On June 22, 2009, the Kodak Company announced that Kodachrome film would be discontinued by 2010. Kodachrome’s unique colors, seen here in these stunning NASA photographs, captured the look and feel of humanity’s tentative first steps into space.
The first picture shows astronauts (left to right) Bill Anders, Dick Gordon, Pete Conrad with his foot on the desk, and Neil Armstrong during a mission simulation for Gemini 11. The colors of the anodized aluminum connectors on the suits, the American flag, and the panoply of switches and buttons have incredible colors and detail.
This second photograph, with NASA research pilot Bill Dana, shows the pilot, a technician, the HL-10 lifting body research craft, and an overflying NASA NB-52B carrier aircraft. Vivid yellows, blues, and reds stand out from the dry California lakebed.
A variant of Kodachrome, Ektachrome, was used extensively throughout the space program, from the early Gemini missions through Apollo. Many of the images we see of the Moon were taken on Ektachrome film by the astronauts as they explored the lunar surface. The Lunar Module Antares is pictured here on the lunar surface during the Apollo 14 mission.
The image directly above could have been taken by the only camera to return from the lunar surface, which is now on display at the Cosmosphere in Hutchinson, Kansas. I took this picture (below) of the Hasselblad from Apollo 14 a few months ago when I visited the museum. (It’s totally worth a trip to Kansas to see these pieces of history.)
Before I leave you, the NASA history office has a great article on still photography during the Apollo program. Check it out here.
NASA on The Commons has amazing images from all eras of NASA exploration, the images make great backgrounds for your phone/tablet/computer.
Lastly, Andy Saunders does incredible image restoration work, and he shares his favorites on Twitter. Give him a follow! I also interviewed him for my podcast a while back, listen here and subscribe to the show.
PS- I’m slowly getting back into writing more and I’d love if you’d share your feedback with me. Give me some topic ideas you’d like to see covered, and I’ll be sure you get a call out in the next email. I’d like to shoot for a daily email and I hope you find the history valuable and the pictures captivating. Catch you on the flip side!