First Photo of Earth from the Moon
Next: August 23, 2027
Home, seen from 380,000 km away.
The story
Where it comes from
This Story marks the anniversary of 23 August 1966, when NASA's Lunar Orbiter 1 sent back the first picture of Earth taken from the vicinity of the Moon. The spacecraft had been sent to photograph the lunar surface and scout landing sites ahead of the Apollo missions. On its 16th orbit it caught a crescent Earth hanging above the Moon's horizon, about 380,000 kilometres away. The image was received at NASA's tracking station at Robledo de Chavela, near Madrid, and gave the world its first look at home from another world.
How it's celebrated
There is no formal observance. NASA has published both the grainy 1966 picture and a much sharper version restored in 2008, so anyone can compare them online. It is also a good evening to step outside, find the Moon, and imagine looking back from there at our own small, bright planet.
Did you know
- NASA sent five Lunar Orbiter missions in the late 1960s to photograph the Moon before the Apollo landings.
- The pictures were stored on large magnetic tapes, and in 2008 a team at NASA's Ames Research Center used refurbished tape drives to restore this one at far higher resolution.
- In the photograph, the line between day and night on Earth runs through Odessa, Istanbul and just west of Cape Town.
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