Anders, William Alison (1933-2024), was an American astronaut who served on the crew of Apollo 8, the first crewed spaceflight to orbit the moon. With astronauts Frank Borman and James A. Lovell, Jr., Anders circled the moon 10 times on Dec. 24 and 25, 1968. Anders served as systems engineer and took most of the photographs during the flight.
Anders was born on Oct. 17, 1933, in Hong Kong, then a British colony but now part of China, where his father was stationed as an officer in the United States Navy. He graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1955 and then entered the Air Force. Anders earned a master’s degree in nuclear engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology at Wright Patterson Air Force Base in Ohio. In 1962, he served as a nuclear engineer and instructor pilot at the Air Force Weapons Laboratory at Kirtland Air Force Base in New Mexico.
In 1963, the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) selected Anders to be an astronaut in the Apollo lunar exploration program. He retired from NASA in 1969 and then served as executive secretary of the National Aeronautics and Space Council until 1973. After that, Anders served in several public positions, including commissioner of the Atomic Energy Commission, chairman of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, and ambassador to Norway. He also held high-level positions with Textron Incorporated and General Dynamics Corporation, two major aircraft companies. Anders was killed in an airplane crash on June 7, 2024. He was the plane’s pilot and only passenger.
See also Apollo; Space exploration (Mission to the moon).
