Original Item. One-of-a-Kind. This is without a doubt one of the most astounding NASA related pieces we have offered, a framed flag of Texas which was carried on board Apollo 8, the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth's gravitational sphere of influence, and the first human spaceflight to reach the Moon, and gifted to Texas Governor John Connally. The frame is also signed by the three astronauts aboard the mission, Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders. Anders is credited with having taken “Earthrise”, often described as "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken".

The frame measures roughly 16½ x 13½”. The flag itself is pasted to the backboard and measures 4 x 5½”. Also in the frame is an Apollo 8 Mission Patch, which may have also been carried on Apollo 8, but it could also just be a normal issue patch for the mission. Under the patch reads:

CARRIED ON BOARD APOLLO 8
FIRST LUNAR FLIGHT
21-27 DECEMBER, 1968

The inscription reads:

TO GOV. JOHN CONNALLY
FROM THREE FELLOW TEXANS
FRANK BORMAN  JAMES LOVELL  BILL ANDERS

The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing and then returned to Earth. The three astronauts—Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders—were the first humans to see and photograph the far side of the Moon and an Earthrise.

Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968, and was the second crewed spaceflight mission flown in the United States Apollo space program (the first, Apollo 7, stayed in Earth orbit). Apollo 8 was the third flight and the first crewed launch of the Saturn V rocket. It was the first human spaceflight from the Kennedy Space Center, adjacent to Cape Kennedy Air Force Station in Florida.

Originally planned as the second crewed Apollo Lunar Module and command module test, to be flown in an elliptical medium Earth orbit in early 1969, the mission profile was changed in August 1968 to a more ambitious command-module-only lunar orbital flight to be flown in December, as the lunar module was not yet ready to make its first flight. Astronaut Jim McDivitt's crew, who were training to fly the first lunar module flight in low Earth orbit, became the crew for the Apollo 9 mission, and Borman's crew were moved to the Apollo 8 mission. This left Borman's crew with two to three months' less training and preparation time than originally planned, and replaced the planned lunar module training with translunar navigation training.

Apollo 8 took 68 hours to travel to the Moon. The crew orbited the Moon ten times over the course of twenty hours, during which they made a Christmas Eve television broadcast where they read the first ten verses from the Book of Genesis. At the time, the broadcast was the most watched TV program ever. Apollo 8's successful mission paved the way for Apollo 10 and, with Apollo 11 in July 1969, the fulfillment of U.S. president John F. Kennedy's goal of landing a man on the Moon before the end of the decade. The Apollo 8 astronauts returned to Earth on December 27, 1968, when their spacecraft splashed down in the northern Pacific Ocean. The crew members were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968 upon their return.

This is a spectacular piece of Spaceflight history with outstanding provenance, a truly one-of-a-kind piece, never to be seen again. Comes ready for further research and display.