William "Bill" Anders, born October 17, 1933 in Hong Kong, went into space aboard Apollo 8 in December 1968. It was the first manned spacecraft to orbit Earth's moon and return back to Earth. Anders, with Frank Borman and James Lovell were the first men to see the moon up close. Anders served as the Lunar Module Pilot.
He is credited with taking the famous Earthrise photo of the Earth rising over the moon's horizon, December 24, 1968.
Apollo 13 crew (L-R): Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert, Fred Haise
Mission patch
What more can be said about Apollo 13 that hasn't already? It launched April 11, 1970 with Jim Lovell, Jack Swigert and Fred Haise, the seventh manned mission of the Apollo program and the third mission planned to land on the moon.
Two days later, an oxygen tank exploded and they had to abort the moon landing.
They managed to make it back home safe and sound April 17.
Jim Lovell, born March 25, 1928 in Cleveland, Ohio, made two flights in NASA's Gemini program and two in the Apollo program, including the Apollo 13 mission. He was the first person to go into space four times, is one of twenty-four people to fly to the moon, and one of three people to fly to the moon twice, although he did not make a landing.
His first mission was pilot on Gemini VII with Command Pilot Frank Borman in December 1965, and they spent 14 days in orbit.
His second flight was as Commander of Gemini XII with pilot Buzz Aldrin in November 1966. They performed three EVAs and conducted the fourth space docking with the Agena target vehicle, proving men could work outside a spacecraft, which paved the way for sending men to the moon.
His third flight was on Apollo 8 as Command Module Pilot with Frank Borman and William Anders in December 1968. It was the second manned mission of the Apollo program and the first to leave Earth's orbit, reach the moon, orbit it and then return safely to Earth.
Lovell's fourth and final flight was as Commander aboard Apollo 13, with Jack Swigert and Fred Haise in April 1970. The disaster that occurred during the mission has been immortalized in the movie Apollo 13. Tom Hanks portrayed Jim Lovell in the movie. Lovell is the one who uttered the famous phrase: "Houston, we've had a problem."
Gemini VII, launched December 4, 1965, was fourth manned Gemini flight and the twelfth manned American space flight. Her crew, Frank Borman and James Lovell spent almost 14 days in space.
While in space they tried to solve problems that extended space flights would encounter such as stowage of waste, and nuntrition in space. Their new lightweight spacesuite became uncomfortable when worn for a long time (duh. Anything becomes uncomfortable after a while). Borman and Lovell took Pete Conrad's advice and took books to read.
That advice was well-taken since the last three days were "bad" according to Borman. They had finished their tests and the excitement of rendevouzing with Gemini VI was over. So they were doing little more than orbiting Earth and reading.
They splashed down December 18 and were recovered by the USS Wasp.
Fred Haise, born November 14, 1933 in Biloxi, Mississippi, was an astronaut on the ill-fated Apollo 13 mission. After high school, he served in the US Marines as a fighter pilot. He graduated from the University of Oklahoma with a degreee in aeronautical engineering in 1959 before becoming an astronaut.
Haise was scheduled to be the sixth human to walk on the moon during the Apollo 13 mission behind Jim Lovell, who was to be the fifth. Jack Swigert was the Command Module Pilot. Of course, we all know they didn't get to land on the moon but they returned to Earth safely. Bill Paxton played Haise in the movie Apollo 13.
He was backup for the Apollo 16 mission and was slated for the Apollo 19 mission, but the latter was cancelled due to budget cuts. Haise left NASA in 1979.
How many of you have wanted to go to the moon? Everybody?
Well, we’re all nerds here so I’m not surprised.
What is a surprise is NASA’s announcement that there is the
possibility of astronauts returning to the moon as early as next year. 2018 is the fiftieth anniversary year of
Apollo 8, which was the first spacecraft to reach and orbit our natural
satellite. Commander Frank Borman, James
Lovell and William Anders left Earth’s orbit, circled the moon a few times and
returned home safely.
Acting NASA administrator Robert Lightfoot said last month
he wants to fast-track the heavy-lift rocket, Space Launch System (SLS), which
has been in development since 2004.
Original plans called for the SLS to make an unmanned flight to the moon
in 2018 and a manned mission would follow 3-5 years later. Lightfoot acknowledged the challenges for
hurrying the project but wants to discover the opportunities it would provide for
getting humans farther into space.
Earthlings haven’t been to the moon since Apollo 17 in 1972
and the space shuttle program was shut down in 2011. Of course, NASA has experienced mixed signals
from presidents ever since. Bush I said
we’re going to Mars. Then Obama said ‘no’
but changed it to ‘yes’ later on. And
The Donald has actually expressed interest in beefing up the space program.
But there has to be more than just talk. NASA’s budget is
less than a third of what it was in the mid-1960’s (adjusted for inflation)
when we built and flew Mercury, Gemini, Apollo and Skylab. NASA needs support to get people back to the moon,
because it is going to be a long road from there to Mars.
Frank Frederic Borman II, born March 14, 1928, is a veteran of the Gemini and Apollo programs. He flew on Gemini 7 in 1965 with James Lovell, setting a record the time of 14 days in space. They performed maneuvers with Gemini 6A bringing the spacecrafts within 1 foot of each other.
Later, he was part of the Apollo 8 crew with James Lovell and William Anders, December 1968.
As of Jon Glenn's death in December 2016, Borman is the oldest living astronaut.
Walter Marty (Wally) Schirra, Jr., born March 12, 1923, was the only person to fly
in the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programs. October 23, 1962, Schirra flew on Mercury-Atlas 8, orbiting Earth six times in a little over nine hours.
His second trip was commanding Gemini 6A with Tom Stafford, December 15, 1965 when they rendezvoused with Frank Borman and James Lovell aboard Gemini 7.
Schirra became the first person to go to space three times on Apollo 7, launched October 11, 1968. He commanded the mission with Donn F. Eisele and R. Walter Cunningham. They replaced the original crew of Gus Grissom, Ed White and Roger Chaffee who perished in a fire during a ground test in the Apollo 1 capsule.
He retired from NASA after this mission. He joined Walter Cronkite as a consultant on seven Apollo missions.
Wally Schirra passed away May 3, 2007 from a heart attack he suffered during surgery for abdominal cancer.
Apollo 8, launched December 21, 1968 with Commander Frank F. Borman II, Command Module Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr. and Lunar Module Pilot William A. Anders, marked the first time man Earth's gravity and orbit the Moon. They were the first people to see the whole Earth, the far side of the Moon and Earth rise.
It took the crew three days to reach the moon. They orbited the Moon ten times in the next twenty hours and made a Christmas Eve broadcast, reading from the Book of Genesis, Chapter 1, verses 1-10.
L-R: James Lovell, William Anders, Frank Borman
They returned to Earth December 27 and were named Time magazine's "Men of the Year" for 1968.
James Lovell and Buzz Aldrin blasted off in Gemini XII November 11, 1966, the final mission of the Gemini project. Aldrin performed three EVA's, proving that a person could work effectively outside the spacecraft. The success of the mission paved the way for the Apollo mission.
And they got to observe a solar eclipse from space. How cool is that!?
The Gemini VI Agena Target Vehicle, launched from Cape Canaveral, October 25, 1965, was intended to be used by the Gemini VI crew, Walter Shirra and Tom Stafford. Although the unmanned craft launched successfully, a mere 6 minutes after launch, an "anomaly occured" and telemetry and radar beacon were lost. NASA tried to re-establish contact but were unable. Patrick AFB radar "picked up 5 pieces" of debris where Agena was supposed to be.
Schirra and Staffrod had been waiting in Gemini VI to launch 101 minutes after Agena, but the mission was cancelled.
On December 15, 1965, the two-man crew in Gemini VI rendezvoused with Frank Borman and James Lovell in Gemini VII, a crucial success in getting to the moon.
