Sleeping Gods

Christmas Eve 1968. The space race sends three brave Americans hurtling into the wild black yonder faster than a speeding bullet. The best minds at NASA give the Apollo 8 astronauts an even money chance of dying in their attempt to enter lunar orbit. These steely-eyed missile men pull it off — and then something incredible happens. Something they must never reveal to the outside world.Christmas Eve 1968. By NASA’s best guess, the crew of Apollo 8 are an even money chance of dying as they attempt to park their supersonic spacecraft into stable lunar orbit.But they get it done, paving the way for one giant leap toward the surface. These three astronauts are the first men alive to see the far side of the Moon — the lunar face permanently turned away from Earth.Inside the tiny capsule, astronaut Bill Anders points his Hasselblad toward the lunar horizon and captures one of the most famous photographs of all time. Dubbed Earthrise, it reveals a fragile blue-green planet rising from behind the awesome spectacle of the Moon as seen from just 60 nautical miles above the lunar surface. It shows our planet lonely and fragile in the eternal darkness of space.Lonely, but perhaps not alone.What if another, even more stunning photograph is taken that day? An image deemed way too sensitive to reveal to the public. An image even NASA doesn’t know about.A photo that could change everything.A photo that powerful people will do almost anything to bury.