Astronaut Bill Anders died on Friday, apparently attempting to perform a stunt in a Beechcraft over the Washington coast. He was 90 years old. It’s just speculation that he was attempting a stunt; he was flying alone, and the crash is being investigated by
Bill Anders took the photograph now known as Earthrise while in orbit around the Moon, on Christmas Eve 1968. That same picture is the one I chopped up to make my header for this blog, so Major General Anders has had a direct influence on me and Lunar Obverse. I thank him for his service and for his place in history as part of the first crew to orbit the Moon in human history.
The picture he took inspired him to talk about how we should treat our planet better – like a fragile Christmas tree ornament, in his own words – and led to activists organizing the first Earth Day.
The world is lessened by his passing. Goodbye, Bill Anders.