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Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the famous sunrise photo of Earth showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting crashed into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington State. He was 90.
“The family is devastated,” said his son, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Greg Anders, who confirmed the death to The Associated Press. “He was a great driver and we will miss him terribly.”
The former astronaut said the photo was his most significant contribution to the space program, given the environmental philosophical impact it had, along with making sure Apollo 8’s command module and service module were operational.
At about 11:40 a.m., a report came in that an older model plane had crashed into the water and sunk near the north end of Jones Island, San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said.
Only the pilot was aboard the Beech A45 at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association.
Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, who is also retired NASA astronaut, wrote on the social platform X: “Bill Anders forever changed our perspective of our planet and ourselves with his famous photograph of the sunrise on Earth on Apollo 8. He inspired me and generations of astronauts and explorers. My thoughts are with his family and friends.”
William Anders said in a 1997 NASA oral history interview that he did not think the Apollo 8 mission was without risk, but that there were important national, patriotic and research reasons to go ahead. He had estimated that there was a one in three chance that the crew would not return, an equal chance that the mission would succeed, and an equal chance that the mission would not begin. He said he suspects Christopher Columbus sailed with worse odds.
Anders had once told the experience as part of a BBC documentary on the mission. He remembered how the Earth seemed fragile and seemed physically insignificant, yet he was home.
After two or three orbits around the moon, he and the crew began filming.
“We were going backwards and upside down, not really seeing the Earth or the sun, and when we spun around and came back, we saw the first sunrise on Earth,” he said. “That was definitely the most impressive thing. To see this very delicate, colorful orb, which to me looked like a Christmas tree ornament, rising above this very bright, ugly moonscape, really contrasted.’
“I don’t know who said it, maybe we all said, ‘Oh my God.’ Look at this!’” Anders said.
“And the Earth appeared. We had no on-site discussions, no briefing, no instructions on what to do. I jokingly said, “Well, that’s not on the flight plan,” and the other two guys were yelling at me to give them cameras. I had the only color camera with a long lens. So I brought Bormann black and white. I can’t remember what Lovell got. Everyone was screaming for cameras and we started taking pictures.
The photograph of the exciting maelstrom of life that is Earth against the background of black space and the foreground of a dull, lifeless lunar landscape has become an icon of space travel and the defining image of our living world and its fragility.
The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating the crash.
Anders and his wife, Valerie, founded the Heritage Flight Museum in Washington state in 1996. It is now based at Burlington Regional Airport and has 15 aircraft, several antique military vehicles, a library and many artifacts donated by veterans, according to the museum’s website . Two of their sons helped them run it.
The couple moved to Orcas Island, in the San Juan Archipelago, in 1993 and maintain a second home in their hometown of San Diego, according to a biography on the museum’s website. They had six children and 13 grandchildren.
The Associated Press contributed reporting
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