Overshadowed pioneers

The Apollo 11 astronauts weren’t the first humans to reach the Moon; they were preceded by two test flights that orbited the Moon without landing. The first of these, in December 1968, was Apollo 8. Its crew – Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders – became the first humans to travel beyond Earth orbit. Although soon overshadowed by Apollo 11, Apollo 8 was still a tremendous achievement that hasn’t been repeated since the end of the Apollo program. While in lunar orbit, the crew took the famous ‘Earthrise’ photo, which became one of the most iconic images of the Space Age.