On December 7, 1972 the crew of the Apollo 17 mission took an iconic picture of the Earth. It’s come to be known as the “Blue Marble” and has been one of most reproduced images ever taken. It’s one of the few that shows a fully-illuminated Earth disk.
For the first time, it was possible to see for yourself that Earth is small and finite; that we are a tiny planet in the vastness of space, and it was inspirational for a generation of people trying to make the World better.
But there wasn’t really an updated image available for decades after. The circumstances that allowed us to take that picture just weren’t available anymore. We had stopped sending astronauts to the Moon, choosing instead to stay in low Earth orbit with the Space Shuttle program and the International Space Station.
It took almost 43 years to get an updated picture.
The Earth Polychromatic Imaging Camera (EPIC) aboard the Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR) started sending back full images of the Earth on July 6, 2015, and it’s been sending them every day since.
Take a look next time you need a little inspiration.
