{"id":428725,"date":"2018-12-21T14:02:00","date_gmt":"2018-12-21T14:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/celebrating-50th-anniversary-of-apollo-8s-launch-into-history\/"},"modified":"2018-12-21T14:02:00","modified_gmt":"2018-12-21T14:02:00","slug":"celebrating-50th-anniversary-of-apollo-8s-launch-into-history","status":"publish","type":"image-article","link":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/celebrating-50th-anniversary-of-apollo-8s-launch-into-history\/","title":{"rendered":"Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 8’s Launch Into History"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\" class=\"hds-media hds-module wp-block-image\"><div class=\"margin-left-auto margin-right-auto nasa-block-align-inline\"><div class=\"hds-media-wrapper margin-left-auto margin-right-auto\"><figure class=\"hds-media-inner hds-cover-wrapper hds-media-ratio-none \"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg\"><img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"1041\" height=\"1530\" src=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?w=1041\" class=\"attachment-2048x2048 size-2048x2048\" alt=\"Apollo 8 launch, December 21, 1968\" style=\"transform: scale(1); transform-origin: 50% 50%; object-position: 50% 50%; object-fit: cover;\" block_context=\"nasa-block\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg 1041w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?resize=204,300 204w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?resize=768,1129 768w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?resize=697,1024 697w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?resize=272,400 272w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?resize=408,600 408w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?resize=612,900 612w, https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?resize=816,1200 816w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 1041px) 100vw, 1041px\" loading=\"eager\" \/><\/a><\/figure><figcaption class=\"hds-caption padding-y-2\"><div class=\"hds-caption-text p-sm margin-0\">Fifty years ago on Dec. 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center at 7:51 a.m. ES).<\/div><\/figcaption><\/div><\/div><\/div>\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/specials\/apollo50th\/\">Fifty years ago<\/a> on Dec. 21, 1968, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/mission_pages\/apollo\/index.html\">Apollo 8<\/a> launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center at 7:51 a.m. EST. Frank Borman commanded the crew of the Apollo 8 lunar orbit mission. James Lovell served as command module pilot and William Anders was the lunar module pilot. Apollo 8 was the first crewed Saturn V launch. <\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Apollo 8 was supposed to be a test flight to <em>simulate<\/em> atmospheric re-entry from the Moon but never meant to go there. But then the Soviet Union successfully launched two successful uncrewed lunar missions — Zond 5 and 6 — and NASA’s plans changed.  The rest, as they say, is history.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Learn more about the history of the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/feature\/goddard\/2018\/to-the-moon-and-back-apollo-8-and-the-future-of-lunar-exploration\">Apollo 8 mission<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p><em>Image Credit: NASA<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Fifty years ago on Dec. 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center at 7:51 a.m. ES).<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":226115,"template":"","meta":{"nasa_hds_core_meta_l10n":"en-US","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_editor":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_article_contacts":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_topic":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_linked_locations":[],"nasa_hds_core_meta_article_related_articles":[],"hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_id":"","hds_migrate_meta_pr_release_type":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_x":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_location_y":"","nasa_hds_core_meta_gallery_images":[]},"categories":[],"news-tags":[],"internal-terms":[],"coauthors":[],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 8’s Launch Into History","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/celebrating-50th-anniversary-of-apollo-8s-launch-into-history\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/celebrating-50th-anniversary-of-apollo-8s-launch-into-history\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg"},"articleSection":"General","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"NASA"}],"creator":["NASA"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"NASA","logo":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/themes\/nasa\/assets\/images\/nasa-logo.svg"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2018-12-21T14:02:00Z","datePublished":"2018-12-21T14:02:00Z","dateModified":"2018-12-21T14:02:00Z"},"rendered":"<meta name=\"parsely-title\" content=\"Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 8’s Launch Into History\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-link\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/image-article\/celebrating-50th-anniversary-of-apollo-8s-launch-into-history\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-type\" content=\"post\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-image-url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg?w=150&h=150&crop=1\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-pub-date\" content=\"2018-12-21T14:02:00Z\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-section\" content=\"General\" \/>\n<meta name=\"parsely-author\" content=\"NASA\" \/>","tracker_url":"https:\/\/cdn.parsely.com\/keys\/nasa.gov\/p.js"},"read_time":1,"featured_image":{"id":226115,"file":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/s68-56050.jpg","title":"Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of Apollo 8’s Launch Into History","alt":"Apollo 8 launch, December 21, 1968","caption":"Fifty years ago on Dec. 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched from Pad A, Launch Complex 39, Kennedy Space Center at 7:51 a.m. ES)."},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article\/428725"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/image-article"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/9"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/image-article\/428725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/226115"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=428725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=428725"},{"taxonomy":"news-tags","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/news-tags?post=428725"},{"taxonomy":"internal-terms","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/internal-terms?post=428725"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.nasa.gov\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/coauthors?post=428725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}