On Christmas Eve, somewhere above the forbidding landscape of the moon, the voices of Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders carried to earth dwellers the story of creation as found in Genesis 1:1–10.

“In the beginning, God created the heaven and the earth,” intoned Anders in Apollo 8’s unannounced litany broadcast as the astronauts’ TV camera flashed back a remarkable picture of the deeply-shadowed lunar landscape.

Borman closed the lunar telecast with these words: “Good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas, and God bless all of you upon the good earth.”

The trio then closed the moonship’s fourth telecast and began preparations for the successful blast out of lunar orbit to return to the “grand oasis in the vastness of space, earth.”