AIAA DISTINGUISHED LECTURE by ROBERT ZIMMERMAN
**Open to the public.**
Though the flight of Apollo 8 was the first human journey to another world, it has largely been forgotten in the ensuing decades amid the glory and excitement of the actual lunar landing in July of 1969, now celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Yet, this earlier mission probably exerted a much greater influence on human history, coming as it did during Christmas week 1968 at the end of what had been an ugly and violent year. Not only did Apollo 8 gave the human race our first view of our mother planet as a globe, it was the success of this mission that actually won the space race. Robert Zimmerman will tell this story and its still echoing historical impact, describing it from the personal perspective of the three astronauts who flew it.