| THE APOLLO PROGRAM | ||
Apollo 8 lifted off on December 21, 1968, the first manned test of the Saturn V launch vehicle. It was the first time that a human had left the gravity of Earth. The first complete manned test of lunar hardware in Earth orbit was a part of the following Apollo 9 (AS-504) mission, launched on March 3, 1969. Launched on May 18, 1969, the Apollo 10 (AS-505) flight was the first manned test of lunar hardware near the Moon. During the mission, the LM descended close to the lunar surface and made two passes over the future Apollo 11 landing site, before returning to the CSM orbiting overhead. |
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