In August 1968, NASA made a bold decision: to launch the first manned spacecraft to the Moon. Just a year ago, three astronauts died in a fire during testing, and since then the Apollo program has suffered one setback after another. Meanwhile, the USSR was winning the space race, the Cold War was getting hotter with each passing month, and President Kennedy's promise to put a man on the moon by the end of the decade seemed untenable. But when Frank Borman was called to a secret meeting and offered his crew a dangerous mission, he agreed without hesitation. This book is the first detailed history of Apollo 8. Jeffrey Kluger offers the reader the exciting story of a mission that was so risky that it was perceived almost as a lottery, but, crowned with success, marked the beginning of a new era in space exploration.