William Anders, the American astronaut who took the first colour photo of the Earth from space, has died aged 90 in a plane crash.
Tributes have been paid from NASA after the incident off the coast of Jones Island, near Washington state, on Friday.
Mr Anders was the only person aboard the small aircraft he was flying and his death was confirmed by his son, Greg Anders.
As part of the Apollo 8 crew in December 1968, Mr Anders circled the moon in the first human spaceflight to leave Earth's orbit.
This paved the way for the Apollo 11 moon landing in July 1969.
Mr Anders, known as Bill, was a backup crew member to be on the moon landing but was ultimately not selected to be the command module pilot.
He remains best known for the iconic and historic photograph of the Earth rising over the moon’s horizon.
Mr Anders, born in British Hong Kong in 1933, took a job with the National Space Council in 1969 and was later United States Ambassador to Norway.
He had served in the US air force before joining Nasa. He lived primarily between California and Washington and had six children with his wife Valerie.
Greg Anders confirmed his father had been flying a T-34 aircraft owned by the family’s Heritage Flight Museum when it crashed between two islands and then sunk.
"The family is devastated," Greg Anders said. "He was a great pilot and we will miss him terribly."
Nasa administrator and former senator Bill Nelson said that Mr Anders embodied the lessons and the purpose of exploration.
"He travelled to the threshold of the moon and helped all of us see something else: ourselves," Mr Nelson wrote on the social platform X.
Mr Anders took the photo during the crew's fourth orbit of the moon, frantically switching from black-and-white to colour film.
"Oh my God, look at that picture over there!" Mr Anders said. "There's the Earth coming up. Wow, is that pretty!"
