Apollo 8 went to study the Moon and came back with the Earth

The story of Apollo 8 and the Earthrise photo, from the August 1968 gamble to send the first crew around the Moon to the picture nobody had scheduled. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders flew to the Moon four months after the decision, read Genesis on Christmas Eve, and came home to a year that badly needed them. Then came a 20-year argument over who actually took the photo, settled by the onboard tapes. Chapters 0:00 Cold open 0:35 A gamble in August 2:25 Three men, four months 3:29 Leaving Earth 4:52 Behind the Moon 6:26 Earthrise 8:41 Christmas Eve 9:30 The way home 11:06 Who took the picture? 12:44 What it changed Sources and archival material NASA History Office, "50 Years Ago: NASA HQ Considers Apollo 8 Options" (2018): https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-... Brooks, Grimwood, Swenson, Chariots for Apollo (NASA SP-4205), ch. 11: https://www.american-spacecraft.org/docume... NASA History Office, "50 Years Ago, Apollo 8 is GO for the Moon!" (2018): https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-... NASA History Office, "50 Years Ago: On the Way to the Moon" (Zond 5, 2018): https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-... NASA, "Apollo 8: Mission Details": https://www.nasa.gov/missions/apollo/apoll... NASA History Office (J. Uri), "50 Years Ago: Apollo 8, You are Go for TLI!" (2018): https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-... NASA History Office (J. Uri), "50 Years Ago: Apollo 8 in Lunar Orbit" (2018): https://www.nasa.gov/history/50-years-ago-... NASA, "Apollo 8: Christmas at the Moon" (2019): https://www.nasa.gov/history/apollo-8-chri... NASA History Office (J. Uri), "Dec. 27, 1968: Apollo 8 Returns from the Moon" (2018): https://www.nasa.gov/history/dec-27-1968-a... Apollo Flight Journal, Apollo 8 Day 4: Lunar Orbit 4 (corrected Earthrise transcript): https://apollojournals.org/afj/ap08fj/16da... Apollo Flight Journal, Apollo 8 Day 4: Lunar Orbit 9 (Christmas Eve broadcast): https://apollojournals.org/afj/ap08fj/21da... Apollo Flight Journal, Apollo 8 Day 5: The Green Team (P01 incident): https://apollojournals.org/afj/ap08fj/24da... NASA Scientific Visualization Studio, "Earthrise: The 45th Anniversary" (2013): https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/4129 NASA SVS, "Earthrise in 4K" transcript (A. Chaikin narration): https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/vis/a000000/a004... Andrew Chaikin, "Who Took the Legendary Earthrise Photo From Apollo 8?", Smithsonian Magazine, Jan 2018: https://www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nat... NASA Science, "Remembering Bill Anders" (Anders quote): https://science.nasa.gov/missions/landsat/... U.S. National Archives, Vietnam War U.S. Military Fatal Casualty Statistics (by year): https://www.archives.gov/research/military... Archival film: NASA Headquarters, Mercury Gemini Apollo Resource Reel 1 (HD 049), NASA Image and Video Library Photos: NASA Image and Video Library (Apollo 8 magazines AS08-12 to AS08-17, JSC S68/S69 series, Lunar Orbiter LRC-1966-B701_P-07825) Visualization: NASA Goddard Scientific Visualization Studio 4129 (Ernie Wright, 2013) 1968 Washington photos: Library of Congress, U.S. News & World Report collection, ds.00838 and ds.00839 (no known restrictions) 1969 Apollo 8 6-cent stamp: U.S. Post Office, public domain Full claim-by-claim source list available on request. Watch next: Space documentaries playlist    • Space documentaries   New documentaries twice a week, plus a Short every day. Subscribe to Space & Time for history and space told from the original records. Footage and images courtesy of NASA, U.S. National Archives and Library of Congress; public domain unless noted. Inclusion of NASA material does not imply NASA endorsement. Every script is written and fact-checked against the sources listed above. Corrections: if you find an error, leave a comment with a source. Confirmed corrections are pinned in the comments and noted here.