Rocket launches in1968

Apollo 7 carries the first American crew in nearly two years in October, validating the rebuilt command module. On Christmas Eve, Apollo 8 puts Frank Borman, Jim Lovell, and Bill Anders in orbit around the Moon — the first humans to leave Earth orbit — while the Soviet Union sends two Zond probes on circumlunar trajectories on Proton as rehearsals for a crewed Soviet Moon loop that never flies.