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LETTER 06

VOYAGE FROM THE EARTH TO THE MOON

Frank Borman to Jean Jules-Verne

5 February 1969

On Christmas Eve 1968, three days after launching from Florida’s Kennedy Space Center, Apollo 8 became the first crewed spacecraft to orbit the Moon – a feat they managed not just once but ten times during their mission. On board were commander Frank Borman and his crewmates Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, all of whom took turns reading the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis. Their recitals were beamed back to Earth and broadcast to millions. Two months after this historic flight, Borman wrote a letter to Jean Jules-Verne, grandson of Jean Jules-Verne, the French novelist who 104 years earlier had written of such a trip in his eerily prescient book From the Earth to the Moon.

THE LETTER

NATIONAL AERONATICS AND SPACE ADMINISTRATION

February 5, 1969

Mr. Jean Jules Verne

Le Vieil Huba

83 – Toulon

Dear Sir:

As you undoubtedly know, generations of American schoolboys – including Captain Lovell, Major Anders and me – have been fascinated by the books of your illustrious grandfather.

That his Voyage from the Earth to the Moon foresaw both the fact of the magnificent adventure which mankind has just experienced and even such details as liftoff from Florida and splashdown in the Pacific is more than an extraordinary coincidence: it is a tribute to the genius of his vision. He not only imagined what exploits were possible for man but even how they might be accomplished, down to the finest details.

Who can say how many of the world’s space scientists were inspired, consciously or unconsciously, by their boyhood reading of the works of Jules Verne? What can be said is that behind every breakthrough in man’s history there lies a dream. That dream, and the blueprint for its accomplishment, were first shown to us by your grandfather. In a very real sense, then, Jules Verne is one of the great pioneers of the space age.

Very sincerely yours,

Frank Borman