The mission broke with NASA’s intended plan for Apollo. The agency had wanted to test the lunar spacecraft — the main command-service modules and the lunar module — in Earth orbit before sending any mission a quarter of a million miles away. But in August of 1968, the lunar module was falling so badly behind schedule that NASA managers came up with a novel idea. The Saturn V was ready for a manned mission, so why not take a command-service module to the Moon without a lunar module? The mission obviously couldn’t land, but it would prove the core spacecraft was up to the challenge of going to the Moon and getting the crew — Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders — back safely. Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968, and went into orbit around the Moon on Christmas Eve. While in orbit, the crew famously did a live TV broadcast wherein they read from the Book of Genesis. It angered a lot of people, specifically Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who filed a lawsuit against the space agency. Two years ago on the mission’s 45th anniversary, I “live” tweeted Apollo 8! Look back on minutia of that flight here, though the tweets come through in reverse chronological order, sadly! So a Bible reading might have been too far for the agency, but a Christmas song in orbit didn’t garner the same negative reaction. On December 4, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders launched on a two-week long duration mission aboard Gemini 7. Their orbital monotony was punctuated by a visit from Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford on Gemini 6. This second crew launched on December 15 with one goal: rendezvous with Gemini 7. The rendezvous was successful, and it gave us some pretty incredible pictures of that spacecraft in orbit. After a little more than a day in space, Gemini 6 was getting ready to return to Earth when the crew reported seeing a UFO. They said it looked like a command module with eight smaller modules up front piloted by a commander in red, traveling from north to south around the planet. Then they treated an unsuspecting Gemini 7 crew and mission control to a rendition of Jingle Bells with Schirra on a four-hole, eight-note Little Lady harmonica from Hohner with Stafford playing accompaniment on a set of five miniature bells. However you celebrate whatever you celebrate during the holiday season, Pete and I wish you and your loved ones all the best!
