By Thomas Moore, science correspondent
America first went to the moon during a year of political turmoil.
In a weird coincidence, it’s returning at a time when the country is once again fractured.
The echoes are unmistakable.
On 21 December 1968, three men blasted off on a Saturn V rocket from Kennedy Space Centre in Florida.
This was the eighth Apollo mission. And a lot hung on its success.
Apollo 8 crew Frank Borman, William Anders and James Lovell
Apollo 8 crew Frank Borman, William Anders and James Lovell
The United States trailed far behind in the space race. The Soviet Union had already put the first satellite, the first man and the first woman in orbit.
NASA needed a win.
The launch also happened in the final days of a year marked by bitter division.
The US had suffered its darkest moments of the Vietnam War, with public sentiment turning as the body count rose.
There were also the growing civil rights protests, and the assassinations of both Martin Luther King and presidential hopeful Bobby Kennedy.
It was a turbulent backdrop to the mission.
But Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders orbited the moon, took the photo of fragile Earth that sparked the modern environmental movement, and broadcast a message of peace from deep space, “to all of you on the good Earth”.
Apollo 8’s image of Earth
Apollo 8’s image of Earth
Jill Stuart, an expert in space politics at the London School of Economics and Political Science, told Sky News the shared goal of the lunar mission brought the nation together, if only temporarily.
“It is interesting timing that we have this push to go back to the moon at a time when there are similar cultural divisions and political conflicts within the United States,” she said.
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman visit the Artemis II rocket
Secretary of War Pete Hegseth and NASA Administrator Jared Isaacman visit the Artemis II rocket
“This Artemis programme has been in the planning for decades now, so I think it’s probably more of a coincidence, but it could play a similar role.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s some propaganda that is wrapped into Artemis that is useful in terms of trying to bring people together, to rally around a collective project.”