9781422281420

Apollo 8-9-10 the way for a Moon landing. Reaching the Moon didn’t happen all at once. A series of flights paved

With the success of the Saturn V and with safe- ty issues from Apollo 1 worked out, it was time for the Apollo program to send men into space. The plan was to use a series of flights to test out parts of the Moon flight and landing gear, build- ing toward an actual Moon landing.

Apollo 8 ▲ To find out if a spacecraft

could actually reach the Moon and return, a trio of astronauts made this flight. Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders launched on December 21, 1968. About three days later, they orbited the Moon. They

were the first humans to see the “dark side” of the Moon; that is, the side that always faces away from Earth. They also tested many of the parts of the spacecraft to make sure they worked properly during the longest manned flight yet, just short of four days.

14