Planets and Moons ID: 11430

Making History

Story by Ernie Wright | Visualizations by Ernie Wright Released on January 14, 2014

In December 1968, the crew of Apollo 8 became the first humans to orbit the moon. But as NASA astronauts Frank Borman, James Lovell and William Anders all later recalled, the most important thing they discovered in space was Earth. Using data from NASA’s Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter, the moment when the crew first saw and photographed Earth rising from behind the moon was recreated. The key to the new work is a set of images of the lunar surface captured by a camera mounted in the Apollo 8 Command Module's rendezvous window. By registering each image to a model of the moon’s terrain, the orientation of the spacecraft and window from which each photo of Earth was taken can now be known. Watch the video to learn more.

A camera mounted to the Apollo 8 Command Module (above) automatically captured an image of the moon’s surface every 20 seconds.

Apollo 8 images of the moon's surface (black-and-white) were placed over a model of the terrain to determine the orientation of the Command Module.

Source Material

For More Information

NASA.gov

Story Credits

Lead Visualizer/Animator:
Ernie Wright (USRA)

Video Editor:
Dan Gallagher (USRA)

Narration:
Andrew Chaikin

Narrator:
Andrew Chaikin

Producers:
Dan Gallagher (USRA)
Ernie Wright (USRA)
Andrew Chaikin
Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC)

Lead Scientists:
John Keller (NASA/GSFC)
Noah Petro (NASA/GSFC)

Lead Writer:
Ernie Wright (USRA)

Please give credit for this item to:
NASA's Goddard Space Flight Center

Short URL to share this page:
https://svs.gsfc.nasa.gov/11430

Keywords:
DLESE >> Narrated
SVS >> App
NASA Science >> Planets and Moons