Former astronaut William Anders died in a plane crash in Washington.

SEATTLE—

William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic 1968 “Earthrise” photograph showing Earth as a shadowed blue marble from space, died Friday when the small plane he was piloting alone crashed in the waters off the San Islands -Francisco Juan. Washington state. He was 90 years old.

His son, retired Air Force Lt. Col. Greg Anders, confirmed his death to The Associated Press.

“The family is devastated,” he said. “He was a great driver and we will miss him terribly.”

William Anders, a retired major general, went on to say that the photograph was his most significant contribution to the space program, as well as ensuring the functionality of the Apollo 8 command and service modules.

This photograph, the first color image of Earth from space, is one of the most important in modern history because it changed the way people view the planet. This image is believed to have started a global environmental movement as it shows how fragile and isolated the Earth appears from space.

NASA administrator and former senator Bill Nelson said Anders embodied the lessons and purpose of exploration.

“He walked to the moon and helped us all see something else: ourselves,” Nelson wrote on social media platform X.

Anders took the photo during the crew’s fourth orbit around the Moon, frantically switching from black-and-white film to color.

“Oh my God, look at this photo!” – Anders said. “And here comes the Earth. Wow, how beautiful!”

The Apollo 8 mission in December 1968 was the first human spaceflight to leave low Earth orbit and travel to the Moon and back. It was NASA’s boldest and perhaps most dangerous voyage to date, setting the stage for the Apollo moon landing seven months later.

“Bill Anders forever changed the way we view our planet and ourselves with his famous Apollo 8 Earthrise photograph,” Arizona Senator Mark Kelly, also a retired NASA astronaut, wrote in Book X. “I inspired myself and generations of astronauts and explorers. “My thoughts are with his family and friends.”

Around 11:40 a.m., a small, older-model plane was reported to have hit the water and sank near the northern tip of Johns Island, San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said. Greg Anders confirmed to KING-TV that his father’s body was discovered Friday afternoon.

Only the pilot was aboard the small Beech A45 plane at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association.

The National Transportation Safety Board and the FAA are investigating the crash.

In an oral interview with NASA in 1997, William Anders said he believed the Apollo 8 mission was not safe, but there were important national, patriotic, and exploratory reasons for moving forward. He estimates there is about a one in three chance that the crew will not return, and an equal chance that the mission will succeed and an equal chance that the mission will not even take place. He added that he suspected that Christopher Columbus sailed against worse odds.

He said that the Earth seemed fragile and physically insignificant, but it was his home.

“We walked backwards and upside down, we didn’t really see the Earth or the Sun, and when we turned around and arrived we saw Earth’s first sunrise,” he said. “It was definitely the most impressive event. Seeing this very thin and colorful ball, which I thought was a Christmas tree ornament, rising above this very stark and ugly lunar landscape was really a contrast.”

In retrospect, Anders said he wished he had taken more photos, but mission commander Frank Borman was concerned about whether everyone was rested and forced Anders and command module pilot James A. Lovell Jr. to sleep, “which probably made sense.” .

Chip Fletcher, a professor at the University of Hawaii who has done extensive research on coastal erosion and climate change, remembers seeing this photo as a child.

“It just opened my mind to realize that we are alone, but we are together,” he said, adding that it still affects him today.

“It’s one of those images that never leaves my head,” he said. “And I think that’s true for many, many people in many professions.”

Anders served as a reserve crew member for Apollo 11 and Gemini XI in 1966, but the Apollo 8 mission was the only time he flew in space.

Anders was born on October 17, 1933 in Hong Kong. At the time, his father was a Navy lieutenant aboard the USS Panay, an American gunboat on the Yangtze River in China.

Anders and his wife Valerie founded the Washington State Aviation Heritage Museum in 1996. Now located at Burlington Regional Airport, it includes 15 aircraft, several vintage military vehicles, a library and many artifacts donated by veterans, according to Anders and his wife Valerie. museum website. His two sons helped him manage it.

According to a biography on the museum’s website, the couple moved to Orcas Island in the San Juan Archipelago in 1993 and made a second home in their hometown of San Diego. They had six children and 13 grandchildren. His current home in Washington was in Anacortes.

Anders graduated from the Naval Academy in 1955 and was an Air Force fighter pilot.

He later served on the Atomic Energy Commission, was the American chairman of the joint US-Soviet technology exchange program in the field of nuclear fission and fusion energy, and was ambassador to Norway. According to his NASA biography, he later worked for General Electric and General Dynamics.