Earthrise

On December 21st, 1968, Apollo 8 became the first spacecraft to carry humans to the moon. A mission that lasted only 6 days, left an impact will last for generations to come.  

The spacecraft left Earth’s low orbit and began its journey to the moon, entering its orbit on December 24th. As Apollo 8 orbited the moon a total of ten times within twenty hours, its three-man crew of astronauts Bill Anders, Frank Borman and Jim Lovell broadcasted a television message in which they read a portion from the Book of Genesis.

A small blue dot, described as being no bigger than a fingernail, rose over the moon’s horizon. Anders scrambled to take pictures of the magnificent sight, resulting in the iconic picture, Earthrise. 

The timing of this image came at a time when the world was down; Americans feeling the effects of the assassinations of John F. Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr earlier in 1968, the war in Vietnam reaching a turning point, and civil conflict had spread in America and parts of Europe. When the image was circulated on Earth, it renewed hope and lifted spirits. 

Since then, Earthrise has become an influential image of the environmental movement serving as a poignant reminder for how isolated we are in the universe, and that this small, vulnerable planet that appeared as a speck of blue against a black backdrop is all we have and is deserving of care and protection.  

NASA’s multibillion-dollar Apollo space program had the goal of successful crewed lunar landings, ultimately fulfilled with the deployment of Apollo 11 where astronauts Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin when they became the first two humans to land and walk on the moon.  

However, Earthrise is the image that has propelled environmental movements and has not been overshadowed by that moment as the stark image left a deep, lasting impression. 

The irony isn’t lost that as they left to discover a new world, they ended up rediscovering home.