• NASA

Washington, Jun 7 (EFE).-

Former Apollo 8 astronaut William Anders, who in 1968 took the iconic photo of Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon, died on Friday at the age of 90 in a plane crash in Seattle, NASA said.

“In 1968, during Apollo 8, Bill Anders offered to humanity among the deepest of gifts an astronaut can give. He traveled to the threshold of the Moon and helped all of us see something else: ourselves,” NASA administrator Bill Nelson said on X.

“He embodied the lessons and the purpose of exploration. We will miss him,” he added.

The US Coast Guard and the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office responded on Friday to an incident reported around 11:40 am of an older model plane that went down in San Juan Channel near Orcas Island, the sheriff’s office said on its website.

It was unknown at the time how many passengers were on board the aircraft.

On Dec. 24, 1968, Anders, along with astronauts Frank Borman and Jim Lovell, became the first to orbit the moon.

During the flight, Anders took the iconic ‘Earthrise’ photograph showing the Earth rising above the Moon’s horizon.

In 2018, the International Astronomical Union commemorated the event by naming a 25-mile-diameter crater “Anders’ Earthrise.”

The photo allowed us to see the Earth from a great distance for the first time.

“When the Earth came up over the lunar horizon, that’s when it really impressed me as to how much more delicate the Earth was, and colorful,” Anders said in a 2018 interview on the “Today” Show on the 50th anniversary of the mission.

Anders, who was born in Hong Kong on Oct. 17, 1933, also served as backup crew for the Gemini XI mission as well as the Apollo 11 mission, in which the first humans landed on the moon on July 20, 1969.

Before being selected to be an astronaut in 1964, Anders was a fighter pilot in the Air Force and had four sons and two daughters.

Among those who mourned Anders’ loss was senator and former astronaut Mark Kelly.

“Bill Anders forever changed our perspective of our planet and ourselves with his famous Earthrise photo on Apollo 8. He inspired me and generations of astronauts and explorers,” he said on X. EFE

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