Buzz Aldrin Gemini XII The first Selfie in Space

The first selfie in outer space, 11-15 November 1966

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based paper, printed 1966, numbered "NASA S-66-62926" (NASA MSC) in red in top margin, with NASA caption and "A KODAK PAPER" watermark on verso, 20,3 x 25,4 cm

During his stand up EVA, Aldrin lowered his gold-plated visor and aimed the Super-Wide Hasselblad camera and its 38mm lens for a rare self- portrait that clearly shows his features. In previous pictures of spacewalkers, sunlight reflecting off the visor obscured their faces. Aldrin himself described the photograph as the first selfie in space.

The back of the blue Maurer 70mm space camera can be seen at the lower left-hand side. The L-band antenna of the Agena target docking vehicle docked to the Gemini spacecraft and the Atlantic Ocean with the coast of Africa are in the background.

From the mission transcript when the photograph was taken:
020:59:01 Aldrin: Now let me raise my visor and I’ll smile. [...]
020:59:28 Lovell: Okay. It’s 35 minutes. Do you want to start bringing the camera in and getting it all squared away? [...]
020:59:52 Aldrin: Well, we still have a lot of daylight. [...]
021:00:33 Aldrin: Which camera do you mean you want to get in? 021:00:35 Lovell: I want to get in the EVA 16mm.
021:00:40 Aldrin: Okay.
021:00:42 Aldrin: Well, the Hasselblad’s just about empty.
021:01:06 Aldrin: I never did think about taking a picture of myself.

Literature:

LIFE, 2 December 1966, pg. 40; Space: A History of Space Exploration in Photographs, Chaikin, pg. 71; Exploring Space with a Camera (NASA SP-168), Cortright, ed., pg. 184; The View from Space: American Astronaut Photography, 1962–1972, Schick and Van Haaften, pg. 4; Images from space: the camera in orbit, Arnold, plate 12.