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Lot 110
[Lunar Orbiter I] HUMANITY'S FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF EARTH FROM THE MOON: first published version NASA, 23 August 1966
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €3,584 inc. premium
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[Lunar Orbiter I] HUMANITY'S FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF EARTH FROM THE MOON: first published version
NASA, 23 August 1966
Printed August-September 1966.
Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image L-66-6591].
Numbered "L-66-6591" in black in the top margin, with NASA caption on the reverse (issued by NASA Langley Research Centre, Hampton, Virginia).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This historic photograph marks a pivotal moment in space exploration—the first image of Earth captured from the vantage point of another world. It is the rare, original version of the image transmitted to Earth on August 23, 1966, and released shortly after. The NASA caption presented the photograph with Earth on the left of the Moon (since Earth's North Pole was at the top); but the world's media instinctively rotated the image to show Earth above. NASA re-released an enhanced version of the photograph on October 24, 1966.
This breathtaking view, later witnessed only by Apollo astronauts as they emerged from the Moon's far side, symbolizes humanity's expanding perspective and the profound achievement of exploring beyond our planet.
"By this reversal of viewpoint, we here on the Earth have been provided a sobering glimpse of the spectacle of our own planet as it will be seen by a few of our generation in their pursuit of the manned exploration of space. We have achieved the ability to contemplate ourselves from afar and thus, in a measure, accomplish the wish expressed by Robert Burns: 'To see ourselves as others see us!'"
Floyd Thompson, NASA Langley Research Centre, 1967 (Cortright, pp. 84-85)
Printed August-September 1966.
Vintage gelatin silver print on fibre-based paper [NASA image L-66-6591].
Numbered "L-66-6591" in black in the top margin, with NASA caption on the reverse (issued by NASA Langley Research Centre, Hampton, Virginia).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This historic photograph marks a pivotal moment in space exploration—the first image of Earth captured from the vantage point of another world. It is the rare, original version of the image transmitted to Earth on August 23, 1966, and released shortly after. The NASA caption presented the photograph with Earth on the left of the Moon (since Earth's North Pole was at the top); but the world's media instinctively rotated the image to show Earth above. NASA re-released an enhanced version of the photograph on October 24, 1966.
This breathtaking view, later witnessed only by Apollo astronauts as they emerged from the Moon's far side, symbolizes humanity's expanding perspective and the profound achievement of exploring beyond our planet.
"By this reversal of viewpoint, we here on the Earth have been provided a sobering glimpse of the spectacle of our own planet as it will be seen by a few of our generation in their pursuit of the manned exploration of space. We have achieved the ability to contemplate ourselves from afar and thus, in a measure, accomplish the wish expressed by Robert Burns: 'To see ourselves as others see us!'"
Floyd Thompson, NASA Langley Research Centre, 1967 (Cortright, pp. 84-85)
Footnotes
This high-resolution photograph (Lunar Orbiter frame I-102H) was photographed with the 610 mm lens from an altitude of 1198 km above the Moon over the 233-km Crater Pasteur (cut off at right) and the 173-km Crater Hilbert (cut off at left). The view is centred on a point of latitude: 14.68° S, longitude 104.34° E.
[NASA caption] Langley Research Centre, Hampton, Va. The world's first view of the Earth taken by a spacecraft from the vicinity of the Moon. The photo was transmitted to Earth by the United States Lunar Orbiter I and received at the NASA tracking station at Robledo De Chavela near Madrid, Spain. This crescent of the Earth was photographed August 23, 1966 at 16:35 GMT when the spacecraft was on its 16th orbit and just about to pass behind the Moon. This is a view the astronauts will have when they come around the backside of the Moon and face the Earth. The Earth is shown, on the left of the photo with the U.S. east coast in the upper left, southern Europe toward the dark or night side of Earth, and Antarctica at the bottom of Earth crescent. The surface of the Moon is shown on the right side of the photo.
Literature
LIFE, 9 September 1966, pp. 34B-34C
Additional information
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