[Apollo 7] SPACE PORTRAIT: Walter Cunningham gazing at Earth aboard the first Apollo spacecraft ...

[Apollo 7] SPACE PORTRAIT: Walter Cunningham gazing at Earth aboard the first Apollo spacecraft Walter Schirra or Donn Eisele, 11-22 October 1968 Printed 1968. Vintage chromogenic print on fibre-based Kodak paper [NASA image AS7-4-1559]. Numbered 'NASA AS7-4-1559' in red in the top margin, with 'A Kodak Paper' watermark on the reverse (issued by NASA Manned Spacecraft Centre, Houston, Texas). 20.3 x 25.4 cm. (8 x 10 in.) Historical context This striking portrait of Walter Cunningham symbolizes the dawn of human life beyond Earth. Floating weightlessly inside the Apollo 7 Command Module, Cunningham is seen alongside a 16mm camera drifting freely—a visual testament to the new era of extended human presence in microgravity. Apollo 7 marked a turning point for onboard space photography, thanks to the spaciousness of the Command Module, which allowed astronauts to move freely and frame their shots with greater precision. With the Hasselblad 500C, NASA's first modified space camera, Walter Schirra captured this evocative image on Kodak SO-368 film, pioneering techniques that would define the visual legacy of Apollo. Footnotes: Like modern Magellans, these astronauts learned to navigate in space. Here Walt Cunningham makes his observations through a spacecraft window. The tools of a space navigator included a sextant to sight on the stars, a gyroscopically stabilized platform to hold a constant reference in space, and a computer to link the data and make the most complex and precise calculations. (Apollo Expeditions to the Moon (NASA SP-350), Cortright, ed., p. 67) Watch more CLICK HERE: The Flight Of Apollo 7 (1968) For further information on this lot please visit Bonhams.com For further information about this lot please visit the lot listing