In 1968, humanity had its first look back at Earth from another world. Three astronauts on Apollo 8 orbiting the Moon peered out their capsule window and saw our home planet rising in the sky.
“We came all this way to explore the Moon, and the most important thing is that we discovered the Earth,” said William Anders, who snapped the iconic image that would become known as Earthrise.
Since NASA’s very beginning, we’ve kept a careful eye on Earth. From space, our view has shaped how humans see and understand our home. The Earthrise image, for example, helped inspire the first Earth Day 50 years ago. And our scientific observations from Earth orbit have shown how the planet is changing and point the way to solutions for environmental challenges around the globe.
Over the next 50 days leading up to Earth Day on April 22, we’ll bring you images and stories like this – some new, some familiar – every day to mark 50 years of celebrating our home planet.