William Anders obituary

It may be that the most famous picture from the US space programme is not the shot of Neil Armstrong landing on the moon, but the image of Earth, seen rising above the moon’s horizon, an image relayed from space on 24 December 1968 by the crew of Apollo 8 – Frank Borman, Jim Lovell and Bill Anders.

It was Anders, who has died aged 90, who snapped the “Earthrise” photograph, which was not part of the mission’s scheduled protocol. And it was he who read first from the Book of Genesis during their live transmission from lunar orbit that Christmas Eve.

“In the beginning God created the heaven and the Earth,” he read. “And the Earth was without form, and void; and darkness was upon the face of the deep.”

Anders spoke later of the ecological impact of the image, contributing as it did to a shift in perspective articulated by the poet Archibald MacLeish in the New York Times the following day, Christmas Day. The photograph enabled us, MacLeish wrote, “to see the Earth as it truly is, small blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats”.

Although Anders was not the household name some of the better known astronauts were, after Apollo 8 he had one of the most influential careers outside the space programme, both in government service and as a corporate executive for defence and space industry contractors.

All three of the Apollo 8 crew were among those recruited in the wake of the original success of the seven “Right Stuff” Mercury astronauts. Anders applied in 1963 to join the third intake of space pilots, and was assigned the crucial mission, which became the linchpin of the US space effort.

Coming as it did at a time when the entire rationale for the “space race” was being questioned, Apollo 8’s success reinvigorated Nasa and paved the way for man to set foot on the moon.

The year before, however, the mission had seen the US and Soviet space programmes each suffer disasters. In January 1967, the Apollo 1 capsule burst into flames on the launch pad, killing its three astronauts. In April, the parachute on cosmonaut Vladimir Komarov’s Soyuz 1 craft failed to open on re-entry, and he crashed to his death. The race to the moon pressed on, but both unmanned circumlunar flights sent up by the Soviets in 1968 malfunctioned. Nasa rebounded with the testing of a new Saturn V rocket (which would eventually lift Apollo 8 into space), and, in October 1968, the 11-day Earth orbit by Apollo 7. The stage was set for Apollo 8, which, after a 66-hour, 230,000-mile voyage, entered lunar orbit on Christmas Eve. Its crew were the first humans to see the dark side of the moon.

Bill was the prototypical all-American boy, despite being born in Hong Kong, where his father, Arthur “Tex” Anders, was a naval lieutenant aboard a gunboat patrolling the Yangtze river. The infant Bill and his mother, Muriel (nee Adams), fled China when the Japanese attacked Nanjing. During the attack, his father’s boat came under Japanese fire. With the captain severely wounded, Tex, wounded himself, took command and repelled the Japanese, earning the Navy Cross.

Back in the US, attending Grossmont high school in San Diego county, California, Bill grew up fitting the astronaut mould. He achieved the Life Scout ranking, the second highest in Boy Scouts, then won appointment to the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland. Upon graduating in 1955, however, he transferred to the air force, attracted by the lure of flying and the prospect of quicker advancement through the newest of the military services.

He married Valerie Hoard, whom he had met at Annapolis, soon after graduating, and was assigned to fly interceptors for the Air Defence Command, guarding against attacks by Soviet bombers.

Assigned to Wright-Patterson air force base in Ohio, Anders studied for a master’s in nuclear engineering at the Air Force Institute of Technology. He would later become instrumental in the fundraising that allowed the founding of Wright State University.

His experience with reactor shielding and radiation effects at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory in New Mexico was a key factor in his selection as an astronaut – he became responsible for investigating the effects of radiation on the space capsules and their crews.

After operating as the backup pilot for the Apollo 11 mission, Anders left Nasa to serve as executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council, the president’s advisory board. In 1973, he was appointed to the Atomic Energy Commission, and later chaired the joint US/USSR exchange programme for fission and fusion power. When nuclear regulation was reorganised in 1975, President Gerald Ford made him the first chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. When his term ended, Anders, of Norwegian descent, was appointed ambassador to Norway.

He left government service in 1977, was a fellow of the American Enterprise Institute thinktank, then joined General Electric (GE) as general manager of their nuclear products division. After a spell at Harvard Business School’s advanced management programme, GE put him in charge of their aircraft equipment division. He left in 1984 to take charge of the conglomerate Textron’s aerospace business, rising to senior executive vice-president in charge of operations for the corporation.

In 1990, he became vice-chair of General Dynamics, another major aerospace contractor, and the following year was named chair and chief executive. In order to hire him, General Dynamics had to agree to let Anders serve as an assistant test pilot for the F-16 fighter they were developing for the air force.

Anders retired as a major general in the air force reserve in 1988, and from industry in 1994. In 1996, he established the Heritage Flight Museum in Washington state. He flew his own planes in races and at air shows, and at various times held six flying records. A particular fan of the second world war-era P-51 Mustang, he and Borman, who in 1968 had re-entered the Earth’s atmosphere together travelling at 25,000 miles per hour, would fly displays of their propeller-driven Mustangs side by side.

Anders was flying a Beech A45 when the plane came down off the San Juan Islands in Washington state. He was killed in the crash.

He is survived by Valerie, four sons, Alan, Glen, Greg and Eric, and two daughters, Gayle and Diana.

• William Allison Anders, astronaut and businessman, born 17 October 1933; died 7 June 2024