Apollo 8 becomes the first crewed flight to the Moon
Three astronauts orbit the Moon and photograph Earth rising over its horizon
Quick facts
- Agency
- NASA
- Crew
- Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, William Anders
- Rocket
- Saturn V (first crewed flight)
- Notable image
- Earthrise, 24 Dec 1968
What happened
Apollo 8 launched on 21 December 1968 carrying Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders, becoming the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth's orbit entirely and travel to the Moon. It was also the first crewed launch of the massive Saturn V rocket. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, becoming the first humans to see the Moon's far side directly and the first to see and photograph an Earthrise, Earth appearing to rise over the lunar horizon, on 24 December 1968. The mission splashed down in the Pacific Ocean on 27 December. Nature photographer Galen Rowell later called the Earthrise photograph, taken by Anders, the most influential environmental photograph ever taken; some historians credit it with helping spark the modern environmental movement.
Why it matters
Apollo 8 proved the Saturn V, the command and service module, and the navigation techniques needed for a lunar mission all worked together on a real flight to the Moon, clearing the last major uncertainty before NASA could attempt an actual landing seven months later.
How we know
NASA's own mission overview documents the launch, crew, and splashdown dates; the Smithsonian's National Air and Space Museum account of the mission independently corroborates the Earthrise photograph's date and circumstances.
Sources
- NASA. Apollo 8 · Primary source (author-declared)nasa.gov · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
- Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. Apollo 8 · Primary source (author-declared)airandspace.si.edu · Cited as a "primary" source (no stronger domain match). · Link is live and its text matches the event's key terms (Jul 2026)
See something wrong? . Corrections with a source get fixed fastest.
Part of a timelineSpace Exploration38 events · From a cabbage field in Massachusetts to a telescope a million miles from EarthView all →