In 1945, the USA captured many of the German V-2 rockets, also known as Vengeance Weapon Two, with the victory of the Allies over Nazi Germany. These rockets were quickly transported across the world and reassembled in the desert in New Mexico. A technologically advanced V-2 rocket was launched from there on October 24, 1946. It captured the first photographs taken of Earth from space, causing a riot of excitement from the scientists at White Sands Missile Range. These pictures were not captured solely to capture a breathtaking view of the planet, but also to understand the origin of galactic cosmic rays, particles that continually bombard earth.
The next milestone in photographing Earth came in 1960, with the launch of TIROS-1. The satellite, built in collaboration with the US Army Signal Research and Development Lab, RCA, NASA, and other groups, was created to monitor the weather. It transmitted photos back to earth, with these images capturing the front page of The New York Times. TIROS-1 captured 19,389 pictures of the planet. After this, young meteorologist Jeff Weber from Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph kept close tabs on the photos, collecting them to monitor changing weather patterns.
In 1966, the robotic spacecraft Lunar Orbiter 1 snapped the first picture of Earth from just over 200,000 miles away. The footage captured the lunar surface as well as a cloud-covered view of the planet. This was not seen on the front page, as the colored photos of Earth taken by the Apollo mission eclipsed Lunar Orbiter 1.
Robotic missions to deep space continued to take pictures of Earth. Mariner 10 photographed the Moon and Earth from 1.6 million miles away in 1973, and Voyager 1 captured a blue speck of Earth from 4 billion miles away in 1990 during its last mission.
Company: The TIROS-1 project that captured photos of Earth was built in collaboration with the US Army Signal Research and Development Lab, RCA, NASA, and other groups. RCA was an important electronics company, based in the United States, while NASA is the leading agency carrying out space travel, research, and exploration.
Person: Jeff Weber was a meteorologist and collector of photographs of Earth taken by satellites. He started his career in the 1970s, fascinated by the change in weather patterns as shown in the photos printed in the Colorado Springs Gazette-Telegraph. Currently a research meteorologist at the University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, he still looks at satellite imagery throughout the day.
