59. [Mercury Atlas 9] FIRST HIGH-RESOLUTION HASSELBLAD PHOTOGRAPH FROM SPACE: great Indian desert with abstract cloud patterns Gordon Cooper, 15-16 May 1963 Printed 1963. Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image S-63-6447]. Numbered "NASA S-63-6447" 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 The Mercury-Atlas 9 mission marked the official birth of NASA's space photography. Prior to the introduction of the Hasselblad camera, NASA lacked a defined photographic program. This began to change when Walter Schirra, an avid camera enthusiast, sought a precision instrument for his Mercury-Atlas 8 mission. Though Schirra's experiments yielded mostly overexposed photographs, they laid the foundation for Gordon Cooper's more refined use of the same NASA-modified Hasselblad camera during Mercury-Atlas 9. This beautifully composed photograph above the Great Indian Desert is one of his greatest results. From this point onward, the Hasselblad camera became the preferred tool for NASA's space explorers. *"With Mercury, space photography was born. With Gemini, it struggled toward maturity so that Apollo space photography would give you and me, indeed the whole world, an opportunity to reach out and practically touch the Moon."* – NASA Chief of Photography Richard Underwood (On the Shoulders of Titans, NASA SP-4203, Hacker and Grimwood) Cooper's longer flight (22 orbits) allowed him to carefully frame and capture his photographs, providing stunning high-resolution imagery. His film was the first by an astronaut to be meticulously analysed and described frame by frame by NASA, effectively launching the agency's photographic technology department in Houston. [NASA caption] Photograph taken over the Great Indian Desert west of Delhi by astronaut L. Gordon Cooper Jr. during his 22-orbit MA-9 mission. Camera used: Hasselblad with an 80mm f2.8 lens and 120 FPC3809 Ansco colour (thin base film).