Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic 'Earthrise' photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, died in a plane crash Friday in Washington state.
ByStream local breaking news and original programming, live 24/7, from ABC7 Bay Area.Retired Maj. Gen. William Anders, the former Apollo 8 astronaut who took the iconic "Earthrise" photo showing the planet as a shadowed blue marble from space in 1968, was killed Friday when the plane he was piloting alone plummeted into the waters off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was 90. His son, Greg Anders, confirmed the death to The Associated Press.
A report came in around 11:40 a.m. that an older-model plane crashed into the water and sank near the north end of Jones Island, San Juan County Sheriff Eric Peter said. Only the pilot was on board the Beech A45 airplane at the time, according to the Federal Aviation Association. William Anders said in an 1997 NASA oral history interview that he didn't think the Apollo 8 mission was risk-free but there were important national, patriotic and exploration reasons for going ahead. He estimated there was about one in three chance that the crew wouldn't make it back and the same chance the mission would be a success and the same chance that the mission wouldn't start to begin with. He said he suspected Christopher Columbus sailed with worse odds.
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