On this day – August 23rd

The Earth from the Moon

The Lunar Orbiter 1 robotic spacecraft was the first American spacecraft to orbit the Moon. It was designed primarily to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface for selection and verification of safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data.

It was launched on August 10th, 1966, and with a couple of minor hitches, Orbiter 1 entered a stable orbit round the moon, and from August 18th to 29th, 42 high-resolution and 187 medium-resolution frames were taken and transmitted to Earth covering more than 5 million square kilometres of the Moon's surface

On August 23rd, 1966, It also took the first of two pictures of Earth from the distance of the Moon

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