Wednesday, May 09, 2012

Earthrise

This week's Mad Men referred several times to some picture of the Earth from outer space. I thought the first picture of Earth came from Apollo 8, which went up in 1968, over a year after the episode could have taken place (we know it was at least after August 5 1966, when Revolver was released.) This article lays it all out:
They went to the Moon, but ended up discovering the Earth. The crew of Apollo 8 were the first people to leave Earth's orbit and pass behind the far side of the Moon. They had been drilled and trained for just about every eventuality, save one – the awe-inspiring sight of seeing our own planet hanging over an empty lunar horizon.

It later became known as "Earthrise" and the image of the world rising in the dark vastness of space over a sun-lit lunar landscape became an iconic reminder of our lonely planet's splendid isolation and delicate fragility.
I know how crazy Weiner is about accuracy so I must be missing something, but what? Or did I just mishear the whole thing like an idiot?

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