Apollo 8’s Legacy
Earthrise
Tuesday, December 24, 1968
Apollo 8. Christmas Eve, 1968. On the fourth orbit (out of 10) around the moon the CSM was in nose down position for Bill Anders to be photographing potential landing sites. Having just photographed lighted parts of the far side they were waiting to acquire signal with Houston as they came out from behind the moon. Earthrise was not something NASA had anticipated in spite of the photograph from Lunar Orbiter 1 in 1966, and was not on Bill Anders' list of photos to be taken. But as the CSM rotated round, the rising earth came into view... Bill had black and white loaded in his Hasselblad and snapped quickly and then it disappeared from his view. All three of them, ex fighter/test pilots, were "totally enraptured" by the sight of their home planet. The next couple of minutes were surprisingly tense while they tried to find some colour film and capture the moment. There's a wonderful video reconstruction (and a transcript) on the link below with the actual comms of the moments surrounding the most iconic photograph ever taken.
Bill Anders put it well when he said “Apollo 8 will be remembered 100 years from now for Earthrise. It is ironic that we went to explore the Moon and what we really discovered was the Earth.”
These photos are shown in correct orientation as seen orbiting the moon's
equator with north to the top.
"And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth," Frank Borman, Apollo 8 Christmas Eve broadcast.
