William Anders, a retired astronaut well known for being one of the pioneering trio to first orbit the moon and taking the iconic Earthrise photo during NASA’s Apollo 8 mission in 1968, tragically lost his life in a small aeroplane crash in Washington state, aged 90.
A heartening tribute was paid to Mr. Anders by some leading lights of NASA, with chief Bill Nelson sharing the renowned Earthrise image on social media, honouring the former Air Force pilot’s impactful contribution to mankind.
The Heritage Flight Museum, located near Burlington in Washington, cofounded by Mr. Anders, confirmed the unfortunate news of his death in the aircraft crash.
The retired astronaut met with this tragic fate when he was flying solo in a plane which crashed off the coastline of Jones Island, part of the San Juan Islands group located north of Seattle, between Washington and Vancouver Island, British Columbia. This was reported by his son, Greg, as disclosed by The Seattle Times.
Local television station KCPQ-TV, a Fox affiliate in Tacoma, reported that Mr. Anders, a resident of San Juan County, was operating a vintage single-engine T-34 Mentor, an Air Force aircraft which he owned. Captured video footage revealed the aircraft taking a steep nosedive from the sky, before crashing into waters near the shore.
Mr. Anders, a US Naval Academy alumnus and Air Force pilot, joined NASA in 1963 as part of the third batch of space travellers. His first journey into space was not until December 21, 1968, when Apollo 8 soared into the sky in this historical crewed mission, leaving the Earth’s orbit and toward the moon covering a distance of 386,000km (240,000 miles).
Labelled the “rookie” of the crew, Mr. Anders was accompanied by Frank Borman, who played the part of mission commander, and James Lovell, who had earlier flown with Borman during their stint on Gemini 7 in 1965 and also took charge of the ill-starred Apollo 13.
Apollo 8 was initially slated for a 1969 schedule, but was brought forth due to worries of the Russians fast-tracking their moon trip by the end of 1968. The shift presented the crew with only a few months of preparation time for this historically significant, yet extremely perilous mission.
The spacecraft was boosted into space by a Saturn V rocket which was untested for crewed flights, having been trailed only a couple of times before. The challenge faced by Apollo 8 was to safely enter and exit lunar orbit, failure of which would have meant a catastrophic crash on the moon or being eternally trapped in its orbit.
Reflecting on the mission four decades on, Anders admitted that despite being sure of their success, he had the thought that there was a “one-third chance” that the team wouldn’t be returning. This fear turned into joy when Apollo 8 arrived at the moon on Christmas Eve, captivating a global TV audience of over one billion with the first images of the lunar surface just a few miles beneath them.
Part of the mission’s objective was to photograph the moon, however, after only the third orbit, Anders remarked in 2009 how it quickly became monotonous due to the endless holes scattering the moon’s landscape.
The attention of the astronauts was suddenly drawn to the sight of Earth rising above the lunar horizon. “All of a sudden, Lovell, Borman, and I exclaimed in unison: ‘Just look at that’ – as our vibrant, colourful and beautiful planet appeared from behind the drab lunar skyline,” recounted Anders to Forbes magazine in 2015.
With a long lens and colour film, he composed the picture that has come to be known as Earthrise. This image, which stunningly portrayed Earth’s allure and vulnerability against the backdrop of space, is now recognised as one of the most impactful photographs in history and is largely credited with spurring the environmental movement.
Anders quipped, “We travelled all the way to the moon only to discover Earth.” He also held a crucial position in another notable part of that Christmas Eve mission, as he led off reading from Genesis, with Apollo 8 broadcasting images of the lunar surface back to Earth.
Upon their return, the three astronauts were welcomed as national heroes. They made a splash on Time magazine’s “Men of the Year” list and their successful mission laid the groundwork for the first moon landing by Apollo 11 just seven months later. This helped secure America’s win in the Cold War’s ‘space race’ against the Soviets. The mission was also applauded for lifting the national mood amidst one of America’s most turbulent years, pockmarked by domestic turmoil, Vietnam War and high profile assassinations. One thank-you note to the crew simply stated, “You saved 1968.”
William Alison Anders, born on the 17th of October, 1933 in Hong Kong under British governance, was the offspring of an American naval officer. Soon after his birth, his family moved to Annapolis, Maryland, but they subsequently returned to China. Following the Japanese invasion of Nanjing, Anders and his mother escaped to the Philippines.
His education led him to obtain an electrical engineering qualification from the Naval Academy in Annapolis, and he later worked in Air Force interceptor squadrons observing Russian engagement with American air defence strategies.
Post-Apollo 8 mission, Anders did not venture into space again but took up a role at the National Aeronautics and Space Council. In 1975, President Gerald Ford selected him as the inaugural chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and he was later appointed as the ambassador to Norway.
Besides his contribution to the public sector, Anders held a variety of corporate roles at enterprise giants such as General Electric and Textron. In the early 1990s, he served as the chairman and CEO of General Dynamics. Alongside his career, he also focused on philanthropy in his older years, leading a group dedicated to education and the environment. He and his partner Valerie, who he wed in 1955, are parents to six children.
In the years following Apollo 8, Anders joined fellow astronauts Lovell, and the late Borman, in commemorating mission anniversaries. Amid growing talks of astronaut missions to the moon and Mars, Anders expressed his desire for such endeavours to be representative of collective human conquests rather than a race against other nations.
– Thomson Reuters 2024 ©