“Please be informed there is a Santa Claus” — the journey home

The most critical maneuver of the entire flight — the trans-Earth injection (TEI) burn — again took place on the far side of the Moon, out of contact. When the ship’s signal returned at the exact calculated moment, Lovell radioed CAPCOM Ken Mattingly: “Please be informed there is a Santa Claus.” Mattingly replied, “That’s affirmative, you are the best ones to know.”

The ship splashed down in the Pacific Ocean southwest of Hawaii on 27 December 1968 at 15:51:42 UTC — the first US Navy frogman reached it just 43 minutes later, and 45 minutes after that the crew stood on the deck of the carrier USS Yorktown. The mission lasted just under six days and was the first in which humans left Earth’s gravitational sphere of influence.

Time magazine named the Apollo 8 crew its “Men of the Year” for 1968 — a year scarred by assassinations and unrest, which they were said to have “saved.” After the mission Borman received a telegram from a stranger: “Thank you Apollo 8. You saved 1968.” The flawless mission cleared the way for Apollo 11, which landed seven months later exactly at the site Apollo 8 had closely documented from orbit.