Live From the Moon!
The picture may have been grainy, but it was some of the most riveting TV of the 1960s.
- By Mary McKillop
- AirSpaceMag.com, July 19, 2010
After the success of the first live TV transmissions from space, the public was eager for more. While Apollo 7 stayed in Earth orbit, the next mission would travel to the moon, allowing for the possibility of transmitting a live image of the whole Earth.
The broadcasts from Apollo 8 didn’t disappoint, and earned another Emmy. The crew's famous Christmas Eve broadcast was watched or heard live by one billion people in 64 countries, and became one of the most memorable events in space history. The crew read the first ten verses of Genesis as they circled the moon. The story of how they settled on that particular reading is explained in more depth at this PBS website. After this flight, the RCA slow-scan black-and-white camera was retired. By the time of Apollo 10, TV pictures of Earth like the one shown here were in color.