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V 2 Rocket

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The 1946 V-2 That Painted Earth From the Edge of Space
space1 month ago

The 1946 V-2 That Painted Earth From the Edge of Space

In 1946, a captured German V-2 rocket launched from White Sands carried a DeVry 35mm camera mounted in a steel nose-cone cassette; the camera survived the launch and impact, returning the first known photographs of Earth from space, showing horizon curvature and space above a sunless sky. Engineered by Clyde Holliday of Johns Hopkins APL, the mission used a camera able to endure ascent and radiation, with images later published in National Geographic. The wartime weapon’s postwar use helped seed the American space program, linking to the broader story of Operation Paperclip and the dawn of the space age.

Captured V-2 Camera’s 1946 Flight Gave Earth Its First View from Space
space2 months ago

Captured V-2 Camera’s 1946 Flight Gave Earth Its First View from Space

In 1946, a captured German V-2 rocket carrying a 35mm DeVry camera reached about 105 kilometers over White Sands, producing the first photographs of Earth from space. The grainy frames showed Earth's curvature and horizon against black sky, predating any formal boundary for space—the Kármán line—by decades. The camera survived the mission, while the rocket and many of its builders did not, and the achievement is often credited to Clyde Holliday and the Johns Hopkins APL team who adapted gear meant for other uses to peer into the upper atmosphere.