Neil Armstrong, Buzz Aldrin, or Michael Collins

The half Earth from 200,000 km away, homebound

Apollo 11, July 16-24, 1969, 171:20:00 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 AS11-44-6672” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

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Lot Essay

This photograph was taken through the 250mm telephoto lens as Columbia was about 112,000 nautical miles (207,000 km) away; the Earth is moving towards a crescent shape as the spacecraft heads back home.

“To get the feeling of being at lunar distance from the Earth, you can’t just look at some photographs. You have to look out spacecraft window number one and see nothing; and then look out number two and see nothing; and then look out number three, or maybe number four (you’ve got five windows on board). Not being able to find the Earth is a necessary preliminary to understanding the feeling of being very far away from it. That’s important in understanding the fact that there is just one tiny, little, small, fragile Earth. It’s so small you can’t even find the damned thing!”, explained Michael Collins (Schick and Van Haaften, p.70).

“I remember on the trip home on Apollo 11 it suddenly struck me that that tiny pea, pretty and blue, was the Earth, I put up my thumb and shut one eye, and my thumb blotted out the planet Earth. I didn’t feel like a giant. I felt very, very small”, said Neil Armstrong.