I feel sad, melancholy, nervous scared when looking at that photo because I feel there is so little hope, wonder, exploration or excitement in what this country stands for today and throughout the world. I cannot help but feel we are currently living on the dark side of the Moon only, never to see day light again.
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Remember it like it was yesterday. Gave me chills at the time, still does now.
24
Thank you for reminding us of the beauty and uniqueness of our home planet. As much as I am a fan of space exploration, and would have loved being an astronaut if I could relive my life, recent science fiction reminded me how precisely adapted we are to Earth’s environment and its gravity. How I would miss people and wildlife if I were to be sent, even with fellow travellers, to another mostly barren world.
Will we be able to save all of this ? the Earth will survive, along with cockroaches, but what else if we continue on this path of self and mutual destruction?
26
Read the Bible. It tells you how things work out.
@Jeff which one? the Christian, Jewish, Koran, ... ?
3