Retired Lt. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the famous Earthrise photo in 1968 that showed Earth as a shaded blue sphere from space, died Friday when the plane he was piloting alone crashed into the ocean off Washington’s San Juan Islands. He was 90 years old.
“The family is heartbroken,” said his son, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Greg Anders, who confirmed the death to The Associated Press. “He was an incredible pilot and we will miss him terribly.”
The former astronaut said the photo was his most significant contribution to the space program, given its philosophical impact on the environment and the operational confirmation of the Apollo 8 command and service modules.
San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said deputies received a report around 11:40 a.m. that an older plane had crashed into the water and sunk near the northern end of Jones Island.
According to the Federal Aviation Association, only the pilot was on board the Beech A45 at the time.
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, also a former NASA astronaut, posted on social platform X: “Bill Anders forever changed the way we see our planet and ourselves with his famous Earthrise photograph taken on Apollo 8. He inspired me and generations of astronauts and explorers. My heartfelt condolences to his family and friends.”
In a 1997 NASA oral history interview, William Anders said he did not believe the Apollo 8 mission was risk-free, but there were important national, patriotic, and exploratory reasons for going ahead with it. He estimated there was about a one-in-three chance that the crew would not return, and an equal chance that the mission would succeed or never even begin. He suspects that Christopher Columbus would have navigated more difficult conditions.
Anders previously recounted the experience in a BBC documentary about the mission, recalling how fragile and physically insignificant Earth seemed, and yet it was home.
After a few orbits around the moon, he and his crew began taking photographs.
“We were going backwards and upside down so we could barely see the Earth or the Sun, and then we rotated back and saw the first Earthrise,” he said. “That was definitely the most impressive thing I’ve ever seen. It was a real contrast to see this very delicate, colorful sphere, what looked like a Christmas tree ornament to me, rising up over this very bleak, ugly lunar landscape.”
“I don’t know who said it, but we all probably said, ‘Oh my God, look at that!'” Anders said.
“Then the Earth came up. There was no discussion on the ground, no briefing, no instructions on what to do. I jokingly said, ‘It’s not on the flight plan,’ and the other two guys were yelling for us to hand them our cameras. I had the only color camera with a long lens, so I gave Bowman a black and white picture. I don’t remember what Lovell got. Everyone was yelling for the cameras, and we started taking pictures.”
The photograph, depicting the thrilling swirl of life that is Earth against the backdrop of black space and a dull, lifeless, moon-like landscape in the foreground, became an icon of space travel and an image that defines the world we live in and its fragility.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating the accident.
Anders and his wife, Valerie, founded the Heritage Flight Museum in Washington state in 1996. Today, the museum is based at Burlington Regional Airport and features 15 aircraft, several vintage military vehicles, a library and many artifacts donated by veterans, according to the museum’s website. Their two sons help run it.
The couple moved to Orcas Island in the San Juan Islands in 1993 and had a vacation home in their hometown of San Diego, according to a biography on the museum’s website. They had six children and 13 grandchildren.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
