Astronaut William Anders, a Grossmont High Grad Who Took Famous Earth Photo, Dead at 90

Astronaut William Anders, who took what may be the most famous photo of Earth during the history-making Apollo 8 mission, has died at 90.

He died Friday when a single-engine T-34 aircraft he was flying crashed near Jones Island in the Puget Sound north of Seattle.

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

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

Anders’ photo of a blue Earth rising over the barren surface of the moon become an icon of the environmental movement.

The photo was taken as Apollo 8 rounded the far side of the Moon on its fourth orbit in December 1968. It was the first time that humans had seen an “Earthrise.”

“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth,” Anders said later.

In December 2021, Anders spoke in San Diego on the 118th anniversary of the Wright brothers’ first flight.

He said that despite billionaires’ ambitions of colonizing Mars in their lifetimes, Anbdser doubted it would happen in the next century.

“I frankly think that it is going to be much more difficult to go to Mars than NASA is admitting or Elon Musk is admitting,” he said.

“We’re just not designed to withstand the hardships of zero-G for a long time,” said Anders, who flew with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell on Apollo 8, the first mission to circumnavigate the Moon.

“We weren’t designed to take the space radiation, which is my expertise. And NASA I think kinda ignores (it). So I’m not sure we will ever get humans to Mars. Maybe 100 years from now.”

Anders, then 88, was among the engineers and staff of the San Diego Air and Space Museum in Balboa Park to mark the 1903 aviation milestone when Orville Wright took off on a gusty morning aboard the Wright Flyer in Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.

Of the Wright engine, Anders said: “That wonderful old, 12-horsepower … engine compared to this technology is just amazing.”

Technology will keep leap-frogging year after year “in exponential increases,” said Anders, who took the iconic “Earthrise” photo from Apollo 8, recited the first line of Genesis on Christmas Eve 1968 and later founded the Heritage Flight Museum in Washington state, his summer home.

The astronaut was born in Hong Kong, the son of a Navy officer who was awarded the Navy Cross after an early battle with Japanese forces. The family relocated to La Mesa, where Anders graduated from Grossmont High School and then the U.S. Naval Academy at Annapolis.

Though he initially followed his father into the Navy, Anders later decided to join the Air Force instead, flying fighter jets before becoming a test pilot and then a NASA astronaut.

After NASA he served in various government roles, including chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and then entered the business world with positions at General Electric, Textron and General Dynamics, where he ultimately became chairman and CEO.

In retirement, Anders lived in Washington State’s San Juan Islands and also had a home on Point Loma.

Updated at 8:51 p.m. June 7, 2024