Camera, Ansco, 35mm, Glenn, Friendship 7
Object Details
- Manufactured for
- Ansco
- Manufacturer
- Minolta
- Summary
- 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.
- 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.
- NASA transferred this camera to the Smithsonian in 1963.
- Country of Origin
- United States of America
- Japan
- See more items in
- National Air and Space Museum Collection
- Credit Line
- Transferred from National Aeronautics and Space Administration
- Data Source
- National Air and Space Museum
- Inventory Number
- A19670198000
- Type
- EQUIPMENT-Photographic
- Restrictions & Rights
- CC0
- Materials
- Metal, glass, quartz, plastic, velcro, paint
- Dimensions
- 3-D (Overall): 13.5 × 7.5 × 24.5cm (5 5/16 × 2 15/16 × 9 5/8 in.)
- Record ID
- nasm_A19670198000
Camera with pistol grip and thumb operated film advance; special color spectrum filter between film and lens.
