Former Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, who in 1968 took the iconic photo showing the Earth rising above the horizon of the Moon, died at the age of 90 when the small plane he was traveling in crashed in Seattle, NASA confirmed.
“In 1968, during Apollo 8, Will Anders offered humanity one of the most profound gifts an astronaut can give. He traveled to the threshold of the Moon and helped us all see something else: ourselves,” said the NASA administrator Bill Nelson on the agency’s X account.
“He embodied the lessons and purpose of exploration. He will be missed,” he said.
The Pacific Northwest Division of the US Coast Guard and the San Juan Sheriff’s Office responded this afternoon to a call about an accident between Orcas Island and Johns Island (Washington State) regarding an older model of a small plane that sank when falling into the water, according to NBC.
It was unknown at the time how many people were on the ship.
On December 24, 1968, Anders, along with astronauts Frank Borman, who was the mission commander, and Jim Lovell became the first to orbit the moon and the first to witness that image that was captured in the famous photo .
While the spacecraft was in the process of rotating, Anders took this iconic ‘Earthrise’ photograph showing the Earth rising above the moon’s horizon.
The ship is scheduled to crash into the Pacific Ocean, off the coast of California, on December 11.
In 2018, the International Astronomical Union commemorated the event by naming a 25-mile-diameter crater “Anders’ Earthrise.”
The photo allowed the planet to be seen from a great distance for the first time.
“When the Earth appeared above the lunar horizon, that’s when I was really struck by how much more delicate and colorful the Earth was,” Anders said in a 2018 interview with the ‘Today Show’ on the 50th anniversary of that groundbreaking mission.
After 25 hours of flying, Andres began taking photographs. The former astronaut also said in that interview that he believed he had a one in three chance of not surviving the Apollo 8 mission, NBC further noted.
Anders, who was born in Hong Kong on October 17, 1933, was also a backup pilot for the Gemini XI mission and the Apollo 11 mission in which the first humans landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.
Before being selected to be an astronaut in 1964, Anders was a fighter pilot in the Air Force and had four sons and two daughters.
Among those who have mourned Anders’ death is senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly.
“Anders forever changed our perspective of our planet and ourselves with his famous photograph of the Earth’s rise on Apollo 8. He has already inspired generations of astronauts and explorers in me,” he said on his X account.
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