Editor's Note: Edwin Grosvenor is Editor-in-Chief of American Heritage. He covered the launch of Apollo 8 for National Geographic as a freelance photographer early in his career.
As Artemis II lifted off on April 1 from the launch pad at Kennedy Space Center, I recalled watching Apollo 8 blast off nearly 58 ago before from almost the same spot. Both Artemis II and Apollo 8 were on a similar mission: leave the bounds of earth and travel a quarter million miles to the Moon, circle it, and return.