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Orbital flight. >> to make matters worse for nasa, the lunar module wasn't ready to go into space. it was months behind schedule. but instead of falling further behind the soviets, nasa officials hatched a bold idea. >> the lunar module unfortunately was delayed considerably. so nasa again in one of the great strokes of management substituted apolo 8 from an earth orbital flight to a lunar orbital flight. >> if it worked, america would actually leap frog the soviets in the space race. an astronaut, not a cosmonaut would be the first to fly around the moon. >> i think it was one of the first ba...

Nobody knew that better than frank goreman, a p oi nt man in the investigation. nasa taped him with the mission. >> i was called back, will you volunteer to take apolo 8 to the moon? i said yes, we would be happy to. we found out we would be going to the moon in august of 1968. >> we were sort of at the last minute, just several. months before we were scheduled to launch, but that is what we were asked to do. ours is not the reason why, but to do or die. >> do or die not just for the three astronauts. it was 1968 and it ended with a space disaster. it could end america's lunar requestsa -- que...

Clouds and continents. we were a long way from home and it was christmas. it was a very gnaw nostalgic moment. i think bill an deers said it best. he said, we came all the way to the moon and what really perked our interest was the earth. a >> somebody wants to credit me with it, i will take the credit. >>e the men in space are so meme ma rised by space. there are no lines in countries. >> it gives you a true perspective of our existence on earth. you look back at the earth and look how small it is, and how you could cover it up with your thumb. you realize we were so fortunate to have a body ...

Astronauts marked the holiday season by taking turns reading from the old -testament. >> god let the waters and heavens be gathered together in one place. let the dry land appear, and it was so. and god called the dry land earth. >> old -testament is the basis of many of the world's religions, not just christian. and so it affected most of the people that would be listening to us. weth thought that was very appropriate. >> level relayed a citing that delighted children worldwide. >> we have been informed there is a santa claus. >> did your family just delay the christmas celebration for after ...

A lunar flight. it was going to be an orbital flight to test to see if everything was correct between two vehicles before we would ever commit them to go to the moon. >> apolo 8 was a big step forward. even if successful america would be trailing the russians in the race to the moon. >> the soviets sent a spacecraft around the moon with animals to see if they could send cause ma notes and try to beat us not for a landing, but at least beat us to g around the moon. they were fairly successful. in the soviet hierarchy they had a big controversy. should we send the cos cosmonauts, and others said...