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'''Apollo 8''' (December 21–27, 1968) was the first crewed [[spacecraft]] to leave [[Sphere of influence (astrodynamics)|Earth's gravitational sphere of influence]], and the first [[human spaceflight]] to reach the [[Moon]]. The crew orbited the Moon ten times without landing, and then departed safely back to [[Earth]].<ref name="NYT-20181221">{{cite news |last=Overbye |first=Dennis |author-link=Dennis Overbye |title=Apollo 8's Earthrise: The Shot Seen Round the World—Half a century ago today, a photograph from the moon helped humans rediscover Earth. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/science/earthrise-moon-apollo-nasa.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/21/science/earthrise-moon-apollo-nasa.html |archive-date=January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited |date=December 21, 2018 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=December 24, 2018 }}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="NYT-20181224a">{{cite news |last1=Boulton |first1=Matthew Myer |last2=Heithaus |first2=Joseph |title=We Are All Riders on the Same Planet—Seen from space 50 years ago, Earth appeared as a gift to preserve and cherish. What happened? |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/opinion/earth-space-christmas-eve-apollo-8.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/opinion/earth-space-christmas-eve-apollo-8.html |archive-date=January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited |date=December 24, 2018 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=December 25, 2018 }}{{cbignore}}</ref><ref name="NYT-20181224b">{{cite news |last=Widmer |first=Ted |title=What Did Plato Think the Earth Looked Like?—For millenniums, humans have tried to imagine the world in space. Fifty years ago, we finally saw it. |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/opinion/plato-earth-christmas-eve-apollo-8.html |archive-url=https://ghostarchive.org/archive/20220101/https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/24/opinion/plato-earth-christmas-eve-apollo-8.html |archive-date=January 1, 2022 |url-access=limited |date=December 24, 2018 |work=[[The New York Times]] |access-date=December 25, 2018 }}{{cbignore}}</ref> These three [[astronaut]]s—[[Frank Borman]], [[Jim Lovell|James Lovell]], and [[William Anders]]—were the first humans to witness and photograph the [[far side of the Moon]] and an [[Earthrise]].
Apollo 8 launched on December 21, 1968, and was the second [[crewed spaceflight]] mission flown in the United States [[Apollo space program]] (the first, [[Apollo 7|Apollo{{nbsp}}7]], stayed in Earth orbit). Apollo{{nbsp}}8 was the third flight and the first crewed launch of the [[Saturn V]] rocket,. andHe was the first human spaceflight from the [[Kennedy Space Center]], located adjacent to [[Cape Canaveral Space Force Station|Cape Kennedy Air Force Station]] in Florida.
Originally planned as the second crewed [[Apollo Lunar Module]] and [[Apollo command and service module|command module]] test, to be flown in an elliptical [[medium Earth orbit]] in early 1969, the mission profile was changed in August 1968 to a more ambitious command-module-only lunar orbital flight to be flown in December, as the lunar module was not yet ready to make its first flight. Astronaut [[Jim McDivitt]]'s crew, who were training to fly the first lunar module flight in low Earth orbit, became the crew for the [[Apollo 9|Apollo{{nbsp}}9]] mission, and Borman's crew were moved to the Apollo{{nbsp}}8 mission. This left Borman's crew with two to three months' less training and preparation time than originally planned, and replaced the planned lunar module training with translunar navigation training.
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