Footnotes

Unlike Yuri Gagarin, the first human in orbit, Alan Shepard, the first American in space, who had no camera, or even Gherman Titov who only had a motion picture camera, Glenn carried a still camera aboard his spacecraft: a 35mm Ansco Autoset (a repackaged Minolta Hi-Matic) with a 50mm lens. Initially, NASA vetoed Glenn's request to bring a camera, concerned it would distract him from mission objectives. However, after appealing to NASA Director Robert Gilruth, Glenn was granted permission. Following advice from LIFE photographer Ralph Morse, Glenn purchased the camera at a drugstore in Cocoa Beach, Florida. NASA technicians then modified it with a trigger mechanism so Glenn could operate it while wearing his spacesuit gloves.

During the first orbit of Friendship 7, John Glenn became the first human to use a hand held still camera in space, as he was passing above the Atlas Mountains along the West Coast of Africa, with the Atlantic Ocean stretching into the distance. Glenn reported, "Have beautiful view of African coast", as he gazed back 900 miles over Spanish Sahara just 19 minutes after liftoff. "Cape Bojador (right) and Cape Juby hump the shoreline beyond the Anti Atlas Mountains" (National Geographic, June 1962, p. 811). The planet's brilliant curvature is framed against the black expanse of space, with scattered clouds visible over the ocean. The blurred horizon on the left side of the frame is part of the spacecraft's window.

"This picture is to the best of my knowledge the first hand-held camera picture ever taken from space. I took it during the first orbit of my Friendship 7 flight on February 20, 1962, during the early stages of our first effort to accomplish manned orbital flight. NASA knew that pictures from orbit were an important part of showing the public the beauty of space, as well as the importance of exploring it. The camera I used was a very simple Minolta Hi-Matic, which was one of the first of the automatic cameras."

—John Glenn
CLICK HERE: TIME Magazine

Glenn's photos gave humanity its first visual understanding of the fragility and interconnectedness of our planet. They shifted human consciousness, planting the seeds of environmental awareness and underscoring the preciousness of Earth. For the first time, our planet appeared vulnerable against the vastness of space—a perspective that profoundly influenced the environmental movement.

"In the decade of Gemini and Apollo that followed Glenn's historic flight, others used more sophisticated equipment and flew higher and farther. Yet Glenn's pioneering achievement remains. His success helped convince NASA management of the feasibility of astronaut photography."

—Photography historians Ron Schick and Julia Van Haaften (Schick and Van Haaften, p. 16)

Literature
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, JUNE 1962, p. 811