Skip to main content

Time Machine

March 2023
1min read

Earthbeams

On the night of August 25 a tracking station in Madrid received the first transmissions of pictures of the Earth as seen from the moon, 240,000 miles away. A camera mounted on NASA’s lunar orbiter, the first American spacecraft to circle the moon, shot the photographs from 24.7 miles above its surface. The initial pictures showed the Moon in huge, curving profile in the foreground; a smaller Earth dangled behind in space, wrapped completely in clouds. The orbiter moved slightly closer to the Moon to take pictures of craters, in search of possible future landing sites; according to a NASA official, a manned voyage to the moon was expected by the end of the decade.

The photographs were also important to scientists for pinpointing the earth’s terminator line, the line dividing the planet into light and dark halves. The lunar orbiter made a complete circle of the Moon every three and a half hours during its mission, sending back pictures each day; they were too clouded to reveal oceans and continents, but the space station scientists nonetheless pronounced them “beautiful.”

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "July/August 1991"

Authored by: The Editors

Tips for unearthing the history of your home

Authored by: The Editors

A Self-Portrait

Authored by: The Editors

A Journey Uptown Over Time

Authored by: The Editors

Ratifying the Fourteenth

Authored by: The Editors

Words Under Water

Authored by: The Editors

Movie Makers

Authored by: The Editors

Uncrowding the Sky

Authored by: The Editors

The Witch of Wall Street

Authored by: The Editors

The $10,000 Miss

Authored by: The Editors

Texas Tower

Featured Articles

The world’s most prominent actress risked her career by standing up to one of Hollywood’s mega-studios, proving that behind the beauty was also a very savvy businesswoman. 

Rarely has the full story been told about how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.