The Cameras of the Apollo Moon Missions

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The Cameras of the Apollo Moon Missions

According to NASA sources, photography was never given much of a consideration in the early days of manned spaceflight. Astronaut John Glenn, on the first orbital Mercury mission (third flight of the Mercury Program) carried a camera into space and took the first photographs from space in a manned US spacecraft. Geopolitical considerations (think manned spy satellite) and other issues shifted documenting the actual flight to, according to NASA’s Gary Kitmacher, the realm of “a recreational extra.” At the end of the Mercury program, the camera had become standard equipment in the spacecraft, and the Gemini program was documented from space extensively. On to the lunar missions of Apollo, NASA was aware that documenting those missions would certainly create some historically significant images—especially the trailblazing missions of Apollo 8 and Apollo 11. And, to create what would undoubtedly be iconic images from space and the moon’s surface, a pair of giants in the lore of photography were contracted to perform the the photography of Apollo—Hasselblad and Kodak.

Images from NASA

The first Hasselblads flew on the final two Mercury missions on board Sigma 7 and Faith 7, with Walter Schirra and Gordon Cooper, respectively. It was Schirra, a Hasselblad owner, who introduced the camera to NASA as a tool he felt suitable to documenting space flight. According to NASA, the one-man spacecraft carried unmodified Hasselblad 550C medium format cameras but, according to Hasselblad, the cameras were modified with weight-saving measures, including removal of the leather covering, auxiliary shutter, reflex mirror, and viewfinder. In addition, Hasselblad said it constructed a new film magazine to handle 70 exposures instead of the standard 12.

The Hasselblad 500-series cameras were thoroughly tested by the last two flights of Project Mercury and then throughout the Gemini technology-proving missions, including when Astronaut James McDivitt photographed fellow Gemini IV Astronaut Ed White on his first American spacewalk (White had a Contax camera on the spacewalk with him). It was time for the cameras to fly with Apollo where a Hasselblad camera captured the famous “Earthrise” image taken by Apollo 8 Astronaut William Anders.

When the Apollo 11 lunar lander descended to the surface of the moon, the Eagle was carrying two Hasselblad 500EL cameras for photography on the lunar surface, as well as inside the lunar module’s cockpit while the Command Module Columbia had a third 500EL. Known as the Hasselblad Data Camera (HDC), one camera had a Zeiss Biogon 60mm f/5.6 lens and a 70mm film magazine that allowed up to 200 images per magazine, with a specially formulated thin-base Kodak film. This camera was strapped to the chest of Astronaut Neil Armstrong—this is why there are no photos of Armstrong on the moon aside from images of him reflected in Lunar Module Pilot Buzz Aldrin’s visor—he was the photographer and the Hasselblad was not mounted in a way that allowed for selfies. A Réseau plate in the camera provided those iconic crosshairs onto the images for the purposes of making photogrammetric measurements from the negatives (and creating a source of “evidence” for moon-landing deniers years later!). The other two HDC cameras had Zeiss Planar 80mm f/2.8 lenses for interior photos.

The lunar surface HDC had to withstand temperatures ranging from -85ºF in the shade to 248ºF in the sun on the atmosphere-less lunar surface, and it was painted silver for this reason. Internal lubricants in the camera were removed because they would have boiled off in the vacuum of space and could have caused condensation in the camera. Also, the camera’s controls were simplified for use with the bulky pressure-suit gloves of the spacesuits.

Interestingly, all of the HDC cameras that accompanied astronauts to the surface of the moon were left behind at the landing sites to save as much weight as possible for the ascent from the lunar surface and rendezvous with the command module.

Lesser known, a Kodak Stereo Close-Up Camera was carried by Apollo 11 to take stereoscopic views of the lunar surface dust and rocks from close range. The camera had a fixed shutter speed of 1/100 and an aperture of f/22.6, and the camera was placed 10" from the surface where an internal flash illuminated the ground.

Keep an eye on the B&H Used Department because we sometimes get Hasselblad cameras, just like the ones carried on early space missions, including special-edition Hasselblad “space” commemorative cameras.

To read more about B&H in space, click here.

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