{"id":594386,"date":"2026-08-24T10:58:09","date_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:58:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/594386\/"},"modified":"2026-08-24T10:58:09","modified_gmt":"2026-08-24T10:58:09","slug":"the-first-ever-earthrise-photo-was-taken-60-years-ago-on-a-film-camera-by-a-robot-spacecraft","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/594386\/","title":{"rendered":"The First-Ever Earthrise Photo Was Taken 60 Years Ago on a Film Camera by a Robot Spacecraft"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"AThis photo, reprocessed years after it was taken, was taken on August 23, 1966, by the Lunar Orbiter 1 robot spacecraft. <\/p>\n

60 years ago, a robotic spacecraft captured the first Earthrise photo \u2014 a stunning view that the Artemis II crew recreated earlier this year<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Lunar Orbiter 1 was launched in 1966 with a film camera and its own film processing lab onboard to develop the negatives and scan them so the images could be transmitted back to Earth. <\/p>\n

The primary reason for having a high-resolution onboard camera was so that the orbiter could pick out landing sites for the Apollo program. The 70mm film enabled the Eastman Kodak imaging system to resolve objects on the lunar surface as small as one to two meters; not bad considering the modern-day lunar orbiter can resolve objects that are half a meter. <\/p>\n

But the Lunar Orbiter 1 captured something other than potential landing sites: it captured the first-ever photo of Earth rising above the Moon. <\/p>\n

\"AThe wide-angle frame of the Earthrise. <\/p>\n

While astronaut Bill Anders<\/a> is generally credited with capturing the most iconic Earthrise photo<\/a> a couple of years later from his Apollo 8 spacecraft, the Lunar Orbiter 1 was the first to do it \u2014 but there\u2019s good reason why it isn\u2019t particularly well-known. <\/p>\n

Bad Scan <\/p>\n

As astrophysicist Scott Manley explains, the initial scans of the 1966 photo were poor quality; NASA was restricted by the technology of the time. <\/p>\n

\"AThe first scans of the images contained lots of distracting artifacts. <\/p>\n

But as techniques improved, NASA soon realized it could glean better and more aesthetic images from the tapes the data was stored on. <\/p>\n

\u201cAbout 20 years ago, a bunch of engineers got together to re-scan those tapes because they realized the quality of the information could be improved with modern technology,\u201d explains Manley in a YouTube Short<\/a>. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey found experts in the tape machines and resurrected the hardware so that they could transfer the old 70mm tapes.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"AThe Artemis II crew took this Earthrise image earlier this year. <\/p>\n

The team set up shop in an old McDonald\u2019s in Moffett Federal Airfield, dubbing it \u201cMcMoons.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u201cThey were able to recover the old analog 70mm tapes and convert them into a new modern digital archival version,\u201d adds Manley. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd then using modern processing techniques, they were able to remove the artifacts and see the images in all their space-age glory.\u201d <\/p>\n

The Lunar Orbiter 1 eventually deteriorated and was commanded by ground control to crash into the Moon on October 29, 1966. <\/p>\n

Affiliate Disclosure PetaPixel articles may include affiliate links; we may earn a commission if you buy through one. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"This photo, reprocessed years after it was taken, was taken on August 23, 1966, by the Lunar Orbiter…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":594387,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[85,46,125],"class_list":["post-594386","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-technology","tag-il","tag-israel","tag-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594386","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=594386"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/594386\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/594387"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=594386"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=594386"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/il\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=594386"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}