William "Bill" Anders, the astronaut who showed us our planet as we had never seen it

Maj. Gen. William Anders, the Apollo 8 astronaut who took the famous “Earthrise” photo in 1968, was featured as one of Eric Johnson’s “Heroes” in May 2017. Anders died on Friday, June 7, 2024, when the vintage Beechcraft T-34 Mentor he was flying crashed into the water near Jones Island in San Juan County, Washington.

Anders’ son, Lt. Col. Greg Anders, told KOMO News the plane that crashed was the same aircraft he flew in 2017 when he spoke to KOMO News.

The first report that an “older model plane” crashed around 11:40 a.m. Friday, the San Juan County Sheriff’s Office said. Officials said the T-34 was reportedly flying from north to south before crashing about 80 feet offshore of Jones Island. 

Anders told KOMO News in 2017 a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor was the very first plane he flew solo in, many, many years ago.

Anders was on Apollo 8, along with Frank Borman and Jim Lovell. He was one of the first three members of humankind to break free from Earth's grasp and leave its orbit.

"Apollo 8 is very real in my mind when I look up at the moon and it's very new, which is the way it was when we went,” he told KOMO News.

On Apollo 8's fourth trip around the moon, with Anders and the others looking out from their tiny ship, something extraordinary happened.

It was the planet Earth, blue and infinitely beautiful and so tiny against the blackness and nothingness behind it, rising above the scorched surface of the moon.

Thinking back, Anders explained, "One of my secondary duties on Apollo 8 was a photographer, to take pictures of potential landing sites and geological features of interest on the moon, and we had no light meters."

Then, he said something astounding, in retrospect: "Nobody thought about taking pictures of the Earth."

Anders said NASA had planned everything about the trip in incredible detail. But nobody had made even the slightest mention of taking a photograph of our planet. Somehow it had fallen through the cracks of one of the greatest journeys ever taken by humans.

On the grainy film from 1968, you hear Anders say, "Hand me a roll of color, quick!" And then, "Oh man, I have it right here!"

"And so basically, when the Earth came up, I basically pointed the camera, got color film, got a long lens so the Earth would be bigger, and started clicking away and changing the F-stop as I went,” Anders told KOMO News.

Anders said he knew it was something special the moment it happened. That is proven on the film when he says, "Oh, that's a beautiful shot!"
But inside the capsule, there was no way any of them could have known the impact the picture would have on that bright blue marble that was dancing before them on Dec. 24, 1968.

It came to be known as the “Earthrise” photo. It was our first look at ourselves. Our first image of how delicate we are, and how small.

See the full Eric’s Heroes story from 2017: https://komonews.com/news/erics-heroe...
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For more on the lead story: https://komonews.com/news/local/plane...
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