Just before Christmas in 1968 – a year marked by assassinations, revolution and discord – Apollo 8 gave the world something it desperately needed: hope for the future. Fifty years ago, astronauts Frank Borman, Bill Anders and Jim Lovell became the first men to escape the clutches of Earth’s gravity and journey to the Moon – and in doing so, stole a march on the Soviets in the Space Race. It was an out-of-this-world mission, hatched amid setbacks and failures, shaped by the wider tensions of the Cold War. Apollo historian David Woods picks up the story on page 42.
The Apollo 8 astronauts were the first men to leave Earth’s orbit
ON THE COVER: PAUL MARC MITCHELL X1, GETTY X1/ON THIS PAGE: PAUL MARC MITCHELL X1, NASA X1