Happy 46th anniversary Apollo 8

At 7:51 am PST(10:51 am EST or 15:51 UTC) was the 46^th anniversary of one of the major milestone in NASA's race to reach the moon by the end of the decade. Apollo 8 splashed down in the Pacific Ocean ending the first mission to orbit the Moon. The mission was full of first including the first Christmas to ever be celebrated in orbit of a celestial body.

“We were told that on Christmas Eve we would have the largest audience to ever listened to a human voice,” Frank Borman said in a statement during 40th anniversary celebrations in 2008. "And the only instructions that we got from NASA was to do something appropriate."

It was 69 hours in to the mission that Apollo 8 went into orbit around the Earth's Moon. On a live Christmas Eve broadcast James Lovell jr, command module pilot, read the first 10 verses of the book of Genesis. The reading was another first as we listen to him read from Bible as they circled the Moon on December 24, 1968. During the 40^th anniversary Mr. Lovell explained why he choose that particular part of the Bible to read on the broadcast.

"The first ten verses of Genesis is the foundation of many of the world's religions, not just the Christian religion," added James Lovell. "There are more people in other religions than the Christian religion around the world, and so this would be appropriate to that and so that's how it came to pass."

The mission was the first mission to launch from the Kennedy Space Center, named for the late President John F. Kennedy, and the first manned mission to use the Saturn V rocket. The launch took place at 7:51 am EST on December 21, 1968 from the site in Florida. Shortly after that Apollo 8 became the first manned mission to leave a low Earth orbit on its way to set the stage for Apollo 11 to land on the Moon.

The primary and back-up crew for Apollo 8 had a strong representation of two of the most memorable Apollo missions. Michael Collins was picked to be the command module pilot before being pulled for medical reasons and was replaced by Jame Lovell. Michael Collins later became the command module pilot on Apollo 11, the moon landing mission. James Lovell went on to command the crew for the infamous Apollo 13. The back-up crew for Apollo 8 consisted of Neil Armstrong, Edwin “Buzz” Aldrin and Fred Haise. Neil Armstrong and Edwin Aldrin went on to be the 1^st and 2^nd men to walk on the Moon after the Apollo 11 Moon landing. Fred Haise went on to become part of the infamous Apollo 13 crew.