The year 1968 was tumultuous for America. As the Vietnam War raged and leaders like Martin Luther King Jr. lost their lives, riots erupted in cities across the United States.
Amidst the chaos, three men left Earth, leaving behind the world's turmoil for the silent, contemplative void of space. In orbit around the moon, they shared a Christian message with a captivated audience of hundreds of millions of people.
Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, a doctorate-holding astronomer and director of the Vatican Observatory, told the CNA news agency that he remembers watching the NASA astronauts lift off, surrounded by friends and family in front of a grainy television. He also remembers hearing the astronauts read a passage from the Bible, a choice he found unexpected and deeply moving.
More than five decades later, the Jesuit Brother still loves talking about this episode in history. It helped him follow the path he walks today, as a joyful practitioner of his faith, but also as an accomplished scientist. The first Christmas in space was, he says, "fulfilling and confirming in a way I would never have guessed."
Humanity had dreamed of reaching the moon for millennia, but it was only in the 20th century that it became feasible. The United States launched the Apollo program in 1961 in response to President John F. Kennedy's challenge to land a man on the moon by the end of the decade. In the midst of the Cold War, the Soviet Union was making progress in its own space program, and rumors swirled that it would beat the United States to the moon. NASA shifted into high gear.
The mission on which America's lunar ambitions rested, Apollo 8, was astonishingly ambitious. The rocket they planned to use had never carried a crew before, and a recent unmanned test mission, Apollo 6, had failed.
Worse still, a 1967 fire in a test capsule had claimed the lives of three Apollo astronauts. To say the odds were against NASA would be an understatement.
Furthermore, the mission's timing was critical, as the distance between Earth and the moon varies. According to NASA's calculations in the fall of 1968, the optimal date to attempt lunar orbit was in just a few months, in late December.
On December 21, 1968, a Saturn V rocket stood ready on the NASA launch pad in Florida, carrying astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders. The Saturn V is the most powerful vehicle ever created by humans before or since, and at that time, it had never carried humans.
After liftoff, the astronauts kept a logbook, recounting visions no one had ever seen before. Borman, Lovell, and Anders became the first human beings to leave Earth's orbit and the first to glimpse the far side of the moon. Oh, and let's not forget they set a new speed record for the human race: 24,200 mph.
On Christmas Eve, Apollo 8 reached lunar orbit. The spacecraft was equipped with a television camera, and the men sent a total of six broadcasts, the last one aired in prime time. It is this broadcast that Brother Guy remembers so clearly.
For the Christmas broadcast, NASA had given the men no specific instructions on what to say, only to say something "appropriate."
Thus, with an audience of a billion people hanging on their every word, Bill Anders spoke first, followed by Lovell, then Borman:
"In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth.
And the earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.
And the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters. And God said, 'Let there be light': and there was light.
And God saw the light, that it was good: and God divided the light from the darkness.
And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day.
And God said, 'Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters.'
And God made the firmament, and divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament: and it was so.
And God called the firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.
And God said, 'Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear': and it was so.
And God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas: and God saw that it was good."
The astronauts later stated they chose the passage from Genesis 1 because of its significance not only to Christians but to many of the world's great religions.
Brother Guy said the choice of that particular Scripture passage was unexpected, but it left a lasting impression on him.
"I would have expected a psalm about how the heavens declare the glory of God, but instead, choosing that particular reading was an act of genius I would never have thought of," he reflected.
"Hearing the Genesis story read that way, in that very respectful manner, was fulfilling and confirming in a way I would never have guessed."
On Christmas morning, the astronauts fired the spacecraft's engine and set course for home. As they gained speed, they feasted on a Christmas dinner of turkey, stuffing, and small bottles of brandy.
A few days later, their spacecraft splashed down in the Pacific Ocean and an aircraft carrier recovered them. They had spent the first Christmas in space and returned home safely in time to celebrate the new year, 1969.
The mission was an incredible achievement that galvanized the public, as the possibility of touching and traversing the lunar surface became more and more real. And in July 1969, the Apollo 11 astronauts would do just that.
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There is, however, a sad side to this story. Anders, who read part of the biblical passage, later said that seeing the small Earth below them actually contributed to the loss of his Catholic faith, perhaps because it made the world, and his own life, seem so small and insignificant.
Furthermore, the reading of the biblical passage disturbed some viewers. A public atheist even filed a lawsuit against NASA, alleging the publicly funded agency was promoting religion. The Supreme Court later dismissed the suit, but resentful feelings lingered in some quarters.
Brother Guy said the reaction wasn't particularly surprising; after all, prominent atheists had publicly objected a few years earlier when "A Charlie Brown Christmas," which had an explicit Christian message, aired on network television.
"It shouldn't be a political thing. Faith is for everyone," said Brother Guy.
"What I've discovered in the world of science over the last 50 years is that there is a much broader acceptance of many faiths. It's the joy of having diversity in the field now, not as much as we should, but much more than before. Expressing your faith is giving permission to others to express theirs. And that enriches everyone."
This article was originally published by the National Catholic Register (Article Link). It is republished and translated with the author's permission.