Good evening, Kibitzers! Back in 1966, which I regret to say was 50 years ago now, NASA’s Lunar Orbiter 1 became the first American spacecraft to orbit the Moon, right around this time of year. The probe’s main mission was to photograph smooth places on the moon’s surface, looking for potential landing sites for the upcoming Apollo missions.
While Lunar Orbiter 1 was there, on this date, August 23, 1966, it took the first photograph of Earth from the distance of the moon:
It’s a bit grainy, but this was a big deal at the time, I assure you.
In 2008, the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP) digitized this Earthrise. (The account at the link of how this reprocessing project came about is pretty interesting!) And once you see what they’d really captured, it’s even more impressive. (This article discusses the photo, the mission, and LOIRP, and has some additional Lunar Orbiter photos.)
And what was even more impressive was, only a little over two years later, U.S. astronauts (Frank Borman, James Lovell, and William Anders) were orbiting the moon in Apollo 8, the first humans to do so, and on Christmas Eve 1968, they became the first humans to see an Earthrise from the moon in person. Here’s Commander Anders’ picture of that:
And not even six months later still, here’s the shot from Apollo 11 command module Columbia, showing lunar module Eagle returning from its moon landing — with Earthrise in the background!
We haven’t been back to the moon in person for a while, but NASA hasn’t been idle in this department. Their Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission launched in mid-2009, and took this gorgeous Earthrise composite shot in October 2015, during one of the 12 Earthrises it passes by every day (but during a relatively infrequent look up from the lunar surface, its real area of interest). See the high-res image and read more detail here. Check out the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter mission page here.
Kitchen Table Kibitzing is a community series for those who wish to share part of the evening around a virtual kitchen table with kossacks who are caring and supportive of one another. So bring your stories, jokes, photos, funny pics, music, and interesting videos, as well as links—including quotations—to diaries, news stories, and books that you think this community would appreciate. Readers may notice that most who post diaries and comments in this series already know one another to some degree, but newcomers should not feel excluded. We welcome guests at our kitchen table, and hope to make some new friends as well.