Curated playlist
1968 in spaceflight
- Jim LovellJim Lovell flew to the Moon twice and never set foot on it. His second trip, Apollo 13, nearly ended in disaster.
- Donn F. EiseleDonn Eisele was in a hospital on January 27, 1966, exactly a year before the Apollo 1 fire.
- Walter CunninghamWalter Cunningham sat in the lunar module pilot seat on a spacecraft with no lunar module. It was Apollo 7.
- Frank BormanA stranger's telegram told Apollo 8's Frank Borman, "You saved 1968." He commanded the first crew to orbit the Moon.
- Wally SchirraAstronaut Wally Schirra refused Mission Control's request to wear helmets.
- EarthriseApollo 8's commander claimed for years that he took the Earthrise photograph. Bill Anders took all three.
- Saturn IBEngineers nicknamed the Saturn IB's first stage Cluster's Last Stand. It used recycled missile tanks.
- Saturn VA Saturn V engine test shattered a bank window 15 miles away. The Moon rocket's roar carried across Mississippi.
- William AndersWilliam Anders fled Japanese bombers as a boy, then photographed Earth from the Moon.
- Soyuz (rocket family)The Soyuz rocket family descends from the world's first intercontinental ballistic missile.