How Apollo 8 Delivered Christmas Eve Peace and Understanding to the World

On December 21, 1968, Apollo 8 launched from Kennedy Space Center at 7:51 a.m. EST with Frank Borman in command. His crew became the first humans to ride the mighty Saturn V rocket, breaking the bonds of Earth’s physical pull and entering the gravitational field of another celestial body.

 In a new book, Smithsonian curator Teasel Muir-Harmony examines the geopolitics during NASA’s space flight program.