This Week in Photography History: The Lunar Orbiter 1 Takes the First Photograph of the Earth from the Moon, The Phoblographer
It was originally designed to photograph the smooth lunar landscape. The images it took would then be parsed for ideal landing locations for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. The Lunar Orbiter 1 was the first American spacecraft to orbit the moon, and it was the first of five spacecraft in the Lunar Orbiter program that was operated between 1966 and 1967. The Surveyor program followed between 1966 and 1968, and the manned Apollo flights followed later from 1968 to 1972.
Abandoned McDonald’s Houses NASA’s Lunar Photo Project [Pics]
Official website of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP)