It was the week of Christmas, 1968. Three men—Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders—left earth for a breathtaking voyage around the moon and back. Remember, this was 51 years ago. Within months other U.S astronauts would actually set foot on the moon, but this was the pioneering effort.   

The take-off was flawless. That is remarkable in itself considering the problems in our space program over the years. It is hard to realize how quickly back then we came to take the concept of space travel for granted. Those early successes seemed so easy.

“This is Apollo 8 coming to you from the moon . . .” reported Frank Borman in the first of six telecasts beamed from the rocket to earth. It was a stunning achievement for our space program.   

Something occurred on that first flight, howeve…