The First Photo Of Earth From Space
Written by: George Chittenden : 01 Aug 2019
This grainy image is the first photo ever taken of Earth from space. It was taken on October 24th, 1946, from an altitude of sixty-five miles above the surface of New Mexico. It was taken by a 35-millimeter motion picture camera attached to a German V-2 rocket, which was captured by the Americans at the end of World War II. The camera itself was placed in an area of the rocket which had previously contained an explosive warhead!
The first photo ever taken of Earth from space
The rocket was Launched from the White Sands Missile Range in White Sands, New Mexico. The photos taken by the rocket were five times higher than the previous record, the Explorer II balloon which ascended 13.7 miles in 1935. The balloon pictures had shown the curvature of the Earth at the horizon, but the rocket photos opened new possibilities.
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