Earth Day 2024: How a crashing missile captured first photo of Earth from space

When Yuri Gagarin launched into space in 1961 to become the first human to travel outside the planet, his spacecraft Vostok 1 had automatic cameras that captured images of Earth’s curvature and horizon during the flight.Â

While Russia beat the US in sending the first human to space, it was America that photographed the first pictures of the planet from space decades before Vostok-1 was launched.Â

A 35-millimetre motion picture camera captured the first pictures of the Earth – on a black and white film – On October 24, 1946, from an altitude of 104 kilometres above the surface, officially crossing the Karaman line that designates the boundary between land and space.Â

The first photo of Earth taken from space. (Photo: Nasa)

The camera was launched aboard a V-2 missile from the White Sands Missile Range that eventually crash-landed. However, the film survived since it was encased in a steel cassette.

In the aftermath of World War II, the US Army repurposed confiscated V-2 German missiles to enhance American missile defence capabilities.Â

Concurrently, scientists equipped some of these missiles with scientific instruments for atmospheric research. Between 1946 and 1950, over 1,000 images were captured from space, some reaching altitudes of up to 100 miles.

Among these pioneering missions was Clyde Holliday’s camera, which captured the first-ever photo from space during a V-2 missile launch at White Sands Missile Range.Â

Earth as seen from the Moon. (Photo: Jaxa)

Holliday, the camera’s designer, played a pivotal role in analysing many of these images upon their return to Earth. While the photographs yielded valuable insights into geology and meteorology, they also provided invaluable lessons in the field of imagery itself.

Over the years as technology improved and Apollo astronauts began travelling to the Moon, the cameras captured some of the most iconic images of the planet from space. With new missions mounting, the advanced cameras have shown detailed and intriguing features of the planet from the coldness of space.

As the world marks Earth Day on Monday, it is relevant to remember how that first picture of the planet was captured revealed the world in black and white and paved the way for humanity to go beyond imagination as it saw the planet from the vantage point of space.Â

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