First Photograph of an "Earthrise"
8/23/1966
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On August 26, 1966, a lower resolution version of this image graced the front page of the New York Times under the headline, “How the Earth Looks from the Moon.” For the first time, humans looked beyond the lunar horizon and saw Earth. The image came from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter project and was dubbed by some as the “Picture of the Century.”
Between August 1966 and August 1967, NASA launched a series of five Lunar Orbiter Missions in order to find a landing spot for future manned missions to the moon. The Lunar Orbiter was an unmanned probe that essentially operated as a flying photographic laboratory. The spacecraft was equipped to photograph the moon on 70 mm film, develop the film, and scan the film in small segments. The scans were then converted to a radio signal which was sent back to Earth, where NASA technicians saved the images. This process was successful in determining a landing spot for the Apollo missions.
This image was restored as part of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP), which began converting the original data tapes from the 1960s to digital photographs in 2007.
Between August 1966 and August 1967, NASA launched a series of five Lunar Orbiter Missions in order to find a landing spot for future manned missions to the moon. The Lunar Orbiter was an unmanned probe that essentially operated as a flying photographic laboratory. The spacecraft was equipped to photograph the moon on 70 mm film, develop the film, and scan the film in small segments. The scans were then converted to a radio signal which was sent back to Earth, where NASA technicians saved the images. This process was successful in determining a landing spot for the Apollo missions.
This image was restored as part of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP), which began converting the original data tapes from the 1960s to digital photographs in 2007.
This primary source comes from the Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
National Archives Identifier: 86744668
Full Citation: Photograph 255-LO-1-1102-H2; Lunar Orbiter 1 - FRAME 1102-H2; 8/23/1966; Lunar Orbiter 1; Photographs from the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, 2007 - 2017; Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Record Group 255; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/earthrise, April 20, 2024]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.