Apollo 8

The twentieth century was a transforming time in human history, for both good and bad. It was a century that saw mass murder reach unprecedented levels, for example. The Inquisition and the activities of the Russian czars' secret police notwithstanding, the twentieth was the century of systematic torture.

It was also a time of unbelievable scientific and technological advancements. No one living in 1900 could have foreseen the world of 2000. In many ways, a high point of those advancements was reached about two-thirds of the way through the century, on Christmas Eve, 1968, during the flight of Apollo 8.

There had been only one Apollo mission before NASA decided to send Apollo 8 to the Moon. NASA was running out of decade, and it also had one eye on the Soviets. Worrying about things beyond flying the mission is probably not the ideal way to conduct a space program, but history is not about perfection. NASA sent Apollo 8 to the Moon, and NASA made it work.

Much of the world watched the live Christmas Eve broadcast from Apollo 8 as Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders read from Genesis while the extraordinary lunar surface rolled past their windows. The three men were only about sixty miles away from another world. The combination of the literary and spiritual achievement of Genesis and the technological achievement of spaceflight seemed to promise a hopeful future for mankind.

That promise hasn't been realized yet, but neither is that promise forfeit. Creating the future, it turns out, takes time. Today, many nations are trying to establish themselves as space powers by sending probes to the Moon. Further manned exploration, including the establishment of lunar bases, is being planned by the United States and others. Perhaps most importantly in the long run, private enterprise is actively looking for ways to move into space, and may be finding some.

Christmas commemorates the beginning of a new era in human affairs. Whether the Christmas Eve broadcast of Apollo 8-- and the subsequent historic flight of Apollo 11-- will usher in another new era has yet to be determined. In a nation seemingly intent on separating science and religion, however, perhaps the possibilities opened by embracing the whole of the human experience should be considered.