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Episode Six: Apollo 8 The first time humans travelled to the moon - Apollo’s most daring mission.

In December 1968, NASA launched the most audacious mission of the Apollo program. Originally intended only to fly in Earth orbit, NASA managers decided instead to send the crew of Apollo 8 the quarter of a million miles to the moon and go into orbit around it. This dramatic acceleration in the Apollo schedule came after the CIA warned NASA that the Soviet Union was preparing to launch a crew to the moon before the end of that year.

Kevin Fong talks to astronaut James Lovell about his experiences on this daring mission and to some of the Mission Control team, who helped to keep the crew safe. That team included Poppy Northcutt, the first female engineer in mission control. The crew of Apollo 8 took the famous “Earthrise” photograph, the first image of the earth seen from another world.

• Produced by Chris Browning and Andrew Luck-Baker for the 主播大秀 World Service.

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