— Matt Schudel, The Washington Post
George R. Carruthers, an astrophysicist and engineer who was the principal designer of a telescope that went to the moon as part of NASA’s Apollo 16 mission in 1972 in an effort to examine Earth’s atmosphere and the composition of interstellar space, died Dec. 26 at a Washington hospital. He was 81.
His brother Gerald Carruthers confirmed the death, saying Dr. Carruthers had dementia and other ailments.