114. [Gemini XI] THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH OF AN ENTIRE SUBCONTINENT FROM SPACE: India seen from high-altitude orbit Richard Gordon, 12-15 September 1966 Printed 1966. Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image S-66-54677]. Numbered "NASA S-66-54677" in red in the top margin, with NASA caption and "A Kodak Paper" watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context One of the most stunning Earth photographs of the Space Age, "framed the way a painter would frame it", according to NASA's former photography director, Les Gaver. As Gemini XI rose higher above Earth than any humans had ever gone before, the astronauts were struck by the magnitude of their altitude when the entire subcontinent of India came into view. Pete Conrad, deeply moved, remarked on "how small the world is." This majestic view of India, captured with the Hasselblad SuperWide camera and its 38mm lens, looks north-northeast from 540 nautical miles above, with Ceylon, the Maldive Islands, the Arabian Sea on the left, and the Bay of Bengal on the right. At the time of the photograph, India's coastlines were nearly cloudless, with a small low-pressure system in the north. For the people of India, the winds brought a pleasant sea breeze. (NASA SP-171, p. 121) "The photographs I remember best from Gemini XI were those taken during the high-altitude portion of the flight. We were in two revs going from a low point of about 160 nautical miles all the way up to 740 over Australia. I particularly remember that very famous one of the subcontinent of India in its entirety." — Richard Gordon (Schick and Van Haaften, p. 80) "This picture has been asked for almost as frequently as the full disk of the Earth. It was framed the way a painter would frame it." — Les Gaver, former photography director, NASA Public Affairs (Schick and Van Haaften, p. 80) Literature TIME magazine, 30 September 1966, p.116 The View from Space, American Astronaut Photography, 1962-1972, Schick and Van Haaften, p.80