Apollo astronauts and engineers tell the inside story of Apollo 8 the first manned mission to the moon The US space program suffered a bitter setback when Apollo 1 ended in a deadly fire during a prelaunch runthrough In disarray and threatened by the prospect of a Soviet Union victory in the space race NASA decided upon a radical and risky change of plan turn Apollo 8 from an earthorbit mission into a daring sprint to the moon while relying on untried new technologies Fifty years after the historic mission the Apollo 8 astronauts and engineers recount the feats of engineering that paved the way to the moon