Earth From Space I – First Photographs From Space
First Photograph of Earth from Space, 1946
First photo of the Earth from Space. Image Credit: Department of Defense, Department of the Army 1946
When I think about space, I think of Earth. The pinnacle of the space program has been seeing the Earth from space and gaining a perspective of our place in the universe impossible otherwise. By reaching for the heavens, we came to see ourselves. We found home. The first image of Earth from space stands as a crowning achievement of humankind’s quest for understanding, borne, ironically, from humanity’s darkest nature.
During World War II, Germany developed the V-2 rocket to rain terror and death upon Britain. When the war ended in 1945, the United States captured hundreds of the V-2s and brought them back to the United States and White Sands Proving Ground in New Mexico for testing.
On October 24, 1946, the US Army launched a V-2 that […]