American Experience: Apollo 8

AJChenMPH

AJChenMPH

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So, PBS was just broadcasting (10 Jan 2007 2000-2100EST) an episode of American Experience based on the Apollo 8 mission. This mission was famous for being the first time humans actually made it to the vicinity of the moon, and especially memorable for two things.

The first is this picture:

AS08-14-2383.jpg


The second is the Christmas Eve (1968) address the astronauts made:

William Anders: For all the people on Earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send you. "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, Let there be light: and there was light. And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness."

Jim Lovell: "And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so. And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day."

Frank Borman: "And God said, Let the waters under the heavens be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so. And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good." 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.
Click to expand...
I hadn't been born yet during this mission, so I obviously never saw the TV broadcast. I've certainly heard about it, and I've seen bits and pieces of it, but never the whole thing.

American Experience showed the broadcast, and just for a moment, I was transported back to 1968, as if I were sitting there watching it live. And I have to tell you, I was spellbound. I was in the middle of eating dinner -- I literally stopped chewing and just sat there, watching the TV. One of the mission controllers they interviewed basically said that it was dead silent in Mission Control, and that some of the controllers had tears running down their faces; I was pretty much right there with them.

Wow.
 
Bump -- locally in the DC area, Maryland Public Television (MPT -- channel 22 on Comcast) will be re-broadcasting this on Monday (26 Feb) at 2100EST.
 
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