Timeline of first images of Earth from space

This is a timeline of first images of Earth from space. The initial photographs and digital images of planet Earth taken from outer space were preceded by aerial photography and continue in the form of satellite imagery.

For the purpose of this list, a spaceflight is defined as any flight that crosses the Kármán line, the FAI-recognized edge of space, which is 100 kilometres (62 miles) above mean sea level (AMSL).

Images[]

Image	Date	Craft or mission	Event
	October 24, 1946	V-2	First image of Earth from outer space, taken by the V-2 No. 13 suborbital spaceflight.[1][2][3][4][5][6][7][8]
	March 7, 1947		First panorama of Earth from outer space.[9]
[image needed]	February-March 1959	Vanguard 2	First attempt of a scanner, in which a single photocell mounted at the focus of telescope would scan Earth due to the satellite movement; resulting images were poor.[10]
	August 14, 1959	Explorer 6	First image of Earth from orbit, showing a sunlit area of the Central Pacific Ocean and its cloud cover.[11][12][13][14]
[image needed]	1959	Explorer 7	The first "coarse maps of the solar radiation reflected by the Earth and the infrared radiation emitted by the Earth", from a mission launched on October 13, 1959.[15]
	1960	TIROS-1	First television image of Earth from space and first weather satellite picture.[16]
	1960	CORONA	"[F]irst space-based Earth observation system";[17] its first successful mission was Discoverer 14 on 19 August 1960 with the recovery of photographic film from an orbiting satellite.[17][18]
External image [2]	August 6, 1961	Vostok 2	First image of Earth from space taken by a person, first color images and first movie of Earth from space, by cosmonaut Gherman Titov – the first photographer from space.[19][20]
[image needed]	1963	KH-7 Gambit	First high-resolution (sub-meter spatial resolution) satellite photography (classified).[21]
[image needed]	1964	Quill	First radar images of Earth from space, using a synthetic aperture radar (SAR).[22]
	March 18, 1965	Voskhod 2	First image and video of Earth with a human (Alexei Leonov) floating in space (the first ever EVA).
External image [3]			First drawing of Earth from space and art made in space (by Leonov, the first artist in space).[23]
External image [4]	May 30, 1966	Molniya 1-3	First full-disk pictures of the Earth.[24][14]
	August 23, 1966	Lunar Orbiter 1	First image of Earth from the Moon's orbit and first picture of both Earth and the Moon from space.[25][26][27][7][13]
External image [5]	December 11, 1966	ATS-1	First picture of both Earth and the Moon from the Earth's orbit.[28]
	December 11, 1966		First full-disk pictures of the Earth from a geostationary orbit.[28]
[image needed]	January 1967		First movie of Earth from space made without a human camera operator (contrast to Titov's 1961 movie)[28]
	1967	Surveyor 3	First image of Earth from the Moon's surface.[29]
	August 1967	DODGE	First full-disk color pictures of the Earth.[6]
	November 10, 1967	ATS-3	Another claim for first full-disk color pictures of the Earth;[30] subsequently used on the cover of the first Whole Earth Catalog.[31][30]
	1968	Apollo 8	First full-disk image of Earth from space taken by a person, probably by astronaut William Anders.[32]
	1968		The Earthrise image is the first image of Earth from the Moon by a person (William Anders).[26][6][13]
	July 21, 1969	Apollo 11	First[a] image of Earth taken by a person from the surface of the Moon.
[image needed]	1977	KH-11	First real-time satellite imagery.[33]
	September 18, 1977	Voyager 1	First full-disk picture of both Earth and the Moon.[28]
	February 14, 1990		The Pale Blue Dot is the first image of Earth from beyond all of the other Solar System planets. It is part of the first picture of the full extent of the planetary system, known as the Family Portrait.[13][34]
Play media	December 11, 1990	Galileo	First movie of a full rotation of Earth.[35]
[image needed]	October 13, 1999	IKONOS	First commercial high-resolution (sub-meter) satellite photography (non-classified); it made the cover of the New York Times.[36]
	May 8, 2003 13:00 UTC	Mars Global Surveyor	First image of Earth and the Moon from Mars (in orbit); notice South America is visible.[26][6]
	March 11, 2004	Spirit Mars Exploration rover	First image taken of Earth from the surface of Mars and any other celestial body than the Moon.
	July 27, 2006	Cassini-Huygens	The is the first image of Earth from Saturn (and second image from the outer Solar System).[37]

See also[]

• List of notable images of Earth from space
  • The Blue Marble – Photograph of Earth taken by the crew of the Apollo 17 mission
  • Pale Blue Dot – Photograph of Earth by Voyager 1 from about 6 billion kilometers (3.7 billion miles) away
  • The Day the Earth Smiled – 2013 photograph of Saturn and Earth
• Earth observation satellite – Satellite specifically designed to observe Earth from orbit
• Earth observation – Information about the Earth environment, remote or in situ
• Earth in culture – Cultural perspectives about Earth
• Earth phase – Phases of the Earth as seen from the Moon
• Explorer II
• Extraterrestrial sky – Extraterrestrial view of outer space
• Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project – Project to digitize and restore pictures taken by the Lunar Orbiter program
• Overview effect – Cognitive shift caused by viewing the Earth from outer space
• Space selfie – Self-portrait photo taken in outer space
• View of Earth from Mars

Notes[]

References[]