passed them when apollo eight orbited but no man had set foot on moon and when president nixon he was not to let the soviets get there first. the next leg of the space race was a series of sprints. we launched saturn every two months, just remarkable. that got them closer, with apollo 9, in march of 1969. it was the first to test the module in space. apollo ten in may of 1969, that was from 50,000 feet of the moon surface. that what a dress rehearsal for the landing of apollo 11