United States manned observations of earth before the space shuttle

Abstract

From the beginning of manned United States spaceflight, astronauts viewed Earth with intense interest, and photographed as many scenes as possible to record their experience for those who can only participate vicariously. Training in Earth sciences and photography became more formal, and more thorough, from Mercury through Gemini to Skylab and Apollo‐Soyuz. Equipment became bulkier, heavier, and more capable as the manned program matured and larger spacecraft were possible. And some scientists learned to interact with observers in orbit. The result is a legacy of some 35,000 pre‐Space Shuttle publicly‐available photographs, showing the lands, oceans, and atmosphere of Earth from an unusual perspective.