NASA shares one of the most iconic shots of Earth snapped by Apollo 8 crew

U.S. space agency NASA on Friday, August 19, shared a spellbinding picture of Earth as seen by the crew of Apollo 8. This iconic picture shows our home planet peeking out from beyond the lunar surface as the first crewed spacecraft circumnavigated the Moon.

This iconic 'Earthrise' image was snapped by one of the crew members aboard the spacecraft on Christmas Eve, 1968. Here's the full story behind the famous picture, which is admired as the grandfather of all the modern space images seen today.

Apollo 8 was a historic mission that achieved many other firsts, including becoming the first manned mission launched on the Saturn V rocket and from NASA's new Moonport, taking the first pictures of the Earth from deep space by humans and enabling the first live television coverage from the lunar surface.

Did someone say #WorldPhotographyDay? We love planet-size celebrations! Here's one of the most iconic shots of our big, blue marble: Earth as seen by the crew of Apollo 8. https://t.co/7rukuVsfrk Once @NASAArtemis I reaches the Moon, we'll have new Earthrise images to share. pic.twitter.com/dLTTX3V0tu

— NASA (@NASA) August 19, 2022

Apollo 8, the first crewed spacecraft to successfully orbit the Moon and return to Earth, lifted off from Cape Kennedy, Fla., at 7:50 a.m., on December 21, 1968. The spacecraft was placed in an elliptical lunar orbit at 69 hours 8 minutes after liftoff.

Apollo 8 crew members included Col. Frank Borman as Commander; Capt. James A. Lovell, Jr. as command module pilot and Major William A. Anders as lunar module pilot.

The key objective of this mission was to further progress toward the goal of landing men on the moon by gaining operational experience and testing the Apollo system. According to NASA, all primary mission objectives and detailed test objectives were achieved.