Opinion | In 1968, They Saw Earth From the Moon for the First Time

We’ve been spending all these revolutions trying on the moon. Then as we come round this uninviting place, we glance up and there’s the Earth. It’s 240,000 miles away. It was sufficiently small. You would cowl it along with your thumbnail. And all the pieces we held pricey — our households, our nation — all the pieces held pricey was again on that blue planet. That was a way of: How on the planet might this little ball exist on this huge universe of nothing? The truth that the lunar horizon was so ugly and stark — that amplified the fantastic thing about the Earth. “Wow, is that fairly!” “Hand me a roll of coloration, fast.” “Oh, man. That’s nice.” “The place is it? Fast.” We have been all awestruck by the distinction: the fantastic thing about the Earth in its coloration in opposition to the blackness of house. “Oh, that’s an attractive shot.” We had by no means had any dialogue of taking an Earthrise image earlier than the flight or throughout the flight. And but, once we came visiting the moon on this flight, we regarded up and there was this stunning blue ball within the background. All of it struck us instantly. Get that image. That is one of the best image we’ve acquired in the entire flight. It gave a distinction. It mentioned that, hey, listed here are folks trying from a unique planet, trying again at what’s our residence.