Apollo 8 placed the mission on course for the Moon, the command and service modules (CSM), the remaining Apollo 8 spacecraft, separated from it. The crew then rotated the spacecraft to take photographs of the spent stage and then practiced flying in formation with it. As the crew rotated the spacecraft, they had their first views of the Earth as they moved away from it – this marked the first time humans had viewed the whole Earth at once. Borman became worried that the S-IVB was staying too close to the CSM and suggested to Mission Control that the crew perform a
Apollo 15 be selected as a prime or backup crew member for an Apollo flight; from Group 4 he was the only astronaut to make it to the Moon, with the last Apollo mission at the end of 1972. All three members of the support crew were scientist-astronauts, selected in 1967, as the prime crew felt they needed more assistance with the science than with the piloting. None of the support crew would fly during the Apollo Program, waiting until the Space Shuttle program for the chance to go into space. The three Apollo 15 astronauts had served as the backup crew