Jim Lovell is who most people will recognize from this flight, but it can't be understated what an awesome dude Frank Borman was.

When he took over Eastern Airlines after retiring from Nasa, he personally flew in a helicopter to the crash site of the L1011 that crashed in the Everglades, waded through waist deep water to get to the crash site, and helped rescue/recover crash victims.

They set the stage for Neil and Buzz, that's for sure.

What I remember most is that heart-stopping first human lunar orbit, where the crew of Apollo 8 were alone in deep space, hidden behind the moon. We waited, breathless with dread, until their voices came to us again. During that hiatus, the craft made a lunar orbit insertion burn to slow it down to enter lunar orbit, so ground control themselves didn't know whether it was successful until telemetry resumed and Lovell's voice came over the radio: "Houston, Apollo 8. Burn complete." It was Christmas Eve, and for the first time humans were orbiting another world.

I see this as one of the bravest and riskiest moments in history and also the most rewarding. These astronauts lost their tether with earth and went moonbound on theory and technology. Mind you, well researched theory and technology but it still was untested. We were rewarded with some of the most beautiful and poignant photography. Earthrise. I wish I had lived then to see this for the first time.

That gives me goosebumps just reading that…

Me and my family were there for the launch! Pretty impressive when the noise hit! Cool flight as well!!

Apollo 8 is my favorite mission from the Space Race. As others have pointed out, this was one of the riskiest missions of the Apollo Program, and it's also had arguably the second biggest lasting impact (can't surpass 11 there).

Bill Anders iconic image Earthrise reshaped how humanity views ourselves and our duty to the Earth. Early green movements point to this image as an inciting moment, and damn if it isn't still awe inspiring to this day.

Only lunar flight without a LM as potential lifeboat. Talk about test piloting! They were first.

Trailing only Apollo 11, this was probably the most important mission of the whole space race.

It was the first time any humans had ever traveled to another planetary body, it was the first test of any manned spacecraft outside of Earths orbit, it was the farthest any human had ever been from planet Earth, and it was the mission proved that the United States was finally ahead in the space race.

I hope this mission is remembered forever

In my opinion Earthrise is the most important picture ever taken. It's not a coincidence that the environmental movement gained steam after it was published.

Cheers

I'll Never forget the reading of Genesis by the crew. I'm not religious but that will always stick with me.

I got all chubbed up reading that

Plane clash victims watching as a literal moon man trudges trough hell to save them

First to the Moon. Gutsiest mission of the Space Age given how little we knew and the state of the equipment at the time.

"Public Service Broadcasting - The Otherside" captures this moment with perfect audioscapes.

Highly recommend listening when reading about Apollo 8.

https://open.spotify.com/track/3jjMyq44OIjNgmpXLhpw7W?si=DYoi0l8KTQ2A_dPbrB3jjQ

He also was the only astronaut on the Apollo 1 enquiry and testified before Congress about the findings. You want to talk about a tough gig. If you read the transcripts of his Congressional testimony, his words helped save the future of the program. Oh, and he had a 50+ year marriage. Really going till death did they part. I really respect him. May he live on. I hope he knows that he is remembered.

I got a friend who argues that we never landed on the moon. How do I convince him we did. Help. :/

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I think this was the only mission with a triangular shaped mission patch. Unless there’s been another made since

I cry every time.i listen to that song

You can ask him to think about the cold war. The soviets independently confirmed the flights of Apollo 8-17, they were listening intently. If there was doubt about the legitimacy of the program, they would have been shouting from the mountaintops. To believe that the Apollo program was all a ruse, you'd have to believe the same about the entire cold war. The tensions with Cuba which last to this day, the Vietnam war, the buildup of nuclear arms - was all of that a sham? In that case, this ruse would have come to encompass so many hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people, that there is no way that a secret like that could be kept for 60+ years.

Shorter answer: the Apollo astronauts left mirrors on the moon. Shine a laser at that spot, it shines back. Shine a laser elsewhere, nothing.

There were 75 survivors, nearly all injured. The crash landing in the swampland is thought to have been a mixed blessing. The mud may have stopped some wounds from bleeding out, but there would also be lots of really nasty microbes entering the bloodstream through the wounds.

This is less about Apollo astronauts than the heroism of one witness, an airboat pilot who despite injuries from the spilled jet fuel, nevertheless participated in the recovery effort that night and all the following day. I'm sure Frank would have agreed that such heroism is worthy of mention.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Air_Lines_Flight_401

No kidding, I still remember that first lunar orbit and the real fear that a simple engine failure or miscalculation could potentially launch the craft on a wide earth orbit that the crew could not survive with their few provisions.

They survived, thanks to orbital mechanics derived from the work of Isaac Newton and many others. Tomorrow is Newton's 280th birthday (he was a Christmas child). Happy birthday, Isaac.