I was confused by that too, until I realised that the article is specifically about the Saturn V.
What the author wrote was: "After only two unmanned launches, the third Saturn V took Apollo 8 to the moon."
Apollo 7 used a Saturn IB booster and so, while it was the first manned Saturn launch, Apollo 8 was the first manned launch of a Saturn V. The two unmanned launches were Apollo 4 and Apollo 6, which both used the Saturn V [1].
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Nice writeup. One small error I noticed: the first manned flight was Apollo 7, not Apollo 8.
I was confused by that too, until I realised that the article is specifically about the Saturn V.
What the author wrote was: "After only two unmanned launches, the third Saturn V took Apollo 8 to the moon."
Apollo 7 used a Saturn IB booster and so, while it was the first manned Saturn launch, Apollo 8 was the first manned launch of a Saturn V. The two unmanned launches were Apollo 4 and Apollo 6, which both used the Saturn V [1].
Edit: Clarity
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Apollo_missions#Unmanne...