Earthrise: The stunning photo that changed how we see our planet

The Washington Post ^ | December 24, 2018 | Christian Davenport

[EveningStar]

The astronauts had spun around the moon a few times already, their gaze pointed down on the gray, pockmarked lunar surface. But now as they completed another orbit of the moon on Christmas Eve 1968, Frank Borman, the commander of the Apollo 8 mission, rolled the spacecraft, and, soon, there it was.

Earth, this bright, beautiful sphere, alone in the inky vastness of space, a soloist at the edge of the stage suspended in the spotlight.

“Oh, my God,” exclaimed Bill Anders, the lunar module pilot. “Look at that picture over there! There’s the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!”

[TheZMan]

Psh. Everyone knows Earth is flat. This was doctored up in a basement at “NASA”.

[Larry Lucido]

Looks flat to me. And part of it is missing!

[Diana in Wisconsin]

[keving]

Photo is flat

[Reno89519]

What, the Earth is flat?

[anton]

Means nothing to me. I’ve seen photos of ant hills that tell me more than than that.

[PIF]

[KarlInOhio]

Sir Bedevere:
...and that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana shaped.

King Arthur:
This new learning amazes me, Sir Bedevere. 

[CodeJockey]

The misconception is that the Earth is flat AND square. The Earth may indeed be flat but it’s round. Kinda like a CD if you want a visual.

[Army Air Corps]

Ping.

[Army Air Corps]

Nah, it is really more like a fresh tortilla with some refried beans and guacamole.

[laplata]

Psh. Everyone knows Earth is flat. This was doctored up in a basement at “NASA”.

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I am acquainted with a woman who is a “Flat Earther”. She and I were discussing the space program and she said the same thing. She’s nuts.

[Rummyfan]

I remember watching the Christmas Eve broadcast by the Apollo 8 crew. It was magnificent, highlighted by their reading of Genesis. I highly recommend the book Rocket Men which tells the tale of this mission.

[chimera]

Bill Anders kinda got jobbed on the whole crew rotation thing. I'm sure he was happy to fly an historic mission like 8 was, and to be among the few who have truly left planet Earth (at least in this lifetime). But 8 was originally supposed to be an Earth-orbit test of the LM and Anders was tapped to fly the LM. Then it got switched to a lunar orbit mission. No LM, since it wasn't ready to fly yet. So he was the odd man out.

He could have placed himself back in the rotation and snagged a seat on a later mission but it would have been a center seat, i.e., CM pilot. Anders had trained for the LM and he was a LM pilot, and didn't want a CM pilot consolation prize. So 8 was his first and last mission.

Jim Lovell was in line for the CDR of 14 but got bumped to 13 because NASA management thought Al Shepard needed more training after his long hiatus from flight status. Frank Borman had already decided that 8 would be his last flight in space. So of all the crew of Apollo 8 it sure looks like Bill Anders drew the short straw in terms of later assignments.

NASA management had tossed around the idea of assigning the crew of 8 to the first landing attempt mission, since they had experience flying in lunar orbit. But as the flights counted down to the landing mission and it looked like 11 was going to be it, the men of Apollo 8 realized that Armstrong's crew had been training hard for that mission and it would not have been fair to yank them in favor of the 8 crew. With the die cast, they made alternate plans.

[chimera]

You have to give people like that a bit of a pass. They obviously don't know about things like angular momentum. I got into it with a moon landing hoaxer-nut whose whole argument was that we never could fly in space with rockets because there was no air for the engine exhaust to “push” against. Poor guy doesn't know how a reaction engine works.

[bk1000]

In that photo is every human being except one.

[MisterArtery]

Proud to say that I worked that mission as a young software jockey at MSC.

[Rummyfan]

Awesome!

[robel]

Curry says it’s flat. Curry is a professional. And he hates Trump, so he’s smart. At least that’s the Lefts logic.