Earthrise
“Look at that picture over there! Here’s the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!”
–William Anders, Apollo 8, December 24, 1968
The most famous photograph from Apollo 8 was not planned. In an unscripted moment on the fourth orbit, Bill Anders grabbed a Hasselblad camera and snapped one of the most iconic images of the space age. As Anders saw it, the Earth “rose” from the Moon’s side, not over the top as usually depicted.
Whether Anders knew it or not, his photo recreated an image taken by the unpiloted Lunar Orbiter probe two years earlier. But a person took this picture. Since that moment, artists the world over have reinterpreted Earthrise.
Photo credit: NASA
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