In 1946, scientists launched rockets with camera that took the first photos of the Earth from space. The rockets went to a height of 65 miles – about ten times higher than commercial airlines fly now.

We didn’t get a full view photo of the Earth for almost 30 more years. On December 7, 1972 the crew of Apollo 17 sent back this photo of Earth. It became known as “The Blue Marble”. (Apollo 17 was also the last manned mission to the Moon.)

The photo shows the South Pole, or rather, clouds over the South Pole, Africa, and parts of Asia.

Finally, in 2015, we’ve gotten another sunlit Earth photo. This one is from a satellite that is one million miles away and shows the best part of Earth, North America. Just kidding! North America isn’t the best part, it just contains the best part – the USA! Totally not kidding about that.