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this year the museum is honoring the

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40th anniversary of the Apollo 8 mission

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and the accomplishments of its crew

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Frank Borman Jim Lovell and Bill Anders

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not just because of the occasion tonight

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but I've said this repeatedly I think

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the Apollo 8 mission is one of the most

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important missions of the whole NASA

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experience and I don't say that just

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because we're here tonight it was a very

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very unusual mission about which will

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hear a lot later on the mission departed

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December 21st and returned December 28

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1968 he was the first time that humans

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left the vicinity of Earth and traveled

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to another world and i think the things

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that will have will hear them describe

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this evening will show what faith they

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had in the engineers and the people they

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were working with and the crew and the

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team and the equipment and everything

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else and we will be hearing a great deal

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about the mission but let me just set

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the stage with a few historical facts

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Apollo 8 was not originally planned as a

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moon mission NASA's plan was to do an

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earth orbital mission but in September

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1968 the Soviets ends on 52 pass by the

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moon it carried and returned to earth a

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payload of turtles wine flies and

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mealworms now that's quite a character

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now I don't know there's a similarity

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between those three types of cargos and

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the ones that occurred later on when the

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u.s. sent them up or not but Borman

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Lovell and Anders were a step up from

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Turtles wine flies and mealworms there's

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no doubt about that and it carried when

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it brought them back to earth of course

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the USSR repeated the feat in November

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was on six the space race competition at

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land humans on the moon the goal set by

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president kennedy in 61 seem to be

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heating up considerably and after the

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successful earth orbit mission of Apollo

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7 the time seemed right for a boulder or

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risk your mission a voyage to the moon

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reportedly even the Apollo 8 astronauts

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rated their chances of

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said no better than 5050 they're willing

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to go before Apollo 8 the u.s. had flown

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only 17 missions in space only 17 and

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only 22 different astronauts before that

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had gained space flight experience of

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those Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman

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and command module pilot Jim Lovell had

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flown more hours than any other

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astronauts indeed together they had more

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hours than all Soviet cosmonauts

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combined they flew together on Gemini 7

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a two-week endurance test in which they

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lived together in a cabin the size of a

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Volkswagen Beetle after recovery Jim

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Lovell joked I want to announce our

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engagement it's my understanding to from

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rumors going around that the sanitary

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conditions would not have passed ocean

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minimums they were ready for Apollo 8 so

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too was Bill Anders William Anders

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making his very first light grads with

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the Naval Academy and experienced pilot

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recipient of a master's degree in

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nuclear engineering he served as lunar

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module pilot for the mission

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unfortunately for him the mission did

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not carry a lunar module engineering

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problems had delayed its availability

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but then this next statement may be a

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little bit controversial to some of the

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crew beside Bill Anders but as Apollo 8

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orbited the moon bill had to be content

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with making one of the most historic

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photographs of the 20th century the

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incomparable image of the earth rising

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over the lunar surface there'll be a

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little contention on that perhaps the

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public build-up to Apollo 8 was

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tremendous a worldwide audience

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anticipated the mission lost just before

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the Christmas holidays the mission

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ballast the tension of the space race

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with a transcendent feeling that the

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accomplishment was truly for all

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humanity live television broadcast by

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the astronauts while orbiting the moon

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brought the adventure to almost a

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quarter of all people living on earth by

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best estimates and the very memorable

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Christmas Eve scripture reading is

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something that none of us had heard that

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at that time I including many of you

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here

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will ever ever forget the success of the

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mission paved the way a few months later

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for Apollo 11 for neo buzz Mike going to

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the moon landing of humans on the moon

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fulfilling President Kennedy's challenge

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to the nation so it's really my pleasure

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not only to be here tonight but to look

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forward to hearing some of the

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recounting of what happened on Apollo 8

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it's my pleasure to welcome the Apollo 8

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astronauts and dr. Martin Collins

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curator in the museum's division of

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maybe a place to begin here is to ask

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Frank to to to give us a little bit of a

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sense of how the idea for the Apollo 8

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mission began on how it sort of took

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shape in the months of the summer months

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of 1968 Thank You Martin and thank you

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all for being here John for your

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generous introduction I we were assigned

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to the excuse me third Apollo mission

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was supposed to been a a long duration

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relatively long durations exercising the

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lunar module and command module and

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Earth orbit out to 8,000 miles and then

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in December while we were out at at

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downey california going through the

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systems with the spacecraft i got a call

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from deke slayton our boss who said come

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back we've had a change in plans and he

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formed me that the CIA had informed NASA

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that they would be a probably be a

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Soviet attempt to go around the moon

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before the end of the year and they

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wanted to know if we could this was in

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August they want to know if we could

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change our mission training and be able

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to go I immediately said yes because I

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knew that billing and Jim would have a

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you know we're dying for the chance to

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do this and then we came back and and

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we've had the outline of what happened

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after that but interestingly enough the

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the saga of Apollo 8 really should begin

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of Apollo program should begin with a

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fire in January of 1967 to kill three

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astronauts through the whole program

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into disarray and out of that out of

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that terrible tragedy I'm convinced came

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the the genesis of Apollo program that

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was so successful part of the decision

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that was made when Frank went to Houston

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and Bill a man bill and I were still out

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at downey wondering what happened to

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Frank was the fact that the decision

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would go on Apollo 8 to the moon if

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Apollo 7 was successful so in reality

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that flight proved the improvements

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of the command module from the

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disastrous fire that we had in 1967 and

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that was the spur that allowed us to

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make that final decision after Apollo 7

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to say yes let's go although we were

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training for the moon or lunar mission

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prior to the Apollo 7 flight and that

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flight was successful because Frank you

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know spend an awful lot of time making

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sure that command module was safe you

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know John was awful generous and saying

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how important Apollo it wasn't then and

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then bill just mentioned Apollo 7 being

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so important but in reality every damn

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flight was important you know think

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think of John Glenn sitting on top of an

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ICBM really an aluminum inner tube

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because it wouldn't it wouldn't hold it

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without air is not correct you had to

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have pressure in that thing I get a

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clamp so NASA's program wasn't haphazard

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it didn't just it didn't just happen it

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was planned every step of the way and it

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was remarkable oh that it worked I think

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I honestly believe that God was was

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shining on us from there from the very

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beginning we had to start learning the

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the lunar surface of the Moon stop

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ography to see the various craters and

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this is one of interesting because we

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brought in people who were familiar with

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that to teach us some of the initial

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points because the mission of Apollo II

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was really to check the navigation and

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to check for suitable landing spots the

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flat areas the Mari of the sea that

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would give the people who would attempt

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the first landing the greatest chance of

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survival and consequently our

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photography and looking around all those

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flat areas like the Sea of Tranquility

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which model 11 eventually landed on that

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that was one of our missions and that

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was part of our training and also we had

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to do things that in a three-dimensional

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effect navigation was one of them

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because we are not going around the

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earth anymore we are going to have to

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test out of the navigation system on the

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way to the moon to say how accurate it