First Image of the "Whole Earth"
8/8/1967
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The image came from NASA’s Lunar Orbiter project; it was taken on Lunar Orbiter 5.
Between August 1966 and August 1967, NASA launched a series of five Lunar Orbiter Missions in order to find a landing spot for future manned missions to the moon. The Lunar Orbiter was an unmanned probe that essentially operated as a flying photographic laboratory. The spacecraft was equipped to photograph the moon on 70 mm film, develop the film, and scan the film in small segments. The scans were then converted to a radio signal which was sent back to Earth, where NASA technicians saved the images. This process was successful in determining a landing spot for the Apollo missions.
This image was restored as part of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP), which began converting the original data tapes from the 1960s to digital photographs in 2007.
Between August 1966 and August 1967, NASA launched a series of five Lunar Orbiter Missions in order to find a landing spot for future manned missions to the moon. The Lunar Orbiter was an unmanned probe that essentially operated as a flying photographic laboratory. The spacecraft was equipped to photograph the moon on 70 mm film, develop the film, and scan the film in small segments. The scans were then converted to a radio signal which was sent back to Earth, where NASA technicians saved the images. This process was successful in determining a landing spot for the Apollo missions.
This image was restored as part of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP), which began converting the original data tapes from the 1960s to digital photographs in 2007.
This primary source comes from the Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.
National Archives Identifier: 86748787
Full Citation: Photograph 255-LO-5-5027-H3; Lunar Orbiter 5 - FRAME 5027-H3; 8/8/1967; Lunar Orbiter 5; Photographs from the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project, 2007 - 2017; Records of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, Record Group 255; National Archives at College Park, College Park, MD. [Online Version, https://docsteach.org/documents/document/whole-earth, March 17, 2025]Rights: Public Domain, Free of Known Copyright Restrictions. Learn more on our privacy and legal page.