The grainy black and white photo below was the very first photo from space. It was taken from an altitude of 105 kilometres (65 miles) by a 35 mm camera aboard a V-2 rocket on October 24, 1946.
The US military launched dozens of these V-2 rockets, captured from the Germans at the end of World War II, from the White Sands Missile Range. They wanted to learn about how to build their own rockets, but invited scientists to hitch along instruments to study the Earth’s upper atmosphere while they’re launching them anyway.
Before this, the highest photo of Earth ever taken was from the 1935 Explorer II balloon, which went up 22 kilometres (13.7 miles) (the Kármán line of 100 km or 62 miles is considered the boundary of outer space).
Learn more here.
Tags: Astronomy
