December 25, 2018—A Blessed Christmas Past!

This famous “Earth Rise” picture was taken by the astronauts of Apollo 8, who entered orbit around the Moon on Christmas Eve, 1968—fifty years ago. This famous picture reminds us of those far from home, who should be remembered on this Christmas morning. And it is appropriate as we again consider returning to space in a serious way, now potentially to support a Space Force to conduct military operations, with much more advanced technology.

Click here for NASA’s discussion of this famous first manned mission to the Moon (including by the mission commander) and here for a recent Washington Post elaboration of the risks of that historic mission launched on December 21, 1968.

In any case, all primary mission objectives and detailed test objectives were achieved — all launch vehicle and spacecraft systems performed according to plan, setting the stage for future manned missions to the Moon, including Neil Armstrong’s famous July 29, 1969 statement as he descended from the Apollo 11 Lunar Lander to take his first step on the Moon: “That’s one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind.”

Click here for an interesting brief record of that historic Apollo 11 achievement and note that Buzz Aldrin, the second man to walk on the Moon, is still with us, among those urging a return to the Moon and establishing a base for further space travel. This objective should also be considered among the roles and missions of the new Space Force.

On the Apollo 8 mission, the Astronauts (Commander Frank Borman, Lunar Module Pilot William A. Anders and Command Module Pilot James A. Lovell Jr.) provided a worldwide telecast worldwide and in real time on Christmas Eve. They read verses from the first chapter of Genesis and wished viewers, “Good night, good luck, a Merry Christmas and God bless all of you — all of you on the good Earth.” Click here for a recording of that full historic message. Below is a transcript, with words well worth pondering:

A Christmas Eve Prayer From Lunar Orbit
December 24, 1968

As it began its last lunar orbit, Astronaut William Anders said, “We are now approaching the lunar sunrise and for all people back on earth the crew of Apollo 8 has a message we would like to send to you.” The television camera aboard the spacecraft panned the lunar surface as Anders and his fellow astronauts recited in a medley the first eight verses of Genesis.

William Anders: “In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth. And the earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep. And the spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters and God said, let there be light. And there was light. And God saw the light and it was good, and God divided the light from the darkness.”

James Lovell: “And God called the light Day, and the darkness He called Night. And the evening and the morning were the first day. And God said, let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters. And let it divide the waters from the waters. And God made the firmament. And divided the waters which were under the firmament from the waters which were above the firmament. And it was so. And God called that firmament Heaven. And the evening and the morning were the second day.”

Frank Borman: “And God said let the waters under the heavens be gathered together in one place. And let the dry land appear. And it was so. And God called the dry land earth. And the gathering together of the waters He called the seas. And God saw that it was good. And from the crew of Apollo 8, we close with good night, good luck, a merry Christmas and God bless all of you — all of you on the good earth.”

Bottom Lines:

President Trump has challenged his team, led by a reenergized Space Council under Vice President Mike Pence to return to the Moon, hopefully as a step toward a manned mission to Mars, as long advocated by High Frontier.

May he succeed in that endeavor, as well as building the most cost-effective ballistic missile defenses from the Strategic Defense Initiative (SDI) era — which was abruptly ended in January 1993. Those most cost effective defenses were to be based in space.

In this context, we are standing by to see what comes of President Trump’s directive to the Pentagon to provide a plan for a new Space Force—a sixth service—to marshal our best capabilities for military activities in space.

It’s time to go back to the future, indeed — especially in space!

What can you do?

Join us in praying for our nation, and for a rebirth of the freedom sought, achieved and passed to us by those who came before us.

Help us to spread our message to the grass roots and to encourage all “powers that be” to provide for the common defense as they are sworn to do.

Begin by passing this message to your friends and suggest they visit our webpage www.highfrontier.org, for more information. Also, please encourage your sphere of influence to sign up for our weekly e-newsletter.

Encourage them to review our past email messages, posted on www.highfrontier.org, to learn about many details related to the existential manmade and natural EMP threats and how we can protect America against them. I hope you will help us with our urgently needed efforts, which I will be discussing in future messages.

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