Lunar Panorama #158

NASA's Lunar Orbiter program of 1966-67 was the agency's final and most successful photographic project before the crewed lunar landings of the Apollo program. Over the course of one year, five probes systematically photographed 99 percent of the lunar surface. The Orbiters investigated potential landing site, revealing features as small as one foot in diameter. The program used a film-based robotic imaging system designed by the Eastman Kodak Company. The images were captured on 70 mm film with a dual-lens camera, chemically processed on board, scanned in strips, and transmitted via radio back to earth. At Eastman Kodak headquarters in Rochester, New York, technicians transferred the scanned strips onto sheets of large-format film from which they printed the final photographs. This stunning panorama, which shows the moon's curved horizon at either end, captures the harsh beauty of the lunar landscape as it appears from outer space.