SAN JUAN ISLANDS, Alaska, June 8, 2024 (Gephardt Daily) – Bill Anders, the Apollo 8 astronaut famous for taking “Earthrise,” one the most iconic photographs of the 20th century, is dead at age 90.
The famed lunar module pilot, one the first three men to orbit the moon, was killed when the small aircraft he was piloting crashed in the ocean near the San Juan Islands, 90 miles off the coast of Seattle, Washington.
“The family is devastated,” Anders’ son Gregory said in a statement to CNN. “He was a great pilot. He will be missed.”
It was Christmas Eve, 1968, when Anders, accompanied by fellow crew members Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, were surveying potential lunar landing sites for Apollo 11 when the famous photo was taken.
“For me, it made me realize that the Earth was small, delicate, and not the center of the universe,” Anders said of the photo. “We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth.”
NASA said the Earth was nearly a quarter million miles away when the photo was taken.
A video commemorating the Apollo 8 flight has been posted on NASA’s website.
