NASA Takes Photography INTO SPACE by Arnold Ringstad Content Consultant Jennifer Levasseur PhD Museum Curator Department of Space History National Air and Space Museum Smithsonian Institution Essential Library An Imprint of Abdo Publishing abdopublishing com DEFINING IMAGES
CHAPTER ONE Earthrise On Christmas Eve 1968 three astronauts floated freely in their cone-shaped spacecraft Commander Frank Borman lunar module pilot William Anders and command module pilot James Lovell could see the gray pockmarked face of the moon below them Their mission Apollo 8 was tasked with orbiting 70 miles 110 km from the lunar surface It was one step in a long process of testing and proving the gear and procedures that would eventually land humans on the moon during the Apollo 11 mission But for now the Apollo 8 astronauts simply gazed down at the moon as they circled it As they rounded the edge of the moon on their fourth orbit an incredible sight caught their eyes Rising from behind the The Apollo 8 crew left to right James Lovell William A Anders and Frank Borman were the first people to orbit the moon
