||| FROM RUSTY SCHWEICKART, APOLLO 9 LUNAR MODULE PILOT |||
Here’s a wonderful tribute to Bill Anders from his long-standing Apollo Astronaut buddy, Rusty Schweickart, the Lunar Module Pilot on the Apollo 9 mission. Rusty was visiting Bill here on Orcas Island in 2016 when Bill called to suggest he deliver what became the very first Orcas Currents lecture, which we quickly arranged to occur in the Episcopal Parish Hall. Rusty talked eloquently and enthusiastically about the search for asteroids that might one-day cross Earth’s path and cause catastrophic devastation, the purpose of the B612 Foundation mentioned in his article. They were obviously very close friends. — Michael Riordan
Rusty Schweickart
To many people the world over, Bill Anders was the Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic Earthrise photo during his trip around the moon in December 1968. The image has been widely, and justly, given credit for stimulating broad support for the environmental movement.
Bill was my best friend in our third group of astronauts. We were considered, not being test pilots, somewhat nerdy. Nevertheless, we were both very experienced fighter pilots, and both of us considered ourselves to be better pilots than all the others — though we only made an issue of that on the occasional Friday afternoon beer call. (Bill was actually the second-best pilot in our group)
During our Apollo geology training, we nerdy types (Bill, Alan Bean, Walt Cunningham, Charlie Bassett, and I) would usually be found in a tight group in the corner of the bar debating (and berating) one another on whether or not the crystals flashing out from a rock sample we had collected was indeed biotite or some other mineral. We loved our geology field training — partly for the science itself, but also for the opportunity it afforded for us to be hiking and camping in some of the most remote and spectacular geologic sites in the world.
Bill had a great sense of humor; usually with a pretty sharp edge. We enjoyed competing for the most subtle “take ‘ on an observation or sometimes on another astronaut who might have goofed in some way. It was all in good fun, but also with a with a bit of competitive reality in it. In the early days none of us knew who would fly first or on what mission, and the desire for assignment to the premier upcoming flights was very real.
Bill and I were probably the most civically active members of our astronaut group. He left the Astronaut office shortly after his Apollo 8 flight, and began a long series of both public-servant and business-executive roles. My activities were more in environmental and international initiatives, eventually leading to the formation of the Association of Space Explorers (our professional organization of astronauts & cosmonauts from around the world). Bill, typically, saw
it cynically as a”;marching and chowder” organization but ultimately came around. I also co-founded an organization to develop and champion the protection of the Earth from asteroid impacts (B612 Foundation).
For me personally, the contribution of Apollo 8, and Bill’s in particular, was far larger than energizing the global environmental movement. The Apollo 8 experience led to the recognition that life, per se, was built into the very design of the Universe, and that we humans (Earthlife actually) are the local manifestation of this process. We have now reached the point in our evolution where we are quite literally being born out of Mother Earth. My acknowledgement of that amazing fact — and the obvious replication of it throughout the Universe — led me to understand that we, the “local” expression of this evolutionary miracle, have an amazing opportunity, and a daunting responsibility in the success, or failure, of this phenomenal process of cosmic birth.
Thank you, Bill… and Earthrise.
Wonderful bit of historical context from Schweickart, and as it happens I not only attended it, but sat directly behind Anders, with whom I exchanged a few pleasantries.