50y ago: Apollo 8 and "Earthrise"

AndyJ

On Christmas Eve, 50 years ago, Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders took the famous photo "Earthrise" from lunar orbit, of "the gibbous Earth, radiantly blue, floating in depthless black space over a barren lunar horizon. A humbling image of how small we are — but even more, a breathtaking image of our lovely, fragile, irreplaceable home. The Earth as a treasure. The Earth as oasis."

Op-Ed: "We Are All Riders on the Same Planet."

Mark

Even today the whole mission inspires.

davfor

Two photos taken on that voyage are all that sit on top of a bookcase in my office. Elon Musk's ambitious Mar's adventure is now beginning to capture my attention in a similar way. Perhaps I will live long enough to witness that as it happens too!....

AndyJ

Just read a note about a new Nova on Apollo 8 that's on PBS tonight .

hank

Thanks. I’ll take a look. NASA TV’s gotten much better under the new guy if you haven’t watched lately. Recently they’ve been airing a near hour long tribute / discussion forum taped 10 years ago with the three astronauts, Borman, Lovell and Anders. All three were present. Great camaraderie. They humorously recounted how Borman barfed all over Lovell shortly after they fired the rocket boosting them from earth orbit into lunar insertion. Apparently the craft was pretty smelly when they got back to earth.

Love this stuff. Remember exactly where I was sitting and watching in my parents’ old home that Christmas Eve when they were reading scripture from lunar orbit: “In the Beginning ...” I’ll treasure that memory all my living years.

Old_Joe

Thanks, @Andy. Will try to catch that one.

BenWP

Yesterday I heard an interesting piece on this mission on "Here and Now," which is broadcast on NPR between 1 and 3PM here in Ann Arbor. I had not realized how significant it was at the time. 1968: two assassinations, the Democratic convention, Nixon elected. The country needed hope.

rforno

The PBS special was excellent. Loved the intra-crew jibbing ("never trust an Annapolis grad") and personal tales relayed by crew and ground staff alike. Well worth an hour of your time if you're a space buff!

Crash

I'm gonna go look for it! Glad for the info.

hank

Agree it was a great program. Afraid I’ve strayed from PBS in recent years. Thanks @AndyJ for the timely reminder to catch their Thursday night science shows.

Their Apollo program was followed by an excellent documentary about Serb-born American inventor, Nikola Tesla, who did a great deal to develop alternating (AC) electrical current - which continues to power electrical motors (including in hybrid & electric automobiles*).
Nikola Tesla: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nikola_Tesla

Next week Nova has an intriguing program scheduled on the New Horizons spacecraft that sailed past Pluto a few years ago & is still seeking out “new horizons”.
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*AC current & electric powered cars: https://www.quora.com/What-kind-of-motors-do-electric-cars-have-AC-DC-or-universal-motor

AndyJ

Nova is just great, @hank.

The New Horizons spacecraft: Early this morning, New Horizons reached one of its key observational objectives -- Ultima Thule, "an object in the Kuiper Belt that is approximately 20 miles wide and 4 billion miles away ...."

Said mission manager Alice Bowman: "This is a type of object that no spacecraft has ever observed up close. It's in an orbit that the scientists say has not been disturbed by anything since the formation of the solar system ...."