This week Apollo astronaut Bill Anders, age 90, passed away. He died during a plane crash in Washington state.
He was part of an Apollo team that was the first humans to leave low Earth orbit in 1968. He was best known for his Christmas Eve photo of the Earth rising over the surface of the Moon (shown above).
Born in Hong Kong on October 17, 1933, he would graduate from the Naval Academy in 1955, obtain a masters in nuclear engineering, and then serve as a fighter pilot in the US Air Force. In 1964, he was selected by NASA to be an astronaut, serving as a backup pilot for both the Gemini XI and Apollo 11 flights, and most famously serving as lunar module pilot for Apollo 8.
Regarding his “Earthrise” image, Mr. Anders said:
The only color that we could see and contrasted by this really unfriendly, stark lunar horizon, made me think, ‘You know, we really live on a beautiful little planet.’
You can watch a NASA video on Mr. Stafford’s accomplishments here as well as more information on his life here.
You can also read more on Mr. Anders’ life and career at these sites:
Rest in peace.
Our Awesome Universe 