3. [Apollo 8] THE FIRST PHOTOGRAPH (large format) OF THE WHOLE PLANET EARTH TAKEN BY HUMANS William Anders, 21–27 December 1968 Printed 1968. Large format vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper, flush-mounted on original NASA card [NASA image AS8-16-2593, reversed]. With NASA caption numbered "NASA AS8-16-2593" and Technicolor photo laboratory quality control stamp on the reverse (issued by NASA Kennedy Space Centre, Florida). Sheet: 28 x 35,6 cm. (11 x 14 in.) Card: 28 x 35,6 cm. (11 x 14 in.) Historical context One of the most important images of space exploration. The Apollo 8 astronauts became the first humans to see the Earth as a sphere hanging in space. William Anders captured this awe-inspiring first human-taken photograph of the whole Earth just 4 hours and 36 minutes after launch, from a distance of approximately 27,000 km (16,777 miles). On December 25, 1968, poet Archibald MacLeish captured the meaning of this moment in The New York Times: "To see the Earth as it truly is, small and blue and beautiful in that eternal silence where it floats, is to see ourselves as riders on the Earth together, brothers on that bright loveliness in the eternal cold—brothers who know now they are truly brothers." The photograph later graced the cover of LIFE magazine ("The Incredible Year 1968", January 10, 1969) Literature LIFE, 10 January 1969, cover National Geographic, May 1969, p. 614 TIME, 10 January 1969, p. 42 Space: A History of Space Exploration in Photographs, Chaikin, p. 81 The View from Space: American Astronaut Photography, 1962–1972, Schick and Van Haaften, p. 95 Apollo: Through the Eyes of the Astronauts, Jacobs, p. 35 Images from Space, The Camera in Orbit, Arnold, cover