History / Space

Documents reveal Apollo 8 nearly landed in NZ

07:48 am on 25 August 2021

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Almost 53 years ago, the Apollo 8 mission was the first manned space flight to leave low earth orbit, and reach the moon.

The mission was a precursor to the famous Apollo 11 moon mission which followed in 1969.

During that descent, the Apollo 8 crew were flying over and about to land in, or very close to, New Zealand air space.

It's one of many interesting reveals in a bunch of declassified documents that are now available for viewing at Archives New Zealand.

Ben Strang has been looking through them.