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NASA / Unidentified Photographer

Model of the revolutionary Kodak camera-carrying Lunar Orbiter robot spacecraft

Lunar Orbiter, 1966

Vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), with NASA caption on the verso

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Taken by a Kodak camera on board the robot spacecraft Lunar Orbiter I

The Moon seen by the first American Moon orbiter including the first American photograph of the lunar farside

Lunar Orbiter I, August 25 and 26, 1966

Three vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), the first and second with NASA Langley captions on the versos, numbered “NASA L-66-7827 and L-66-7842” in black in top margin, the third with NASA HQ caption numbered "66-H-1130" on the verso
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

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NASA SP-350, p. 93 and Reynolds, p. 57 (variant).

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Lot Essay

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[NASA caption] Two camera lenses peer out from the pumpkin-shaped container that holds the photographic equipment in this latest photo of a Lunar Orbiter spacecraft model. Launched from Cape Kennedy in mid-1966, the camera-carrying spacecraft will go into orbit around the Moon and take sharp, close-up photos of the lunar surface.
Scientists will use the photos to help select landing places for project Apollo astronauts. The four black “paddles” are solar panels. White arms extending out from the sides of the spacecraft are antennas. Funnel-shaped control rocket nozzle is visible at the top.

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Lunar Orbiter was essentially an interplanetary photographic studio and laboratory which developed then scanned pictures from a specially engineered camera before sending them as radio signals to the Deep Space Network station at Goldstone, California where they were reassembled.

The first medium resolution photograph [Lunar Orbiter frame I-118M] was taken with the 80mm lens from an altitude of 52 km over Central Bay with north at the top and the Sun on the right at an elevation of 20° from the horizontal. The area of the Moon’s surface shown is about 22 by 26 miles. The center coordinates of the photograph are approximately 2°20’ W longitude and 0°20’ N latitude.

The second medium resolution photograph [Lunar Orbiter frame I-137M] was taken with the 80mm lens from an altitude of 52 km over an area west of Crater Gambart with north at the top and the Sun on the right at an elevation of 15° from the horizontal. The area of the Moon’s surface shown is about 23 by 28 miles. The center coordinates of the photograph are approximately 19°40’ W longitude and 1°20’ N latitude.

The third medium resolution photograph was taken at an altitude of 210km near the eastern limb of the Moon with north at the left and the Sun at the top at an elevation of 32° from the horizontal and is the first American photograph of the backside of the Moon. The area of the Moon’s surface shown is about 100 by 85 miles. The center coordinates of the photograph are approximately 95°6’ E longitude and 0°7’ S latitude.