Apollo 8: 40 years ago

Forty years ago in 1968 the US made a gutsy move in the space race against the Soviet Union.  Intelligence reports were claiming that the Soviet Union was very close to launching thier moon rocket.  Fears began to increase that the US would loose the space race.

A last minute change to the schedule had Apollo 8 send three astronauts to the moon just to orbit so the US could claim they were the first nation to send people to the moon.  The landing would be done by Apollo 11.  For the first time three people from earth orbited another celestial body.  On Christmas Eve the astronauts planned a special broadcast to let everyone know there were OK and set aside fears on their condition.  I found this on YouTube where someone matched the audio of that greeting with some great video.

Every Christmas season I like to think about that mission and how three men were able to look back and earth for the first time ever and see how beautiful it is with human eyes.  That's one of the special things about space.  It puts "everything" into perspective.  

I hope you have a great holiday season and may 2009 be a fantastic year for us all!