But "why?" some say, "the Moon?"
"Why choose this as our goal?"
And they may we'll ask, "why climb the highest mountain?"
We choose to go to the moon. We choose to go to the moon
We choose to go to the moon in this decade, and do the other things. Not because they are easy, but because they are hard.
In the eighth year of man's flight into space,
the National Aeronautics and Space Administration prepared men and equipment for the most advanced manned mission to date.
Apollo 8 was the
first flight
To the moon. We had information that the Russians were going to put a man around the moon in late fall of 1968.
Consequently we changed apollo eight's mission to
fly to the moon, orbit the moon, and come back. And we did that over the Christmas holidays.
We had to build a Apollo spacecraft that would would hold three people.
We sat on top of a large rocket called the Saturn Five.
It was a three stage vehicle that gave us enough velocity and on the proper course to coast all the way to the moon.
The engines are on. Four, three,
two, one,
zero. We have liftoff.
And perhaps on the way to the moon all continues to go well
My two companions were Frank Borman and
Bill Anders. That was the three of us that made this flight.
(indistinct)...Apollo 8.
We hear you loud and clear, boys.
Ok, the first day was very smooth and this day was smoother.
Understand, smooth and smoother. (indistinct).
The flight took about three days to get to the moon. We had charts of the various craters that we wanted to see.
We wanted to look at the flat areas for making landings for later flights.
Houston, what does the old moon look like from sixty miles?
Coming in here houston, the moon is essentially grey. No color.
We didn't know the significance of the mission with regards to, uh,
things that we did or things that we said until, we got back home.
It was the fourth orbit below. We finally came to a position where we saw the Earth.
Oh, look at that picture over there. The earth coming up... wow! That's pretty. Is that color film, Jim?
And then Anders asked me for color film.
Hand me that roll of colored film. Oh man...oh I got it right here! (indistinct).
And he and Anders does take I guess several pictures and I say 250 at F11.
And as Anders takes the pictures, one of them as we learn when we get back home became the very famous one.
Following a direct descent flight path, Apollo 8 traveled
1560 Miles across the Earth's Surface, and
splashed down in the Pacific with pinpoint accuracy. When we landed, of course, we were well-received
being the first flight around the moon and very successful in getting back.
But the country in 1968 was
sort of in a turmoil. Martin Luther King and Bobby Kennedy both were assassinated.
We had a war going on.
It was one after the other of bad news either in Vietnam or in the continental United States.
And then the launch of Apollo 8 brought a
binding to the people of our country
It was a very significant factor in how people felt about themselves and their environment.
The Earthrise photo and just one picture gives the person a
complete understanding and glimpse of
his or hers position in the universe by looking back at the body that she calls home.
It was the first time, the FIRST time, that people
actually knew what the Earth looked like, and where they were living