59 years ago today, the first photograph of Earth from lunar orbit was taken.

Published on 23/08/2025 - 16:19 GMT+2

On 23 August 1966, NASA captured nan first photograph of nan Earth arsenic seen from a lunar orbit by its unmanned Lunar Orbiter 1 probe. This spacecraft had been launched connected 10 August 1966 pinch a very circumstantial mission: to photograph soft areas of nan lunar aboveground for nan action and verification of safe landing sites for nan Surveyor and Apollo missions.

However, destiny had thing overmuch bigger successful store. Photographing nan Earth was not portion of nan original mission, not moreover considered until nan spacecraft was already successful space. It was a spontaneous determination by nan power squad that would consequence successful 1 of nan astir iconic images successful nan history of abstraction exploration.

The photograph was taken from a region of astir 380,000 kilometres and shows half of nan Earth, from Istanbul to Cape Town, pinch nan eastbound areas submerged astatine night. Although nan image revealed nary specifications of nan Earth's aboveground erstwhile it was taken successful 1966, its affectional and technological effect was contiguous and lasting.

The method bequest of a revolutionary image

Lunar Orbiter 1 was equipped pinch a blase 68-kilogram Eastman Kodak imaging strategy that utilized wide-angle lenses and had nan unsocial expertise to create film, scan nan images and nonstop them backmost to Earth. In a twist that was not known until aft nan extremity of nan Cold War, this camera had primitively been developed by nan US National Reconnaissance Office (NRO) and had antecedently flown connected nan Samos E-1 spy satellite.

The original image was ne'er recovered successful its afloat solution from nan mission's stored data. It was not until 2008 that nan Lunar Orbiter Image Retrieval Project (LOIRP) managed to reconstruct and importantly amended nan value of this historical photograph, revealing specifications that remained hidden for much than 4 decades.

The Lunar Orbiter 1 ngo ended connected 29 October 1966, erstwhile it was deliberately collapsed into nan lunar aboveground to debar interference pinch early missions. During its operational time, nan spacecraft had successfully completed its main objectives, capturing a full of 205 images of nan Earth's earthy satellite.