Photo: AFP
Major William Anders, who flew on the Apollo 8 mission to orbit the moon in 1968, died in a plane crash in Washington state on Friday (June 7). He was 90.
Anders was flying his Beechcraft T-34 Mentor when it crashed in the San Juan Channel near Orcas Island around 11:40 a.m. The U.S. Coast Guard said that his body was recovered by a dive team from the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife.
"The family is devastated. He was a great pilot. He will be missed," Anders' family said in a statement.
Anders was best known for capturing the iconic "Earthrise" photo as the crew orbited the moon on Christmas Eve. The photo, which captured the beauty of Earth as it rose above the lunar surface, was made into a postage stamp the following year and was the inspiration for the first-ever Earth Day in 1970.
The photo was also featured on the cover of Life magazine's 2003 book 100 Photographs That Changed the World.
Speaking about the photograph in an interview with Forbes in 2015, Anders said: "The view points out the beauty of Earth and its fragility. It helped kick-start the environmental movement. That little atmospheric thing you and I enjoy is nothing more than the skin on an apple. It's curious to me that the press and people on the ground have kind of forgotten our history-making voyage, and what's symbolic of the flight now is the 'Earthrise' picture. Here, we came all the way to the moon to discover Earth."