Transcript of the Apollo 8 telecast
It was truly where no one had gone before. In December 1969, the three-man crew of the Apollo 8 spacecraft had successfully entered lunar orbit, 240,000 miles away from Earth. It was a precursor to later missions sent out to land on moon; this crew's job was to scout out appropriate landing sites on the desolate lunar surface.
Part of the flight plan included issuing a televised broadcast on Christmas Eve. Over half a billion people across the world tuned in to Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders as they described a lunar sunset and broadcast pictures of the Earth and moon as they were seeing it. The crew ended their message by reading the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis, closing with a Christmas greeting that wouldn't soon be forgotten by the millions who watched in wonder down on Earth.
