MISSION NAME
Apollo 8 8
Status
Success
DATE
21 DEC 1968
LAUNCH PROVIDER
National Aeronautics and Space Administration
Launch Pad
Launch Complex 39A
Description
Apollo 8 was the first flight of the mighty Saturn V launch vehicle key to human exploration of the moon. The three-astronaut crew — Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders. This Mission was the first manned spacecraft to orbit the moon.
Saturn V
Rocket Description
The Saturn V was a human-rated expendable rocket used by NASA between 1967 and 1973. Most notably, the Saturn V took the Apollo program to the Moon. It still remains the world's tallest, heaviest, and most powerful rocket ever brought to operational status and is the only launch vehicle to take humans beyond LEO.