the first manned television broadcast from lunar orbit, on Christmas Eve, 1968. Since there were also three Speedmasters aboard - and more than a few fans of the space program here - this would seem to be be a great place to post a link to the original Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast. Enjoy! Merry Christmas to all, and best wishes for a great 2014! Apollo 8 Christmas Eve Message http://nssdc.gsfc.nasa.gov/planetary/image/as8_genesis1a.mov
From a time when a government agency could speak of God without worrying about offending somebody, back when we stood up for who we are. thanks and Merry Christmas!
Came home to Sydney for Chrissy and my mother gave me the moon landing colour daily paper special from the day of the moon landing she's had sitting in the cupboard for 40 odd years (in plastic) pics soon.
You, sir, have jumped to the top of the list of members who owe pictures - but not in a malicious way, because of the anticipation.
Ah but they did offend someone! In the movie "In the shadow of the moon" Lovell explains that upon returning to earth they were sued by a woman in Texas claiming they violated the first amendment http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo_8_Genesis_reading she was part of some atheist activist group and ended up getting murdered in 1995, you can't make this stuff up. http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Madalyn_Murray_O'Hai Lovell's position was rather statesmen like about it all, sort of like you're entitled to your opinion and I wasn't trying to offend anyone but I can't apologize either for doing what I felt appropriate.
Speaking of Apollo 8, here is a great recently released animated/actual footage video on how the crew captured the famous Earthrise image.
Hi John - this was a really cool link that you posted! This was fascinating to watch, and I had no idea of the exact orientation the CSM was in when this happened, nor that they missed this on their first two orbits. Thanks for sharing.