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I think the Apollo 8 mission is one of

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the most important missions of the whole

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NASA experience it was the first time

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that humans left the vicinity of Earth

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and traveled to another world Apollo 8

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was not originally planned as a moon

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mission NASA's plan was to do an earth

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orbital mission in September 1968 the

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Soviets and zond 5 to pass by the moon

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the space race competition at land

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humans on the moon the goals set by

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President Kennedy in 61 seemed 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 bolder

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riskier mission voyage to the moon the

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Apollo 8 commander Frank Borman and

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command module pilot Jim Lovell had

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flown more hours than any other

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astronauts indeed they were ready for

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Apollo 8 so too was Bill Anders William

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Anders making his very first light the

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mission departed December 21st and

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returned December 28 1968 launched just

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before the Christmas holidays the

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mission ballast the tension of the space

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race with a transcendent feeling that

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the accomplishment was truly for all

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humanity

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John was awful generous and saying how

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important Apollo it was but in reality

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every flight was important NASA's

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program wasn't haphazard it didn't just

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it didn't just happen it was planned

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every step of the way and it was

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remarkable that it worked I think I

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honestly believe that God was was

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shining on us from there from the very

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beginning when we were told that we're

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going to go to the moon we're planning

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and we're training and we're doing

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everything and then it was the day of

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the launch the rocket itself is filled

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with five and a half billion pounds of

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high explosives everyone else is a

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comfortable three and a half miles away

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I said these people are really serious

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we're going to go to the moon this is

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Apollo Saturn launch controllable

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at this time t-minus 15 14 13 12 11 10 9

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we have ignition sequence start the

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nobody had written on the Saturn 5 they

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know sooner lift this thing off

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when I realized that we had missed one

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major part of dissimulation the sideways

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vibration with those big huge 1.5

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million pounds thrust each engines

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gimbley around trying to keep this thing

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straight the center of gravity is way

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down here we were up here like a ladybug

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on the end of your automobile antenna so

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as it moved down here on inch this thing

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moved a foot and I was convinced that

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the fins were bouncing up the girders of

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the launch Tower also the noise was

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deafening there was no way we could

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communicate when we cleared the tower

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things smoothed out and I thought boy if

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we missed that in our training what else

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have we missed

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suddenly the rocket cut off the primer

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cord sheared off the first-stage

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instantaneously some retro rockets fired

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it felt like I was being catapulted

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right through the instrument panel okay

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that means so I threw my hand up about

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the time my hand got up here the second

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stage cut in wack so I looked up and had

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my my face my helmet on and here was

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this gash across my helmet and I thought

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oh gosh you know when the big boys see

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this you know it's gonna just you know

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justify the rookie position well we made

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it into orbit and somewhere along the

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line I collected the helmets and I

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noticed it the other two guys each had a

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slash so my point is there's no rookies

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on the first Center fly everybody's a

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rookie we went around once and a half

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around the Earth and then over what's

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over Hawaii wasn't we got the go for tli

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translunar injection Mike Collins said

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Apollo eight your go for TOI we lifted

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s4 be sorry about picked up about 25,000

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miles an hour and started toward the

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moon just as we were cutting in front of

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the moon like like high schoolers trying

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to outrace the train in their jalopy and

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beating it by a yard we went into the

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shadow of the moon and it was dark and I

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remember looking back and seeing all

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these stars and suddenly there was this

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big black hole and I gotta tell you the

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hair went up on the back of my neck cuz

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but what we came into the sunshine

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actually we came out I think we were

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best expressed as you know three school

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kids looking through a candy store

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window our noses were pressed to the

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glass and we're all looking at those

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ancient old craters on the far side of

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the Moon which of course as you all know

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we don't see from the earth I think

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that's one of the great impressions I've

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had in the the first instances of

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actually becoming a Jim was busy

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photographing along the flight path

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through the navigation system and I was

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shooting like left and we got a lot of

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good pictures of the lunar surface and I

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think Frank yelled out look or something

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and here was this gorgeous thing coming

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up over the lunar horizon the backside

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of the moon NASA picked the one I took

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as the iconic Earthrise picture but

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frankly even though they both claimed

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they took it they know who did but I

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considered kind of a crew picture

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actually I think that was made probably

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the most important evidence that we

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brought back was it was a photography

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and Jim and build it at all

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we were told that on Christmas Eve we

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would have the largest four audience

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that ever listened to a human voice and

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the only instructions that we got from

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NASA was to do something appropriate the

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first 10 verses of Genesis is the

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foundation of many of the world's

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religions not just a Christian religion

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and there are more people in other

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religions than the Christian religion

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around the world and so this would be

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appropriate to that and so that's how it

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came to pass I think that that the three

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of us were very very fortunate Americans

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I can remember as we stepped out on the

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carrier with that fresh ocean breeze and

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the flag flying there and the sailors

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all standing around it was a feeling to

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me of overwhelming sense of gratitude

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for what we had been part of I didn't

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realize exactly what we had accomplished

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I knew that we accomplished a successful

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first flight to the moon but I didn't

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know the significance of it for the

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United States and for the world of what

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what it had happened it it takes time

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for these things to sink in and in a

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sense great feelings about the

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accomplishment but I frankly felt a

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little guilty because all of us had

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comrades and colleagues doing things

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that I thought were a lot more dangerous

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and we were lucky to be part of it as

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Frank said and we sort of got all the

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adulation and all the success and

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the plaudits and there were so many

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people that were trying to serve this

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country and they're much more difficult

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circumstances so I felt very humble and