Breathtaking photos of the Earth are now commonplace, littering the Twitter feeds of astronauts. But it all started with this Hasselblad 500c, the first camera used to take photos in space. It just sold at auction for $281,250.
Wally Schirra, a photography enthusiast, took the camera with him on a Mercury Atlas mission to orbit the Earth in 1962. His modifications to make the Hasselblad space-ready included painting it all black to reduce reflections and equipping it with a 100-exposure film container.
The power of seeing our planet from space seems obvious today. But NASA of the early 1960s—busy competing with the Soviet Union and building up to the moon shot—didn't recognize what they had until they saw the astronaut's shots.
The next time you find yourself gawking at a majestic panorama of Earth taken from the International Space Station, think of Schirra.