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On December twenty-first, nineteen sixty-eight,
Apollo 8 lifted off from Florida on a
Saturn Five rocket.

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Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders were
headed beyond Earth orbit.

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Their destination was the Moon.

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The launch began a six-day mission, and the
first test of how a crew would navigate all
the way to lunar orbit.

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The three astronauts entered lunar orbit on
Christmas Eve.

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From their cabin, the surface looked gray and
bare.

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They photographed the Moon and checked what a
later landing crew would need to know.

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There was no landing on this flight.

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The crew tested the route and photographed
places that future Apollo missions might
visit.

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As Apollo 8 came around the Moon, Earth rose
into view above the gray horizon.

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Bill Anders took a color photograph.

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In it, the blue planet hangs in black space
with nobody and nothing else in sight.

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The lunar surface gives the image a
foreground.

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Earth takes up only a small part of the frame,
but its color makes it the first thing you
notice.

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The crew splashed down in the Pacific on
December twenty-seventh.

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Apollo 8 had proved that people could reach
lunar orbit and return safely.

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The photograph it brought home gave millions a
new view of a familiar place.

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Seven months later, Apollo 11 would land on
the Moon.

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Earthrise still shows what the earlier crew
saw while they were simply passing by.