Camera, 35mm, Glenn, Friendship 7
name: label: Manufactured for
content: Ansco
label: Manufacturer
content: Minolta
notes: label: Summary
content: With this camera, an Ansco Autoset model, astronaut John H. Glenn, Jr., took the first human-captured, color still photographs of the Earth during his three-orbit mission on February 20, 1962. Glenn's pictures paved the way for future Earth photography experiments on American human spaceflight missions.
label: Summary
content: For ease of use by Glenn, NASA technicians attached a pistol grip handle and trigger to this commercial 35-mm camera, which is upside down from its normal orientation. Because Glenn was wearing a spacesuit helmet and could not get his eye close to a built-in viewfinder, NASA engineers attached a larger viewfinder on top. Glenn found the camera easy to use, in part because he could exploit zero-gravity's advantages. "When I needed both hands, I just let go of the camera and it floated there in front of me," he said in his later memoir.
label: Summary
content: NASA transferred this camera to the Smithsonian in 1963.
place: label: Country of Origin
content: United States of America
label: Country of Origin
content: Japan
setName: label: See more items in
content: National Air and Space Museum Collection
creditLine: label: Credit Line
content: Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration
dataSource: label: Data Source
content: National Air and Space Museum
identifier: label: Inventory Number
content: A19670198000
objectType: label: Type
content: EQUIPMENT-Photographic
objectRights: label: Restrictions & Rights
content: CC0
physicalDescription: label: Materials
content: Metal, glass, quartz, plastic, velcro
label: Dimensions
content: 3-D (Overall): 13.5 × 7.5 × 24.5cm (5 5/16 × 2 15/16 × 9 5/8 in.)