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Who was William Anders? Former astronaut who flew first manned space mission to orbit Moon passes away in plane crash
William Anders, a retired astronaut, who was one of the first three people to orbit the moon and took the famous Earthrise picture during NASA's Apollo 8 mission, passed away on Friday.
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Retired Maj Gen William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut passed away at 90 in a plane crash
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He was astronaut who took the famous Earthrise photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble
TRIGGER WARNING: This article contains references to an individual's death.
Maj. William A. Anders, who captured the color image Earthrise that is credited with sparking the contemporary environmental movement, and participated in the first-ever manned space mission to orbit the moon, the Apollo 8 Genesis Flight on Christmas Eve 1968, passed away on Friday.
What happened to William Anders?
According to The Guardian, Anders lost his life when the plane he was flying by himself crashed into the sea near the San Juan Islands in Washington. The National Transportation Safety Board and the Federal Aviation Administration are conducting investigations into Major Anders's Beechcraft T-34 Mentor crash, which occurred at approximately 11:40 a.m.
A U.S. Coast Guard spokesman reported that a corpse was found by a search team on Friday night near the scene of the tragedy.
Who was William Anders?
William Anders was born on 17 October 1933 in Hong Kong. Anders went to El Cajon, California's Grossmont High School, and St. Martin's Academy as a teenager. Anders was sent to the Boyden School, a military academy prep school located in downtown San Diego, to boost his grades and gain acceptance to the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland.
His fascination with aviation led him to construct model aircraft. 1951 saw him graduate from Boyden.
Earth Rise
Major Anders was a member of the first crew of astronauts to leave Earth's orbit in 1968, along with Col. Frank Borman of the Air Force and Capt. James A. Lovell Jr. of the Navy.
They were the first astronauts launched into space by a massive Saturn V rocket and captured both still and moving images of the lunar surface during their journey, helping to prepare for the Apollo 11 mission, which saw men set foot on the moon for the first time.
During their ten moon circles on Christmas Eve, the three astronauts captured images of Earth rising above the lunar horizon, looking like a blue marble against the dark sky, for millions of people worldwide to watch on television. However, color film was only shot by Major Anders, who was in charge of the communications and electronics systems of their spaceship.
The world marveled at his photo which went to be published by many magazines. In 1969, a postage stamp featuring the phrase "In the beginning God..." was created using the image known as Earthrise. The 1970 Earth Day was inspired by this image, which was also included on the cover of Life magazine's 2003 book 100 Photographs That Changed the World.
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