William Anders was an astronaut who orbited the moon on Apollo 8 and took the iconic “Earthrise” photograph from space.
- Died: June 7, 2024 (Who else died on June 7?)
- Details of death: Died at the age of 90 when the small plane he was piloting solo crashed into Puget Sound.
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William Anders’ legacy
Born in Hong Kong while his father served there in the U.S. Navy, Anders had planned to follow in his father’s footsteps and join the Navy. He even attended the U.S. Naval Academy, intending to become a naval aviator. Upon his graduation, however, he decided instead to be commissioned into the U.S. Air Force. He became a test pilot and went on to join NASA in 1963 as the agency expanded its pool of astronauts in advance of the Apollo missions.
Anders was assigned to Apollo 8 alongside Frank Borman (1928–2023) and James Lovell. It was the first spaceflight with a crew to leave Earth’s orbit and fly to the moon. The astronauts orbited the moon 10 times, receiving a view of the Earth that no human had seen before. Launching on December 21, 1968, the men spent Christmas in space, and Anders joined his fellow crew members in delivering a memorable Christmas message from the moon to Earth.
Among Anders’ duties aboard Apollo 8 was photography; he was to take photos of potential landing sites and geographical features on the moon. There was initially no plan for him to point the camera back toward Earth. However, the three astronauts were mesmerized by the sight of their home planet hundreds of thousands of miles away. They realized Anders should be taking photos of that view, and they scrambled to replace the black and white film in the camera with color. Anders focused on the Earth, with the moon’s landscape in the foreground, and he took the photo that would become one of the most iconic images in history. The highly recognizable photo helped inspire the environmental movement.
After Apollo 8, Anders was on the backup crew for Apollo 11, the mission that landed on the moon. He later served on the National Aeronautics and Space Council, the Atomic Energy Commission, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission before transferring to the private sector as a vice president at General Electric. In his retirement, Anders flew frequently and founded the Heritage Flight Museum in Bellingham, Washington.
Anders on the Earthrise photo
“We set out to explore the moon and instead discovered the Earth.” — from a 2018 essay for Space.com
Tributes to William Anders
Full obituary: The New York Times
