Space History Photo: Apollo 8 Recovery

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U.S. Navy swimmers prepare the command module to be hoisted aboard the U.S.S. Yorktown. (Image credit: NASA.)

In this historical photo from the U.S. space agency, a team of U.S. Navy underwater demolition swimmers prepares the Apollo 8 command module for being hoisted aboard the carrier U.S.S. Yorktown, prime recovery vessel for the initial manned lunar orbital mission. The crew members - astronauts Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, Jr., and William A. Anders - had already egressed the spacecraft and were aboard the recovery ship at the time of this photo on Dec. 27, 1968.

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