Prompt Cast
The Historic Apollo 8 Mission: Orbiting the Moon and Capturing the First Earthrise
TLDR The Apollo 8 mission, launched in 1968, became the first to orbit the Moon and capture the iconic image of Earthrise. This historic spaceflight also included a widely listened to broadcast from the crew on Christmas Eve, making it a significant milestone in the Apollo program.
Timestamped Summary
00:00
On December 21st, 1968, the Apollo 8 mission launched and became the first to take three men outside of Earth's orbit and orbit the Moon, sending a widely listened to broadcast back to Earth.
02:10
The Apollo program had to be reevaluated and the launch schedule pushed back after a fire during a launch rehearsal killed all three Apollo 1 astronauts, but with little time left to achieve President Kennedy's goal of a moon landing before the end of the decade, the decision was made to switch around the order of the flights and consolidate some missions.
04:06
Apollo 8 was reconfigured to go directly to the moon, orbit it, and return to Earth, allowing the American space program to claim victory over the Soviets and test important lunar flight systems.
06:02
Apollo 8 astronauts saw the first ever Earthrise from the orbit of the moon and captured a photo of it on Christmas Eve.
08:05
The Apollo 8 crew conducted a live television broadcast on Christmas Eve, which was the most widely heard broadcast in human history at the time, and they chose to read a passage from the book of Genesis.
10:05
The Apollo 8 crew made their trans-Earth injection to begin the flight back home, and the rest of the flight was uneventful, taking two and a half days to return to Earth and splash down without incident on December 27.
12:08
Apollo 8 remains one of the most important and historic spaceflights in history.
