William Anders, one of the Apollo 8 astronauts who orbited the moon in 1968, has passed away in a plane crash at the age of 90, according to his son, Gregory Anders.
My “dad passed in an aircraft incident in the San Juan Islands,” Anders told, Friday evening. “The family is devastated and grieving the loss of a great pilot,” he added.
The San Juan County Sheriff’s Office reported that an aircraft crashed off the coast of Jones Island.
The initial report indicated an older model plane flying from north to south went into the water near the north end of Jones Island and sank.
After an extensive search involving multiple agencies covering 215 nautical miles, the pilot’s body was recovered by a dive team. The incident occurred in the San Juan Islands, approximately 90 miles north of Seattle.
William Anders was born on October 17, 1933, in Hong Kong. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1955 and was commissioned in the US Air Force. In 1956, he earned his pilot’s wings, as stated on the US Naval Academy’s website.
Anders served as a fighter pilot in all-weather interception squadrons of the Air Defense Command in California and Iceland, according to information from NASA and the US Naval Academy.
During his time at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico, he was responsible for managing nuclear power reactor shielding and radiation effects programs, as mentioned in his NASA biography.
William Anders was selected as an astronaut by NASA in 1964 and served as the backup pilot for the Gemini 11 mission in 1966 and the Apollo 11 flight in 1969.
According to NASA, he logged more than 6,000 hours of flying time. Alongside fellow astronauts Jim Lovell and mission commander Frank Borman, Anders flew aboard the first lunar orbit mission in December 1968 on Apollo 8, where he served as the lunar module pilot.
During the historic flight, Anders captured the iconic “Earthrise” image from the spacecraft on Christmas Eve 1968, showing the Earth rising above the moon’s surface.
“We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth,” Anders famously said.
The iconic “Earthrise” photo, described as “legendary” by NASA in a tribute video for Anders, was taken as the crew snapped images of the lunar surface for geologic analysis, as Anders explained in a previous interview with NASA.
“Suddenly I looked out the window, and here was this gorgeous orb coming up,” Anders described of Earth.
“For me, it made me realize that the earth was small, delicate and not the center of the universe,” Anders said.
Anders, Lovell, and Borman were honored by Time Magazine as “Men of the Year” in 1968 for their contributions to space exploration.
Additionally, Anders served as Executive Secretary for the National Aeronautics and Space Council from 1969 to 1973, as noted by NASA.
He was appointed by President Gerald Ford as the first chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, overseeing nuclear safety and environmental compatibility.
NASA administrator Bill Nelson said in a post on X, formerly Twitter, on Friday:
“Bill Anders offered to humanity among the deepest of gifts an astronaut can give. He traveled to the threshold of the Moon and helped all of us see something else: ourselves.”
Nelson continued:
“He embodied the lessons and the purpose of exploration. We will miss him.”
