First Photo from Space, 1946 — Antique Historical Print

The Story in the Margin

On 24 October 1946, a camera bolted to a captured German V-2 rocket rode to an altitude of about 65 miles above the New Mexico desert and, snapping a frame every second and a half, brought back the first photographs ever taken of Earth from space. The rocket was destroyed on impact at White Sands, but the steel cassette holding the film survived, preserving grainy black-and-white views of a curved horizon and scattered clouds far below. Engineered by Clyde Holliday of the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory, the project launched a long line of rocket and satellite photography that would eventually give humanity its first full view of its own planet.

Materials & origin

• Material: 200 gsm gallery-grade, acid-free fine-art paper (FSC-certified).
• Print: Archival giclée, 12-colour printing, smooth matte finish for glare-free display.
• Artwork: Restored from a public-domain original; colour and detail digitally cleaned for large-format print.
• Origin: Made on demand and shipped from the print hub nearest you, cutting transit and waste.
• Framing: Sold unframed; ships rolled in a protective tube.