Retired American astronaut William Anders, one of the first three people to orbit the Moon and who captured the famous "Earthrise" photo during NASA's Apollo 8 mission in 1968, passed away on Friday in a small plane crash in Washington State at the age of 90. NASA Administrator Bill Nelson praised Anders on social media by sharing the iconic photo of Earth rising above the Moon's horizon, stating that the former Air Force pilot "gave humanity one of the most valuable gifts an astronaut can give."
According to the Seattle Times, citing Anders' son Greg, Anders was piloting the plane alone when it crashed off the coast of Jones Island, part of the San Juan Islands north of Seattle, between Washington and Vancouver Island in British Columbia. According to KCPQ, a Fox affiliate in Tacoma, Anders, a resident of San Juan County, was flying an old single-engine T-34 Mentor aircraft owned by the Air Force. Footage aired by the channel showed the plane descending sharply from the sky before crashing into the water just offshore.
Anders, a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and an Air Force pilot, joined NASA in 1963 as a member of the third group of astronauts. He did not fly into space until December 21, 1968, when Apollo 8 launched on the first crewed mission to leave Earth's orbit and travel 386,000 kilometers to the Moon.
