Former astronaut William Anders dies in plane crash – DW

Former astronaut William Anders dies in plane crash – DW – 06/08/2024

Former Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders died on Friday (06/07/2024) at the age of 90 when the small plane he was traveling in crashed in Seattle, United States, 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.

General William Anders, in front of the Saturn 5 Aft End, the F-1 rocket engines of the first stage of the Apollo 11/Saturn 5 launch vehicle, July 20, 2004.Image: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP/picture alliance

The Pacific Northwest Division of the United States 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) involving an older model of a small plane that He sank when he fell into the water, according to NBC. According to the first reports, Anders was piloting the aircraft alone.

The first to orbit the Moon

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 .

Astronaut William Anders (center) with his colleagues Frank Borman and James A. Lovell, on November 22, 1968.Image: NASA/ZUMA/picture alliance

While the spacecraft was in the process of rotating, Anders took the iconic ‘Earthrise’ photograph showing the Earth rising above the Moon’s horizon. 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.

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.

A father of four sons and two daughters, before being selected to be an astronaut in 1964, Anders was a fighter pilot in the Air Force.

gs (afp, ap, efe, dpa)