Apollo 8 astronaut dies in plane crash at age 90

William Anders, the American former astronaut who took a historic photograph of the Earth as seen from the Moon in 1968, died in a plane crash at 90 years old, his family reported. Anders was piloting a small plane that crashed off the coast of Washington state (northwestern United States) on Friday morning, his son told US media. He did not go with companions.

His body was later recovered by a dive team, The Seattle Times reported, citing a Coast Guard spokesperson.

Member of the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968, Anders He became one of the first humans to orbit the Moon, along with two other Americans, Frank Borman and James Lovell. The crew circled the Moon 10 times without landing, before successfully returning to Earth on December 27, 1968.

In one of the lunar orbits, Anders captured a photograph of the bright blue Earth against the vast darkness of space, with the cratered surface of the Moon in the foreground.

“We had been going backwards and forwards, we didn’t really see the Earth or the Sun, and when we turned around we saw the Earth’s first sunrise” he said in a NASA interview in 1997.

“It was certainly by far the most impressive. See this orb so delicate and colorful that to me it looked like a Christmas tree ornament emerging over this desolate and ugly lunar landscape”.

The photograph, titled “Earthrise,” frequently appears in digests of key historical images and was included in the Life magazine book “100 photographs that changed the world”.

An original version sold at a Copenhagen auction in 2022 for about $12,000.

“In 1968, during the Apollo 8Bill Anders offered humanity one of the most profound gifts an astronaut can give“, wrote the NASA chief Bill Nelsonon the social network X.

“He traveled to the threshold of the Moon and helped us all see something else: ourselves. She embodied the lessons and purpose of exploration. We will miss you”he added.

The Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board are investigating the crash.

Born on October 17, 1933 in Hong Kong, Anders graduated from the United States Naval Academy and later earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering.

After becoming an astronaut, he held several technology-related government positions, was the first chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and served as U.S. ambassador to Norway.