PHOTO OF THE DAY: NASA’s Apollo 17 Astronauts Capture Iconic Blue Marble 50 Years Ago

NASA HISTORY

This classic photograph of the Earth was taken on Dec. 7, 1972, by the crew of the final Apollo mission, Apollo 17, as they traveled toward the moon on their lunar landing mission. (NASA image)

(NASA) – This classic photograph of the Earth was taken on Dec. 7, 1972, by the crew of the final Apollo mission, Apollo 17, as they traveled toward the moon on their lunar landing mission.

For the first time, the Apollo trajectory made it possible to photograph the south polar ice cap, shown here along with heavy cloud cover in the Southern Hemisphere.

The Apollo 17 crew consisted of astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, mission commander; Ronald E. Evans, command module pilot; and Harrison H. Schmitt, lunar module pilot.

While astronauts Cernan and Schmitt descended in the lunar module to explore the moon, astronaut Evans remained with the command and service modules in lunar orbit.