Official website of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project (LOIRP)
Portion of newly restored Lunar Orbiter 1 image. Originally taken on 23 August 1966 and restored by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project at NASA Ames Research Center. Larger image. Credit: NASA/LOIRP
This chart from the 1960’s shows the context of the newly restored Lunar Orbiter 1 image. This image was taken on 23 August 1966 and restored by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project at NASA Ames Research Center. The orientation of Earth was slightly off and shows a terminator about an hour off from what is actually in the image.Larger image. Credit: NASA/LOIRP
This graphic shows the actual orientation of Earth at the time the photo was taken. It was possible to match the outlines of north Africa in the newly restored image. Larger image. Credit: NASA/LOIRP
This graphic compares the enhanced resolution of the LOIRP image and the highest resolution image available online at LPI. AT full resolution shadows can be seem between clouds and the Earth’s surface at a resolution estimated to be around 1 kilometer per pixel. This image was taken on 23 August 1966 and restored by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project at NASA Ames Research Center. Larger image. Credit: NASA/LOIRP
Several years ago the USGS Astrogeology Research Program began a project whereby copies of original Lunar Orbiter photos have been scanned using high resolution scanning devices. This graphic compares the calibration marks from a high resolution USGS scan and an inital image generated by the LOIRP. Larger image. Credit: NASA/USGS/LOIRP
This graphic compares the enhanced resolution of the LOIRP image and the highest resolution image available online at LPI. This image was taken on 23 August 1966 and restored by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project at NASA Ames Research Center. Larger image. Credit: NASA/LOIRP
This graphic compares the enhanced resolution of the LOIRP image and the highest resolution image available online at LPI. Note the substantial increase in resolution with regard to the calibration marks at the bottom of this image. This image was taken on 23 August 1966 and restored by the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project at NASA Ames Research Center. Larger image. Credit: NASA/LOIRP
NASA SP-168 EXPLORING SPACE WITH A CAMERA
ORBITER I
Describing the spectacular, historic view above, FLOYD L. THOMPSON, then Director, Langley Research Center, wrote: “At 16:35 GMT on August 23, 1966, the versatile manmade Lunar Orbiter spacecraft responded to a series of commands sent to it from Earth, across a quarter-million miles of space, and made this over-the-shoulder view of its home planet from a vantage point 730 miles above the far side of the Moon.
“At that moment,” Thompson continued, “the Sun was setting along an arc extending from England [on the right] to Antarctica [on the left]. Above that line, the world, with the east coast of the United States at the top, was still bathed in afternoon sunlight. Below, the major portion of the African Continent and the Indian Ocean were shrouded in the darkness of evening. “By this reversal of viewpoint, we here on the…
… and an Oblique View of the Moon Itself
….Earth have been provided a sobering glimpse of the spectacle of our own planet as it will be seen by a few of our generation in their pursuit of the manned exploration of space. We have achieved the ability to contemplate ourselves from afar and thus, in a measure, accomplish the wish expressed by Robert Burns: ‘To see oursels as ithers see us! ”
Also visible in dramatic new perspective in this photograph is the singularly bleak Iunar landscape, its tortured features evidently hammered out by a cosmic bombardment that may have extended over billions of years.
Because the airless, weatherless Moon appears to preserve its surface materials so well, it may serve science as an illuminating record of past events in the solar system. ROBERT JASTROW, Director Goddard Institute for Space Studies, has called the Moon “the Rosetta Stone of the planets.”
| Photographic | Lunar | Lunar | Lunar | Lunar | Lunar |
| Parameters | Orbiter 1 | Orbiter 2 | Orbiter 3 | Orbiter 4 | Orbiter 5 |
| Launch Date | 10-Aug-66 | 6-Nov-66 | 5-Feb-67 | 4-May-67 | 1-Aug-67 |
| Periselene (km) | 40.5 | 41 | 44 | 2668 | 97 |
| Aposelene (km) | 1857 | 1871 | 1847 | 6151 | 6092 |
| Inclination (deg) | 12 | 12 | 21 | 85.5 | 85 |
| Period (h) | 3.5 | 3.5 | 3.5 | 12 | 8.5,3.0 |
| Impact date | 29-Oct-66 | 11-Oct-67 | 10-Oct-67 | 31-Oct-67 | 31-Jan-68 |
| Impact coordinates | 7 N, 161 E | 3 N, 119.1 E | 14.32 N, 92.7 W | ??, 22-30 W | 2.79 S, 83 W |
| Acquisition dates | 18-29 Aug 1966 | 18-25 Nov 1966 | 15-23 Feb 1967 | 11-26 May 1967 | 06-18 Aug 1967 |
| Quantity of frames | |||||
| High resolution | 42 | 609 | 477 | 419 | 633 |
| Medium resolution | 187 | 208 | 149 | 127 | 211 |
| Altitude range for photos (km) | 44 – 1581 | 41 – 1519 | 44 – 1463 | 2668 – 6151 | 97 – 5758 |
| Highest resolution | |||||
| Periselene (m) | 8 | 1 | 1 | 58 | 2 |
| Aposelene (m) | 275 | 33 | 32 | 134 | 125 |
| Framelet width at periselene (m) | |||||
| High resolution | 200 | 170 | 185 | 11350 | 420 |
| Medium resolution | 1500 | 1300 | 1400 | 85100 | 3200 |
Boeing team members to recount 1966 “picture of the century”, Seattle Times
“On the wall above Ron Kaufman’s desk is a large framed black-and-white photo once labeled “the picture of the century.” Shot on Aug. 23, 1966, some 232,000 miles from Earth, it is the first photo taken of our planet as seen from deep space. It shows the moon in the foreground, and, in the distance, Earth, half-illuminated by the sun. Other photos, such as the famous Apollo 8 color picture taken in 1968 of Earth rising beyond the moon’s horizon, have also been labeled pictures of the century. But there is no denying the importance of that first black-and-white photo, even though it is of considerably lower quality, assembled from 60 separate strips of 35-mm film as it was transmitted back to Earth.”
“First Day of Issue: October 1, 1991 First Issue Location: Pasadena, California From 1966 to 1967- coming as close as 29 miles to the lunar surface- NASA’s Lunar orbiters photographed 99% of the Moon, including both polar regions and the mysterious dark side. It was an amazing feat considering that three of the five Orbiters experienced equipment failures. From the high-resolution photographs, maps 100 times more accurate than previously possible were created, and several primary landing sites for upcoming Apollo missions were chosen. NASA didn’t take any chances– it was vital to avoid locations where craters, rocks, and holes filled with dust could be hazardous to the lunar module. Thus, when the Apollo 11 astronauts made their historic trip, their landing site was the basaltic surface of the Sea of Tranquillity, an area shown to be virturally crater-free by the Lunar Orbiters. As a result, when astronaut Neil Armstrong made his “giant leap for mankind,” he was following in the figurative footsteps of the intrepid Lunar Orbiters, which had blazed a safe trail for him and all subsequent Apollo astronauts.”
An enlarged Lunar Orbiter photograph of the Apollo 15 landing area in the Hadley-Apennine region on the nearside of the Moon. The overlay indicates the location of the numerous informally-named surface features. These names will facilitate understanding the verbal descriptions from the astronauts during their lunar surface extravehicular activity.
Larger image
Lunar Orbiter photograph, enlarged, showing the Hadley-Apennine Apollo 15 landing site, with numerous craters and other small features named to aid discussion between EVA Astronauts and MCC. (July 16, 1971)
Alternate Names: Lunar Orbiter-E, 02907
Launch Date: 1967-08-01
Launch Vehicle: Atlas-Agena D
Launch Site: Cape Canaveral, United States
Mass: 385.6 kg
Nominal Power: 375.0 W
Launch/Orbital information for Lunar Orbiter 5
Experiments on Lunar Orbiter 5
Data collections from Lunar Orbiter 5
Description
Lunar Orbiter 5, the last of the Lunar Orbiter series, was designed to take additional Apollo and Surveyor landing site photography and to take broad survey images of unphotographed parts of the Moon’s far side. It was also equipped to collect selenodetic, radiation intensity, and micrometeoroid impact data and was used to evaluate the Manned Space Flight Network tracking stations and Apollo Orbit Determination Program. The spacecraft was placed in a cislunar trajectory and on 5 August 1967 was injected into an elliptical near polar lunar orbit 194.5 km x 6023 km with an inclination of 85 degrees and a period of 8 hours 30 minutes. On 7 August the perilune was lowered to 100 km and on 9 August the orbit was lowered to a 99 km x 1499 km, 3 hour 11 minute period. The photographic portion of the mission ended on 18 August.
