 Apollo 8 launched at 7 : 51 : 00 a.m. Eastern Standard Time on December 21 , 1968 , using the Saturn V 's three stages to achieve Earth orbit . The S @-@ IC first stage impacted the Atlantic Ocean at 30 ° 12 ′ N 74 ° 7 ′ W and the S @-@ II second stage at 31 ° 50 ′ N 37 ° 17 ′ W. The S @-@ IVB third stage injected the craft into Earth orbit , but remained attached to later perform the trans @-@ lunar injection ( TLI ) burn that put the spacecraft on a trajectory to the Moon . 
