Apollo 8
Apollo 8 was the second manned mission in the U.S. Apollo program, and the first manned mission to leave Earth's orbit, reaching the Earth's Moon and return safely to the Earth. The crew members were the first ever to leave the low Earth orbit. They also for the first time saw Earth as the whole planet. The most popular picture of Earth comes from this mission, see below. Commander of the flight was Frank F. Borman , Comand Module Pilot was James A. "Jim" Lovell, and Lunar Module Pilot was William A. Anders . Another adventure for Jim Lovell :-). The backup crew was generally rotation of future Apollo 11, except the order (commander N.A. Armstrong and Comand Module Pilot E.E. "Buzz" Aldrin) and Lunar Module Pilot Fred W. Haise, who was put on the back up of Apollo 11. Crew members from the left to the right: Lovell, Anders, Borman. Originally the aim of the mission was Lunar Module/Command Module test flight in the elliptical medium Eart