The NASA astronaut who snapped the iconic "Earthrise" photo from the Apollo 8 spacecraft in 1968 and was one of the first three people to orbit the moon, was killed in a plane crash in Washington state, his family has confirmed.
William Anders was 90.
His son, Gregory Anders, told CNN on Friday that his father "passed in an aircraft incident in the San Juan Islands."
The "family is devastated and grieving the loss of a great pilot," he added.
The San Juan Sheriff's Office said in a statement on Facebook that it recovered the body of a man who was piloting an "older model" plane that went down off the coast of Jones Island in the San Juan Channel on Friday morning.
"This is a very somber and tragic incident, and the San Juan County Sheriff's Office sends its sincere condolences and prayers to the victim and his family," the sheriff's office said in the statement.
Anders flew on the December 1968 Apollo mission with fellow astronauts Jim Lovell and Frank Borman. The three were the first to orbit the moon.
"We mourn the passing of astronaut Bill Anders, lunar module pilot for Apollo 8, and backup pilot for the Gemini XI and Apollo 11 flights," NASA said in a statement posted on X.
"One of the first three people to travel beyond the reach of our Earth and orbit the Moon, Anders took the legendary Earthrise photo," it added.
Anders took the shot aboard the spacecraft that captured the Earth with the lunar surface in the foreground.
"We came all this way to explore the moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth," Anders said.
