Bill Anders, the famous Apollo 8 astronaut is dead.
He is famed for snapping perhaps the most iconic photograph taken in outer space.
It was gathered that Anders met his end when a small aircraft he was flying crashed into the sea off Washington state.
“His body has been recovered,” his son, Greg, revealed.
“The family is devastated. He was a great pilot. He will be missed,” a statement from the family reads.
Anders – who was a lunar module pilot on the Apollo 8 mission – took the iconic Earthrise photograph, one of the most memorable and inspirational images of Earth from space.
The image is widely credited with motivating the global environmental movement and leading to the creation of Earth Day, an annual event to promote activism and awareness of caring for the planet.
“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing that we discovered was the Earth,” he spoke of the moment.
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