Apollo 8 - 45 years ago (1 Viewer)

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syscom3

Pacific Historian
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Jun 4, 2005
Orange County, CA
Tonight is the 45th anniversary of the first time humans saw an earthrise. A defining moment in our collective history.

The astronauts spoke to the world the following.

Bill 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.'"

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."

Frank Borman
"'And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear: and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good.'
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."

600px-NASA-Apollo8-Dec24-Earthrise.jpg
 
When the Apollo missions were on, i was just a kid. I remember thinking "that is just amazing, i want to be an astronaut" For me they were the pin up boys that I wanted to copy and emulate.

As I got older, I realized that being and astronaut wasnt going to happen, but a secret boyish desire to understand space exploration really took hold. My fantasy was to see men residing permanently on the moon, and then Mars.

It hasnt happened, which is a cause for dissapointment for me. I want to see that happen before I die, I can tell you.

This stuff brings back a lot of memories....was wondering who else feels that way. I know the manned space program is really unneccessary and expensive and all that, and yet,, I think mankind needs to do this despite all the starving kids in Africa and the jobless rate.
 
Unmanned spaceflight is easy and only advances technology incrementally. Manned flight is far more complex and advances lots of different fields of science and engineering at a faster clip.

As for starving kids in Africa? Maybe their govts should buy less AK47's and be good stewards of their country.
 

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