Beschreibung:

[Mercury Atlas 6] Extremely rare first human-taken photograph from space, showing the Earth horizon and black sky of space over Florida, taken by the first American in orbit and first human to take photographs from space. John Glenn, 20 February 1962. Printed 1962. Vintage chromogenic print on early fiber-based Kodak paper [NASA image MA-6–40452-013]. 20.3×25.4 cm (8×10 in), annotated in blue pencil “MA-6 hand held camera” with “EKC” watermark on the verso (NASA). Literature: NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC, JUNE 1962, p. 810 (variant); Schick and Van Haaften, p. 19 (variant). A truly historic photograph _ possibly the most famous of his series depicting the Earth _ captured in full color by John Glenn, the first human being to take photographs from space, just over Florida and Cape Canaveral, NASA’s first spaceport, and showing the Earth’s brilliant blue and white horizon and the blackness of space. The vintage photographs by the first American in orbit are extremely rare. His photographs appeared in NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC in June 1962 and revealed to the people of Earth the beauty of space. “When looking toward the horizon, however, the view is completely different, for then the blackness of space contrasts vividly with the brightness of the Earth. The horizon itself is a brilliant, brilliant blue and white.” John Glenn (Pilot’s flight report). On 20 February 1962 he became the first American to circle the Earth making three orbits in his Friendship 7 Mercury spacecraft, eventually succeeding to Yuri Gagarin’s first human orbital flight on 12 April 1961 and Titov’s orbital flight on 6 August 1961. Gagarin carried no camera on board Vostok 1 and Titov only a video camera on board Vostok 2, making Glenn the first human being to carry a still camera into space. Glenn shot this panoramic view of the Florida coast at the beginning of the third orbit, from the cloud covered Georgia border (right) to just above Cape Canaveral (left). “This picture is to the best of my knowledge [one of] the first hand-held camera picture(s) ever taken from space. I took it during [...] my Friendship 7 flight on February 20, 1962, during the early stages of our first effort to accomplish manned orbital flight. NASA knew that pictures from orbit were an important part of showing the public the beauty of space, as well as the importance of exploring it. The camera I used was a very simple Minolta Hi-Matic, which was one of the first of the automatic cameras.” John Glenn (TIME Magazine; https://time.com/4558781/john-glenn-influential-photo/). NASA officials initially vetoed Glenn’s idea of taking a camera aboard his spacecraft for fear it would distract him from the mission’s primary goals. After an appeal to NASA Director Robert Gilruth, Glenn ultimately received permission to use a camera during his space flight. However, the lack of a space photography department in NASA’s infant manned space program required Glenn to obtain his own camera. He needed to locate a model he could operate in zero gravity while wearing the bulky gloves of his spacesuit. After asking advice to famous LIFE photographer Ralph Morse, Glenn eventually discovered such a camera, a 35mm Ansco Autoset (actually a Minolta Hi-Matic, repackaged by the New York-based Ansco Company) with a 50mm lens and Eastman Color Negative Film 5250, in a drug store in Cocoa Beach, just outside of Cape Canaveral, Florida. One of the first models that automatically advanced the film roll between shots, NASA technicians rigged the camera with a trigger mechanism Glenn could operate while in space. "In the decade of Gemini and Apollo that followed Glenn‘s historic flight, others used more sophisticated equipment and flew higher and farther. Yet Glenn‘s pioneering achievement retains. His success helped convince NASA management of the feasibility of astronaut photography.” Photography historians Ron Schick and Julia Van Haaften (Schick and Van Haaften, p. 16). Condition Small identations from paperclips at bottom ce
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