The first manned Moon mission, Apollo 8, was launched in 1968, with Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and William Anders aboard.
Three NASA astronauts set off on a voyage that would take them "Round the Moon and Back" 50 years ago. The performance of the command and service modules was shown during the Apollo 8 mission. This historic mission launched on December 21, 1968, to test a lunar trajectory and was the Saturn V rocket's first manned launch. Apollo 8 was launched from Cape Canaveral, Florida, by a three-stage Saturn 5 rocket, with astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell, Jr., and William Anders onboard. The crew became the first human spacecraft to reach orbit around the moon on Christmas Eve.
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