It has been fifty years since the Lunar Orbiter 1 beamed back images of Earth rising over the Moon’s horizon.
The spacecraft was part of the Lunar Orbiter Program. The Lunar Orbiter 1 was a passenger aboard the Atlas SLV-3 Agena D from Nasa’s famous launchpad at Cape Canaveral, Florida on 10 August 1966. 13 days later, on August 23, 1966, the orbiter beamed back the first images taken of the Earth from Lunar orbit to Nasa’s tracking station at Robledo De Chavela in Spain. It was the sixteenth orbit for the orbiter.
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| Another Earthrise taken by the Lunar Orbiter I. Image: NASA |
The purpose of the first three orbiters on the mission was to help Nasa scientists decide on landing locations for the Apollo missions. The Lunar Orbiter 4 was meant for exclusively mapping the surface of the moon, including identifying features. Orbiter 5 also mapped the Moon and was the only orbiter equipped to map the Moon in high resolution. Astronauts from the Apollo 8 mission went on to broadcast live images of a similar “Earthrise” in colour.
The orbiters were crashed into the moon after the surveillance so as not to interfere with the number of Apollo missions that would follow. The orbiter was built by Boeing, with the imaging equipment provided by Kodak Eastman. At the end of the program, five orbiters had beamed 3,062 photos back to earth. The photography sites were selected based on initial ground observations. The Lunar Orbiter Program was the first mission to send back to Earth images from the far side of the moon.
Source: Tech First Post
Varino
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Joined Stellar Hub as an editor in the summer of 2016.
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