Comments on: Apollo 8 Astronaut Bill Anders Reflects on Earthrise Picture

By: hal lewis

hal lewis — Sun, 21 Dec 2008 22:34:03 +0000

And I have known Bill Anders reasonably well for years, and he is a first-rate guy. Badmouth the others as much as you wish, but not him.

By: Huygens

Huygens — Fri, 07 Nov 2008 20:48:21 +0000

I have met both Frank Borman and Jim Lovell and to be honest, I did not care for either of them.

I don't mean to shatter the illusions people have of our Hero Astronauts, but they are definitely human, not superbeings.

Lovell also tried to take credit for the famous Apollo 8 Earthrise photo for years, until Andy Chaikin smoked out the truth: Bill Anders had to get his coworkers to take what one might think was an amazing and unique sight, but one should also realize most of the early astronauts were conservative in many ways.

Lovell has only become even more arrogant since he was played by Tom Hanks in Apollo 13.

Again, my apologies for those who worship heroes uncritically and have trouble handling the reality.

By: Jeremy

Jeremy — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 18:51:45 +0000

Seems like they would have seen a similar image when the earth was first disappearing behind the moon. They would have been seeing the dark side of the moon then, so perhaps the contrast between the moon and earth was too much for a good photo.

By: Todd Sieling

Todd Sieling — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 15:35:26 +0000

My mistake on the names involved, but I still think that bringing the petty namecalling to this story is childish.

By: Mike

Mike — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 12:40:51 +0000

Like others, I've met a good number of Apollo (and other) astronauts over the years. I've found them all to be warm, approachable and surprisingly humble. It's a shame that your 'illusion of the specialness and grandure of the space program was shattered' by this experience of one astronaut. Sometimes we have to remember that despite being astronauts, they are still 'only' people with their own little traits and habits, just like the rest of us!
It would be a terrible shame to let one bad experience shatter your illusion (which in my opinion isnt an illusion!)

By: Shane

Shane — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 11:19:48 +0000

Let me get this straight. Mr Vic Stryker is upset at Frank Borman due to lack of an EMAIL response??

We of course KNOW emails never get lost don't we?

Thanks for givin the guy a break.

[sheesh]

By: Rob

Rob — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 01:07:42 +0000

If you take the image above and rotate it 90 degrees counter clockwise then that is the actual orientation anders shot the photo at. Which I think is actually a more interesting pov. They were orbiting at the moon's equator and coming around from the dark side of the moon (cue pink floyd tune) in a clockwise direction when it was snapped.

The image has been popularly reproduced as above to give a sense of looking up from the moon's surface towards horizon. I prefer the original.

By: Vic Stryker - astronomer

Vic Stryker - astronomer — Wed, 23 Apr 2008 00:51:38 +0000

NO Frank Borman – in my opinion was an inexcusable asshole ! Bill Andres comments were and are quite beautiful ! To me this world will be a better place once people's egos learn to always say please and thank you!

thank you !

Vic

By: Todd Sieling

Todd Sieling — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 19:36:45 +0000

@Vic

Let me get this straight – you commemorate the event of what is arguably the most important photograph in human history with a rant about how you were slighted by Bill Anders? Congratulations – I never would have thought it possible vaulting their petty personal differences over something so significant, but you've proven me wrong. It's not great that your interaction with Bill didn't go well, but to bring it to this post to flog it in public is quite sad.

By: Vic Stryker - astronomer

Vic Stryker - astronomer — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 16:38:51 +0000

It was very nice reading Bill Anders recolections about the Apollo 8 flight and fotos of Earth from Moon But it also stirred up some bitter and absurd memories about Apollo 8.
I was at McDonald Observatory during that flight and NASA gave us the telescope coordinates for Apollo 8 on its way to Moon and we got an amazing foto of the Apollo spacecraft and its booster going to MOON for first time with human beings in those far away and small fragile spacecraft.

Yrs later. I finally tracked down Frank Boprman's email and I sent him via email a copy of the foto and he never even thanked me ! Then when I wrote to ask if he had recieved them.. and why he felt unobliged to thank me. He then wrote that he did not like my attitude. He is "in my opinion" an asshole !

So, sure, we probably needed tough guy jockass pilots to fly for NASA… But my illusion of the specialness and grandure of the space program was shattered from Mr Borman's – to me inexcusable bad manners and attitude !

By: Ethan Siegel

Ethan Siegel — Tue, 22 Apr 2008 13:56:15 +0000

Happy Earth day! I'd like to join you in the science blogging community in posting about our own planet today!