This day in space historySpace History
On October 24, 1946, scientists at White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico launched a captured German V-2 missile carrying a 35 mm motion picture camera. At about 105 kilometers (65 miles), just above the generally recognized border of space, the camera took one frame every 1.5 seconds. They were the first images of Earth from space, more than 10 years before Sputnik.
The missile fell back and hit the ground at more than 540 kilometers per hour (340 miles per hour), but the film survived. The frames show the planet’s horizon curving away beneath a thin band of atmosphere. Rockets, not satellites, took the first views of Earth from space.
105 km
Altitude of the first space photos