Why the hurried mission to orbit the moon before the Soviets was so dangerous

Mary Roach is the author of “Packing for Mars,” “Stiff,” and other books.

There were, in all, 12 Apollo spaceflights. We remember them by number if history was made (Apollo 11) or things went wrong (1 and 13). By either measure, we should remember Apollo 8: the first mission to take humans all the way to (if not yet onto) the moon.