William Anders, Apollo Astronaut Who Took Famous Earthrise Photo, Killed In Plane Crash

One of the most famous photograph of the Apollo era, the Earth appearing to rise above the Moon’s limb, taken by
the Apollo 8 crew on Dec. 24, 1968.

Retired Major General and Apollo 8 Astronaut William Anders, who took the famous photo of the Earth rising over the Moon, was killed in a plane crash in Washington State. He was 90.

The U.S. Coast Guard Northwest Sector received notification of the crash near Jones Island at approximately 11:40 a.m. on Friday. 

Anders was the pilot and sole occupant of the plane. His body was recovered by a Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife dive team.

Apollo 8 Astronaut William Anders. Credit: NASA

“In 1968, as a member of the Apollo 8 crew, as one of the first three people to travel beyond the reach of our Earth and orbit the Moon, Bill Anders gave to humanity among the deepest of gifts an explorer and an astronaut can give," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement.

"Along with the Apollo 8 crew, Bill was the first to show us, through looking back at the Earth from the threshold of the Moon, that stunning image – the first of its kind – of the Earth suspended in space, illuminated in light and hidden in darkness: the Earthrise."

Iconic "Earthrise" Image On Christmas Eve 1968

Precisely on time on Dec. 24, 1968, Mission Control lost contact with Apollo 8 and its crew of Frank Borman, James A. Lovell, and William A. Anders. And everyone at NASA and onboard Apollo 8 was happy about that. It meant that the spacecraft and crew were on a precise trajectory to swing behind the Moon, and if all went well, to fire the Service Module’s Service Propulsion System (SPS) engine to slow their velocity just enough to allow the Moon’s gravitational field to capture them. With a successful Lunar Orbit Insertion (LOI) burn, they would become the first crewed spacecraft in lunar orbit, and Mission Control would regain the signal after 32 minutes and 37 seconds. If it didn’t fire at all, they would regain the signal in 22 minutes and it meant Apollo 8 was heading back to Earth. And of course, a variety of engine malfunctions could result in different signal reacquisition times.

While NASA and the world awaited to hear from Apollo 8, Borman, Lovell, and Anders busied themselves with preparing for the engine burn. Just a few minutes before ignition, the crew got its first glimpse of the Moon. 

During the 66-hour coast to the Moon, the spacecraft was oriented with the SPS engine facing in the direction of travel, so the windows were pointed toward the Earth. 

Now, about 70 miles above its surface, the Moon finally entered into their field of view and the Apollo 8 crewmembers became the first humans to directly see the farside. Exactly on schedule, the SPS engine lit up and burned for just over four minutes, placing Apollo 8 into an elliptical 70-by-195-mile orbit around the Moon.

Just as expected, Mission Control began receiving telemetry from Apollo 8 as it came out from behind the Moon, followed by Lovell’s simple call, “Houston, Apollo 8.  Burn complete.” From Mission Control, Capcom Carr replied, “Apollo 8, this is Houston. Good to hear your voice.”  As they passed over the Sea of Fertility, Lovell provided this commentary: “The Moon is essentially grey, no color; looks like plaster of Paris or sort of a grayish beach sand. We can see quite a bit of detail. … The craters are all rounded off. There’s quite a few of them, some of them are newer.” 

They also flew over the two most easterly of the five potential sites for the first Moon landing, providing verbal narration and taking photographs.

For the next 20 hours, Apollo 8 remained in orbit around the Moon, each revolution taking about two hours, of which 45 minutes was spent out of radio contact with Earth while the spacecraft flew behind the Moon. The astronauts began their second revolution with a 12-minute TV broadcast showing the Moon as it appeared to them through the spacecraft window. 

At the end of the second revolution, once again behind the Moon, the crew preformed the second LOI burn using the SPS engine and lasting less than 10 seconds to circularize the orbit at 70 miles. 

The trio conducted extensive photography of the lunar surface, mostly of the farside given it had more sunlight, but also of proposed landing sites on the nearside. 

At the beginning of the fourth revolution, as they were about to round the backside of the Moon, the astronauts caught sight of the Earth appearing above the lunar limb. Anders snapped some of the most iconic photos of the Apollo program, first in black and white and then the more famous color Earthrise images.