Alan Shepard

The Earth over the LM Antares

Apollo 14, January 31 - February 9, 1971, EVA 2, 135:03:42 GET

Unreleased photograph, vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), numbered “NASA AS14-64-9196” (NASA MSC) in black in top margin
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

Light, plate 98 (variant).

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Lot Essay

Back at the foot of the ladder, Shepard “takes the camera off the RCU bracket, grabs hold of the bottom rung on the ladder, bends back, and points the camera up to take pictures of the Earth over the LM” (from the ALSJ mission transcript at 135:03:42 GET).

“The LM’s ingress/egress hatch is at the bottom, near center. At the top center is the rendezvous radar antenna. An RCS thruster is visible at the far left. One of the two VHF antennas is on the right. The LM’s optical alignment telescope is located at the black circle which has a wide, white ring around it. The crescent Earth can be seen in the far distant background” (original NASA caption for AS14-64- 9193).

NASA released a variant of this photograph after the mission (AS14-64-9193).

“Sure, it’s breathtaking to look out and see the Earth. [...] When I first looked back at the Earth, standing on the surface of the Moon, I cried. [...] Whether it was relief, or whether it was the beauty of the Earth, the majesty of the moment_I don’t know, just every_you know, I never would’ve said I was going to do that. But I did,” said Alan Shepard (Chaikin, Voices, p.99).