William Atkins
Friday, 19 December 2008 21:34
Science -
Space
Page 1 of 3
On December 24, 1968, U.S. astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders became the first humans to circumnavigate the Moon: the first manned voyage to another celestial body. NASA gives a special tribute to their pioneering efforts from onboard the International Space Station.
Their 238,000-mile (383,000-kilometer) journey from the Earth to the Moon, which started three days earlier (12:51:00 UTC on December 21 from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, U.S.A. Earth), involved ten orbits around the Moon over a 20-hour period (actually, 20 hours, 10 minutes, 13 seconds).
Much of the world watched them live on Christmas Eve read the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis (King James version). The
transcripts of the reading follow:
(lunar module pilot for the Apollo 8 mission)
William Anders
"We are now approaching lunar sunrise and, for all the people back on Earth, the crew of Apollo 8 has a message that we would like to send to 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.”
(command module pilot for the mission)
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."
Commander Frank Borman concludes the Christmas Eve broadcast:
