Lot 66

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First photograph from space taken during the Gemini program; Earth seen through the spacecraft’s window, March 23, 1965

John Young [Gemini III]

Name: First photograph from space taken during the Gemini program; Earth seen through the spacecraft’s window, March 23, 1965
Brand: John Young [Gemini III]
Price: 700.00 GBP
Availability: SoldOut

Price Realised GBP 875

Estimate

GBP 1,500 - GBP 2,500

Closed: 19 Nov 2020

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First photograph from space taken during the Gemini program; Earth seen through the spacecraft’s window, March 23, 1965

John Young [Gemini III]

Price Realised GBP 875

Closed: 19 Nov 2020

Price Realised GBP 875

Closed: 19 Nov 2020

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66 a
John Young

The first photograph from space taken during the Gemini program

Gemini III, March 23, 1965, orbit 1, 001:30:21 GET

Unreleased photograph, vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-65-18737” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin

66 b
John Young

The Earth seen through the spacecraft’s window; Bermuda and Atlantic Ocean

Gemini III, March 23, 1965, orbit 2, 001:38:00 GET

Unreleased photograph, vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-65-18738” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

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Lot Essay

Mexico (Tamaulipas-Nuevo Leon); Texas, Gulf of Mexico are photographed looking east during the first orbit of the spacecraft. This first frame of the color film magazine (Ektachrome MS S.O. 217) was light struck (left of picture) when the hand-held modified 70mm Hasselblad 500C was operated. The lens setting was 250th of a second at f/11.

001:16:31 Young: Here comes the sunrise. Is that beautiful!
001:16:33 Grissom: Isn’t that pretty?
001:16:35 Grissom:Aren’t you going to take any pictures?
001:16:37 Young: I hadn’t planned to on this pass. I’ll get the camera out. [...]
001:19:51 Young: The camera is set for f/11 at 250.[...]
001:29:31 Young: Outstanding! I see the whole of Mexico.
001:29:43 Young: I wonder what area of Mexico it is? [...]
001:29:59 Young: Can you see anything up north there?
001:30:01 Grissom: I never got a chance to look for the Salton Sea, but I think we can see up that way.
001:30:08 Grissom: Nothing but high cirrus.
001:30:14 Young: Oh, man! Oh. man, you can see all the way across Mexico!
001:30:19 Grissom: You must have it clear down there, huh?
001:30:21 Young: Yes, it’s clear down south, here.
001:30:28 Capcom (Mission Control): Molly Brown, Guaymas (tracking station) handing over to Texas (tracking station).

The photograph taken looking southeast shows clouds over the western Atlantic Ocean and Bermuda at lower right just above the window frame. The nose of the Gemini spacecraft is in the foreground.

There was no plan for photography during the Gemini III mission. Overwhelmed by the beauty of the Earth, Gus Grissom and John Young took pictures of their own during the three orbits.

001:43:30 Capcom (Mission Control): Pretty spectacular up there, huh?
001:43:33 Grissom: Yeah, it really is. It really is!
001:43:40 Grissom: We didn’t get to see much of the States though.

“There is a clarity, a brilliance to space that simply doesn’t exist on Earth, even on a cloudless summer’s day in the Rockies, and from nowhere else can you realize so fully the majesty of our Earth and be so awed at the thought that it’s only one of untold thousands of planets.”
Gus Grissom (from his posthumous 1968 book Gemini: A Personal Account of Man’s Venture Into Space, p. 108)