Today is an important piece of history whose story has been carved with golden ink. Exactly 54 years ago today Apollo 8 was launched on 21st December. It was the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth’s orbit and reach the moon and then safely land on earth.
After the crew rocketed they circled the moon 10 times on Christmas Eve. When all these took place the mission control was consciously waiting to listen to the signal from crew members that Apollo 8’s engine burn to leave lunar orbit had worked.
This was the most tedious and sensitive part of the mission that happened successfully. The capsule carrying the crew splashed in the Pacific on December 27 marking the completion of the mission. It was the first moment when humans experienced the lunar trajectory and saw the surface of the moon. Other than humans, a number of animals have been in space.
Albert, I named monkey was among the first few living beings sent to space for testing the survivability of humans in space. A chimpanzee named Ham has also been in space since 1961.
