Not quite as he did on the Apollo 8 mission in December 1968, during which he took the famous “Earthrise” photo above, which is shown how Anders framed it, rather than the better known version rotated clockwise so the lunar horizon is on the bottom, thus showing Earth “rising”.

But unlike most of his compatriots, who have died of old age, he left this world doing what he loved doing: flying fast, even at the age of 90. You fly long enough, especially in combat or flying aerobatics, and the probability of this happening becomes more likely. Not survivable.

Robert Zimmerman, who interviewed Anders many times in writing his great book, Genesis, which I regard as the definitive work about the mission, has a lovely obituary about him on his Behind The Black blogsite. Key quotes follow, starting with his first meeting, when Anders picked him up at LAX:

As I have noticed routinely, he seemed much smaller than I expected, as does every astronaut at first meeting. Anders guided me to a low-slung sports car, which he slid into with ease. I — being 6′ 4″ — had to crowbar my way in. And then Anders demonstrated instantly one reason he was chosen to fly to the Moon. He started the car, and backed out of the parking space and out of the lot at what seemed to me to be about seventy miles an hour. And he did it with total control. For you see, the one thing Anders liked above all was going fast. 

Last year, following the death of Apollo 8 commander, Frank Borman, I wrote a post on Boxing Day celebrating the mission on its 55th anniversary and quoted the key parts of the Genesis reading, where each astronaut read passages from that part of the Bible to accompany the TV pictures of the Moon passing beneath their spaceship that they were broadcasting live back to America on Christmas Eve. So I was a little surprised to read the following (obviously I’d forgotten this part from Zimmerman’s book, of which I don’t have a copy and have not read for two decades):

For Anders however the flight of Apollo 8 radically changed his outlook on religion and life. Prior to Apollo 8 he was a devout Catholic. After Apollo 8 he abandoned that religion, spurred by what his thoughtful mind experienced while circling the Moon.

The vast emptiness of space made the Catholic rituals he had obeyed faithfully since childhood seem insufficient to him “We’re like ants on a log.” he explained. “how could any earth-centered religion ritual know what’s God’s truth is?” [Genesis, page 253]

That he ceased participating in any religion after Apollo 8 did not mean he stopped believing in God. He just decided there was no way for any human being to really understand that God. Instead, we must try our best to live good lives, and let the chips fall where they may.

As Zimmerman titles his post, Anders was one of the most thoughtful of the astronauts. Being a Roman Catholic was unusual in that most of the astronauts of that era were WASPS (White Anglo Saxon Protestants) due the RC’s schools and universities not focusing on technical subjects. I was aware of Apollo 15’s James Irwin and Apollo 16’s Charlie Duke both becoming devout Christians as a result of their voyages but not of the reverse happening with any of them (most remained the same).

The story of that photo – aside from the good-natured ribbing he and his commander exchanged for years as to who took it – is another example of that thoughtfulness. He deliberately chose not to photograph it as Borman had with B&W film just moments earlier, Borman angling so that the horizon was on the bottom of the photo:

Instead, he saw himself and the Apollo capsule as just one more object in the solar system, all orbiting either the Moon or the Earth or the Sun along the ecliptic. Thus, he didn’t perceive the Earth rising from behind a horizontal horizon line, but appearing instead sideways from behind a vertical lunar sphere. Apollo 8 was circling the waist of the Moon, as was the Moon around the Earth, and the Earth around the Sun.

I’m glad that some of these guys have lived long enough to finally see us truly stretching our legs in space with things like the ISS and Starship, especially Anders, who pushed for such things and against the Space Shuttle because he felt it would be too limited. He wanted something that would truly extend the Apollo missions legacy of exploring space beyond the Earth.

And he probably wanted something that went faster!