science · 22 December 1968 · 56 years ago
In 1968, the first U.S. live telecast from a manned spacecraft in outer space was transmitted at 3:01 p.m. from Apollo VIII. The earth appeared as a blurred ball of light. The craft was 139,000 miles from earth, 31-hr 20-min after launch. the previous day. A total of six live television transmission sessions were done by the crew during the mission, including the famous Christmas Eve broadcast in which the astronauts read from the book of Genesis. The crew for the flight was Captain James Lovell, Colonel Frank Borman and Major William Anders. The primary purpose of this mission was to further progress toward the goal of landing men on the Moon by gaining operational experience and testing the Apollo system.
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