60 Years Ago: NASA Approves the Lunar Orbiter Program

https://www.nasa.gov/history/60-years-ago-nasa-approves-the-lunar-orbiter-program/?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=nn202633 Last week, we asked what the primary purpose of the Lunar Orbiter 1 mission was. The answer? To photograph potential Apollo landing sites around the Moon’s equator. For 11 days, the spacecraft took 205 photos of the lunar surface, including the first photo of Earth as seen from lunar orbit. In 2008, the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project released this restored Lunar Orbiter 1 Earthrise image that it demodulated using refurbished tape drives from the 1960s and modern digital technology.