Major General William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic 1968 “planetary” photo from space showing Earth as a blue marble with shadows, died Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plunged into Earth’s ocean. San Juan Islands, Washington. He was 90 years old.
His son, Greg Anders, confirmed the death, telling CBS News that the plane that crashed belonged to his father. San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter told CBS News that crews were searching the area but had not yet recovered the body.
At about 11:40 a.m., reports came in that an older plane had crashed into the water and sank near the north end of Johns Island, Peter said.
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Only a pilot was on board the Beech A45 plane at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association.
Peter said crews from the sheriff’s office, U.S. Coast Guard and state Department of Fish and Wildlife were involved in search and rescue efforts. A team of divers also headed to the crash site.
The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating.
Born in Hong Kong on October 17, 1933, Anders graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy and the Air Force Institute of Technology and was selected as an astronaut for the NASA space program in 1964.
He logged more than 6,000 hours of flight time while serving as a backup pilot for the Gemini XI and Apollo 11 flights and as a lunar module pilot for Apollo 8, according to his NASA biography.
Anders said this photo was his most important contribution to the space program, considering its ecological and philosophical implications, along with ensuring that the Apollo 8 command and service modules were operational.
NASA/Headquarters
William Anders said in a 1997 NASA oral history interview that while he did not believe the Apollo 8 mission was risk-free, there were important national, patriotic, and exploratory reasons to proceed. He estimated that there was about a one in three chance that the crew would not return, and that there was an equal chance that the mission would succeed and that the mission would not begin. He said he suspected Christopher Columbus had sailed against worse odds.
He said that the Earth, though fragile and physically insignificant, seemed to be home.
“We were going backwards and didn’t really see the Earth or the Sun. And when we turned around and came back, we saw the first Earthrise,” he said. “It was definitely the most impressive thing ever. To me, it was such a contrast to see these very detailed and colorful orbs that looked like Christmas tree decorations over this very bleak and ugly lunar landscape.”
