William Anders, Apollo 8 astronaut who took the photo of Earthrise, dies in plane crash

SEATTLE (AP) — William Anders, the former Apollo8 The astronaut who took the famous 1968 “Earthrise” photograph, showing the planet as a shadowy blue ball from space, died on Friday when the plane he was piloting alone crashed into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90 years old.

His son, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Greg Anders, confirmed the death to the Associated Press.

“The family is devastated,” he said. “He was a great pilot and we will miss him terribly.”

William Anders, a retired major general, said the photograph was his most significant contribution to the space program, along with ensuring the functionality of Apollo 8’s command module and service module.

The photo, the first color image of Earth from space, is one of the most important photographs in modern history because it changed the way people viewed the planet. The photo is considered to have sparked the global environmental movement because it shows how fragile and isolated Earth appears from space.

NASA Administrator and former Senator Bill Nelson said Anders embodies the lessons and purpose of exploration.

“He traveled to the threshold of the moon and helped us all see something else: ourselves,” Nelson wrote on the social platform X.

Anders took the photo during the crew’s fourth orbit of the moon, frantically switching from black-and-white to color film.

“Oh my God, look at that picture there!” said Anders. “The earth is coming up. Wow, that’s beautiful!”

The Apollo 8 mission in December 1968 was the first manned space flight to leave low Earth orbit and fly to the Moon and back. It was NASA’s boldest and perhaps most dangerous journey to that point, and one that laid the groundwork for the Apollo moon landing seven months later.

“Bill Anders forever changed our view of our planet and ourselves with his famous Apollo 8 Earthrise photograph,” Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who is also a retired NASA astronaut, wrote on X. “He inspired me and generations of astronauts and explorers. My thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Reports came in around 11:40 a.m. that an older aircraft had crashed into the water and sunk near the north end of Jones Island, San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said. Greg Anders confirmed to KING-TV that his father’s body was recovered Friday afternoon.

According to the Federal Aviation Association, only the pilot was on board the Beech A45 aircraft at the time.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating the crash.

William Anders said in a 1997 NASA Oral History In an interview, he said he did not believe the Apollo 8 mission was risk-free, but there were important national, patriotic and research reasons for doing it. He estimated that there was about a one in three chance that the crew would not return, an equal chance that the mission would be successful, and an equal chance that the mission would not launch at all. He said he suspected Christopher Columbus set sail with even lower odds.

He described how fragile and physically insignificant the Earth seems, and yet it is our home.

“We were going backwards and upside down, couldn’t really see the Earth or the Sun, and when we turned and came around we saw the first Earthrise,” he said. “That was certainly by far the most impressive thing. To see this very delicate, colorful orb that looked like a Christmas tree ornament to me rising over this very barren, ugly lunar landscape was a real contrast.”

Anders said afterward he wished he had taken more photos, but mission commander Frank Borman was concerned about whether everyone was rested and forced Anders and command module pilot James A. Lovell, Jr. to sleep, “which probably made sense.”

Chip Fletcher, a University of Hawaii professor who has conducted extensive research on coastal erosion and climate change, remembers seeing the photo as a child.

“The realization that we are alone but also together opened my eyes,” he said, adding that it still influences him today.

“It’s one of those images that never leaves my mind,” he said. “And I think that’s true for many, many people in many professions.”

Anders was part of the backup crew for Apollo 11 and Gemini XI in 1966, but the Apollo 8 mission was his only flight into space.

Anders was born in Hong Kong on October 17, 1933. His father was a Navy lieutenant on board the USS Panay, a US gunboat in the Chinese Yangtze.

Anders and his wife, Valerie, founded the Heritage Flight Museum in Washington state in 1996. Now located at a regional airport in Burlington, it displays 15 aircraft, several historic military vehicles, a library and many artifacts donated by veterans, according to the museum’s website. Two of his sons helped him run it.

The couple moved to Orcas Island in the San Juan archipelago in 1993 and had a second home in their hometown of San Diego, according to a biography on the museum’s website. They had six children and 13 grandchildren. Their current home in Washington was in Anacortes.

Anders graduated from the Naval Academy in 1955 and served as a fighter pilot in the Air Force.

He later served as a member of the Atomic Energy Commission, chairman of the joint US-USSR technology exchange program for fission and fusion energy, and ambassador to Norway. He later worked for General Electric and General Dynamics, he said. NASA Biography.

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McAvoy reported from Honolulu. Associated Press writer Lisa Baumann contributed to this report.