On Dec. 24, 1968, astronauts on Apollo 8 spacecraft took on of the great picture ever taken by a human - Earthrise, the picture on the Earth a tiny, swirling ball of blue and white , surrounded by the black of space, rising over the surafce ofg the moon.
The Apollo 8 astronauts were the first men to leave Earth’s orbit and the first to orbit the moon, They allowed the success of Apollo 11 in 1969, when the first astronauts walked on the moon.
But the Earthrise picture made people understand how beautiful and singular the Earth is, People think if one picture inspired the environmental movement, this is the one.
It also led, memorably, to the Apollo 8astronauts reading the opening passages of Genesis – a myth of creation – to the world, then wishing everyone ‘on the Good Earth” peace.
I was 17 years old. And I remember chills going up the back of my spine, listening to them I can’t remember where I was when men first walked on the moon. I remember Apollo 8.