THE BLUE MARBLE, PLANET EARTH FROM 230,000 MILES AWAY
HARRISON SCHMITT (APOLLO 17), DECEMBER 7-19 1972
Estimate: £1,000 - £1,500
Auction: 13 March 2025 from 13:00 GMT
Description
vintage chromogenic print on fibre based Kodak paper, numbered “NASA AS17-148-22743” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin, Earth from a distance of approximately 230,000 km, showing South America, Africa and Antarctica
Dimensions
20.3 x 25.4cm
Provenance
Voyage to Another World: The Victor Martin-Malburet Photograph Collection, Christie's, London, 20th November 2020, lot 631
Footnote
Schmitt took the photograph through the 250mm telephoto lens during the second day of the mission, showing “all the blending masses of greens, reds, and yellows of Africa from the Mediterranean to the Cape of Good Hope, from Cape Vert to the Red Sea. Then we see across the great Atlantic from matching coast to matching coast. Scanning all of South America with one glance, we seemingly cease to move as the planet turns beneath us,” as remembered Harrison Schmitt (NASA SP-350, p.266).
034:29:28 Schmitt: Film update on mag November November. I’m on frame 138, and that includes a couple of pictures I mentioned to Bob (Overmeyer, Mission Control) I took just before I went to sleep. And also, two pictures this morning at about 33:30. Those are the Earth.