Bill Anders was born in Hong Kong. He retired from NASA in 1969.
Apollo 8 mission astronaut Bill Anders died in a plane crash late Friday night in the US. 90-year-old Anders was a part of Apollo 8, the first mission to orbit the moon with humans. According to BBC News, Bill was flying a small plane alone in Washington on Friday.
The plane crashed into the water north of Seattle at around 11:40 am local time. After this, the search team found Anders’ body at the crash site of the plane. His son Greg has confirmed his death.
The US Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the plane crash. Major Anders, who was a part of the US Air Force, had flown for the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 with Colonel Frank Borman and Captain James Lovell.
The footage is of Anders’ plane crash. The US Federal Aviation Administration is investigating the accident.
Bill Anders made 10 orbits around the moon and
during his mission he took many pictures of the moon and the earth. The aim of this mission was to prepare for Apollo 11, in which man was going to land on the moon for the first time. On December 24, 1968, during the 10 orbits around the moon, the three astronauts took many pictures of the earth rising above the lunar horizon.
It looked like a blue marble in the black space. Major Anders clicked the first coloured photograph of this sight. Later this picture went viral all over the world and was named ‘Earthrise’. This picture was also printed on a postage stamp in 1969.
Anders took this historic photograph of Earth in 1968. It was named ‘Earthrise’.
Apart from the Apollo 8 mission,
Bill was also the backup pilot in the Apollo 11 mission. This was the same mission under which Neil Armstrong took the first step on the moon on 24 July 1969.
Bill Anders was born on 17 October 1933 in Hong Kong. His father worked in the Chinese Navy. After Japan’s attack on China in July 1937, Bill moved to the Philippines with his mother. After this he moved to America. He studied at the Naval Academy.
After the Apollo 8 mission, Anders retired from NASA and the US Air Force in 1969. He then served as Executive Secretary of the US National Aeronautics and Space Council. He also served as US Ambassador to Norway for a year in the 1970s.
