We’d like to take a moment to celebrate the lives of to space science greats who have passed away.
On June 7, Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders died when his Beechcraft T-34 Mentor crashed into the water near Jonas Island. He was age 90. While Anders never walked on the Moon, he created one of the enduring images of the Apollo program with his December 24, 1968 Earthrise image. Taken on their forth orbit of the Moon, this image wasn’t part of their planned actions, but rather Andes saw that their orbit was causing them to witness the Earth rising over the limb of the moon, and like any excited tourist, he took photos, even asking his crewmates to please get him the color film that was still rare in those days. This image continues to be used to remind all of us just how small we are in the vastness of space
On June 9, Edward C Stone, the former director of NASA’s Jet Propulsion Lab and the longtime project scientist for the Voyager mission died at age 88. Stone had only “retired from his role with Voyager in 2022, and had continued to work on projects, participate in interviews and events, and mentor those around him up until the end.