Bill Anders, the astronaut from the most iconic photo on Earth, dies in plane crash

Anders was the first person to share with the world an image of the Earth seen from the outside. It was the first photograph of a planet seen from lunar orbit, an iconic image that became a symbol of hope: Earth above the Moon’s horizon at dawn, dubbed ‘Earthrise’.

“In 1968, during the Apollo 8 flight, Bill Anders gave humanity one of the most valuable gifts an astronaut can give. He visited the Moon’s threshold and helped us all see something else: ourselves. He embodied the lessons and purpose of the study. We will miss him,” Sen. Bill Nelson, NASA administrator, wrote in an X message accompanied by this photo.

The circumstances of the accident that cost the life of 90-year-old Anders are still unclear. According to CNN, the U.S. Coast Guard and the San Juan Sheriff’s Office responded to a 911 call after the accident between Orcas Island and Johns Island in Washington state. Some neighbors saw the “old-looking plane” crash and sink into the water.

According to the Associated Press, it was a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor, a small aircraft owned by Anders, who is believed to have he was driving himself.

The first person to see the dawn of the Earth and become a nuclear leader

NASA’s second historic manned mission, Apollo 8, served as a near-decisive step in the historic space race between the USSR and the United States. The journey of the Soviet cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin Vostok 1 in 1961, which marked the arrival of humans at the outer limits of planet Earth for the first time in history, required a coup d’etat by the Americans.

With the country still reeling from its entry into the Vietnam War, the turbulent presidency inherited from Lyndon B. Johnson after the murder John F. Kennedy and recent arrival Richard Nixon For the White House, the Apollo 8 mission was a huge media blow during the Cold War in favor of the Western bloc. And here Anders’ photograph was of paramount importance: it managed to create an image for the Republican president that Moscow could only dream of.

Beyond its geopolitical significance, Earthrise, taken on Christmas Eve 1968, was the first great image to demonstrate that man could overcome previously unimaginable limitations.

“When the Earth appeared over the lunar horizon, that’s when I was really impressed with how delicate and colorful it was,” he recalled in a 2018 Today Show interview, where he also recalled the risks he took wherein. mission: he stated that he has one chance in three of not surviving.

Not only did he do this, but his career after this mission led to him being in charge of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, the US Atomic Energy Commission and as President US Nuclear Regulatory Commission chaired by Gerald Ford. His relationship with nuclear power It has already served him well that he was one of the first people at NASA responsible for environmental control systems for manned capsules, exposure to cosmic radiation and developing ways to reduce its dangers.

In the late 70s he moved to the private sector in General Electricwhere he became vice president and general manager nuclear productsand later joined the Textron conglomerate and eventually became president General dynamics from 1991 to 1994, when he retired.

He left six children: four boys and two girls.