125. The first colour photograph of the entire disc of the Earth, ATS-III, 18 November 1967
Large-format vintage chromogenic print, 27.3 x 29cm (10 ¾ x 11 ½ in), on “A Kodak Paper”
Applications Technology Satellite III was the first of the series equipped with the revolutionary Multicolor Spin-Scan Cloudcover Camera (MSSCC) invented by Dr Verner Suomi and Professor Robert Parent. This image, received two weeks after launch on 5 November, caused a sensation when men on Earth first saw their own planet in colour. Edgar Cortright, Exploring Space with a Camera, NASA, 1968 illustrated this photograph as the frontispiece. For a fuller description see lot 163, an even larger print of the image, sold in these rooms 3 November 2011.
est. £3000 – £5000