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Earth’s First Space Portrait Turns 80 Today
Before satellite weather maps and astronaut photographs, there was this grainy view above New Mexico.
Anniversary: Saturday, October 24, 2026
Original photograph: October 24, 1946
Launch site: White Sands, New Mexico
Altitude: About 65 miles
Scientists mounted a camera on a captured German V-2 rocket, producing the first photographs of Earth from space more than a decade before Sputnik. The image makes a lovely reminder that even the most familiar destination can surprise you from a different angle.
