William A. Anders

	WILLIAM A. ANDERS Astronaut
	William A. Anders was born October 17th, 1933 in Hong Kong. He attended schools in San Diego, and graduated from the U.S. Naval Academy in 1955. After pilot training, he graduated from Harvard University. He was selected by NASA in 1963 for training for the Apollo program. On December 21st, 1968, Anders, Frank Borman and James Lovell became the first men to leave Earth's gravity and orbit the moon. Apollo 8 gave us our first close-up view of the lunar surface and of the moon's back side. Most significantly, Apollo 8 confirmed the technology which permitted succeeding crews to land on the moon. In 1969, Anders served as back-up lunar module pilot for Apollo 11, the first lunar landing. He thereafter left NASA to serve in a number of prestigious public and corporate appointments including Ambassador to Norway and vice chairman, General Dynamics Corporation.
	Elected to the International Aerospace Hall of Fame 1990