52 years ago today, we got our first view of earth from the moon

Stan Cooper

Pattern Altitude
Joined
Aug 29, 2017
Messages
1,908
Location
Santa Rosa, CA
Display Name

Display name:
Stan Cooper
On August 23, 1966, I was a young mission dependent equipment engineer working for a NASA contractor at the Goldstone Deep Space Network Echo Station in California, when Lunar Orbiter 1 took this photo of Earth with the lunar horizon in the foreground. What a thrill.

The First View of Earth from the Vicinity of the Moon |AAAS

The top picture is the image constructed from the telemetry data of the scanned film developed on board Lunar Orbiter. The bottom picture was digitally enhanced from the original recorded telemetry data decades after the mission.

earthise_old_new_l%20medres_zpszcin7fue.jpg
 
Still makes me giddy we’re the only nation with citizens that have set foot on the moon.

Cernan (was) and family are close to our family.
 
Let us return to an era where men were men, women were women, and steely-eyed missile men were steely-eyed missile men.

Back in the early ‘60s, JFK said, “Go to the Moon.” Before humans could land on the Moon, of course, they needed to know WHERE they could land. So NASA decided to build three types of spacecraft to photograph the moon. The Ranger series engaged in a series of kamikaze dives, swooping in at the Moon and transmitting photos until impact. Surveyor would soft-land at proposed manned sites.

But NASA needed something that would fly around the moon for a long period, and send sufficient photos back to map the Moon’s surface. A Lunar Orbiter.

Boeing was awarded the contract in 1964. The Lunar Orbiter vehicles were designed and built at the Kent Space Center, where I worked from ~1983 until my retirement last year. They were about three-quarters the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, and carried a camera made by Kodak.

Boeing delivered eight vehicles to NASA, five were launched and were totally successful. 99% of the Moon’s surface was mapped, with resolution as fine as one meter. Even today, that’s pretty good.

The first vehicle was launched in August 1966, and for a week and half, it mapped the moon. Why so short a mission? Because used up its entire roll of film. Literally...no digital imaging, here. Two cameras, both with film cartridges. The film was developed onboard, then optically scanned and sent digitally back to Earth.

One day, though, a Boeing engineer noted an interesting circumstance. LO-1’s upcoming orbit path would bring the Earth directly above the Moon’s horizon. A real opportunity for a spectacular photo.

NASA said no. They had good reasons. Only so much film was carried by the spacecraft…any non-mapping photos taken would leave a gap in coverage. Besides, the attitude profile for that orbit was already defined. Changing it might lead to mistakes. The Orbiter computer had memory measured in Bytes (Not Gigabytes, not Megabytes, not Kilobytes, BYTES) and if it messed up…the bird would tumble. Not only would it not take pictures, its high-rate antenna would no longer point at the Earth so they couldn't talk to it.

Worse, the Orbiter's solar arrays were not articulated...that is, they weren't installed on booms that could be rotated or angled to point at the sun. They were fixed to the body, and if the body no longer could point at the Sun.... well, the batteries would die, and that would be the end of the mission.

The data tag on the vehicle might say “Boeing,” but the big painted logo (and, effectively, the title) was owned by NASA. Word came down: No off-schedule photographs.

But…the Boeing engineers involved were pretty confident. The Boeing night shift manager wanted to try it. The Boeing flight dynamicist, Ted Hanson, repeatedly confirmed the orbital geometry, both by hand and with slide rule. They only had a short window to get the picture they wanted…and that window was approaching quickly. He and the manager, Dale Shellhorn, were convinced it would work.

The Boeing manager gave the go-ahead despite NASA’s refusal. The commands went out, the vehicle responded, and did SOMETHING.

Did it get the right picture? Who knew?…it would take hours to develop the film on the spacecraft and downlink the scan to Earth. But communications continued; there was a gap in mapping coverage but they at least retained command of the bird.

NASA was furious. They demanded Shellhorn be fired immediately.

But in the meantime, the photo was received and reassembled. NASA Public Relations saw it, and plastered it around the world:

The first photo ever taken of the Earth, with another major space body in the foreground.

Shellhorn kept his job.

Two years later, the Apollo 8 astronauts duplicated the shot, with a hand-held camera and without the “venetian blind” artifacts of the Orbiter photo.

But Boeing was first…..

Ron Wanttaja
 
Last edited:
I started at Boeing in 1981, working the space side of the business. Several of my co-workers were Lunar Orbiter alumni. Their nickname for the program was "Looney Orbiter."

About 1983, I was working at the Kent Space Center, where the Lunar Orbiter was designed and built. This was still the era of the "bullpen" at Boeing, when engineers worked in rows of desks with no partitions or privacy.

I had been assigned to a new job. I sat down to the desk where I was assigned, and started putting my stuff in the drawers.

Hmmm. Some magazines and stuff crammed into the back of one drawer. I pulled them out. It was a stack of Playboys from 1963.

There was also a small white box. I opened it and found....
cufflinks.jpg

It's a set of cuff links, with the Lunar Orbiter spacecraft.

Still got 'em. Have only worn them once. My last program, before I retired ~18 months ago, I was lead engineer on a small satellite project. Earlier this year, our team received an award from the National Engineering Council. I wore a tux...and the cuff links.

Ron Wanttaja
 
Still makes me giddy we’re the only nation with citizens that have set foot on the moon.

I saw a cute saying...

There are two kinds of countries...

...those that use the metric system and those who have put a man on the moon!

Seriously, it’s remarkable that this happened less than 100 years after the Wright Brothers, and much of it within the lifetime of many here.
 
Let us return to an era where men were men, women were women, and steely-eyed missile men were steely-eyed missile men.

Back in the early ‘60s, JFK said, “Go to the Moon.” Before humans could land on the Moon, of course, they needed to know WHERE they could land. So NASA decided to build three types of spacecraft to photograph the moon. The Ranger series engaged in a series of kamikaze dives, swooping in at the Moon and transmitting photos until impact. Surveyor would soft-land at proposed manned sites.

But NASA needed something that would fly around the moon for a long period, and send sufficient photos back to map the Moon’s surface. A Lunar Orbiter.

Boeing was awarded the contract in 1964. The Lunar Orbiter vehicles were designed and built at the Kent Space Center, where I currently work. They were about three-quarters the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, and carried a camera made by Kodak.

Boeing delivered eight vehicles to NASA, five were launched and were totally successful. 99% of the Moon’s surface was mapped, with resolution as fine as one meter. Even today, that’s pretty good.

The first vehicle was launched in August 1966, and for a week and half, it mapped the moon. Why so short a mission? Because used up its entire roll of film. Literally...no digital imaging, here. Two cameras, both with film cartridges. The film was developed onboard, then optically scanned and sent digitally back to Earth.

One day, though, a Boeing engineer noted an interesting circumstance. LO-1’s upcoming orbit path would bring the Earth directly above the Moon’s horizon. A real opportunity for a spectacular photo.

NASA said no. They had good reasons. Only so much film was carried by the spacecraft…any non-mapping photos taken would leave a gap in coverage. Besides, the attitude profile for that orbit was already defined. Changing it might lead to mistakes. The Orbiter computer had memory measured in Bytes (Not Gigabytes, not Megabytes, not Kilobytes, BYTES) and if it messed up…the bird would tumble. Not only would it not take pictures, its high-rate antenna would no longer point at the Earth so they couldn't talk to it.

Worse, the Orbiter's solar arrays were not articulated...that is, they weren't installed on booms that could be rotated or angled to point at the sun. They were fixed to the body, and if the body no longer could point at the Sun.... well, the batteries would die, and that would be the end of the mission.

The data tag on the vehicle might say “Boeing,” but the big painted logo (and, effectively, the title) was owned by NASA. Word came down: No off-schedule photographs.

But…the Boeing engineers involved were pretty confident. The Boeing night shift manager wanted to try it. The Boeing flight dynamicist, Ted Hanson, repeatedly confirmed the orbital geometry, both by hand and with slide rule. They only had a short window to get the picture they wanted…and that window was approaching quickly. He and the manager, Dale Shellhorn, were convinced it would work.

The Boeing manager gave the go-ahead despite NASA’s refusal. The commands went out, the vehicle responded, and did SOMETHING.

Did it get the right picture? Who knew?…it would take hours to develop the film on the spacecraft and downlink the scan to Earth. But communications continued; there was a gap in mapping coverage but they at least retained command of the bird.

NASA was furious. They demanded Shellhorn be fired immediately.

But in the meantime, the photo was received and reassembled. NASA Public Relations saw it, and plastered it around the world:

The first photo ever taken of the Earth, with another major space body in the foreground.

Shellhorn kept his job.

Two years later, the Apollo 8 astronauts duplicated the shot, with a hand-held camera and without the “venetian blind” artifacts of the Orbiter photo.

But Boeing was first…..

Ron Wanttaja

Great story.
 
Wanttaja wrote:
The film was developed onboard, then optically scanned and sent digitally back to Earth.

How did they do this? All analog, in space, no running water, no heat, etc. This boggles my mind, and I'd love any pointers to info on how this was accomplished. I'm superficially familiar with the LeaFax, but this is a lot more complex.
 
We went to the moon and barly went underneth the oceans
 
I saw a cute saying...

There are two kinds of countries...

...those that use the metric system and those who have put a man on the moon!

Seriously, it’s remarkable that this happened less than 100 years after the Wright Brothers, and much of it within the lifetime of many here.

My grandfather was born in 1889 and died in 1975. He was old enough and aware of the Wright brothers first flight and followed all the way through the moon landings. (He worked for Glenn Curtiss for a while building Jenny tailplanes.) Fascinating life and stories.
 
Ron, thanks for posting that. It's often the rebel seizing the opportunity to do something truly memorable over the objections of others that gets remembered. Another example is Tex Johnson rolling the 707 Dash 80 prototype in 1955 at Seattle's Seafair and catching hell from Boeing management until publicity of the event ramped up 707 orders.

How did they do this? All analog, in space, no running water, no heat, etc. This boggles my mind, and I'd love any pointers to info on how this was accomplished. I'm superficially familiar with the LeaFax, but this is a lot more complex.

Here's a picture of the Lunar Orbiter film processing package and another showing a schematic of the whole process of scanning the film and transmitting the image telemetry to the Deep Space Instrumentation Facility. These illustrations are from the NASA publication Destination Moon: A History of the Lunar Orbiter Program by Bruce K. Byers (NASA TM X-3487). It's a marvelous read, and can be downloaded from the NASA Technical Reports Server (14.4 Megabytes PDF).

Destination Moon: A History of the Lunar Orbiter Program

Lunar%20Orbiter%20Film%20Processing_zpsgmx387zu.jpg

Lunar%20Orbiter%20Imaging%20System%20Schematic_zps5h6fr5st.jpg
 
My grandfather was born in 1889 and died in 1975. He was old enough and aware of the Wright brothers first flight and followed all the way through the moon landings. (He worked for Glenn Curtiss for a while building Jenny tailplanes.) Fascinating life and stories.

My grandmother lived during a similar time, and marveled at how she went from riding in horse drawn wagons on dirt roads as a kid to crossing the country on fast, comfortable, quiet jet liners in one lifetime.
 
Too bad it will be another 52 or more years before we see that view again
 
I remember that day like it was yesterday, standing in the front yard of a friends house looking up and thinking there were men up there. Thanks for sharing.
 
Let us return to an era where men were men, women were women, and steely-eyed missile men were steely-eyed missile men.

Back in the early ‘60s, JFK said, “Go to the Moon.” Before humans could land on the Moon, of course, they needed to know WHERE they could land. So NASA decided to build three types of spacecraft to photograph the moon. The Ranger series engaged in a series of kamikaze dives, swooping in at the Moon and transmitting photos until impact. Surveyor would soft-land at proposed manned sites.

But NASA needed something that would fly around the moon for a long period, and send sufficient photos back to map the Moon’s surface. A Lunar Orbiter.

Boeing was awarded the contract in 1964. The Lunar Orbiter vehicles were designed and built at the Kent Space Center, where I currently work. They were about three-quarters the size of a Volkswagen Beetle, and carried a camera made by Kodak.

Boeing delivered eight vehicles to NASA, five were launched and were totally successful. 99% of the Moon’s surface was mapped, with resolution as fine as one meter. Even today, that’s pretty good.

The first vehicle was launched in August 1966, and for a week and half, it mapped the moon. Why so short a mission? Because used up its entire roll of film. Literally...no digital imaging, here. Two cameras, both with film cartridges. The film was developed onboard, then optically scanned and sent digitally back to Earth.

One day, though, a Boeing engineer noted an interesting circumstance. LO-1’s upcoming orbit path would bring the Earth directly above the Moon’s horizon. A real opportunity for a spectacular photo.

NASA said no. They had good reasons. Only so much film was carried by the spacecraft…any non-mapping photos taken would leave a gap in coverage. Besides, the attitude profile for that orbit was already defined. Changing it might lead to mistakes. The Orbiter computer had memory measured in Bytes (Not Gigabytes, not Megabytes, not Kilobytes, BYTES) and if it messed up…the bird would tumble. Not only would it not take pictures, its high-rate antenna would no longer point at the Earth so they couldn't talk to it.

Worse, the Orbiter's solar arrays were not articulated...that is, they weren't installed on booms that could be rotated or angled to point at the sun. They were fixed to the body, and if the body no longer could point at the Sun.... well, the batteries would die, and that would be the end of the mission.

The data tag on the vehicle might say “Boeing,” but the big painted logo (and, effectively, the title) was owned by NASA. Word came down: No off-schedule photographs.

But…the Boeing engineers involved were pretty confident. The Boeing night shift manager wanted to try it. The Boeing flight dynamicist, Ted Hanson, repeatedly confirmed the orbital geometry, both by hand and with slide rule. They only had a short window to get the picture they wanted…and that window was approaching quickly. He and the manager, Dale Shellhorn, were convinced it would work.

The Boeing manager gave the go-ahead despite NASA’s refusal. The commands went out, the vehicle responded, and did SOMETHING.

Did it get the right picture? Who knew?…it would take hours to develop the film on the spacecraft and downlink the scan to Earth. But communications continued; there was a gap in mapping coverage but they at least retained command of the bird.

NASA was furious. They demanded Shellhorn be fired immediately.

But in the meantime, the photo was received and reassembled. NASA Public Relations saw it, and plastered it around the world:

The first photo ever taken of the Earth, with another major space body in the foreground.

Shellhorn kept his job.

Two years later, the Apollo 8 astronauts duplicated the shot, with a hand-held camera and without the “venetian blind” artifacts of the Orbiter photo.

But Boeing was first…..

Ron Wanttaja

startrekspockfascinating1.jpg
 
I saw a cute saying...

There are two kinds of countries...

...those that use the metric system and those who have put a man on the moon!

Seriously, it’s remarkable that this happened less than 100 years after the Wright Brothers, and much of it within the lifetime of many here.

I strongly recommend the movie "Hidden Figures" for a number of reasons, including the contribution of black women using calculators and slide rules to back up NASA's computers. Quite a story! Here is a link to the trailer... -Skip

 
I strongly recommend the movie "Hidden Figures" for a number of reasons, including the contribution of black women using calculators and slide rules to back up NASA's computers. Quite a story! Here is a link to the trailer... -Skip

Great movie, Skip!
 
My grandfather was born in 1889 and died in 1975. He was old enough and aware of the Wright brothers first flight and followed all the way through the moon landings. (He worked for Glenn Curtiss for a while building Jenny tailplanes.) Fascinating life and stories.

I'm hoping my life's "bookends" will include the moon landing (I was born in '63), and humans setting foot on Mars. That's what I call a good run!!
 
Was talking to my 93-year-old father recently. He reminisced about using a mule to plow the family's fields.

His son builds space ships.....

Ron Wanttaja
 
Back
Top