<P> All Apollo flights were heavily scheduled down to the minute . At the time this photo was taken, none of the astronauts was scheduled to do so . Thus this photo was taken quickly in a stolen moment . The astronaut who took the picture was weightless, and the continents were hard to see, and he took the photo quickly, which explains why he held the camera upside down compared to the north up orientation of all maps . If every photo on this roll of film is printed, and all of the photos on the roll of film are oriented the same way, then when viewed in sequence, to put feet down and heads up, this photo will have the south pole up, breaking the map convention . </P> <P> Apollo 17 was the last manned lunar mission . No human since has been far enough from Earth to photograph a whole - Earth image such as The Blue Marble, but whole - Earth images have been taken by many unmanned spacecraft missions . </P> <P> The Blue Marble was not the first clear image taken of an illuminated face of Earth, since similar shots from the ATS - 3 satellite had already been made as early as 1967 . The Apollo 17 image, however, released during a surge in environmental activism during the 1970s, became a symbol of the environmental movement, as a depiction of Earth's frailty, vulnerability, and isolation amid the vast expanse of space . NASA archivist Mike Gentry has speculated that The Blue Marble is among the most widely distributed images in human history . </P> <P> Subsequent similar images of Earth (including composites at much higher resolution) have also been termed Blue Marble images, and the phrase "blue marble" (as well as the picture itself) is frequently used, as in the Earth flag by environmental activist organizations or companies attempting to promote an environmentally conscious image . There has also been a children's television program called Big Blue Marble . Poet - diplomat Abhay K has penned an Earth Anthem inspired by the blue marble which contains "all the peoples and the nations of the world, one for all, all for one, united we unfurl the blue marble flag". </P>

When was the first photo of earth from space taken