32 ASTRONOMY • DECEMBER 2018
Astronomy: That brings
up another question. You
mentioned your training in
terms of coming back from
the Moon, but did your
Apollo 8 training really
prepare you for the kinds
of things that you did on the
trip and for all the things
you would see? Did you feel
comfortably trained ahead
of time, or was it surprising
in any way?Lovell: In the short time
we had to retrain from an
Earth-orbital f light, which
was the original Apollo 8
[plan], everything worked.
We weren’t su r pr i sed. We
weren’t surprised when we
got to the Moon, either. Of
course, we had pictures of the
farside before we got there.
And so everything worked
fine. And it’s amazing. I think
the spacecraft, Apollo 8, was
one of the few incident-free
craft that ever went to the
Moon, with the least amount
of problems.Astronomy: Let’s talk a
little bit about your reading
from the book of Genesis
on Christmas Eve. How did
it come about, and was it
a joint decision among the
three of you or was it one
in particular?Lovell: This all started when
we started training [and]
found out we were going
to be orbiting the Moon on
Christmas Eve. You know,
what a coincidence. First
f light to the Moon on a year
that, looking back on it now,
was a very poor year in the
United States — the war was
going on, the riots, and the
assassinations.
And we said, “Well, can
we change the words to ‘The
Night Before Christmas’?”
That didn’t sound good at all.
And “Jingle Bells” was even
worse. And finally, I think it
was Frank [who knew a PR
guy in NASA], and Frank
asked him what we could say.
And he didn’t quite know...
but he had a newspaper friend... in Washington, D.C. He
called and said, “Look it,
these fellows want to say
something, and we want them
to say something, too, when
they’re around the Moon on
Christmas Eve, but we don’t
know what to say. You’re a
newspaperman, you’re used to
writing all kinds of things like
this, could you come up with
some good verbiage?”
So one night he [started to
think about what we could
say], and nothing came out.
Until his wife walked down
the stairs and asked him,
“Well, what are you doing?
You’re up late.” And he told
her the story. And she said,
“Well, that’s simple — just
have them read the first 10
verses of Genesis from the
Old Testament. That tells
everything.” And so that’s
how it came to pass.Astronomy: You and your
crew were the first people ever
to see Earth rising as you were
coming back from around the
farside of the Moon. Could
you describe how you took
the photo or how the photo
was taken?Lovell: For a long time it
was, “Who took that pic-
ture?” But actually, the true
story is that Bill Anders took
the picture. We were coming
around, actually it was the
third orbit. Bill and Frank
were looking out the right
window, and we saw the
Earth come up. And then
the spacecraft [moved] as
we were going around the
Moon. And I was on the left
window, and then I saw the
perfect composition that
you now see in the famous
photograph.
So I said, “Bill, Bill, look
here, take this picture.” And I
gave him the color film and
he said, “Now just a minute
Lovell, just a minute.” And
then I actually claim that I
told him how to compose the
picture so it would come out
good. But he took the picture.
And very fortunately we did
that. I think that was the one
iconic thing that we brought
back from that flight that
could tell everybody, in just a
photograph, exactly their
position in life.Astronomy: Did you have a
feeling that it would become
as iconic as it did when you
were seeing it yourself, or not
until you got back?“I think [the
Earthrise
image] was
the one iconic
thing that
we brought
back from
that flight
that could tell
everybody,
in just a
photograph,
exactly their
position
in life.”
The astronauts took this photo of the jettisoned
third stage of the Saturn V rocket after it
had propelled them toward the Moon.
Humanity’s first view of the whole Earth came as Apollo 8
receded from our planet. This view shows south up, with
South America at top center.