Apollo 8 went to the Moon in 1968 without a lunar module

Apollo 8 launched from Kennedy Space Center at 7:51 a.m. EST on December 21, 1968, and became the first crewed spacecraft to leave Earth orbit and circle the Moon, on the first crewed flight of the Saturn V and without a lunar module aboard.

The missing lander was the reason for the trip. Delays with the lunar module threatened to stall Apollo as President Kennedy’s end-of-decade deadline approached, so NASA changed the plan and sent Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders all the way to the Moon in the command and service module alone. In the lander’s place rode a Lunar Test Article of the same weight, and Anders kept the title of lunar module pilot with no lunar module to fly.

“By going into lunar orbit, we make an early flight demonstration of the design mission of the Saturn V, the Apollo spacecraft, and understand its operation in translunar space.” (Sam Phillips, NASA Apollo Program director)

The flight, day by day

• December 21: liftoff at 7:51 a.m.; 2 hr 50 min later the Saturn V’s third stage fired toward the Moon, pushing the crew to 24,208 mph, faster than anyone had flown before.
• December 24: an engine burn on the far side, out of radio contact with Earth, put Apollo 8 into lunar orbit. Over 20 hours it circled 10 times at about 60 miles up, photographing future landing sites.
• December 25: a second blind burn sent the crew home. Lovell’s confirmation: “Please be informed there is a Santa Claus.”
• December 27: the capsule hit the atmosphere at 24,695 mph, then the highest speed humans had reached, and splashed down in the Pacific near the USS Yorktown.

Of the 6.5 million pounds that left the pad, less than 11,000 pounds, the command module itself, came back. Seven months later, Apollo 11 landed.