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On December 24, 1968 — exactly 54 years ago — Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders became the first humans to circle the moon.
The mission was historic, but equally memorable was the famous “Earthrise” photo that resulted, showing Earth rising above the lunar landscape.
Until that point, no human eyes had ever seen our blue marble from so far away.
In Life Magazine’s “100 Photographs That Changed the World,” acclaimed wilderness photographer Galen Rowell described the unprecedented view of Earth as “the most influential environmental photograph ever taken.”
The image of our planet, which appeared small and vulnerable suspended in the blackness of space, made people more aware of its fragility.
“Earthrise” is now one of the most reproduced space photos of all time, appearing on US postage stamps, posters, and the cover of Time magazine in 1969. Many have pointed out the irony of the photo, since Apollo 8 was sent to study and take pictures of the moon’s surface — not Earth.
“Of all the objectives NASA had set before launch, no one had thought of photographing the Earth from lunar orbit,” Robert Zimmerman wrote in his book “Genesis: The Story of Apollo 8: the First Manned Flight to Another World.
