Christmas Eve, 1968, the crew of Apollo 8, James Lovell, Frank Borman, and Bill Anders, became the first humans to orbit the moon.  The crew focused their camera on the lunar landscape and broadcast a message on TV back to “all the people of the Earth.”  Each member of the crew read a portion of Genesis 1:1-10, “In the beginning God created the heavens and the earth…and God called the dry land Earth; and the gathering together of the waters called he Seas; and God saw that it was good.”  As the Apollo 8 crew circled the moon, they took brilliant photos of planet Earth, as well as the moon’s surface.  On Christmas day, they took the famous photo of the Earthrise over the Moon.

JAMES A. LOVELL (CAPTAIN, USN, RET.) NASA ASTRONAUT NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)

 Born in Cleveland, Ohio, on March 25, 1928. Married to the former Marilyn Gerlach, of Milwaukee, Wisconsin. They have four children.

 University of Wisconsin; United States Naval Academy, bachelor of science, 1952; Test Pilot School, NATC, Patuxent River, Maryland, 1958; Aviation Safety School, University of Southern California, 1961; Advanced Management Program, Harvard Business School, 1971; honorary doctorates from Rockhurst college, Illinois Wesleyan University, Western Michigan University, Mary Hardin-Baylor College and Milwaukee School of Engineering.

 Captain Lovell was selected as an Astronaut by NASA in September 1962. He has since served as backup pilot for the Gemini 4 flight and backup Commander for the Gemini 9 flight, as well as backup Commander to Neil Armstrong for the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission.

On December 4, 1965, he and Frank Borman were launched into space on the history-making Gemini 7 mission. The flight lasted 330 hours and 35 minutes and included the first rendezvous of two manned maneuverable spacecraft.

The Gemini 12 mission, commanded by Lovell with Pilot Edwin Aldrin, began on November 11, 1966. This 4-day, 59-revolution flight brought the Gemini program to a successful close. 

Lovell served as Command Module Pilot and Navigator on the epic six-day journey of Apollo 8 - man's maiden voyage to the moon - December 21-27, 1968. Apollo 8 was the first manned spacecraft to be lifted into near-earth orbit by a 7-1/2 million pound thrust Saturn V launch vehicle; and Lovell and fellow crewmen, Frank Borman and William A. Anders, became the first humans to leave the Earth's gravitational influence.

He completed his fourth mission as Spacecraft Commander of the Apollo 13 flight, April 11-17, 1970, and became the first man to journey twice to the moon. Apollo 13 was programed for ten days. However, the original flight plan was modified en route to the moon due to a failure of the Service Module cryogenic oxygen system. Lovell and fellow crewmen, John L. Swigert and Fred W. Haise, working closely with Houston ground controllers, converted their lunar module "Aquarius" into an effective lifeboat. Their emergency activation and operation of lunar module systems conserved both electrical power and water in sufficient supply to assure their safety and survival while in space and for the return to earth.

Captain Lovell held the record for time in space with a total of 715 hours and 5 minutes until surpassed by the Skylab flights.

On March 1, 1973, Captain Lovell retired from the Navy and from the Space Program to join Bay-Houston Towing Company in Houston, Texas. Bay-Houston Towing company is a diversified company involved in harbor and coastwise towing, mining and marketing of peat products for the lawn and garden industry, and ranching. He was promoted to the position of President and Chief Executive Officer on March 1, 1975.

NAME: WILLIAM A. ANDERS (MAJOR GENERAL, USAF RESERVE) NASA ASTRONAUT (FORMER)

Born October 17, 1933, in Hong Kong. Married to the former Valerie E. Hoard of Lemon Grove, California. Four sons, two daughters. Recreational interests include fishing, flying, and cross-country skiing. He also serves on several corporate boards.

Received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Naval Academy in 1955 and a master of science degree in Nuclear Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, in 1962. Completed the Harvard Business School Advanced Management Program in 1979.

Anders was commissioned in the air Force after graduation from the Naval Academy and served as a fighter pilot in all-weather interception squadrons of the Air Defense Command and later was responsible for technical management of nuclear power reactor shielding and radiation effects programs while at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico.

In 1964, Anders was selected by the National Aeronautics and Space Administration as an astronaut with responsibilities for dosimetry, radiation effects and environmental controls. He was backup pilot for the Gemini XI, Apollo 11 flights, and was lunar module pilot for Apollo 8 -- the first lunar orbit mission in December 1968. He has logged more than 6,000 hours flying time.

From June 1969 to 1973 he served as Executive Secretary for the National Aeronautics and Space Council, which was responsible to the President, Vice President and Cabinet-level members of the Council for developing policy options concerning research, development, operations and planning of aeronautical and space systems.

On August 6, 1973, Anders was appointed to the five-member Atomic Energy Commission where he was lead commissioner for all nuclear and non-nuclear power R&D. He was also named as U. S. Chairman of the joint US/USSR technology exchange program for nuclear fission and fusion power.

Following the reorganization of national nuclear regulatory and developmental activities on January 19, 1975, Anders was named by President Ford to become the first Chairman of the newly established Nuclear Regulatory Commission responsible for nuclear safety and environmental compatibility. At the completion of his term as NRC Chairman, Anders was appointed United States Ambassador to Norway and held that position until 1977.

Anders left the federal government after 26 years of service and after briefly serving as a Fellow of the American Enterprise Institute he joined the General Electric Company in September 1977 as Vice President and General Manager of the Nuclear Products Division in San Jose, California. In this position he was responsible for the manufacture of nuclear fuel, reactor internal equipment, and control and instrumentation for GE boiling water reactors at facilities located in San Jose and Wilmington, North Carolina. In addition, he had responsibility for the GE partnership arrangement with Chicago Bridge and Iron for the manufacture of large steel pressure vessels in Memphis, Tennessee. In August 1979, Anders was placed on special assignment to attend the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program.

On January 1, 1980, Anders was appointed General Manager of the General Electric Aircraft Equipment Division with headquarters in Utica, New York. With more than 8500 employees in five plant locations in the Northeastern U.S., the Aircraft Equipment Division products include aircraft flight and weapon control systems, cockpit instruments, aircraft electrical generating systems, airborne radars and data processing systems, electronic countermeasures, space command systems, and aircraft/surface multi-barrel armament systems. In 1984, he left GE to join Textron as Executive Vice President-Aerospace, moving to Senior Executive Vice President-Operations in 1986. He was also a consultant to the Office of Science and Technology Policy and was a member of the Defense Science Board & the NASA Advisory Council, and is a retired Major General in the USAF Reserve.

Mr. Anders was made Vice Chairman of the General Dynamic Corporation for 1990 and was made Chairman & Chief Executive Office January 1, 1991. In 1993 he retired as an employee of the corporation but remained Chairman of the Board until May of 1994 when he fully retired from company service.

Borman married Susan Bugbee in 1950, and they have two sons: Frederick (born October 4, 1951) and Edwin (born July 20, 1953), and four grandchildren.

 Borman graduated from Tucson High School in 1946. He received a Bachelor of Science degree from the United States Military Academy at West Point, in 1950, where he served as an Army Football Manager, and along with part of his graduating class, he entered the United States Air Force (USAF) and became a fighter pilot. He received his Master of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from the California Institute of Technology in 1957. Later, Borman was selected for the Aerospace Research Pilot School and became a test pilot. He completed the Harvard Business School's Advanced Management Program in 1970.

Borman became an assistant professor of thermodynamics and fluid mechanics at the United States Military Academy in 1957. In 1960, he graduated from the US Air Force Aerospace Research Pilots School then stayed on as an instructor until 1962, when he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut. From December 4 to 18, 1965 Frank Borman and James Lovell, Jr. spent a then-record fourteen days in orbit aboard Gemini VII. While they were in orbit, Gemini VI, with astronauts Wally Schirra and Tom Stafford, was launched. The two Gemini craft executed the first space rendezvous, their ships maneuvering to within one foot of one another on December 15. Gemini VII proved that astronauts could pilot their spacecraft to an orbital rendezvous and that humans could tolerate a two-week-long space mission. Both abilities were required for later Apollo lunar missions.

Apollo 8, the first manned mission to use the mammoth Saturn V rocket, was launched on December 21, 1968. Its crew, Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module pilot William Anders became the first humans to travel to the Moon, though they did not land. While in lunar orbit on Christmas Eve, they relayed television pictures of its bleak surface and captivated millions of viewers by reading from the Bible’s Book of 

On Christmas Day, while the spacecraft was completing its tenth revolution of the moon, the service propulsion system engine was fired for more than three minutes, propelling Apollo 8 back toward the earth after more than twenty hours and eleven minutes in lunar orbit. The Apollo 8 Command Module splashed down in the Pacific on December 27, 147 hours after liftoff. All mission objectives and detailed test objectives were achieved, as well as five that were not originally planned. Frank Borman logged a total of 19 days, 21 hours and 35 minutes in space during his two missions.

After Apollo 8, Borman left NASA to serve as a Special Presidential Ambassador on trips throughout the Far East and Europe, including a 1970 worldwide tour to seek support for the release of American prisoners of war held by North Vietnam. He became a special advisor to Eastern Airlines in early 1969, and after retiring from the Air Force in 1970 (as a colonel) was named Senior Vice President of Eastern’s Operations Group. He was promoted to Executive Vice President-Genera Operations Manager and was elected to Eastern’s Board of Directors in July 1974. In May 1975, he was elected President and Chief Operating Officer. He was named Chief Executive Officer in December 1975 and became Chairman of the Board in December 1976.

Colonel Frank Borman retired from Eastern Airlines in June of 1986. He has received the Harmon International Aviation Trophy, the Robert J. Collier Trophy, the Tony Jannus Award and the National Geographic Society’s Hubbard Medal, in addition to many honorary degrees, special honors and service decorations. In 1978, he was one of the six original recipients of the Congressional Space Medal of Honor, for his role on Apollo 8.

Frank Borman has been a member of the Board of Directors of the Home Depot, National Geographic, Outboard Marine Corporation, Auto Finance Group, Thermo Instrument Systems, and American Superconductor. He was named Chief Executive Office of Patlex Corporation in the spring of 1988, acting as Chairman, CEO, and President of that Corporation. He has written an autobiography entitled 

Countdown: An Autobiography of Frank Borman

 with Robert J. Serling. Colonel Borman currently resides in Las Cruces, New Mexico.

Standards for Christmas Eve Bible Reading from the Moon