October 18, 2024 • 9 mins
On this episode of Our American Stories, the crew of Apollo 8 and Steve Kates tell the story of their Christmas time mission to the moon--and the reading of Genesis over its surface.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:10):
And we returned to our American stories. When Apollowight took
off from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in nineteen
sixty eight, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and
earlier that year in April, Martin Luther King Junior had
been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. This all wasn't lost on
Apollowight's three astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders
(00:35):
as they took off on their grand journey around the Moon.
Here to tell the story of what happened with that
in mind is Steve Kates take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Steve Apollowaight nacinated decision that they would send three astronauts
on a journey around the Moon for ten lunar orbits
in nineteen sixty eight, around Christmas time. There was a
lot of objections in some of the higher offices of
NASA that this not have been the right thing to do,
because we only tested Apollo seven in Earth orbit, and
(01:06):
yet we haven't sent a Paulo spicecraft to the Moon yet.
So Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders did that
most incredible feat.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Here's Jim Level, astronaut on Apollo eight with more.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, my first sensation's course was not too far from
the earth, because when we turned around, we could actually
see the Earth start to shrink. Now, the highest anybody
had ever been, I think had been either I think
it was Apollo or Gemy eleven up about eight hundred
miles or something like that and back down again, and
all of a sudden, you know, we're just just going down.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
And it was.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
It reminds me of driving a car looking out the
back window, going inside a tunnel and seeing the tunnel
entrance shrink as it gets as you go farther into
the tunnel. It was quite a quite a sensation to
think about, you know, and you had to pinch yourself, Hey,
we're really going to the Moon. I mean, you know,
this is it. I was a navigator, and it turned
(01:57):
out that the navigation equipment was perfect. I mean, it
was just you couldn't ask for a better piece of
navigation coming coming into the moon itself. The last day,
our blunt end was towards the Moon, and we didn't
see it as it got bigger, but the ground called
up and the Michigan Control said, now it's such and
such a time, and they named it. Right down to
the second you lose communication with us because the Moon's
(02:19):
gradual swinging around to the far side. Right to the
second there was static in our earphones, no comm Then
of course we lit the engine to slow down and
we got into lunar orbit. And this is where we
started to look at the moon, you know, and we
all those nice things we said and that Christmas message.
(02:41):
When we determined first of all that we would get
and burn into the lunar orbit Christmas Eve, we thought, boy,
we something's got to be appropriate to say. We ought
to say something. What can we say? And we couldn't
think of anything. Then there was a fellow that I
think Borman knew.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
His name was, well, it's another example of the wonderful
country live in we go. Julian Cheer, who was the
head of public information for NASA and Washington, called me
one day and so you're going to have the largest
audience that's ever listened to or seen a television picture
of a human on Christmas Eve and you've got I
don't know, five or six minutes. And I said, well
(03:20):
that's great, Julian.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
What do we doing?
Speaker 5 (03:22):
He said, do whatever is appropriate. That's the only instructions.
Then that's the exact word. Do whatever is appropriate, whatever
you feel is appropriate, and be honest with you. We
were so involved in the mission and this was a
peripheral one, so I just kind of farmed that out
to a friend of mine, Cyborgan, and from Washington.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
He was with the US Information Agency, I think had
gone with some of the astronauts around their trips. Frank
asked him, could he come up with something appropriate? Well,
he could, but he knew another person I think it
was a newspaper man, I forget his name that he said, Okay,
I'll think it over. I'll try to see what I
can do. And he was working almost all night trying
(04:06):
to think out appropriate words. And his wife came down
and said, why don't you have him read something from
the Bible. And they said, well, that's you know, the
New Testament. Now she says the Old.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Testament reading from Genesis.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Because you know, this would be very appropriate.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
And I discussed it with Bill and gemmen, and we
had it typed on the fight pline, and that's I
didn't give any more thought than that.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
So that's how it came to pass. They said the
first ten verses of Genesis, which is really the foundation
of many of the world's religions. And that's how it
got started.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Now brooking Lunar Ryde and for all the people back
on earth, the crew of apollow eight. Haven't that they
that we would like to then you. In the beginning,
God created the even and the earth, and the earth
without form, and lloyd and darkness with on the face
(05:00):
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.
They went good. And God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light day, and the darkness he
(05:22):
called night, and the inning.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
In the morning with the first day, God said, let
them be the purpose in the midst of the water.
Let it divide the waters from the waters. And God
made the promn and divided the waters which were under
the from the waters which were both the persons. And
it was so, and God called the movement heaven.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
In the evening.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
In the morning of the second day, God.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
Said, let the waters are going to Heaven. Begether together
into one plate, and let the dry land of pear
and was so, and God called the dry land Earth
and the gethering the gutter of the water and calling
the God thought that it was good.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
And from the.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
Good night, good luck, and God live all of you,
all of you on the good Earth.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Looking back at the Earth on Christmas Eve had a
great effect, I think on all three of us. I
can only speak for myself, but it had for me
because the wonderment of it and the fact that the
Earth looks so lonely in the universe. It's the only
thing with color. All of our emotions were focused back
there with our families, and so that was the most
(06:45):
emotional part of the flight for me.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
We were so curious, so excited about being at the moon
that we are like three school kids looking into a
candy story window watching those ancient old creators go by
from and we're already stick to my else above the surface.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
We didn't have.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Any kind of feeling, at least myself, of you know,
fear or if you know, are we going to get
back or not. It was just just to be there.
Was such an exciting moment that you know, would have
done it all the time. I felt very, very honored
and lucky to be there.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
There was a little bit of concern as to how
that would be you know, received in the world, but
NASA gave them the permission to do that. I mean,
it wasn't something that was really that controversial, but in
many circles they thought that, hey, this is a inappropriate
thing to do as we celebrate the birth of the
Christ Child Christmas and read from the Book of Genesis
and talk about the creation according to the Bible, of
(07:43):
how the universe was formed, and God in his wonderful ways,
of how we manifest beauty and love to all the
people of the world and probably to all people in
the other civilizations outside of this world.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
At the time, we didn't know what the effect of
the flight would be. We didn't know whether the flight
was going to be sexs tessful or not. But you know,
with riots and assassinations and the war going on, I
was part of a thing that folly gave an up
left to the American people about doing something positive, which
was really That's why I say Pollo Wait was really
(08:15):
the high point of my Space career.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Their neutrality in politics was always number one, but reading
from the Bible was just in their opinion, and I
approve of it. I think it was a beautiful thing
because at that time, there's a way to send a
message about peace and love, and why not do that
during a time when everybody meet up calming. It was
probably one of the most watched shows ever in the
(08:37):
history of television. And I don't know the exact number
of people that were watching, but it's in the hundreds
of millions. And it was so well done. And I
thought that the reading of the Bible and the Book
of Genesis was an apropos for the time when tentions
were very high in America.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And a terrific job on the editing and production and
storytelling by Monty Montgomery. A special thanks to Steve Cats
and also a special thanks to NASA at Johnson's Space
Center Oral History Project for some of the audio in
this piece and NASA itself. The astronauts knew they needed
to say something appropriate on Christmas Eve, with the largest
(09:12):
television viewing audience perhaps in history. They were told to
do something appropriate, and my goodness, did that. The story
of the reading of Genesis, the story of Americans in
orbit around the Moon, and God's creation here on our
American story
And we returned to our American stories. When Apollowight took
off from the John F. Kennedy Space Center in nineteen
sixty eight, the Vietnam War was in full swing, and
earlier that year in April, Martin Luther King Junior had
been assassinated in Memphis, Tennessee. This all wasn't lost on
Apollowight's three astronauts, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders
(00:35):
as they took off on their grand journey around the Moon.
Here to tell the story of what happened with that
in mind is Steve Kates take it away.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Steve Apollowaight nacinated decision that they would send three astronauts
on a journey around the Moon for ten lunar orbits
in nineteen sixty eight, around Christmas time. There was a
lot of objections in some of the higher offices of
NASA that this not have been the right thing to do,
because we only tested Apollo seven in Earth orbit, and
(01:06):
yet we haven't sent a Paulo spicecraft to the Moon yet.
So Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders did that
most incredible feat.
Speaker 1 (01:13):
Here's Jim Level, astronaut on Apollo eight with more.
Speaker 3 (01:17):
Well, my first sensation's course was not too far from
the earth, because when we turned around, we could actually
see the Earth start to shrink. Now, the highest anybody
had ever been, I think had been either I think
it was Apollo or Gemy eleven up about eight hundred
miles or something like that and back down again, and
all of a sudden, you know, we're just just going down.
Speaker 4 (01:36):
And it was.
Speaker 3 (01:37):
It reminds me of driving a car looking out the
back window, going inside a tunnel and seeing the tunnel
entrance shrink as it gets as you go farther into
the tunnel. It was quite a quite a sensation to
think about, you know, and you had to pinch yourself, Hey,
we're really going to the Moon. I mean, you know,
this is it. I was a navigator, and it turned
(01:57):
out that the navigation equipment was perfect. I mean, it
was just you couldn't ask for a better piece of
navigation coming coming into the moon itself. The last day,
our blunt end was towards the Moon, and we didn't
see it as it got bigger, but the ground called
up and the Michigan Control said, now it's such and
such a time, and they named it. Right down to
the second you lose communication with us because the Moon's
(02:19):
gradual swinging around to the far side. Right to the
second there was static in our earphones, no comm Then
of course we lit the engine to slow down and
we got into lunar orbit. And this is where we
started to look at the moon, you know, and we
all those nice things we said and that Christmas message.
(02:41):
When we determined first of all that we would get
and burn into the lunar orbit Christmas Eve, we thought, boy,
we something's got to be appropriate to say. We ought
to say something. What can we say? And we couldn't
think of anything. Then there was a fellow that I
think Borman knew.
Speaker 5 (02:59):
His name was, well, it's another example of the wonderful
country live in we go. Julian Cheer, who was the
head of public information for NASA and Washington, called me
one day and so you're going to have the largest
audience that's ever listened to or seen a television picture
of a human on Christmas Eve and you've got I
don't know, five or six minutes. And I said, well
(03:20):
that's great, Julian.
Speaker 2 (03:21):
What do we doing?
Speaker 5 (03:22):
He said, do whatever is appropriate. That's the only instructions.
Then that's the exact word. Do whatever is appropriate, whatever
you feel is appropriate, and be honest with you. We
were so involved in the mission and this was a
peripheral one, so I just kind of farmed that out
to a friend of mine, Cyborgan, and from Washington.
Speaker 3 (03:45):
He was with the US Information Agency, I think had
gone with some of the astronauts around their trips. Frank
asked him, could he come up with something appropriate? Well,
he could, but he knew another person I think it
was a newspaper man, I forget his name that he said, Okay,
I'll think it over. I'll try to see what I
can do. And he was working almost all night trying
(04:06):
to think out appropriate words. And his wife came down
and said, why don't you have him read something from
the Bible. And they said, well, that's you know, the
New Testament. Now she says the Old.
Speaker 5 (04:15):
Testament reading from Genesis.
Speaker 3 (04:18):
Because you know, this would be very appropriate.
Speaker 5 (04:20):
And I discussed it with Bill and gemmen, and we
had it typed on the fight pline, and that's I
didn't give any more thought than that.
Speaker 3 (04:27):
So that's how it came to pass. They said the
first ten verses of Genesis, which is really the foundation
of many of the world's religions. And that's how it
got started.
Speaker 6 (04:37):
Now brooking Lunar Ryde and for all the people back
on earth, the crew of apollow eight. Haven't that they
that we would like to then you. In the beginning,
God created the even and the earth, and the earth
without form, and lloyd and darkness with on the face
(05:00):
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.
They went good. And God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light day, and the darkness he
(05:22):
called night, and the inning.
Speaker 4 (05:25):
In the morning with the first day, God said, let
them be the purpose in the midst of the water.
Let it divide the waters from the waters. And God
made the promn and divided the waters which were under
the from the waters which were both the persons. And
it was so, and God called the movement heaven.
Speaker 6 (05:47):
In the evening.
Speaker 4 (05:48):
In the morning of the second day, God.
Speaker 6 (05:51):
Said, let the waters are going to Heaven. Begether together
into one plate, and let the dry land of pear
and was so, and God called the dry land Earth
and the gethering the gutter of the water and calling
the God thought that it was good.
Speaker 3 (06:10):
And from the.
Speaker 6 (06:14):
Good night, good luck, and God live all of you,
all of you on the good Earth.
Speaker 5 (06:24):
Looking back at the Earth on Christmas Eve had a
great effect, I think on all three of us. I
can only speak for myself, but it had for me
because the wonderment of it and the fact that the
Earth looks so lonely in the universe. It's the only
thing with color. All of our emotions were focused back
there with our families, and so that was the most
(06:45):
emotional part of the flight for me.
Speaker 3 (06:48):
We were so curious, so excited about being at the moon
that we are like three school kids looking into a
candy story window watching those ancient old creators go by
from and we're already stick to my else above the surface.
Speaker 4 (07:02):
We didn't have.
Speaker 3 (07:02):
Any kind of feeling, at least myself, of you know,
fear or if you know, are we going to get
back or not. It was just just to be there.
Was such an exciting moment that you know, would have
done it all the time. I felt very, very honored
and lucky to be there.
Speaker 2 (07:21):
There was a little bit of concern as to how
that would be you know, received in the world, but
NASA gave them the permission to do that. I mean,
it wasn't something that was really that controversial, but in
many circles they thought that, hey, this is a inappropriate
thing to do as we celebrate the birth of the
Christ Child Christmas and read from the Book of Genesis
and talk about the creation according to the Bible, of
(07:43):
how the universe was formed, and God in his wonderful ways,
of how we manifest beauty and love to all the
people of the world and probably to all people in
the other civilizations outside of this world.
Speaker 3 (07:55):
At the time, we didn't know what the effect of
the flight would be. We didn't know whether the flight
was going to be sexs tessful or not. But you know,
with riots and assassinations and the war going on, I
was part of a thing that folly gave an up
left to the American people about doing something positive, which
was really That's why I say Pollo Wait was really
(08:15):
the high point of my Space career.
Speaker 2 (08:17):
Their neutrality in politics was always number one, but reading
from the Bible was just in their opinion, and I
approve of it. I think it was a beautiful thing
because at that time, there's a way to send a
message about peace and love, and why not do that
during a time when everybody meet up calming. It was
probably one of the most watched shows ever in the
(08:37):
history of television. And I don't know the exact number
of people that were watching, but it's in the hundreds
of millions. And it was so well done. And I
thought that the reading of the Bible and the Book
of Genesis was an apropos for the time when tentions
were very high in America.
Speaker 1 (08:51):
And a terrific job on the editing and production and
storytelling by Monty Montgomery. A special thanks to Steve Cats
and also a special thanks to NASA at Johnson's Space
Center Oral History Project for some of the audio in
this piece and NASA itself. The astronauts knew they needed
to say something appropriate on Christmas Eve, with the largest
(09:12):
television viewing audience perhaps in history. They were told to
do something appropriate, and my goodness, did that. The story
of the reading of Genesis, the story of Americans in
orbit around the Moon, and God's creation here on our
American story
Host
Lee Habeeb
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