"In the beginning..." - 40 years later
This Christmas season is a special one in space history. It was 40 years ago, Christmas 1968, when Apollo 8 sent the first human beings to the Moon. They didn't land - the Lunar Modules weren't ready yet - but they made ten orbits and sent back the first TV transmission from another world. For the first time, people could see the entire Earth as a planet floating in space. They also read from the King James Bible on Christmas Eve. There are lots of online commemorations you can check out if you're interested: National Public Radio ran a story on Morning Edition that you can listen to here . There's also an online video bonus story. David Livingston welcomed space historian Robert Zimmerman to Monday's edition of The Space Show , to talk about Apollo 8 and the Bible reading in particular. You can listen to that here . Finally, NASA-TV is running Apollo 8 coverage all day today and tomorrow. You can check out the schedule here . Merry Christmas, everybody!