For All the People Back on Earth
If you’re old enough (well, not that old), odds are that you watched this live, or at some point. In what, as far as I can tell, was the first human non-terrestrial Christmas greeting, Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders, after noting the lonely view below, read off Genesis 1:1-10, then,
“And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you – all of you on the good Earth.”
And, of course, for anyone who has been persuaded otherwise, just under three hours later, after performing the Trans-Earth Injection on the far side of the moon, Lovell reported back, “Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus.” (Houston / Mattingly accepted the information, saying, “That’s affirmative. You’re the best ones to know.”)
