The 90-year-old former astronaut who took one of the most famous pictures of all time in a daring mission to orbit the moon has died. The plane he was piloting crashed into waters.
The astronaut who captured the famous first colour photo of the Earth from space has died in a plane crash in the US.
William Anders, 90, was the only person aboard the small aircraft he was piloting when it plummeted off the coast of Jones Island, near Washington state, on Friday.
His son, Greg Anders, confirmed the death, adding the family is “devastated”.
“He was a great pilot and we will miss him terribly,” he added.
Mr Anders circled the moon with Apollo 8 in December 1968, in the first human spaceflight to leave Earth’s orbit.
During the flight, Mr Anders captured what became one of the most iconic photographs ever taken, an image of Earth rising over the lunar horizon.
He said in a 1997 NASA oral history interview he thought there was about a one in three chance the crew wouldn’t make it back and the same chance of success.
Christopher Columbus may have sailed with worse odds, he added.
But he said he felt there were important national, patriotic and exploration reasons for going ahead with the mission.
“We’d been going backwards and upside down, didn’t really see the Earth or the Sun, and when we rolled around and came around and saw the first Earthrise,” he added.
“That certainly was, by far, the most impressive thing.
“To see this very delicate, colourful orb, which to me looked like a Christmas tree ornament coming up over this very stark, ugly lunar landscape really contrasted.”
That photo is credited with sparking the global environmental movement for showing how delicate and isolated Earth appeared from space.