Mastodawn

William Anders, astronaut on the Apollo 8 mission, passed away earlier today.

Anders took the iconic Earthrise photo while orbiting the Moon with Borman and Lovell. No human had ever seen an Earthrise before.

On the transmission he says "Oh my God, look at that picture over there! It's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!"

🌕

Image: NASA

@mcnees wait... If the moon is always facing earth with the same side... How can there be an Earthrise on the moon at all?

@rockpick
The capsule was moving orbiting the moon. This gives the impression of a rise over the horizon.

And a catchy title sells¹. NASA is really good at this. Way better than ESA.

¹ The thing "sold" here is: "science is great".

@PiiiepsBrummm @mcnees ah right thanks. For some reason I thought he was standing on the moon.