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Lot 326
[Apollo 13] EARTH IN DARKNESS: seen from the stricken spacecraft during the perilous homeward journey J. Lovell, J. Swigert or F. Haise, 11-17 April 1970
14 – 28 April 2025, 12:00 CEST
Paris, Avenue HocheSold for €307.20 inc. premium
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[Apollo 13] EARTH IN DARKNESS: seen from the stricken spacecraft during the perilous homeward journey
J. Lovell, J. Swigert or F. Haise, 11-17 April 1970
Printed 1970.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS13-62-8979].
With "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS13-62-8979" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
Apollo 13's Fragile Home Hanging in the Void.
A rare and haunting image from Apollo 13's harrowing return journey, capturing the vast emptiness of deep space that separated the stranded astronauts from their fragile home. Taken after the slingshot around the Moon, this photograph symbolizes the sheer isolation the crew faced as they fought for survival.
At this point, the crippled Command and Service Module and its lifeboat, the Lunar Module Aquarius, had passed into Earth's gravitational sphere of influence and were accelerating toward home. As Apollo 13 remained in "barbecue mode"—a slow rotation to regulate temperature—Jack Swigert and Fred Haise used the Hasselblad 500 EL Data Camera (originally intended for lunar surface photography) with a 60mm lens and colour magazine 62/JJ to capture this distant view of Earth—over 100,000 nautical miles away.
James Lovell on the possibility of being lost forever in deep space:
"Our idea was, if all hope was lost, if we went by the Earth, say we missed the Earth, and we were on an orbit about the Sun, if we had exceeded the escape velocity... My idea was to hold off, you know, as long as we had options, as long as we could stand it, send back data... We probably would have been farther out than anybody."
— James Lovell (Chaikin, Voices, p. 139)
Printed 1970.
Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS13-62-8979].
With "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse, numbered "NASA AS13-62-8979" in red in the top margin (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas).
20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.)
Historical context
Apollo 13's Fragile Home Hanging in the Void.
A rare and haunting image from Apollo 13's harrowing return journey, capturing the vast emptiness of deep space that separated the stranded astronauts from their fragile home. Taken after the slingshot around the Moon, this photograph symbolizes the sheer isolation the crew faced as they fought for survival.
At this point, the crippled Command and Service Module and its lifeboat, the Lunar Module Aquarius, had passed into Earth's gravitational sphere of influence and were accelerating toward home. As Apollo 13 remained in "barbecue mode"—a slow rotation to regulate temperature—Jack Swigert and Fred Haise used the Hasselblad 500 EL Data Camera (originally intended for lunar surface photography) with a 60mm lens and colour magazine 62/JJ to capture this distant view of Earth—over 100,000 nautical miles away.
James Lovell on the possibility of being lost forever in deep space:
"Our idea was, if all hope was lost, if we went by the Earth, say we missed the Earth, and we were on an orbit about the Sun, if we had exceeded the escape velocity... My idea was to hold off, you know, as long as we had options, as long as we could stand it, send back data... We probably would have been farther out than anybody."
— James Lovell (Chaikin, Voices, p. 139)