RIP Bill Anders

[MileHigh]

I apologize for my inconsideration of present company. I will instead substitute "getting hit by a bus."

All good. There was a small plane crash near me on Friday and I had dinner with a cousin who was like a sister to my sister on Thursday and we were talking about them so it has been top of mind for me the past couple of days.

 

[BTExpress]

According to accounts I have read, the original "Earthrise" image was rotated 95 degrees clockwise to produce the published orientation to better convey the sense of the Earth rising over the moonscape.

Yes. This is what the astronauts saw out of their windows when they came around that side of the moon.

After the photo was changed 95 degrees, here is how the continents were oriented in the published photo.

 

[Starman]

Well, there is no up and down in space, and 20 years of screwing around with cell phone cameras with portrait vs landscape should have taught us ...



... or, how you hold the camera.

 

[BTExpress]

It was actually the fourth time the astronauts came around that side of the moon, but the nose of the spacecraft was pointing toward the moon's surface on those first three passes, and the men had no view of earth. Only because Borman was rotating the spacecraft at that exact time on the fourth pass did the earth come into view.

 

[Scout]

The list of human beings to see the totality of our planet, our home, is an incredibly short list. It might be under 10 right now.

Think about that. It's like living in a house and never going more than 2-3 feet outside the front door.

 

[John]

Talking to a longtime island resident today, who said she knew Anders well, there is a belief that the crash wasn't an accident. She said he'd hinted at this in the past few weeks. No idea if that's the truth but apparently he was in chronic pain.

 

[UPChip]

The list of human beings to see the totality of our planet, our home, is an incredibly short list. It might be under 10 right now.

Think about that. It's like living in a house and never going more than 2-3 feet outside the front door.

It's six living, 18 deceased - list is on page one.

If I'm doing the math right here, the highest orbit ever achieved by a Space Shuttle was 620 km. If the earth were the size of an NBA basketball, that orbit would be about a half-inch from the surface of the basketball. The moon would be a tennis ball 24 feet away.

 

[Starman]

It's six living, 18 deceased - list is on page one.

If I'm doing the math right here, the highest orbit ever achieved by a Space Shuttle was 620 km. If the earth were the size of an NBA basketball, that orbit would be about a half-inch from the surface of the basketball. The moon would be a tennis ball 24 feet away.

Yeah. The Hubble is in an orbit much higher than the ISS (250 miles) to allow it to remain in orbit for decades without additional boosts.

Prior to Apollo 8 with Anders, the highest manned space flight was Gemini 11 to 850 miles.

 

[UPChip]

Yeah. The Hubble is in an orbit much higher than the ISS to allow it to remain in orbit for decades without additional boosts.

Prior to Apollo 8 with Anders, the highest manned space flight was Gemini 11 to 850 miles.

That 620km orbit was from the mission on which Hubble was released, so yeah.

 

[Typist Clerk]

The CBS art department took Anders' photo, did a little work on it, and came up with this. Used leading into commercial breaks for quite a while.

 

[hondo]

Any chance he did this intentionally? I mean, most of those guys would want to go out in a blaze of glory anyway. At 90? Perhaps?