Apollo 8 in Photographs

An unprecedented photographic study of the Apollo 8 mission, the first manned spaceflight to escape Earth's gravity and orbit the moon. 

The Apollo Photo Archive series comprises the most comprehensive pictorial record of America’s moon-landing program ever published.

The series continues with the Apollo 8 launch in December 1968. Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders achieved several historic firsts on this flight. Apollo 8 was the first manned flight to escape Earth’s gravity, and the first to orbit another celestial body (the moon). Launched by the Saturn V rocket, the crew of Apollo 8 reached 24,593 mph, setting both manned speed and distance-from-Earth records.

The Apollo Photo Archive features images of spacecraft and rocket assembly, crew selection and training, preflight activities, mission countdown, launch, the flight itself, splashdown, and subsequent crew appearances and related activities. This particular volume includes more than 800 images.