William Anders (astronaut)

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William Anders
William Anders
Country: United States
Organization: NASA
selected on October 17, 1963
(3rd NASA Group)
Calls: 1 space flight
Begin: December 21, 1968
Landing: December 27, 1968
Time in space: 6d 3h 00min
EVA inserts: 0
retired on August 1969
Space flights

William Alison "Bill" Anders (born October 17, 1933 in Hong Kong ) is a former US Air Force officer and astronaut .

Start of career

Born in Hong Kong because his father was stationed there as a pilot in the US Navy , Anders grew up in California . In 1951 he graduated from East Jackson High School . He then studied at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis ( Maryland ), which gave him a bachelor's degree in electrical engineering in 1955 . He switched to the US Air Force and served as an interceptor pilot in an all-weather squadron. He earned another university degree in 1962 with a Masters in Nuclear Power Engineering from the Air Force Institute of Technology , located at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base , Ohio .

Anders worked on technical options for shielding nuclear reactors in an Air Force weapons laboratory in New Mexico .

The move to NASA

Anders, meanwhile a captain in the Air Force, applied to NASA and was presented to the public on October 17, 1963, on his 30th birthday, as one of 14 astronauts in the third selection group.

Training began in February 1964. In 1965 he was assigned specializations in dosimetry, radiation effects and life support systems. He was one of the first astronauts to fly the Lunar Landing Training Vehicle (LLTV), which was used to practice landing on the moon.

Gemini

Anders received his first assignment to a crew on March 19, 1966 when he was nominated as a substitute pilot for the Gemini 11 mission in September 1966. On the Gemini 12 mission in November 1966, he served as liaison spokesman ( Capcom ).

Apollo

"Earthrise" - the rise of the earth over the moon. The famous photo of Anders, taken on December 24th, 1968.

When the first Apollo crews were assembled, Anders was assigned to Mission E. Anders had the Lunar Module in a high earth orbit should be tested as lunar module pilot. Because the development of the lunar module was delayed, Mission E was canceled. The crew, which also included Commander Frank Borman and Apollo pilot Jim Lovell , carried out the mission now called Apollo 8 , which was pushed between Missions C and D. The first flight of the lunar module had to be postponed to Apollo 9 , so that Anders could not use his training. Anders took off on December 21, 1968 for his only space flight. It was the first manned launch of the Saturn V rocket and the first manned space flight to another celestial body.

On December 24th, Anders took one of the most famous photos in history, the rise of the earth over the lunar horizon ("Earthrise") . In the evening there was a live transmission from the Apollo command capsule in the lunar orbit, with Borman, Lovell and Anders reading the story of creation from the Bible . The British musician Mike Oldfield used an excerpt from this for the opening of his album The Songs Of Distant Earth . Anders himself, originally a Catholic, has lost all reference to religion as a result of his space experience.

After his return, Anders was assigned to the replacement crew of Apollo 11 , where he was provided as a reserve for the Apollo pilot Michael Collins . During this mission he worked again as a liaison officer ( Capcom ) in the control room in Houston .

According to NASA

Frank Borman with Jim Lovell and William Anders in December 2008

Anders left NASA on August 1, 1969. He also retired from active service in the Air Force (although he continued to serve in the Air Force Reserve, from which he retired years later with the rank of major general ). As early as June 1969, President Richard Nixon appointed him to an advisory body that was supposed to prepare decision-making documents for research, development, planning and implementation of aerospace systems.

On August 6, 1973, Anders was appointed to a five-member atomic energy commission in which he was responsible for nuclear and non-nuclear energies. At the same time, he was the American chairman of an American-Russian program for nuclear technology transfer.

As part of a reorganization, the Atomic Energy Commission was dissolved in 1975 and replaced by the Regulatory Authority for Nuclear Technology, which was now responsible for nuclear safety and environmental compatibility. The first chairman of this new authority was different.

In 1976 Anders took over the office as US ambassador to Norway .

After 26 years in government service, Anders went into industry in September 1977, assuming a position as division director for nuclear products at General Electric in San José , California . At the beginning of 1980 he moved to the company's aviation division in Utica , New York .

Anders left General Electric in 1984 and went to Textron , where he led the aerospace division. In 1990 he moved to General Dynamics until he retired in 1994.

William Anders is married and has four sons and two daughters.

Honors

In 1968 he was with his comrades of Apollo 8 Man of the Year of the Time Magazine .

The lunar crater Anders has been named after him since 1970.

See also

Web links

Commons : William Anders  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Astronaut biography: William Anders. spacefacts.de, July 4, 2009, accessed on May 28, 2013 .
  2. ↑ The Guardian, 30/11/2008: "The mission did changed everything"
  3. ^ Gazetteer of Planetary Nomenclature
personal data
SURNAME Different, William
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Anders, William Alison (full name); Anders, Bill (nickname)
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American air force officer and astronaut
DATE OF BIRTH October 17, 1933
PLACE OF BIRTH Hong Kong