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31 Vintage Photos From the Apollo Space Missions

31 Vintage Photos From the Apollo Space Missions

By Melanie Lieberman

September 28, 2016

On October 11, 1968, Walter M. Schirra Jr., Donn F. Eisele, and R. Walter Cunningham successfully entered Earth’s orbit. It was a last-minute decision, according to NASA, to provide astronauts Walter Schirra Jr., Donn Eisele, and R. Walter Cunningham with the four-and-a-half-pound camera. For 10 days, 20 hours, nine minutes, and three seconds, the commander and pilots took photos of Earth from their Command Service Module. It was the first Apollo program to carry men into space and the first three-person American space crew.

But it was hardly the last.

Until Apollo 17—NASA’s final Apollo mission—landed safely back in the South Pacific on December 19, 1972, astronauts continued to photograph their journeys beyond Earth’s atmosphere.

NASA has been collecting these raw, unprocessed photographs from every Apollo mission, which are organized by Kipp Teague on the Project Apollo Archive Flickr. You can see everything the astronauts saw (like the American flag left on the moon from the Apollo 11 mission’s Columbia module to surreal black-and-white shots from the first Lunar Roving Vehicle used on Apollo 15).

Below are a few of our favorite images, which captured mankind’s first ventures into outer space.

Start Slideshow

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Apollo 7

Commander Walter M. Schirra, Jr., looking out the rendezvous window after nine days in space. October 1968.

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Apollo 7

The expended Saturn IVB, shot while the Apollo spacecraft circled the earth in a low orbit.

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Apollo 7

The view from the spacecraft.

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Apollo 8

December 1968.

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Apollo 8

Three major craters can be seen in the Sea of Tranquility: Taruntius F, Taruntius E, and the Cauchy scarp.

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Apollo 9

The Lunar module, or Spider, with the landing gear and surface probes deployed. March 1969.

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Apollo 9

View from an astronaut’s spacewalk.

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Apollo 9

In 1969, astronauts—like Russell L. Schweickart, pictured here—were equipped with 70mm Hasselblad cameras.

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Apollo 11

July 1969.

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Apollo 11

Neil A. Armstrong, commander of Apollo 11, took this photograph of Edwin E. Aldrin Jr. emerging from the Lunar Module.

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Apollo 11

July 1969.

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Apollo 11

Astronaut (and photographer) Neil A. Armstrong photographed Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., deploying the seismic experiments package and the Laser Ranging Retro-Reflector (LR3).

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Apollo 11

Shadow selfies, July 1969

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Apollo 11

NASA engineer Jack Kinzler designed the flag assembly, using a hemmed flag and a pole to make the flag appear to be unfurled even on the windless moon.

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Apollo 11

Bootprints, pilot Edwin E. Aldrin Jr., and the leg of the Lunar Module were captured by Neil A. Armstrong with a 70mm lunar surface camera.

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Apollo 12

November 1969.

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Apollo 12

Astronaut Alan L. Bean explored the moon, and conducted experiments, with commander Charles Conrad Jr., whose reflection is captured in Bean's helmet.

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Apollo 12

November 1969.

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Apollo 12

November 1969.

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Apollo 16

April 1972.

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Apollo 16

Footprints.

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Apollo 16

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Apollo 17

Lunar Rover, December 1972.

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Apollo 17

Rover tracks.

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Apollo 17

Mission commander Eugene A. Ceman with the Lunar Roving Vehicle during the final Apollo mission.

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Apollo 17

Moon vistas.

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Apollo 17

Pilot Harrison H. Schmitt was photographed collecting samples from a massive boulder known as Tracy's Rock.

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Apollo 17

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Apollo 17

Apollo 17's Lunar Module wasn't surrounded by stars in this photograph. Instead, astronauts captured the debris from the Saturn S-IVB separation, suspended in space.

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Apollo 17

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Apollo 10

Rendezvous in lunar orbit, May 1969.

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By Melanie Lieberman

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31 Vintage Photos From the Apollo Space Missions

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Apollo 7

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Apollo 7

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Apollo 7

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Apollo 8

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Apollo 9

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Apollo 9

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Apollo 9

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Apollo 11

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Apollo 12

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Apollo 16

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Apollo 17

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Apollo 17

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