NASA 50th Anniversary - William Anders

Astronaut William "Bill" Anders Is one of the first of only 24 Men to have travelled to the Moon.

In 1963, Anders was selected by NASA in the third group of astronauts.He was the backup pilot for the Gemini XI mission.

But His first & only spaceflight Mission was a very special & one of NASA's most dangerous undertaken so far. Anders was selected as Lunar Module Pilot for Apollo 8 Originally planned as a low-earth orbit Lunar Module/Command Module test, the mission profile was changed to the more ambitious lunar orbital flight.

Apollo 8 was the first manned space voyage to another celestial body. After launching on December 21, 1968, the crew took three days to travel to the Moon. They orbited ten times over the course of 20 hours, during which the crew made a Christmas Eve television broadcast in which they read the first 10 verses from the Book of Genesis.

Anders also took a photograph (AS8-14-2383) which was named "Earthrise" from lunar orbit on December 24, 1968 with a Hasselblad camera.

It has been called "the most influential environmental photograph ever taken."

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