Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders, who captured one of the most famous photographs taken in outer space, died in a plane crash at age 90.
Authorities say the small plane he was piloting crashed into the sea off Washington state.
Anders’ son Greg confirmed that his father’s body was recovered Friday afternoon.
“The family is devastated. He was a great pilot. “We will miss him,” reads a statement from the family.
Anders, who was a lunar module pilot on the Apollo 8 mission, took the iconic photograph of “Earthrise”, one of the most memorable and inspiring images of our planet from space.
Taken on Christmas Eve during the 1968 mission, the pfirst manned space flight to leave Earth and reach the Moonthe image shows the planet rising above the horizon from the arid lunar surface.
The image of the “dawn of the earth” changed the perception of our planet.
Photo:POT
Anders later described it as his most significant contribution to the space program.
The image is widely credited with motivating the global environmental movement and leading to the creation of Earth Day, an annual event to promote activism and awareness about caring for the planet.
Speaking of the moment, Anders said: “We came here to explore the Moon, and the most important thing we discovered was the Earth.”
When Apollo 8 entered orbit around the Moon, the astronauts on board were more impressed by the sight of Earth than the lunar surface.
Photo:Getty Images
Anders also served as a backup pilot for the Apollo 11 mission.
After his withdrawal from the space program in 1969, The former astronaut worked primarily in the aerospace industry for several decades. He also served as U.S. ambassador to Norway for a year in the 1970s.
But he is best remembered for the Apollo 8 mission and the iconic photograph he took from space.
“See ourselves”
“In 1968, during Apollo 8, Bill Anders offered humanity one of the most profound gifts an astronaut can give. “It traveled to the threshold of the Moon and helped us all see something else: it helped us see ourselves,” NASA director Bill Nelson said in a statement.
In a previous interview, Anders stated that he took the photo after receiving “a little training in photography.”
“We were in lunar orbit, upside down and backwards, so During the first laps we did not see the Earth and then we turned the spaceship to move forward and suddenly, out of the corner of my eye, I saw that color. It was shocking,” he declared.
“So I just shot, moved the camera, shot, moved it.”
Mark Kelly, a former astronaut who now serves as a U.S. senator from the state of Arizona, said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, that Anders inspired him “and generations of astronauts and explorers. My thoughts are with his family and friends “.
Bill Anders participated in the mission along with Frank Borman and James Lovell.
Photo:Getty Images
Authorities said Anders’ plane crashed around 11:40 PDT.
The US National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) reported that the 90-year-old man was flying a Beechcraft AA 45, also known as the T-34. The agency noted that The plane crashed about 25 meters off the coast of Jones Island.
Philip Person told King-TV, who witnessed the accident.
The aircraft began to do what appeared to be a loop and inverted, he told the network.
“I couldn’t believe what I was seeing in front of my eyes,” Person explained to the local news station. “It looked like something out of a movie or special effects. With the big explosion and the flames and everything.”
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