orbital flight. >> to make matters worse for nasa, the lunar module wasn't ready to go into space. it was months behind schedule. but instead of falling further behind the soviets, nasa officials hatched a bold idea. >> the lunar module unfortunately was delayed considerably. so nasa again in one of the great strokes of management substituted apolo 8 from an earth orbital flight to a lunar orbital flight. >> if it worked, america would actually leap frog the soviets in the space race. an astronaut, not a cosmonaut would be the first to fly around the moon. >> i think it was one of the first back gels -- gambles that n asa at the direction of the president took in order to establish that america was better than the soviet union. >> a big gamble indeed. after all, it was less than two years before that apolo 1 demonstrated how complex every mission was. how the smallest oversight could be fatal.