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Lot 179
[Apollo 8] MAJESTIC EARTHRISE SEEN THROUGH THE SPACECRAFT WINDOW Frank Borman, 21-27 December 1968
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue Hoche€1,500 - €2,000
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[Apollo 8] MAJESTIC EARTHRISE SEEN THROUGH THE SPACECRAFT WINDOW
Frank Borman, 21-27 December 1968
Printed 1968.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS8-14-2392].
Numbered "NASA AS8-14-2392" in red in the top margin, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This iconic photograph was captured by Frank Borman through the spacecraft window using an 80mm lens during the third Earthrise ever witnessed by humans, on Apollo 8's seventh revolution around the Moon. The Earth majestically rises above the bleak lunar horizon, over the 233-km-wide Crater Pasteur, while the red window frame of the spacecraft is visible in the foreground.
"The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me, a small disk, 240,000 miles away. It was hard to think that that little thing held so many problems, so many frustrations. Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence don't show from that distance."
—Frank Borman (LIFE, January 17, 1969)
"The vast loneliness up here of the Moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth. The Earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space."
—James Lovell (TV broadcast from lunar orbit)
Printed 1968.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS8-14-2392].
Numbered "NASA AS8-14-2392" in red in the top margin, with "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
This iconic photograph was captured by Frank Borman through the spacecraft window using an 80mm lens during the third Earthrise ever witnessed by humans, on Apollo 8's seventh revolution around the Moon. The Earth majestically rises above the bleak lunar horizon, over the 233-km-wide Crater Pasteur, while the red window frame of the spacecraft is visible in the foreground.
"The view of the Earth from the Moon fascinated me, a small disk, 240,000 miles away. It was hard to think that that little thing held so many problems, so many frustrations. Raging nationalistic interests, famines, wars, pestilence don't show from that distance."
—Frank Borman (LIFE, January 17, 1969)
"The vast loneliness up here of the Moon is awe-inspiring, and it makes you realize just what you have back there on Earth. The Earth from here is a grand oasis in the big vastness of space."
—James Lovell (TV broadcast from lunar orbit)
Footnotes
From the mission transcript (photograph taken T+081:43:25 after launch):
081:21:41 Anders: Tell you what—why don't I give you that other camera?
081:21:45 Anders: You've got colour film; why don't you get a picture of the Earth as it comes up next time? [...]
081:28:47 Lovell: Still try to get a series, Frank, if you have a—[garble] you using 70-millimeter?
081:28:51 Borman: Yes. [...]
081:43:06 Borman: Oh, brother! Look at that!
081:43:16 Lovell: What was it?
081:43:18 Borman: Guess.
081:43:20 Lovell: Tsiolkovsky?
081:43:21 Borman: No, it's the Earth coming up.
081:43:22 Lovell: Oh.
081:43:29 Anders: Augh! Quit rocking the boat!
Literature
LOOK magazine, January 1969, cover
LIFE, 10 January 1969, p. 26
Watch more
CLICK HERE: Apollo 8 - Go For TLI (1969)
Additional information
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