Category: Early Space Odysseas
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The curved Earth from record – breaking high altitude orbit
Once docked with the Agena vehicle (whose L-band antenna is in the left foreground), the astronauts used its propulsion system to increase its apogee to 740 nautical miles (1,370 km), the highest Earth orbit ever reached by a manned spacecraft.
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First high-quality photograph from space, taken with a Hasselblad: Himalayas from Faith 7
The birth of space photography: Gordon Cooper’s film was the first by an astronaut to be analyzed and described frame by frame by NASA, in effect launching the agency’s photographic technology department in Houston.
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NASA Research Pilot Neil Armstrong following a flight with a X-15 experimental rocket plane
A superb early portrait of the most famous astronaut in history, when he was still a NASA research pilot before being selected for the second class of nine NASA astronauts on September 17, 1962.
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The historic first full-face portrait of a human being in space: Ed White in weightlessness at the pilot’s seat of the capsule
Not only did James McDivitt photograph the first American EVA with great skill, but he also took the amazing first portrait of an astronaut in space, showing an elated Ed White back in the spacecraft after the first US spacewalk.
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The first American in orbit on launch day: John Glenn prior to boarding Friendship 7 for the historic first US orbital mission
On 20 February 1962, John Glenn’s Friendship 7 mission truly marked the beginning of NASA’s ventures into space, 10 months after the first human orbital spaceflight by Yuri Gagarin in Vostok 1 (12 April 1961).
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First Selfie in Space
During his stand up EVA, Aldrin lowered his gold-plated visor for a rare self-portrait that clearly shows his features. In previous pictures of spacewalkers, sunlight reflecting off the visor obscured their faces.
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First photograph of the Earth and Moon together, December 22, 1966
On December 22, 1966, ATS-1 captured the first image of Earth and the Moon together, a feat often mistakenly attributed to Voyager 1 (which captured the first single-frame image that showed the entire Earth and Moon)
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In-flight portrait of Pete Conrad in weightlessness, August 21-29, 1965
This beautiful portrait from space (the second ever taken after Ed White’s portrait by James McDvitt on Gemini IV) was taken between the third and four orbits of the spacecraft.
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The Mercury Seven Monument at Cape Kennedy’s Pad 14 at Sunrise
Known from 1963 to 1973 as Cape Kennedy in honor of President John F. Kennedy who was assassinated in November 1963, Cape Canaveral was the setting for all NASA manned flights and many of the unmanned scientific space exploration missions.