In 2019 Andy produced the only clear, recognisable image of Neil Armstrong on the Moon, for the 50th anniversary of Apollo 11. He went on to reveal life on board the stricken Apollo 13 mission, and in 2021 found Alan Shepard’s golf ball on the lunar surface - finally revealing how far the “miles and miles” shot went, half a century after the event. Later the same year his imaging work and analysis helped to solve one of NASA’s most enduring mysteries, by determining the most likely cause of the sinking of Gus Grissom’s Liberty Bell 7 spacecraft, 60 years after the world’s 3rd spaceflight; finally vindicating Grissom.
In 2023 he became the third British recipient of the coveted Royal Photographic Society international Award For Scientific Imaging. The RPS said, “In their 145th year, the awards are the world’s longest-running and most prestigious photography honours, recognising individuals who are making significant contributions across still and moving image. Science has been at the heart of the Society since it was founded in 1853. Its mission to ‘promote the art and science of photography’ has been underpinned more recently by its pledge to make ‘photography for everyone’. The work of Andy Saunders unites both those aims - a body of work that is a giant leap in the world of scientific imaging, with his stunning restoration efforts on the photographs taken during the Apollo missions. His major innovation, a complex stacking technique, to allow him to produce images from sequences with a moving ‘movie’ camera, and even subjects moving within the scene, allowed Saunders to reveal previously unseen elements of historic events.”
As of 2023, he is 49 years old and lives in Culcheth, Cheshire with his young family.
