The Apollo 8 Mission was more significant than
the Apollo 11 "first moon landing" Mission. 
Do you agree? Discuss with these astronauts...

The Apollo 8 astronauts orbited the moon and did not step onto the moon.  Apollo 11 Astronauts were the first to do that.   But Apollo 8 "signaled the very first time human beings completely escaped the earth's gravity...it was the first manned vehicle to actually leave the earth.

To the people who participated in the 1960's space program, this flight is consistently referred to as the most important.  Jim Lovell who was on the more famous Apollo 13 flight says,

 "I would rather have been on Apollo 8 than Apollo 11.  Apollo 8 was the highpoint of my space career."

  Apollo astronaut Ken Mattingly, who was on the fifth manned lunar landing mission said,

"I consider Apollo 8 the most significant event. 

Compared to Apollo 8, the Apollo 11 mission was anti-climatic."

And Neil Armstrong, the first man to walk on the moon wrote that

"Apollo 8 was the spirit of Apollo--leaving the shackles of earth and being able to return."

Says Frank Borman's wife,

 "I always thought that the Apollo 8 round trip to the moon and back was a miracle."

This short week long journey to the moon also marked a crucial moment in both American and world history.  In America, Apollo 8 had put a positive, life affirming exclamation point on what had been an ugly, violent year with its assassination of of Martin Luther King and Robert Kennedy as well as numerous riots.  In many ways, this mission signaled the end of the cultural sixties." 
Robert Zimmerman  Genesis  Introduction