Coming to your TV via the International Space Station crew, will be a 40th anniversary commemoration of the moon crew with a special message. This event also serves to pave the way for NASA's return to the moon. Apollo 11 launches on July 16, 1969. Click to enlarge. Credit: NASA

Expedition 18 Commander Mike Fincke and Flight Engineers Sandy Magnus and Yury Lonchakov will pay homage to that bold December 1968 voyage in a message that will air on NASA Television as part of the daily Video File, beginning at 11 a.m. CST, Friday, December 19. The video also will be broadcast in high definition on the NASA TV HD channel at 10 a.m., noon and 3 p.m. on Friday, December 19, and Tuesday, December 23.

Apollo 8 astronauts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders roared into space on the first flight of the massive Saturn V rocket on December 21, 1968. They became the first humans to circumnavigate the moon on December 24, 1968, and returned safely to Earth three days later. Their mission demonstrated the ability of the Saturn V and the Apollo command and service modules to cross the 238,000-mile gulf between Earth and the moon, and set the stage for the first human lunar landing six months later. For more about the space station and the Expedition 18 mission visit.



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