Catherine Rusoff
Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic “Earthrise” photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble seen from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he pilot alone crashed into the waters of the San Juan Islands, in the state of Washington. He was 90 years old.
His son, Greg Anders, confirmed the death to CBS News, saying 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 any bodies.
A report came in about 11:40 a.m. that an older model plane had crashed into the water and sank near the north end of Jones Island, Peter said.
Kevin Winter/Getty Images
Only the pilot was aboard the Beech A45 plane at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association.
Peter said the sheriff’s office, U.S. Coast Guard and state Department of Fish and Wildlife personnel responded to conduct search and rescue efforts. and a team of divers also headed to the accident area.
The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA are investigating.
Anders, who was born in Hong Kong on October 17, 1933, attended the US Naval Academy and the Air Force Institute of Technology before being selected as an astronaut in NASA’s space program in 1964.
He logged more than 6,000 flight hours, according to his NASA biography, serving as a backup pilot on the Gemini XI and Apollo 11 flights, and as the lunar module pilot for Apollo 8.
Anders said the photo was his most significant contribution to the space program, given the ecological philosophical impact it had, as well as ensuring that Apollo 8’s command module and service module worked.
NASA/Headquarters
William Anders said in a 1997 NASA oral history interview that he did not think the Apollo 8 mission was risk-free, but that there were important national, patriotic, and exploration reasons to proceed. He estimated that there was about a one in three chance that the crew would not make it back and the same chance that the mission would be a success and the same chance that the mission would not start. He said he suspects Christopher Columbus sailed with worse odds.
He told how the Earth seemed fragile and seemingly physically insignificant, but it was still home.
“We were walking backwards and upside down, we didn’t really see the Earth or the Sun, and when we rolled over and turned around and we saw the first Earthrise,” he said. “That was certainly by far the most impressive thing. Seeing this very delicate, colorful orb that to me looked like a Christmas tree ornament rising over this ugly, stark lunar landscape was really contrasting.”
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