The unique model ‘Earthrise’ that few individuals have seen — Space picture of the week

When you purchase by hyperlinks on our articles, Future and its syndication companions could earn a fee.

QUICK FACTS

What it’s: The world’s first picture of Earth from the moon

Where it’s: Lunar orbit, about 239,000 miles (385,000 kilometers) from Earth

When it was shared: Aug. 23, 2025 (initially taken Aug. 23, 1966)

Humanity’s first have a look at Earth from the moon did not come till Aug. 23, 1966, when this grainy, black-and-white picture confirmed our planet as a crescent above the lunar horizon, showing to rise because the camera-toting spacecraft moved in orbit.

At the time, it was a landmark picture — and completely unplanned, in response to NASA. The first view of Earth from the moon got here from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter 1, which transmitted the picture to a monitoring station at Robledo De Chavela close to Madrid.

Lunar Orbiter 1, the primary U.S. spacecraft to orbit the moon, launched on an Atlas-Agena D rocket from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on Aug. 10, 1966, and entered lunar orbit 4 days later. It was on a cartographic mission, designed to {photograph} probably protected touchdown websites on the moon for NASA’s Surveyor and Apollo missions, in response to NASA. Although the spacecraft’s digicam system wasn’t extremely detailed, it took way more detailed views from lunar orbit than have been doable from Earth by even the biggest telescopes on the time.

Lunar Orbiter 1’s digicam, manufactured by Eastman Kodak, featured an automatic system that developed uncovered movie, scanned the pictures, and transmitted them to Earth. The digicam was initially developed by the National Reconnaissance Office and was flown on the Cold War-era Samos spy satellites that have been launched by the U.S. within the Nineteen Sixties, in response to NASA.

Lunar Orbiter 1 orbited the moon for 76 days till it intentionally crashed into the moon on Oct. 29, 1966.

Related: James Webb telescope captures one of many deepest-ever views of the universe

MORE SPACE PHOTOS

—James Webb telescope captures one of many deepest-ever views of the universe

—Longest canyon within the photo voltaic system reveals new secrets and techniques

—Giant ‘X’ seems over Chile as 2 celestial beams of sunshine cross

Lunar Orbiter 1’s digicam snapped pictures of 9 potential Apollo touchdown websites and 7 backup websites. Earth as a crescent was photographed Aug. 23, 1966, at 16:35 GMT, when the spacecraft was on its sixteenth orbit, moments earlier than it handed into the darkness of the moon’s far facet.

Over two years later, on Christmas Eve, 1968, Bill Anders, a lunar module pilot on Apollo 8, the primary lunar orbit mission, snapped the enduring “Earthrise” picture. This higher-resolution shade picture captured humanity’s consideration as a cultural milestone, nevertheless it was Lunar Orbiter 1’s very related picture of Earth as a crescent rising behind the moon, taken over two years earlier, that was the technical first.

For extra chic house photos, try our Space Photo of the Week archives.