NASA Lunar Orbiter IV The whole Moon

The whole Moon first seen from a perspective different from Earth, May 1967

Large format vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper, printed 1967, numbered "NASA LRC IV-89M" (NASA Langley RC) in black in bottom margin, 51 x 61 cm

A young George Lucas must have seen that fabulous whole Moon image from 1967, inspiring the Death Star of his imagination.
Lunar Orbiter was the first robotic spacecraft to take detailed photographs of the whole Moon from lunar orbit, offering amazing never before seen views of Earth’s satellite, from a perspective different from Earth. Soviet spacecraft had already sent back whole Moon images, but mostly very crude.

Lunar Orbiter IV was the first of the five Lunar Orbiters to fly in a polar rather than a near equatorial orbit. After the success of the first three missions in mapping the near side equatorial region of the Moon to very high resolution, NASA decided to use the fourth orbiter to map the entire Moon at moderate resolution.

This photograph was taken with the wide-angle 80mm lens from an altitude of 2734 km and centered on Crater Descartes (future Apollo 16 landing site) in highlands between the Sea of Tranquility and the Sea of Clouds (latitude 14.45° S, longitude 16.59° E).