The bold decision to go straight to the Moon

Apollo 8 was originally planned to test the lunar module in low Earth orbit — in August 1968, less than four months before launch, NASA re-planned the mission because of the delayed module into a far bolder flight straight into lunar orbit, without a lunar module.

Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and William Anders lost two to three months of planned training, and instead of piloting the lunar module had to hastily retrain for translunar navigation. The most experienced crew member was not Commander Borman but Lovell — he had already flown Gemini 7 and Gemini 12, the second one as commander.

Apollo 8 launched on 21 December 1968 at 12:51:00 UTC from Launch Complex 39A — the first crewed flight of the Saturn V rocket (it had failed twice in earlier uncrewed tests). Two and a half hours into Earth orbit, CAPCOM Michael Collins gave the historic call: “Apollo 8, you are go for TLI.” The third-stage S-IVB engine then burned for 318 seconds, accelerating the ship to a record 10,822 m/s — the fastest any human had ever travelled.