NASA; SCHMITT, Harrison.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

"The Blue Marble" - AS 17-148-22727. One of the most celebrated photographs ever taken, among the very first colour images to show the Earth in its entirety, and a powerful symbol for the nascent environmental movement. On 7 December 1972, the Apollo 17 spacecraft was speeding away from Earth, on an intersect course with the Moon. The mission was the last time in over five decades that a human would be far enough away in space to take a picture of the whole Earth.Through the narrow windows of the command module, Harrison Schmitt (born 1935) took the image on a hand-held Hasselblad camera, loaded with 70mm Kodak film. The crew subsequently spent a little over three days on the Moon, before splashing down in the Pacific Ocean on 19 December. NASA's editors processed the crew's film at breakneck pace in order to unveil The Blue Marble to the world on Christmas Eve 1972.Where 1968's Earthrise showed the planet partially in darkness, The Blue Marble showed it at its full extent - and yet also at its most circumscribed against the vastness of space, with no lands hidden in shadow. The image thus initiated a widespread shift in humanity's appreciation of the limited capacities of our planet, taken up by ecological groups and political campaigns alike.These 8 x 10 inch chromogenic prints were primarily produced for the press, although many found their way to NASA's employees and their contractors.

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