The year 1968 was a tumultuous one in the US with many political and cultural changes punctuated by the assassination of prominent public figures, violent protests over civil rights, race relations and against the escalation of the Vietnam War which had entered a new, more violent phase in the wake of the Tet Offensive. It has been argued that NASA’s Apollo 8 mission, which was the first to send astronauts to the Moon, in some ways saved 1968 as Americans and the world watched this unprecedented voyage of peaceful exploration over the Christmas holiday season (see “Apollo 8: Where No One Has Gone Before”). By far, the most famous image from this mission was the view of the Earth rising over the bleak lunar landscape taken on December 24, 1968. Ironically, this iconic photograph was never planned and it was only by chance that it was even taken.
Taking the Photograph
Launched on December 21, 1968, the primary objective of the six-day Apollo 8 mission was to test the Command-Service Module (CSM) and the associated support systems back on Earth in a flight to lunar orbit and back to Earth. The crew consisted of Frank Borman as the Commander, Jim Lovell as the Command Module Pilot (CMP), and Bill Anders as the Lunar Module Pilot (LMP). Borman and Lovell were both part of NASA’s second ground of astronauts chosen in 1962 (see “NASA Selects the ‘New Nine’ – September 17, 1962”) and had previously flown together during the record-setting Gemini 7 long-duration mission in December 1965 (see “Gemini 7: Two Weeks in the Front Seat of a Volkswagen”). Lovell went on to command the final Gemini mission in November 1966 (see “The Grand Finale: The Mission of Gemini 12”). Bill Anders, who was chosen as part of NASA’s third astronaut group in 1963, was making his first spaceflight.
The crew of the Apollo 8 mission consisted of (l to r) Frank Borman, William Anders, and James Lovell. (NASA)
The Apollo 8 CSM started its main engine burn to enter an initial 111.1 by 312.1-kilometer orbit around the Moon at 09:59:20 GMT on December 24 after an uneventful three-day coast from Earth. The orbit was trimmed to a more circular 110.6 by 112.4 kilometers about 4½ hours later after completing two orbits around the Moon. Among the science objectives of this mission was to acquire photographs of the lunar surface including high-resolution images of the lunar far side, filling in areas not seen clearly during the earlier unmanned Lunar Orbiter missions (see the Lunar Orbiter Program page), and various targets of opportunity including a close look at a site in Mare Tranquillitatis proposed for the first Apollo lunar landing. Some of the photographs were taken at regular intervals in such a fashion that allowed them to be combined into stereo views that could be analyzed to measure the elevation of the lunar topography more precisely. Photography of the Earth from lunar orbit was only a secondary objective.
A modified Hasselblad 500EL 70 mm still camera with an 80 mm lens like that used during the Apollo 8 mission. (NASM)
The cameras used for lunar photography were a pair of modified Hasselblad 500EL 70 mm still cameras nominally fitted with an 80 mm focal length lens. Also carried onboard was a Zeiss Sonnar 250 mm focal length telephoto lens that could be swapped out with the standard 80 mm lens to provide higher resolution views. A total of seven 70 mm film magazines, which were interchangeable with the Hasselblad camera bodies, were carried to meet the mission’s various photography objectives. For lunar photography, two magazines were carried with a total of 352 frames of Kodak Ektachrome SO-368 medium speed color reversal film (i.e. the exposed film would produce photographic negatives once processed) with a speed of ASA 64. Also carried were three magazines with a total of 600 frames of Kodak Ektachrome 3400 Panatomic-X Aerial black and white film rated by the manufacturer at a speed of ASA 80. The black and white film was carried because of its superior performance compared to the color films of the era providing photographs with twice the resolution, all else being equal.
Bill Anders during the Apollo 8 mission. (NASA/JSC)
As Apollo 8 was finishing its third orbit of the Moon, the astronauts began a stereo strip photography session at 16:11 GMT with Frank Borman in the left-hand seat maintaining the attitude of the CSM to permit vertical photography using a camera mounted in his forward-facing rendezvous window. This camera was fitted with an 80 mm lens and an intervalometer to take a photograph automatically every 20 seconds. Jim Lovell was in the CM’s lower equipment bay preparing to make sightings of lunar landmarks using the Apollo navigation system’s sextant. Bill Anders was in his right-hand seat to take photographs with a handheld camera with the 250 mm telephoto lens using a black and white film magazine. The exposure time of this camera was fixed at 1/250th of a second, in order to minimize blurring, with the f-stop adjusted as needed to values no wider than f/5.6 to optimize the exposure of the film.
The first image Anders took of the Earthrise (AS8-13-2329) in black and white acquired at about 16:38:44 GMT. Click on image to enlarge. (NASA/JSC)
At about 16:37 GMT, Borman began a planned slow roll maneuver to orient the CSM properly for the next part of the stereo strip photography session. About a minute into the roll maneuver, Anders caught a glimpse of the Earth rising in his right-hand side window and exclaimed “Oh my God, look at that picture over there! There’s the Earth comin’ up. Wow, is that pretty!”. Borman quipped, “Hey don’t take that, it’s not scheduled.” Of course, Anders chuckled, quickly lined up the shot and took a photograph of the rising Earth using the black and white film already loaded in his camera.
A closeup of the black and white image of the Earthrise. Click on image to enlarge. (NASA/JSC)
Anders quickly called out to Lovell to hand him a magazine of color film so that he could capture the view in color. But before Anders could set up the camera with the new load of film, the rising Earth passed out of view from his side window. Lovell quickly noted the Earth was now visible through the center hatch window. Anders took another couple of exposures through his right-hand rendezvous window using the color film magazine. While it was by pure luck that Anders caught sight of the rising Earth and managed to take a total of three exposures, this unplanned event ended up producing the mission’s iconic image of the blue and white Earth rising over the barren lunar landscape.
The first color image of the Earth rise taken by Bill Anders (AS8-14-2383) acquired at about 16:39:39 GMT. Click on image to enlarge. (NASA/JSC)
The second color image of the Earth rise taken by Bill Anders (AS8-14-2384) acquired at about 16:40:08 GMT. Click on image to enlarge. (NASA/JSC)
The Apollo 8 crew wrapped up the stereo strip photography session at 16:51 GMT then moved on to other activities including meals and rest. The most memorable event of the mission was the live telecast from lunar orbit starting at 02:34 GMT on December 25 (8:34 PM CST on Christmas Eve back in at Mission Control in Houston). The television images of the bleak lunar surface returned during the 26-minute, 43-second broadcast, along with the crew’s reading of the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis as part of their Christmas greeting, was heard live by an estimated one billion people in 64 countries around the globe (and many more subsequently). A portion of that historic event as broadcast by CBS News is shown below:
Right on scheduled at 06:10:17 GMT on December 25, the main engine of the CSM ignited again to leave lunar orbit and send Apollo 8 back to Earth. The Apollo 8 mission ended with a successful splashdown at 15:15:42 GMT on December 27 in the central Pacific southwest of Hawaii. The film magazines were shipped to NASA’s Manned Spacecraft Center (today’s Johnson Spaceflight Center) for processing and assessment. In the weeks to follow, photographs from the historic Apollo 8 mission, including the famous Earthrise shot, were shared with the public. But before the public could digest these pictures, the Apollo program shifted into a fast-paced sequence of test flights creating yet more spectacular views from space.
Related Video
Here is a NASA-produced video about the circumstances surrounding the famous Earth rise photograph taken while Apollo 8 was in orbit around the Moon.
Here is a NASA documentary from 1969 about the Apollo 8 mission entitled Apollo 8: Go For TLI:
Related Reading
“Apollo 8: Where No One Has Gone Before”, Drew Ex Machina, January 5, 2019 [Post]
General References
Andrew Chaikin, “The Story Behind Apollo 8’s Famous Earthrise Photo”, NASA, September 9, 2023 [Post]
Richard W. Orloff and David M. Harland, Apollo: The Definitive Sourcebook, Springer-Praxis, 2006
Apollo 8 Press Kit, NASA Press Release 68-208, December 15, 1968
Apollo 8 Mission Report, MSC-PA-R-69-1, NASA Manned Space Center, February 1969
Thank you for this wonderful article!