Anders took the enduring picture, “Earthrise,” through the Apollo 8 mission
NASA Astronaut William A. Anders Credit score: NASA
William “Invoice” Anders, former Apollo 8 astronaut, died in a aircraft crash on Friday, June 7, 2024. Anders was piloting a small plane in Roche Harbor, Washington State. The craft dove into the water and sank, in keeping with a San Juan County press release. The demise was confirmed by his son, Greg, as reported by Richard Goldstein for The New York Times.
Anders flew the primary crewed voyage across the Moon through the Apollo 8 mission, which included Anders, Frank Borman, and James Lovell. Collectively, the astronauts orbited the Moon for 20 hours and have been the primary people to view the Moon’s far aspect.
Anders was born on October 17, 1933. In 1955, he graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and in 1962 obtained a grasp’s diploma in nuclear engineering from the Air Drive Institute of Expertise. A yr later Anders joined NASA. He was chosen as a backup pilot for Gemini XI and the Apollo 11 flights. The Apollo 8 mission was Anders’s solely mission into space.
A Christmas decoration
The well-known “Earthrise” picture of a gibbous, marble-like Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon was taken on Christmas Eve 1968 by Anders through the Apollo 8 mission. “To see this very delicate, colourful orb, which to me appeared like a Christmas tree decoration arising over this very stark, ugly lunar panorama actually contrasted…,” stated Anders in an interview with Paul Rollins for NASA’s Oral History Project. Anders admitted to Rollins through the interview that his most vital contribution throughout Apollo 8 was taking the Earthrise picture, “which had plenty of ecological and philosophical affect on the time.”
