Earth Photo Drift In

  • Credit

    NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center Scientific Visualization Studio

Apollo 17 30th Anniversary: Earth photo Drift-in

The Apollo 17 spacecraft was launched from the Kennedy Space Center at midnight on December 7th, 1972. Just hours after lift-off, the command module aligned with the Earth and Sun, allowing the crew to photograph Earth in full light. For the first time in an Apollo mission, the Antarctic continent was visible allowing for a photo to be taken by the orbiting astronauts. The photo was taken at about 28,000 statute miles away from Earth. Virtually every picture showing the full Earth is derived from this one photograph. Television, newspapers, websites, and marketing material have all used this photograph over the years. Geostationary weather satellites, Galileo, and many other spacecraft have returned great pictures of the full Earth from space, but this image is still the number one requested photo in the NASA photo archives.

TV-resolution (NTSC) animation of the Apollo 17 full earth photo. This animation starts with the full earth in view and proceeds to do a slight drift into the image. This animation is match-framed to animation #2683 for a post-production transition.

Metadata

  • Sensor

    Apollo 17/Hasselblad 70mm Electric Camera

  • Animation ID

    2682

  • Video ID

    SVS2002-0029

  • Start Timecode

    01:03:13:00

  • End Timecode

    01:04:04:27

  • Animator

    Alex Kekesi

  • Studio

    SVS

  • Visualization Date

    2002/11/21

  • Datasets

    Photo #AS17-148-22727

  • Keywords

    picture, photography

  • Data Date

    photo:12/7/1972

  • Pao ID

    G02-089

  • Animation Type

    Regular