On 24th of October 1946 the first photo from Space was taken.

A 35-millimeter motion picture camera took the first shots of Earth from Space. It was on board a V-2 missile launched from the  White Sands Missile Range, USA.

These images were taken at an altitude of 65 miles, just above the accepted beginning of outer space. The film survived the crash landing because it was encased in a steel cassette.

Between 1946 and 1950, more than 1,000 images were returned from space, some taken at altitudes as high as 100 miles.

Clyde Holliday, the designer of the camera which snapped the first photo from space, also analyzed many of these images upon their return to Earth. While there was much to learn about geology and meteorology from the photos, there was also much to learn about imagery itself.

Space Center Houston

The development of the V-2 missile came from captured Nazi technology after World War 2. Operation Paperclip removed hundreds of captured Nazi engineers to the USA, some to the UK. Thousands had died in the development of the V2 rockets working as slave labour during the war.

Watch: Pictures Taken From V2 Rocket (1946)