We lost two Veterans and great NASA heroes in the past week. Rear Admiral Ken Mattingly passed away on 10.31.23; he was originally slated to pilot Apollo 13, and was transferred to Apollo 16 because of suspected exposure to measles (which he never ended up having!). Fortunately, following the mid-flight disaster, Mattingly was able to work with Mission Control in the flight simulator, working on plans to return Lovell, Haise, and Swigert home to Earth!
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Following Ken's death, Colonel Frank Borman passed away on 11.7.23, fitting to remember both of them on Veterans Day weekend. He graduated West Point, became a fighter pilot, and along with Jim Lovell and Bill Anders, was part of the famous Apollo 8 crew, the first 3 human beings to orbit the Moon!
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Earthrise is probably one of the most famous photos from the Apollo era, taken as the crew of Apollo 8 was orbiting the Moon, watching Earth rise as no human beings ever had before. Frank Borman and Bill Anders had a longstanding joke about who ACTUALLY snapped the iconic photo (recordings of in-flight communications have proven it to be Anders, but the joke continued between the two men for decades!).
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