At the age of 90, William Anders, the retired US astronaut who captured the famous “Earthrise” picture from space more than 55 years ago, passed away in a plane crash on Friday, according to his family.
According to his son, Anders was operating a tiny aircraft when it crashed on Friday morning off the coast of Washington state. The plane contained Anders alone.
Although crews were looking the region, Sheriff Eric Peter told AFP they had not yet discovered a body.
Along with fellow Americans Frank Borman and James Lovell, Anders was one of the first people to set foot on the Moon as a member of the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968.
After making ten moon orbits without making a successful landing, the crew successfully returned to Earth on December 27, 1968.
Anders took a picture of the cratered surface of the Moon in the foreground and the brilliant blue Earth against the deep blackness of space during one of the lunar orbits.
The “Earthrise” photo is frequently listed in roundups of key historical images, and was included in Life Magazine’s book “100 Photographs that Changed The World.”
An original version of the photo sold at a Copenhagen auction in 2022 for 11,800 euros.
“In 1968, during Apollo 8, Bill Anders offered to humanity among the deepest of gifts an astronaut can give,” NASA chief Bill Nelson wrote on social media platform X.
“He traveled to the threshold of the Moon and helped all of us see something else: ourselves. He embodied the lessons and the purpose of exploration. We will miss him,” Nelson added.
Anders, who was born in Hong Kong on October 17, 1933, completed his studies at the US Naval Academy before going on to obtain a master’s degree in nuclear engineering.
Anders held a number of technology-related government jobs after his service as an astronaut, including the first head of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and the US ambassador to Norway.
Before retirement, he served as chairman and CEO of the US defense and aerospace business General Dynamics in the early 1990s.
Lovell is the sole member of Apollo 8 who is still alive.
At the age of 95, Borman passed away in November of 2023.
Lovell, now ninety-six, was part of the Apollo 13 mission, which was supposed to land on the Moon, but had a near-disaster that was eventually turned into a Hollywood production.
The Apollo 17 mission in 1972 marked the last time that humans set foot on the Moon, but NASA has set its sights on sending new astronauts in the near future, including the first woman and person of color.
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