65: 7. The Iconic Earthrise Photo and the Genesis Reading Broadcast. Bob Zimmerman discusses how while orbiting the moon, the crew captured the now-iconic "Earthrise" photographs. A dispute over who took the famous color picture was resolved by transcript ana

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John Batchelor

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🗓️ 8 November 2025

⏱️ 10 minutes

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Summary

7. The Iconic Earthrise Photo and the Genesis Reading Broadcast. Bob Zimmerman discusses how while orbiting the moon, the crew captured the now-iconic "Earthrise" photographs. A dispute over who took the famous color picture was resolved by transcript analysis: Frank Borman quickly took a black-and-white image, and Bill Anders subsequently captured the celebrated color image after scrambling to change the film. For their Christmas Eve television broadcast, Frank Borman sought guidance for a message that would match the "majesty and the significance" of the moment, as NASA's public relations chief refused to dictate the content. Borman's friend, Joe Leighton, struggled to find suitable, non-sectarian text. Leighton's wife suggested starting at the beginning of the Old Testament. Leighton realized the opening verses of Genesis were perfect, as they were fundamental to the world's major religions and fit the theme of beginning a new era of exploration. Anders, Lovell, and Borman read the verses, surprising the world, concluding with Borman wishing "God bless all of you, all of you on the good Earth."
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Transcript

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0:00.0	I'm John Batchel with Bob Zimmerman. The book is Genesis, the story of Apollo 8,
0:04.5	the first man flight to another world. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders, on board Apollo 8,
0:12.4	going round and round the moon. A little disappointing, but they're taking photographs that are
0:16.6	spectacular, one of Earthrise that you've all seen on stamps. You see it everywhere. It's so
0:22.0	commonplace. There's a small debate about who took what photograph. Bob settles it by saying
0:28.9	one was in color and one was in black and white. Which is which, Bob? I can't remember.
0:33.3	Yes. During the moment when the Earth rise was occurring, there was multiple Earth rises,
0:38.0	but this one, they happened to be looking right at the Earth coming up because of issues with controlling the capsule.
0:45.2	So they all saw the Earth coming up, and they suddenly realized that the camera program didn't include getting an Earthrise.
0:50.8	So they scrambled to get a picture.
0:52.8	And the camera at the moment had black and white
0:54.7	film in it. Anders was in charge of taking pictures. Bill Borman grabs the camera and takes a quick
1:00.8	black and white picture. And Anders says, there was a little friction between the two of them about
1:05.1	who's in control. Anders says, hey, I'm supposed to do that. And so they quickly scrambled to get
1:09.5	color image pictures to film into the camera, and then Anders takes the famous color picture we've all seen.
1:15.8	I must point out that it is always framed incorrectly on Earth.
1:20.2	It's always framed with the horizon on the bottom.
1:22.9	If you look at the cover of Genesis, my book, the Molyneur Horizon is on the right side because
1:29.4	Borman did not, sorry, Anders did not take this picture with the horizon on the bottom. He saw
1:34.6	the capsule and the Earth as different objects in space going around the waist of the moon
1:40.6	and coming out the side of the moon as objects in space.
1:44.4	And so he took the picture with the horizon on the side.
	...

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