FIRST COLOR PHOTO OF EARTH FROM SPACE – THE BERG FILM II

Jeremy Theoret2023-03-20T19:17:34+00:00Categories: Apollospace Presents, Earth, Flown, News|Tags: Dr. Otto Berg, Earth, Navy Research Laboratory, Photography|0 Comments

First Color Photo of Earth from Space (Part II):

The Mission & the Montage

The story of the first color photographs of the Earth from space continues in Otto Berg’s own words, with light edits and editorial notes. The individual Earth photos appearing here (other than Berg’s original montage) were scanned and processed from the decades old internegatives that Otto Berg produced in order to create the Earth Montage in 1954. There was significant color fading of the negatives as compared with the 16mm film itself, which will be scanned as individual frames at the highest resolution available. For now, the images appearing here are the best versions of these images available, though when the 16mm film gets scanned and the images processed, better versions will replace those currently available.

THE 1954 MONTAGE OF PLANET EARTH – continued excerpts from Berg’s unpublished autobiography, “Confessions of a Rocket Scientist” (copyright Otto Berg, date unknown, excerpted with family permission) detailing the impetus […]

FIRST COLOR PHOTO OF EARTH FROM SPACE – THE BERG FILM I

First Color Photo of Earth from Space Unearthed!

On October 5, 1954, the Naval Research Laboratory (NRL) launched an Aerobee sounding rocket from the White Sands Proving Grounds in New Mexico. On board were two 16mm movie cameras peering out small holes, one with black and white film and the other with color film.

On that color 16mm film would be recorded the very first color images of Earth from space.

Berg’s Earth Mosaic – Credit: U. S. Navy / Naval Research Laboratory

On October 5, 1954, an Aerobee rocket carrying two 16 mm movie cameras (including one with color film) captured the first color images of Earth from space, including images of a tropical storm over the state of Texas. Approximately 140 […]