My son and I share a keen interest in space exploration, which means we frequently talk about both the history and the future of NASA's programs. A few days ago I was reminiscing with him about the Apollo program and how those flights captured the imagination of our whole country. Then, as I was in the throes of Christmas decorating and present-wrapping, I began to recall the momentous flight of Apollo 8 in late December 1968. You may know that the Apollo 8 mission marked the first successful orbit of the moon by the Apollo program. Astronauts Borman, Anders, and Lovell bear the honor of bringing the moon to us through their observations and photographs.
Apollo 8 gave us yet another, more astonishingly significant, gift. On Christmas Eve in 1968, during their fourth orbit of the moon, the astronauts glimpsed something for the very first time: Earthrise. Borman was maneuvering the spacecraft to a new attitude, which caused the sight lines out the windows to catch the slow "rise" of Earth above the moon's horizon. They hadn't been able to see this on the first three orbits. Now, the three men became the first human beings to see this phenomenon. The experience astonished them and they scrambled to photograph the sight. If you listen to the transcription of their conversation, you can hear their wonder and excitement and awe. Most people have seen this iconic photograph. It even graced a US Postal Service stamp. Billions of people have grown up knowing what Earth looks like rising over the moon's horizon.
Those of us alive in 1968 who saw these photos for the very first time will never forget the thrill, will never forget the beauty of that initial glimpse of Earth. Oh my. It still makes me shake my head in wonder. Earth looked so very beautiful, so wonderful, so exquisite. I think it might be the best photograph ever taken of anything!
As if this weren't enough, the crew of Apollo 8 gave us one more memory that Christmas. While they orbited the moon, they read the first ten verses of the creation story from the book of Genesis. They broadcast this message over live television, and it riveted us in place in front of our set. Looking at Earth as the astronauts took turns reading that ancient story gave me goosebumps, and I'm sure I wasn't alone. Borman, Anders, and Lovell gave all of us such a gift.
You see, 1968 had been a very bad year. The Tet offensive in Vietnam had brutally begun the year, and things grew worse. President Johnson announced he would not seek re-election, which opened a rancorous election campaign. In April, the assassination of Martin Luther King, Jr. sent the country into a dreadful period of violence and sadness. In June, an assassin gunned down Robert Kennedy, plunging us further into turmoil. The Democratic Convention, held in Chicago later that summer, produced violent conflicts between protesters and law enforcement and made us all worry that we were slipping into chaos. By the time the presidential election was over, with Nixon as the president-elect, we entered the Christmas season more or less reeling from all the events of the previous months. We needed help. We needed something to draw us upward.
When we saw Earth's face through the windows of the Apollo 8 spacecraft, we gazed in wonder for the first time at the incomparable beauty of our home. God had made this place for us amidst the dark void of space. God had given us the curiosity and the intelligence and the ability to explore our little portion of space. Even more importantly, God had given us Earth to care for and to dwell in together. I remember thinking that we could change the way things were going, that we could turn our efforts to human well-being, that we could still be good stewards of this planet.
We know all too well that the intervening years have not produced universal peace, freedom from poverty, disease, and hunger, or the complete improvement of relationships between cultures. But I have never lost that hope, and whenever I see the Earthrise photo, it seems to me a light shining in the darkness, and the darkness cannot overcome it.
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