Bill Anders, who died a pilot’s death.

*****

First and foremost, he was a Lunar Module Pilot, slotted to fly the second manned lunar lander with Frank Borman, Mike Collins (replaced for health reasons by Jim Lovell), the “F” mission, a test the LM in high earth orbit, sweeping 4,000 mi. from the planet.  Bill Anders was the Lunar Module Pilot, all the way.

Until he became a LM Pilot without a Lunar Module.  Delays pushed the first manned LM, to be flown by Jim McDivitt and Rusty Schweickart, from late 1968 into early 1969.  The crews switched so McDivitt’s crew could stay with the Lunar Module.  And Borman, Lovell and Anders, now flying Apollo 8, gained a new mission:  Orbit the moon 10 times at Christmas 1968.

“Oh, my God!  Look at that picture over there.  Here’s the Earth coming up.  Wow, that’s pretty.”

What does a Lunar Module Pilot do without a Lunar Module?  He takes photographs.

“You got any color film, Jim?  Hand me that roll of color quick, would you.”

Bill Anders took the iconic photograph, shot spontaneously in the awe of the moment, of the Earth rising over the Moon.

“Here we came all the way to the Moon to discover the Earth.”

Anders, age 90, died on July 7.  He died a pilot, flying a small plane solo, a Beechcraft T-34 Mentor, northwest of Seattle off the coast of Jones Island.  The plane dove into the waters.

Bill Anders was a Lunar Module pilot.  Let’s imagine him aboard now, soaring high above the Earth, doing at last and forever what he was meant to do, running the LM’s systems through detailed checkout proving that the bird has wings strong enough to carry it to the Moon.