T O P I C R E V I E W |
heng44 | Half a century ago this week, Apollo 8 stood ready on Launch Pad 39A at the Kennedy Space Center as NASA was preparing to launch the first manned flight to the moon. |
Philip | What a view! |
Ian Limbrey | Beautiful shot and obviously very appropriate come next Friday. I was a 14 year old at the time and remembered watching the launch live on the BBC and this began my interest into space exploration. |
Rick Mulheirn | An iconic image. Thanks Ed! |
Ken Havekotte | Wow, what a shot! I was only 12 years old when Apollo 8 went to the moon and saw the launch of that mighty Saturn V moon rocket from my own backyard on Merritt Island, FL. It was my first "live" liftoff witness of an Apollo/Saturn V and I still remember it like it was yesterday. |
Kite | Great picture. Wish I could say I was only 12 or 14 but was 21 and always remember an old gentleman saying to me that they would never come back. So glad he was wrong. Exciting times. |
Fra Mauro | Breathtaking! I was a boy back then, I still have the TV guide from that week. |
SPACEFACTS | Thanks Ed. It was the beginning of my interest in space exploration. At this time I was 13 years old. |
heng44 | Looks like we have much in common. I was 12 years old in 1968 and my interest in spaceflight literally started the day Apollo 8 launched. Half a century ago this coming Friday. |
randy | Great shot! I had just turned 13 and had my face plastered to the tv screen when they did the live broadcast on Dec. 24. What really fascinated me were the views of the far side. That was incredible! |
East-Frisian | Looks like artwork. Beautiful colours.
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Richard Easton | Thank you for posting another great picture. I was thirteen when Apollo 8 was launched. My Dad designed Vanguard 1 so Iād been interested in space for a long tome. But Apollo 8 and 11 were especially exciting to me. |
Steven Kaplan | Interesting how an iconic photo can elicit such strong emotions and memories in so many of us. I was 11 at the time and echoing Ken, remember it like it was yesterday. |
ManInSpace | A lot of memories. Thanks yet again, Ed. |
ejectr | I was in the US Navy when I saw this launch. Little did I know what was ahead. Brings back old memories. Thanks, Ed... |
star51L | Thank you Ed. My uncle lived in Titusville and was employed by Bendix, a NASA contractor. We were spending Christmas at his home with his family and attending the launch started my lifelong fascination with spaceflight. I was 10 years old when Apollo 8 launched. My first attended launch, I don't remember exactly where we were on the river but I do strongly recall the bright flame at ignition, the eerie silence as the rocket rose and finally the shock waves pounding once they reached us. In my opinion, the most magical spaceflight of them all. I'll likely relive the flight later this week through Lunar Module 5's full mission links on YouTube, which are fascinating. |
PowerCat | Looks like I'll be the baby of the replies....I was a whopping 4 years old for Apollo 8. Awesome prelaunch photo. Can't believe it's been 50 years now. |
Delta7 | Truly the most beautiful rocket ever built. Majestic. |
Tom | Beautiful shot, Ed. The most exciting period in our space program's history! |
tlifan2 | I was thirteen as well. My first launch ā spent Friday night sleeping in the car parked across from the badging station on the Nasa causeway. I have a polaroid photo that my dad took of me with the VAB in the background taken on the morning of the launch. My grandson (who ironically is also thirteen) and I will recreate the photo on the 21st of this year ā exactly fifty years later. Thanks for the photo. |
Ronpur | I was 5, but I can barely remember anything about Apollo 8. Apollo 9 and the rest, I remember well. |
Jonnyed | What was great about Apollo 8 too was that it was such a positive, majestic step forward for our country during a really tough time. 1968 was a terrible year in terms of the MLKjr assassination in April, rioting and burning in Washington DC afterwards, the Bobby Kennedy killing in June, the awful war problems in SE Asia, the Chicago riots at the Democratic Convention that fall. It truly felt like society was coming apart at the seams. And then Apollo 8 comes along at the end of the year and reaffirmed so many terrific almost unimaginable things about what we can do together. AP8 was a fantastic reminder that there was reason to have hope in the future despite all the societal woes of the late 60s. I was only 5 and 1/2 but I remember thinking that those 3 astronauts were the bravest men ever. My family was a church-going crew so the Christmas connection is something my dad and mom highlighted for us too. |
moorouge | quote: Originally posted by PowerCat: Looks like I'll be the baby of the replies... I was a whopping 4 years old for Apollo 8.
Seems I might be the grandpa then - was 31 when Apollo 8 was launched. Many years later had the pleasure of having breakfast with Jim Lovell and his wife to mull over this event. |
Jonnyed | quote: Originally posted by Delta7: Truly the most beautiful rocket ever built. Majestic.
Another fun thing to think about is that we went from the Wright Brothers' first powered flyer in December 1903 to this beautiful machine on the launch pad to the moon in December 1968... it took only 65 years!Mind-blowing, really. How cool if the Brothers could have lived to see it?! |
astro-nut | Majestic! Just beautiful! I could stand there all night and look at it!! |