NEW MEXICO (KRQE) – Do you know about Blue Marble? It was the first full photo of Earth taken on Dec. 7, 1972, by the American crew of the Apollo 17 spacecraft.
The original Blue Marble is thought by many of the most-reproduced images of all time. The photographer is Harrison Schmitt who was born in Santa Rita, New Mexico, and still lives in the state today.
It was the first photograph taken of the Earth and the only one ever snapped by a human being. Another fun fact, you can’t see the Earth as a globe unless you get at least 20,000 miles away from it. Only 24 humans have ever gone that far into outer space. They were the three-man crews of the nine Apollo missions that traveled to the moon between 1968 and 1972, six of which landed there successfully and three men went twice. However, only the last three saw a full Earth.
