posted Tuesday, Dec. 23, 2008 6:48 a.m. Forty years ago, Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon. On Christmas Eve 1968, nearly a quarter million miles from home, crew members did a live broadcast from lunar orbit.

It was a historic moment that paved the way for future moon-landing missions and secured our place as a front-runner in the U.S.-Soviet space race.

The famous broadcast – seen by an estimated billion people – featured photos from space and a reading from the Book of Genesis. Listen now.

For the first time ever, we saw the moon's surface and what the Earth looked like from deep space. Suddenly, the idea of human space exploration was real. Tangible. The possibilities were limitless.

Historian Andrew Chaikin captured the spirit of the moment. "We didn't have to wait until the explorers returned to hear about the adventure," he said. "We could see it with our own eyes and have our own experience. ... That was our piece of Apollo 8. That was the moment at which we felt like explorers."

Tonight at 9, we bring you "Apollo 8: Christmas at the Moon," a closer look at the historic journey of Apollo 8. I am especially looking forward to the interviews with the astronauts and NASA officials  involved in the mission.

From talking to people who lived through that era, I understand how significant the Apollo missions were to the advancement of science & society. It meant the opening of new possibilities – a feeling similar, I imagine, to how I felt when Obama became the first African American to be elected president.

Yet, in this day and age, I sometimes wonder why we are still investing the big bucks in space exploration when there are countless problems to be solved here at home.

Some say the American space program is a waste of our tax dollars, too risky and completely unnecessary. What do you think? Should we be sending people into space? Is this money well spent?

-Elizabeth Mayer, RMPBS
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