Like countless other children around the world, Jerry Firlan was star struck on December 24, 1968. That wasn’t because he saw Santa Claus coming down the chimney with a new bicycle. Instead, space exploration had captured the world’s attention on Christmas Eve. Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders orbited the moon and broadcast live to about a quarter of the world’s population.
Apollo 8, the first manned mission to the moon, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, December 24, 1968. That evening, the astronauts – Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot Jim Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders – held a live broadcast from lunar orbit, showing photographs of the Earth and Moon as seen from their spacecraft. CREDIT: NASA.
“I was 12 and watched it from the living room TV while we were decorating our tree,” says Firlan, a video editor and lifelong space enthusiast in Ocean Township, New Jersey. Popular science. “It was amazing to us that humans were orbiting the moon. The live TV broadcast, although very low definition by today’s standards, was fascinating, mesmerizing and beautiful. No one in the house spoke during the entire broadcast.’
The broadcast and the orbits would become a milestone in both media and space history. At the time it was the most viewed television broadcasts in history. According to Bormanthe crew was told that they would have “the largest audience that had ever listened to a human voice.” NASA simply ordered the astronauts to do that say something appropriate. While beaming back images of the moon and Earth, the astronauts took turns reading from the Book of Genesis.
“The first ten verses of Genesis are the basis of many religions in the world, not just the Christian religion,” Lovell recalled this in 2008. “There are more people around the world in religions other than the Christian religion, and so this would fit in with that and that’s what happened.”
That same Christmas Eve, Anders took the famous Earthrise photo, which shows what our house looks like from the moon’s orbit.
Apollo 8 launched from Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida on December 21, 1968. It was the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth’s sphere of influence and also the first human spaceflight to reach the moon.
The crew also reached their destination on Christmas Eve due to a “bold, improvised call from NASA.” Continued delays with the lunar module threatened to delay the entire Apollo program. NASA turned around and sent the Apollo 8 crew all the way to the moon without a lunar module on the first crewed flight of the massive Saturn V rocket. This accelerated timeline ultimately preserved that of President John F. Kennedy goal of landing a man on the surface of the moon by the late 1960s alive.
It took 68 hours for the spacecraft to reach the moon. The crew then orbited the Earth ten times for about twenty hours, making the famous Christmas Eve broadcast.
The next morning, mission control awaited confirmation that Apollo 8’s engine burn to leave lunar orbit was successful. Lovell radioed back, “Roger, please be aware there is a Santa Claus.” and the crew began the journey home.
Apollo 8 crashed into the North Pacific Ocean on December 27, after a total mission time of 6 days, 3 hours, 42 seconds. On their return, Time magazine called Borman, Lovell and Anders hun Men of the Year 1968.
[ Related: Happy holidays from space! ]
This successful mission ultimately paved the way for Apollo 11, where Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin became the first people to set foot on the moon. The moon landing was witnessed by one an estimated 650 million people on television, but that awe-struck collective viewing experience owed a little gratitude to Apollo 8’s Christmas Eve message.
“The fact that it was on Christmas Eve made the event even more wonderful,” says Firlan. “It’s one of those memories that has stayed with me all these years.”
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