Apollo 8

Apollo 8 was the Apollo space program's second successful manned mission. Its crew – Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders – became the first humans to orbit the Moon. It was also the first manned launch of the Saturn V rocket.To beat the Soviet Union to the moon,  NASA, in August 1968, changed Apollo 8's D-mission from a low-earth orbit Lunar Module/Command Module test, to a lunar orbital flight, and renamed it the C-prime mission. The new mission's profile, procedures and training, were prepared in an uncharacteristically very short time-frame, between August and December 1968. Adding to the sense of urgency was the possibility that the Soviet Union might launch a manned lunar mission, similar to the Zond 5 and Zond 6 circumlunar missions, in December 1968. Due to its geography, the Soviets' launch facility, Baikonur Cosmodrome, had a lunar launch window that opened a few days earlier than the American's that December. The race was on.
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