2-860-660 - Heritage Space/Heritage Images

The Blue Marble - Earth from space, December 7, 1972. This famous photograph, known as The Blue Marble, was captured by the Apollo 17 astronauts on the same day that they left Earth on a Saturn V rocket developed by NASA's Marshall Space Flight Center in Huntsville, Alabama. The image became part of the official Earth Day flag. It is not known which of the three astronauts - Eugene Cernan, Ron Evans, and Harrison Schmitt - took the photo as all three men have always claimed it as their own.