On Christmas Eve 1968, 56 years ago, Apollo 8 crew members Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders made a live broadcast from orbit around the Moon. They were the first humans to orbit the Moon, and the crew took turns reading from the opening lines of the biblical book of Genesis. Commander Frank Borman closed the broadcast with the following poignant words…
Borman later said, during 40th anniversary celebrations in 2008, the only instructions that we got from NASA was to do something appropriate for what was likely going to be the largest audience ever.