Mondo Knows Facts
Apollo 8 took the first Earthrise photograph
The 1968 crew saw Earth lift above the lunar horizon while in orbit On 24 December 1968 the Apollo 8 crew was on its fourth pass around the Moon when Earth appeared above the limb. William Anders photographed the scene in colour and the image became known as Earthrise. The crew had been scouting landing sites, and instead captured a view that made the planet look small and finite. It sits in Mondo's space collection, one of 200 facts that each trace back to the reference below.
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Facts that can change over time are reviewed and updated. If something here looks wrong, Mondo would rather know than be confidently incorrect.
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Tags: apollo, earthrise, photography
Apollo 8 took the first Earthrise photograph: the short answers
- Where does this come from, and can I check it?
- The 1968 crew saw Earth lift above the lunar horizon while in orbit. The figure is taken from NASA Science, which is linked in full on this page. Every fact on Mondo Knows names its source rather than repeating an unsourced claim.
- Is this really a space fact?
- Yes. It sits on the Space shelf, one of 2,600 sourced facts grouped into space, animals, the human body, history, science and more. Category pages collect every fact in the same field.
- What else can I read about it?
- The links under the fact point to a quiz, game, puzzle or calculator on the same subject, and the shelf below shows related facts. The wording here is original, and quoted phrases are marked as quotations.