59 Years Ago: Remembering the world’s first view of Earth from the Moon in 1966

The first-ever image of Earth from near the moon was captured by a spacecraft on 23 August 1966. (Image: NASA)

The first view of Earth rising above the lunar horizon came not from Apollo but from an earlier spacecraft. On 23 August 1966, NASA’s Lunar Orbiter 1 sent home a grainy black-and-white photo showing our planet as a crescent above the moon’s surface.

How was this image captured?
NASA said the picture was unplanned and came during the craft’s 16th orbit. Lunar Orbiter 1 was launched on 10 August 1966 aboard an Atlas-Agena D rocket from Cape Canaveral. It entered lunar orbit four days later, designed to map safe landing sites for future Surveyor and Apollo missions.

The spacecraft carried a camera built by Eastman Kodak, originally created for Cold War spy satellites. It used an automated system to develop the film, scan the photographs, and transmit them back to Earth. The images provided far greater detail than telescopes on Earth could achieve at the time.

What was the mission’s legacy?
Lunar Orbiter 1 circled the moon for 76 days before intentionally crashing into its surface on 29 October 1966. During its mission, it photographed nine potential Apollo landing zones and seven backups. The crescent Earth image was transmitted to a tracking station near Madrid.

Over two years later, Apollo 8 astronaut Bill Anders captured the iconic colour “Earthrise” photo on Christmas Eve 1968. That picture became a cultural milestone, but it was Lunar Orbiter 1’s view of Earth as a crescent that marked humanity’s very first glimpse of home from the moon.