This official NASA film takes the viewer inside the December 1968 launch of Apollo 8. Apollo 8 became the first manned spacecraft to leave Earth orbit, reach Earth’s moon, orbit it and return safely to Earth. The three-astronaut crew — Commander Frank Borman, Command Module Pilot James Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot William Anders — became the first humans to travel beyond low Earth orbit, the first to see Earth as a whole planet, the first to directly see the far side of the Moon, and then the first to witness Earthrise. The 1968 mission, the third flight of the Saturn V rocket and that rocket’s first manned launch, was also the first human spaceflight launch from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, located adjacent to Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Liftoff comes at mark 01:00 and we see astronauts in mission control (including Michael Collins and Neil Armstrong at mark 03:00) monitoring the journey. A breathtaking view of Earth is shown at mark 04:24 as well as the astronauts within their spacecraft (mark 04:55). Apollo 8 makes history at mark 09:00 as they enter lunar orbit and for the first time men see, with their own eyes, the lunar surface as Lovell describes its grayish, pockmarked surface and the crew later comment on its vastness … and loneliness. The crew fires the surface module engine for the return home as programmers, engineers, and fellow astronauts monitor the progress (mark 14:14). We see more scenes from within the capsule as the crew describes their “Christmas meal” (mark 15:10) before Earth comes back into view and Apollo 8 splashes down (mark 18:45).