William Anders, astronaut on first mission to orbit the Moon who photographed ‘Earthrise’ – obituary
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William Anders, who has died aged 90, was an American astronaut who flew on what is often regarded as Nasa’s most daring space mission; as a crew member of Apollo 8, he became one of the first three men to travel to the Moon, where they lingered in orbit for a day and captured Mankind’s first close-up view of the battered lunar surface.
Anders was the photographer on the flight, and he took the historic picture of the blue and white Earth rising above the barren grey surface of the Moon – an iconic image which is credited with starting the environmental movement.
Although their lunar circumnavigation was eclipsed by the first Moon landing (Apollo 11) seven months later, Apollo 8 made arguably the more challenging voyage, and certainly it was the essential prelude. It was only the second Apollo flight and had originally been planned to test Nasa’s brand-new lunar landing module in the relative safety of close Earth orbit. However, the lander, beset by technical problems, was not yet fit to fly.
Adding to Nasa’s angst, the Soviet Union had sent the Zond 5 crew capsule to the Moon and back safely, albeit carrying only animals (including two tortoises). A Russian manned flight around the Moon was clearly imminent.
Anxious to avoid being beaten to yet another space record by their Cold War enemy, the Americans made the bold decision to send Anders and his crewmates to the Moon without the originally planned lunar module. This would have offered the safety net of a duplicate engine and life support should anything go wrong – a facility that would later save the lives of the moon-bound Apollo 13 crew.
On December 21 1968, Anders, along with two highly experienced astronaut colleagues, commander Frank Borman and command module pilot James Lovell, lay in the cramped Apollo 8 capsule atop their steaming black-and-white Saturn V rocket at Cape Kennedy. The rookie Anders was so relaxed about the imminent launch – only the third flight of America’s giant Saturn V and the first with a crew aboard – that he fell asleep during the countdown.
The biggest rocket ever built departed Florida with a shattering roar that shook spectators, the astronauts’ families among them, watching three miles away. After a short check-over while in Earth orbit, the engine re-started and accelerated them to the unprecedented velocity of 24,200 mph towards the Moon. The human altitude record, then 850 miles, was quickly smashed as they set off on their 235,000-mile outward journey.
The crew, with Anders as cameraman, transmitted the first black-and-white television pictures showing the Earth as a ball hanging in the black void, astonishing earthly viewers. Their home planet shrank rapidly in the cabin window, and after a voyage of three days the crew fired their engine to successfully enter lunar orbit. They were the first human beings to be captive to the gravity of a planetary body other than Earth.
Anders had trained to fly the lunar module, but with no craft ready, had been allocated the role of mission photographer. On their fourth revolution of the Moon, Anders spotted an extraordinary sight which they had missed three times previously, the colourful Earth rising above the lunar wasteland. Moving between windows as the craft slowly rotated, he shot off several images which would be reproduced endlessly in publications around the world.
He would later reflect: “We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing we discovered is the Earth.”
The crew had quietly planned to mark their historic achievement with a solemn speech from lunar orbit, but now, gazing at the bleak cratered mountains, words failed them. Instead, they settled for taking turns reading from the Book of Genesis. As the sun set on Apollo 8 during their ninth orbit, Anders read out: “In the beginning, God created the Heaven and the Earth. And the Earth was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep…”
Broadcast a quarter of a million miles to Earth from the three remotest human beings in history, as they plunged through the Moon’s dark shadow on Christmas Eve, the words had an extraordinary resonance with Earth-bound viewers.
But the gesture also provoked outrage and a lawsuit from the militant atheist Madalyn Murray O’Hair, who asserted the separation of church and state, and that Nasa’s budget should not promote the Bible. The US Supreme Court later rejected this, citing lack of jurisdiction over the location of the offending reading.
Their hazardous mission ended with a blazing re-entry into the atmosphere and a pre-dawn splashdown in the Pacific Ocean north of New Zealand. It effectively marked the end of the Moon race with the USSR.
William (“Bill”) Alison Anders was born on October 17 1933 in Hong Kong, where his father Arthur, a US Navy Lieutenant, was stationed with his wife Muriel, née Adams.
When Bill was four, Arthur Anders became the hero of the notorious “USS Panay Incident” as Japanese aircraft provocatively targeted his Navy gunboat on the Yangtze River in China. With a shrapnel wound to the throat, he was reduced to issuing orders in writing as his ship sank, earning him the Navy Cross and Purple Heart.
The family returned to California where young Bill was educated in El Cajon and San Diego, followed by the US Naval Academy at Annapolis, Maryland. After graduation, he switched to the US Air Force, gained his wings in 1956, and flew interceptors from California and Iceland – the latter to counter the Soviet bombers which were challenging US air defences.
Anders joined Nasa in 1963 as part of the third intake of astronauts. Apollo 8 was his only spaceflight, and after serving as back-up to Michael Collins on the Apollo 11 Moon landing, he left the agency in 1969. Next, he ran the National Aeronautics and Space Council, advising the US President on space policy.
He went on to chair national nuclear bodies and was appointed ambassador to Norway, after which he had a successful and remunerative business career in engineering and aviation.
In 1970, the prohibition against naming lunar features after living individuals was briefly suspended in the case of Anders and his colleagues, as well as the crew of the first Moon landing, Apollo 11. A 25-mile-wide crater on the far side of the Moon is now named Anders.
He was alone piloting a small aircraft when it crashed in waters near the San Juan Islands, Washington state, on Friday.
Anders married Valerie Hoard in 1955, and they had four sons and two daughters. Latterly he settled in Washington state.
William Anders, born October 17, 1933, died June 7 2024
