First color photograph of the whole Planet Earth, November 9, 1967

The photographic mission of Apollo 4 was the acquisition and return of the highest altitude color imagery ever made of the Earth. Located in the capsule of the spacecraft, looking out of the window, was not an astronaut but an automatic 70mm Maurer camera which took this beautiful view of the full crescent Earth.

“Coastal Brazil, Atlantic Ocean, West Africa, Sahara, Antarctica, looking west, as photographed from the Apollo 4 (Spacecraft 017/Saturn 501) unmanned, Earth-orbital space mission. This picture was taken when the Spacecraft 017 and Saturn S-IVB (third) stage were orbiting Earth at an altitude of 9,745 nautical miles” (original NASA caption for the present photograph AS4-1-410).