#VantageReels: August 23, 1966: Lunar Orbiter 1 Takes Earth's First Picture From Moon's Orbit | #FPRewind On August 23, 1966, the Earth was photographed from the Moon’s orbit for the first time. The picture was transmitted back to Earth by NASA's unmanned spacecraft Lunar Orbiter 1. The spacecraft was primarily built to photograph smooth areas of the lunar surface to verify safe landing sites for the Surveyor and Apollo missions. | Firstpost

4.7K views · 1.3K reactions | Early lunar orbiter missions revealed...

On Aug. 7, 1980, NASA's Viking 1 spacecraft ended its epic and historic mission on the Red Planet. Viking 1 was the first spacecraft to successfully land on Mars. It was one of two Viking missions NASA launched in 1975 to go look for evidence of life on Mars. Each of the Viking missions were composed of an orbiter and a lander. Viking 1's orbiter took photos of the Martian surface that helped NASA decide where to drop the lander. After four years of orbiting Mars, the orbiter ran out of attitude

2.9K views · 512 reactions | Before Apollo ever left Earth, a robotic...