![]() 14, 1959, the Explorer 6 satellite took the first photograph of Earth from orbit, but the image lacked detail. Minutes later, the missile came crashing back down and slammed into the ground at more than 340 mph, but the film survived and gave us our first glimpse of Earth from space. As the rocket flew to an altitude of about 65 miles – just above the generally recognized border of outer space – the 35 mm motion picture camera snapped a frame every one and a half seconds. 24, 1946, more than 10 years before the launch of the first artificial satellite Sputnik, scientists at the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico placed a camera on top of a captured German V-2 ballistic missile. Left: The first image of Earth taken from space by a suborbital rocket, from an altitude of 65 miles.Ĭredits: White Sands Missile Range/Applied Physics Laboratory. The photograph showed the troposphere-stratosphere boundary and the actual curvature of the Earth and demonstrated the potential for long-range reconnaissance from high-altitude balloons. 11, 1935, the pair took off from the Stratobowl near Rapid City, South Dakota, aboard the helium-filled Explorer II balloon, and ascended to a then world record altitude of 72,395 feet. Anderson, took the first photograph from a high-altitude balloon, clearly showing the Earth’s curvature. Army Air Corps and the National Geographic Society, Capt. Stand in front of the Explorer II balloon gondola. Left: Photograph of South Dakota taken during the record-setting Explorer II balloon flight, showing the curvature of the Earth. ![]() The Earth’s curvature is also visible laterally in the photograph, although the effect is subtle as the image encompasses only 1/360 of the Earth’s circumference. The Earth’s curvature explains this phenomenon, as described in the diagram accompanying the photograph. The Andes Mountains, 287 miles away, and although taller than the plane’s altitude, lay below the sensible horizon, marked by the white horizontal line in the photograph. 30, 1930, while flying at an altitude of 21,000 feet over Villa Mercedes, Argentina. Army Air Corps and an aerial photographer, took the image on Dec. The diagram describes that the Andes Mountains are visible below the expected horizon due to the Earth’s curvature.Ĭredits: The National Geographic Society.Īn article in the May 1931 issue of The National Geographic Magazine described how a photograph taken from an airplane east of the Andes mountain range in South America provided evidence for the Earth’s curvature. “A diagram illustrating the curvature of the Earth, as shown in the photograph,” read the original caption in the May 1931 issue of The National Geographic Magazine. Credits: The National Geographic Society. The photograph, taken 21,000 feet above Villa Mercedes, Argentina, showed the Andes Mountains 287 miles away and well below the expected “The first photograph ever made showing laterally the curvature of the Earth,” read the original caption in the May 1931 issue of The National Geographic Magazine. Through these images, we gained a better understanding of Earth’s, and therefore of our own, place in the universe. With sounding rockets and then spacecraft returning photographs from ever-greater distances from the planet, we could begin to see the Earth first as a full disk, then as a smaller and smaller blue oasis against the emptiness of space. With the advent of aviation, photographers could reach altitudes from which they could record the Earth’s curvature. The ancient Greeks believed the Earth was round and calculated its circumference with remarkable accuracy, while observers inferred our planet’s spherical shape as it cast a curved shadow on the Moon during lunar eclipses. ![]() Indirect evidence of the Earth’s spherical shape has existed for a long time, but the photographic proof was lacking until well into the 20th century.
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