Apollo 8 crew wish the world a Merry Christmas from the moon's orbit in 1968
Borman, Lovell and Anders already have chalked up enough space firsts and records to choke a cosmonaut:
- Fastest travel in history, more than 24,400 miles an hour when they set off from earth-parking orbit toward the moon.
- Most powerful boost from earth, taking the first manned ride on the Saturn 5 moonrocket, the world’s mightiest weightlifter.
- First men to escape the earth’s gravitational grasp.
- Farthest distance man has traveled from earth, speeding out more than 230,000 miles compared to Gemini 11’s previous record of 850 miles.
- First men to orbit the moon.
