EARTHRISE, PLANEFALL
This time a year ago, the Apollo 8 crew was all still alive, a statistic no other Apollo mission could boast. The death of Frank Borman last November put an end to that. Among the remaining two, Jim Lovell is 96 and frail, while William Anders was still capable of flying a plane, so who would be the last seemed a foregone conclusion… with the caveat that William Anders was still fucking flying planes. The three men were the first to orbit the Moon, and Anders’s chief legacy from the flight was taking the Earthrise photograph that put into perspective how small and fragile our Blue Marble is. After getting through the most perilous era of spaceflight unscathed, he died aged 90 in a plane crash in northwestern Washington state, thrusting unnatural points in the orbits of Apollogies For Still Living and the new team.
Also, I’m pissed that I’ve used “Apolling Way to Go” as a pun twice before for astronauts that died of natural causes, when one comes along that really fit that bill.
William Anders
17 October 1933 – 7 June 2024, aged 90
2 TEAMS (💀💀💀💀💀 + 😲 = 8 POINTS)