How did the Apollo 8 celebrate Christmas?

Answer 1

The crew of Apollo 8 celebrated Christmas by roasting chestnuts on an open fire... well maybe not. Apollo 8 receive a wonderful Christmas gift by being the first people ever to fly in lunar orbit. The crew took hundreds of pictures of the moon and of the Earth. They were also able to take a picture called Earth rise, were the Earth would rise from behind the moon.

They also had a live television broadcast were they read the story of creation from book of Genisis. Commander Frank Borman said later gave the broadcast final word and said: "And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, and a Merry Christmas to all of you, all of you on the good Earth".

NASA was later brought to court by Atheist Madalyn Murray O'Hair, but was rejected by the suprem court for lack of juristriction. However NASA made sure not to make any religious statements during the remainder of the Apollo program.

One last thing; to leave the moons orbit they needed to perform what is called a trans-Earth injection burn (in other words, start the engines and lets get out of here), however the burn was done on the dark side of the moon where the crew was unable to receive radio transmissions from the Earth. Everything was done perfectly and astronaut James Lovell reported to mission control once all communications where re-establish: "Please be informed, there is a Santa Claus"