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William A. Anders , the cosmonaut behind perhaps the single most iconic pic of our planet , has died at the historic period of 90 .
On Friday morning , Anders was aviate a small plane that dove into the pee near Roche Harbor , Washington . His son Gregconfirmed his death .
Anders retired from the Air Force Reserve as a major general but was a John Roy Major at the time of the Apollo 8 mission in 1968 . Apollo 8 was the first manned mission to orbit the moon , which also made Anders one of the first people to leave the boundary of Earth ’s orbit .
On Christmas Eve , all three Apollo crew members took photos of Earth as it rose over the lunar month ’s horizon , but Anders was the only one shooting on colour motion-picture show . The ship’sonboard magnetic tape recordercaptured the astronaut cry , “ Oh my God , count at that flick over there ! There ’s the Earth comin ’ up . Wow , is that pretty ! ”
The resulting picture , titled “ Earthrise , ” enchant Earth ’s loneliness and fragility in a style that no range ever had before . It was in particular iconic to the nascent environmental movement — 50 years later , Earth Day connection President of the United States Kathleen Rogerswrotethat photo “ corroborate ” the movement ’s conviction “ that the Earth ’s environment was common to all of us , that the Earth ’s natural resource were finite , and that 150 eld of unfettered industrial development was have a profound impact on our planet . ”
Inan interviewconducted in 2015 , Anders noted that his exposure seemed advantageously remembered than the Apollo 8 mission itself .
“ Here we came all the way to the moon to discover Earth , ” he said .
