Unseen Vintage NASA Photos Shown In Bloomsbury Auction House
This week the folks at Dreweatts for Bloomsbury Auctions have revealed a collection previously uncirculated NASA photos from space. These photos will go up for auction after being exhibited for a period of time in London at Mallett Antiques. The photos in this collection were sourced from the archives of the Manned Spacecraft Center, Houston, Texas, where many unreleased NASA photos go after a mission is complete. What we're hoping to do today is to show you the largest versions of these photos available and make them widely available so they'll never be shut away again.
Each of the images you see here is connected to a file. Each file is the largest version of that photo available to the public today.
The books you see above are part of just one segment of this collection from Bloomsbury Auctions. This is how NASA had these photos stored – developed photos in blue folders, just sitting on a shelf waiting to be rediscovered.
At this time the auction for these photos has not yet taken place. We'll be exploring the photos in this collection in more than one article throughout the week, as there are a whopping 692 of them to go through.
Above: Ranger VII Photographs of the Moon, July 1964. "The first close-up views of the moon. This boxed set was a costly production intended for the use of NASA scientists and for presentation."
Below: Several photos in a collection "Ed White's personal photograph album of the Gemini 4 mission, June 1965."
Below: Earthrise, Apollo 8, December 1968. Captured by William Anders.
Several photographs of Buzz Aldrin have been discovered in this collection as well as images of Neil Armstrong. These Armstrong photographs are particularly significant because before 1987, no photographs of Armstrong on or near the Moon had been released to the public.
The panoramic shot discovered with Armstrong working on the Apollo 11 lunar module is one of the images up for auction this month.
Above: Buzz Aldrin walks on the Moon, Apollo 11, July 1969. Captured by Neil Armstrong.
Below: The only clear photograph of Neil Armstrong on the Moon, Apollo 11, July 1969, as photographed by Buzz Aldrin.
Included with the following photograph is a quote harvested by Bloomsbury from the mission debriefing.
"My first words of my impression of being on the surface of the Moon that just came to my mind were "Magnificent desolation,"" said Buzz Aldrin.
"The magnificence of human beings, humanity, Planet Earth, maturing the technologies, imagination and courage to expand our capabilities beyond the next ocean, to dream about being on the Moon, and then taking advantage of increases in technology and carrying out that dream – achieving that is magnificent testimony to humanity."
"But it is also desolate – there is no place on Earth as desolate as what I was viewing in those first moments on the Lunar Surface."
Above: First photograph of a man standing on the surface of another world, Apollo 11, July 1969. Photographed by Neil Armstrong.
The last photo you're seeing in this set is called goes by the name "Reflections of the Sun over the LM "Antares" in the lunar black sky."
Stay tuned as we continue to harvest the greatness before this collection goes to auction later this month. Get up close and personal, download, and archive at will.