Those happy people were mission commander Frank Borman, command module pilot James Lovell and lunar module pilot William Anders. On the picture below they are from left to right. It was the time of pioneers and eager for something, that will be written to the history. So this flight gained many premieres and mainly something unbelievable for us happened. According to all known facts the first living beeing comming from the Earth went in the evolution so far, that it managed to leave the planet on its own activity and become the orbiter of some other space object. Of course, it stayed still within the range of Earth's gravity field, the complete leaving is still waiting for next pioneers.

From today's point of view, their technique was primitive. But it simply got to the level, at which it was able to reach the goal, although enormous expenses and all the best available forces pressure was necessary. That is why it lasts so long before it will be practically usable. Not only after about forty years of next development of science and technique the world is able to think about continuing.