One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
28 October 2022
One Giant Leap for Mankind: Vintage Photographs from the Victor Martin-Malburet Collection 
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TV picture of Eugene Cernan in weightlessness voyaging through deep space to the Moon, NASA [Apollo 10], 18-26 May 1969

printed 1969
vintage gelatin silver print on fiber-based paper 8 h × 10 w in (20 × 25 cm)
estimate: $700–1,000
result: $63
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A rare B&W image of an Apollo astronaut voyaging to the Moon, from the first color TV transmission ever sent from space.
Numbered to upper margin 'NASA S-69-33997' with NASA MSC caption to verso.

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A rare B&W image of an Apollo astronaut voyaging to the Moon, from the first color TV transmission ever sent from space. Eugene Cernan later walked on the Moon on Apollo 17.

Astronauts Eugene A. Cernan, Apollo 10 lunar module pilot, is seen in this black and white reproduction taken from the third television transmission made by the color television camera aboard the Apollo 10 spacecraft. When this picture was made the Apollo 10 spacecraft was on a trans-lunar course, and was already about 36,000 nautical miles from Earth. Also, aboard Apollo 10 were astronauts Thomas P. Stafford, commander; and John W. Young, command module pilot. [NASA caption]

“After my first two missions [Gemini VI-A and IX-A], I felt we needed to show the public ‘real-time’. So I helped put together the first color TV camera for Apollo 10. We got an Emmy for that one.”

—Thomas Stafford (Schick and Van Haaften, pg. 48)

From the mission transcript when the TV transmission was sent to Earth:

007:21:37 Stafford:

Over here is Gene-o.

007:21:46 McCandless (Mission Control):

Roger. We’re looking at Gene right now. Understand you all haven’t got your suits off yet.

007:21:54 Stafford:

John has his suit off and all stowed, and Gene and I don’t. [...]

007:23:58 Cernan:

You can see the sun coming in over my shoulder, and then on Tom, it’s really tremendous.

007:24:05 McCandless:

Yes, indeed. It certainly is bright there.

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