Apollo 8 saved 1968. The 1968 list of horrors included political assassination, the VietNam war, campus violence, and much more. And then the December miracle of our leap to the moon displaying human optimism, ingenuity, courage, and persistence.
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Earthrise changed everything. It was the cover of TWEC. No one called it that back then. I doubt anyone calls it that now, either. But it was on the cover of every edition. :)
i was helping out in 6th grade science and when we were talking about this apollo thing i asked which planet's picture changed the world so much... the one of the earth!
Of course Apollo 8 was designed and managed by Nazi Werner von Braun - brought from Germany as part of the USAs “Operation Paperclip”. He was an enthusiastic Nazi too, he not only designed the V2 rockets that rained down on London, he had them built with labour from concentration camps. By the end
2024 has been similar to 1968 in many ways but one big difference is that then the vast majority of Americans shared the same set of facts rather than the array of alternative facts extant in today’s social media newscape.
I was 10 during Apollo 8. Deep into the Apollo program, convinced I could land the LM if called upon. And totally confused about how the world worked. We shot politicians and leaders. We shot students. There was a war. Apollo gave me something else to get into.
I'm a 2024 Election Survivor. The American flag that was once folded in a triangle was pulled down and rolled into a ball and tossed next to cans of motor oil. During the 60's we had something to be a part of. In 2025 I see nothing but the fall of the Roman Empire. And I wonder how we got so stupid.
Spot on. Apollo 8 for me was such a major landmark. That Genesis reading…goosebumps. I followed all the flights from Mercury. You are correct in saying that the US is fractured. I think it is in decline.
On another note, I can’t believe I am actually messaging you! An icon! *starry eyed*
Hello, Im Omer from Gaza.🇵🇸
My life and dreams have been destroyed by the war. I lost my home and source of income, and my family and I live under immense psychological pressure.
I ask for your support and solidarity to help us build a new life free from fear and suffering.🙏🏻
NASA should do a manned orbit of the Moon with Orion launched on the last SLS rocket. Then use Starship from here on out. They could park one in rectilinear halo orbit around the Moon, call it the gateway, park one on the surface as a Moon base Alpha.
I had to dig back to being in elementary school in Webster TX watching on the wheeled in tv in class. I had a transistor radio too. I fondly recall those times in Nassau Bay where almost everyone’s dad worked on Apollo. Mine too and his project for TRW was the reflecting gold foil on the lander.
We should take a lesson. Had we not marched, Vietnam War for many more years and lost lives. We are now lazy asses.
BOYCOTT CNN
Start at 12:01 am January 19th and continue until 11:59 pm January 20. Gives people enough time in advance of inauguration to get comfortable with new reality.
Astronauts Borman, Lovell and Anders read from the Book of Genesis while orbiting the Moon on Christmas Eve 1968. Thank goodness my parents had me and my younger brother watch this on TV. We'd seen 2001: A Space Odyssey (1968) earlier that year; very exciting for we youths and Mom and Dad too.
My parents let me stay up for it, too. I fell in love with space that night, back when girls liking math was still “cute.” It led to my degree in engineering.
Supposedly, Tom Hanks, in his fascination with space (portrayed Astronaut Lovell too), read this book while a young student in the mid-'60s. I bought this book in '66(?) from the traveling scholastic book fair. You must be rightly proud of your accomplishments. Best wishes.
How lovely to find you on here, you're one of my heroes. Sorry for gushing lol. And yeah Apollo 8 changed everything, really. Earthrise, the reading from Genesis. Equally as important as Apollo 11.
Leading into the wild 1969, with the moon landing, Woodstock, Manson crazy murders, and the Cubs blowing a 9 game lead in August and watching the Mets overtake
I remember that year so well. It was truly, mind numbingly awful. In fact, a history professor I had years later called it “a pit of a year”
I never thought about it ending with Apollo 8. Yet it was such a welcome and joyful moment.
Thanks for reminding us.
I’m a big fan of the podcast “13 Minutes to the Moon,” and every time I listen to the “Saving 1968” episode, I tear up. It hits hard given the past 8 or so years.
Like yourself, Poppy,I am old enough to vividly remember 1968. I thought our country was falling apart and it was the year I bought my first gun thinking I needed to protect my family. Somehow we got through it and Apollo 8 was one of the primary reasons. The resilience of our people is the other.
There were riots in my hometown and being one of two boys, my brother at the time was in VietNam, I did what so many others did-I purchased a gun.
Never used it except many years ago before I got married and only in a shooting range.
Due to those events, 1968 did more to shape me as a human being than any other single year in my life.
Near the year end, my school introduced bible lessons & we put on a nativity play. But when I saw the pics of Earth from Apollo 8, & saw no heaven, no god, no angels, I became a lifelong #Atheist.
One of the things I discovered in 1968 was that adults could lie. When I saw American politicians trying to justify using napalm on Vietnamese villages, making a young girl run up the road naked because her clothes had been burned off, I knew I was watching liars.
Of course, in the 1960's the world was being propagandized to think "Soviet Union bad", "Warsaw Pact bad", "America good". But it was obvious that the US was just as bad as the Soviet Union. Opposite sides of the same, evil, world-domination coin.
It was a watershed year for me that included the passage of the Civil Rights act, the end of my two year service in the Army, the beginning of my education under the GI bill and my first political action campaigning for Eugene McCarthy.
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Could also have been staged for this very reason.
Or a deployment of raindrops-are-lemondrops-and-gumdrops gone wrong but working out way better than expected.
Greatest Country on Earth 😂
On another note, I can’t believe I am actually messaging you! An icon! *starry eyed*
My life and dreams have been destroyed by the war. I lost my home and source of income, and my family and I live under immense psychological pressure.
I ask for your support and solidarity to help us build a new life free from fear and suffering.🙏🏻
https://gofund.me/38da3c3f
What we have to do though is get the new president and his orange geriatric friend onto a rocket ship aimed at the sun!
BOYCOTT CNN
Start at 12:01 am January 19th and continue until 11:59 pm January 20. Gives people enough time in advance of inauguration to get comfortable with new reality.
https://www.haldecraft.com/products/1968
I never thought about it ending with Apollo 8. Yet it was such a welcome and joyful moment.
Thanks for reminding us.
Also, in 68, I remember my parents buying a new TV to watch all the Apollo news.
Never used it except many years ago before I got married and only in a shooting range.
Near the year end, my school introduced bible lessons & we put on a nativity play. But when I saw the pics of Earth from Apollo 8, & saw no heaven, no god, no angels, I became a lifelong #Atheist.