SEATTLE (AP) — William AndersThe former Apollo 8 astronaut, who took the iconic “Earthrise” photograph in 1968, showing the planet as a shadowy blue marble from space, died 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 very much.”
Retired major general William Anders said the photo was Apollo 8’s most important contribution to the space program, besides ensuring the operation of the command module and service module.
The photograph, which is the first color image of the Earth taken from space, is one of the most important photographs in modern history in terms of changing people’s perspective on the planet. The photo is credited with sparking the global environmental movement because it showed how fragile and isolated the Earth looks from space.
NASA Administrator and former Senator Bill Nelson said Anders embodies the lessons and purpose of the expedition.
“He went to the moon’s doorstep and helped us all see something else: ourselves,” Nelson wrote on social platform X.
Anders took the photo while the team was on its fourth orbit of the moon, frantically switching from black and white to color film.
“Oh my God, look at that picture over there!” Anders said. “The world is getting closer. Wow, how beautiful!”
The Apollo 8 mission in December 1968 was the first human spaceflight to leave low Earth orbit, go to the moon and back. It was NASA’s boldest and perhaps most dangerous journey yet, and it was the journey that set the stage for the Apollo moon landing seven months later.
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, also a retired NASA astronaut, wrote about X: “Bill Anders forever changed the way we view our planet and ourselves with his famous Earthrise photo from Apollo 8.” . My thoughts are with his family and friends.”
San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said a report came in around 11:40 a.m. that a vintage airplane had crashed into the water and sank near the north end of Jones Island. Greg Anders confirmed to KING-TV that his father’s body was found Friday afternoon.
Only the pilot was on board the Beech A45 plane at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association.
The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating the crash.
William Anders said in a 1997 NASA oral history interview that he did not think the Apollo 8 mission was risk-free, but that there were important national, patriotic and exploratory reasons to proceed. He estimated that there was about a one-in-three chance that the crew would not return, about the same chance that the mission would be successful, and about the same chance that the mission would not start. He said he suspected Christopher Columbus had sailed for worse.
He described how the world seemed fragile and seemingly physically insignificant, but still home.
“We were going backwards, upside down, we couldn’t see the Earth or the Sun, and when we turned around, we saw our first Earthrise,” he said. “This was definitely the most impressive thing so far. It was a real contrast to see this very delicate, colorful sphere, which looked like a Christmas tree ornament to me, coming over this very plain, ugly moonscape.
Looking back, Anders said he wished he had taken more photos, but mission Commander Frank Borman was concerned about whether everyone was resting and forced Anders and Command Module Pilot James A. Lovell, Jr. to sleep, which “probably made sense.”
University of Hawaii professor Chip Fletcher, who has conducted extensive research on coastal erosion and climate change, remembers seeing the photo as a child.
“It opened my brain to realize that we were alone but together,” he said, adding that it still affects him today.
“This is one of those images that will never leave my mind,” he said. “And I think that’s true for a lot of people in a lot of professions.”
Anders served as a backup crew member for Apollo 11 and Gemini XI in 1966, but the Apollo 8 mission was the only time he flew into space.
Anders was born in Hong Kong on October 17, 1933. At the time, his father was a Navy lieutenant aboard the USS Panay, a U.S. warship on China’s Yangtze River.
Anders and his wife, Valerie, founded the Heritage Flight Museum in Washington state in 1996. The museum, now located at a regional airport in Burlington, contains 15 aircraft, several antique military vehicles, a library and many artifacts donated by veterans. the museum’s website. Two of his sons helped him manage it.
The couple moved to Orcas Island in the San Juan archipelago in 1993 and kept a second home in their hometown of San Diego, according to a biography on the museum’s website. He had six children and 13 grandchildren. Their current Washington home was in Anacortes.
Anders graduated from the Naval Academy in 1955 and served as a fighter pilot in the Air Force.
He later served on the Atomic Energy Commission as U.S. chairman of the joint U.S.-USSR technology exchange program for nuclear fission and fusion power and as ambassador to Norway. He later worked for General Electric and General Dynamics, according to his NASA biography.
___
McAvoy reported from Honolulu. Associated Press writer Lisa Baumann contributed to this report.