Astronaut Jim Lovell recreates Christmas broadcast on 45th anniversary of lunar orbit

Retired astronaut James Lovell on Monday recreated the 1968 Christmastime broadcast on the 45th anniversary of his historic trip around the moon.

Lovell, Frank Borman, Bill Anders were the first three people ever to enter a lunar orbit. On Dec. 24, 1968, the three read verses from the Bible's Genesis describing the creation of Earth while a television camera broadcast images of the lunar surface.

Noted atheist activist Madalyn Murray O'Hair sued NASA shortly after the 1968 broadcast but a federal judge case dismissed the First Amendment case.

Lovell read the same passages at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, which exhibits a piece of his spacecraft, with local high school students and a parent. Lovell lives in suburban Chicago. Gov. Pat Quinn hosted the event.

Watch Lovell's 1968 broadcast, and his Monday re-enactment at Chicago's Museum of Science and Industry, below.

[Image of James Lovell courtesy of Wikimedia Commons]