181 a
Taken by an automatic Maurer 70mm camera aboard the unmanned Apollo 4 spacecraft

Full crescent Earth from high apogee

Apollo 4, November 9, 1967, 005:45:01 GET

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based GAF paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA Goddard caption on a separate page, numbered “NASA G-68-5817” in black in margin [NASA AS4-1-440]

181 b
NASA / Unidentified Photographer

Safe splashdown of the unmanned Command Module after its high speed reentry into Earth's atmosphere

Apollo 4, November 9, 1967

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based Kodak paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA MSC caption and “A Kodak Paper” watermarks on the verso, numbered “NASA S-67-49866” in red in top margin

181 c
NASA / Unidentified Photographer

Engineer checking the camera system of the revolutionary geostationary satellite ATS III

ATS III, October 1967

Vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA HQ caption numbered “67- H-1493” on the verso
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

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Lot Essay

181 a
This photograph was made when the Apollo 4 spacecraft, still attached to the S-IVB (third) stage, was orbiting over the Earth a few seconds from apogee at an altitude of 9,765 nautical miles.

“This is an actual view of the Earth, as the human eye would have seen it, taken November 9, 1967 through the Command Pilot’s window of the Apollo 4 spacecraft a few seconds from apogee. View is looking west southwest over the Atlantic Ocean. Large low pressure area is in the south Atlantic between Africa and South America. The Antarctic Continent is under heavy cloud cover. Sun glint on the ocean can be seen clearly. In the extreme lower left is the Antarctic ice cap” (NASA caption).

“Today, Apollo 4’s ghostly image of the Earth’s globe, pale and breathing, like a child in the womb awaiting its first human witness, has a peculiar fascination” (Poole, pp. 86-87).

181 b
During the 11-hour mission, the Saturn showed itself to be a worthy 363 feet flying machine and the heat shield of the unmanned Command Module successfully survived the high reentry speed of a lunar mission. The spacecraft splashed down at 3:37 p.m. (EST), Nov. 9, 1967, 934 nautical miles northwest of Honolulu, Hawaii, in the mid-Pacific Ocean.

“’It was really an expert launching all the way through from lifting off exactly on time to performance of every single stage,’ said Dr. Wernher von Braun, director of NASA’s Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama.
NASA’s Associate Administrator for Manned Space Flight, Dr. George Mueller, noted that the successful flight of Apollo 4 showed that NASA was back on track to land on the Moon following the Apollo 1 fire earlier in 1967. ‘The maiden voyage of the Saturn V dramatically increased the confidence of people across the nation in the management of the largest research and development undertaking in which the western world has ever engaged,’ he said” (https://www.nasa.gov/feature/apollo-4-was-first-ever-launch-from-nasas-kennedy-space-center).

181 c
“Camera system for the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Application Technology Satellite (ATS-C) is being checked at Hughes Aircraft Co., Cal. The satellite will carry a payload of experiments into a synchronous stationary orbit 22,300 miles above the South American continent where it will take color weather photographs of the western hemisphere and conduct communications and navigation experiments” (NASA caption).