Who spent the day remembering the Apollo 8 trip to the moon today?
Apollo 8 was the first manned space voyage to achieve a velocity sufficient to allow escape from the gravitational field of planet Earth; the first to escape from the gravitational field of another celestial body; and the first manned voyage to return to planet Earth from another celestial body – Earth’s Moon. The three-man crew of Mission Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders became the first humans to see the far side of the Moon with their own eyes, as well as the first humans to see planet Earth from orbit about another celestial body. The mission also involved the first manned launch of a Saturn V rocket, and was the second manned mission of the Apollo Program. Originally planned as a low-earth orbit Lunar Module/Command Module test, the mission profile was changed to the more ambitious lunar orbital flight in August 1968 when the Lunar Module scheduled for the flight became delayed. The new mission’s profile, procedures a
