502 a
David Scott, or James Irwin

The control panel of the LM Falcon during translunar travel

Apollo 15, July 26 - August 7, 1971

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 AS15-91-12349” (NASA MSC) in red in top margin, with three filing holes in top margin

502 b
Alfred Worden, David Scott, or James Irwin

UV photographs of the receding Earth

Apollo 15, July 26 - August 7, 1971, 010:10:07 GET and 032:45:55 GET

Two vintage gelatin silver prints on fiber-based paper, each 20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in), numbered “NASA AS15-99-13416, AS15-99-13429” (NASA MSC) in black in top margin
20.3 x 25.4cm (8 x 10in)

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Lot Essay

502 a
The photograph was taken during inspection of the LM (docked to the Command Module during translunar travel) by Irwin and Scott.

502 b
“To take the ultraviolet photographs of the Earth, the spacecraft must be maneuvered so that the UV transmitting window, window 5, is facing the target. Window 5 is to the right of the Command Module as viewed from the couches. The Hasselblad camera, fitted with the special 105-mm UV-transmitting lens and magazine N, is mounted in a bracket in the window“ (from the AFJ mission transcript at 010:10:07 GET).

The first photograph was taken 49,511 nautical miles [91,694 km] from Earth, the second 126,083 nautical miles [233,505 km] from Earth.

“You can see the whole Earth at about ten thousand miles,” said David Scott. “And you start taking pictures. You take one at ten, and one at fifteen, and one at twenty, etc., etc. And of course, they’re all the same; it’s just that the Earth takes less of the field of view of the camera as you get further away. But you don’t think that. You think, Oh, I wanna take another picture now. I wanna take another picture now. It’s spectacular. Oh, it’s spectacular” (Chaikin, Voices, p. 29).

“As we got further and further away, the Earth diminished in size,” observed James Irwin. “Finally it shrank to the size of a marble, the most beautiful you can imagine. That beautiful, warm, living object looked so fragile, so delicate, that if you touched it with a finger it would crumble and fall apart. Seeing this has to change a man” (Kelley, Plate 38).