‘Apollo’s Daring Mission’ explores troubles and triumph of the first manned mission to orbit the moon

On Christmas Eve in 1968, the world paused to watch telecasts of something people had never seen: pictures of the moon and Earth taken from lunar orbit. As they circled the moon, the American astronauts read passages from the Book of Genesis in a powerful moment of calm.

But the first manned mission to orbit the moon was rocky, chaotic and fearful.