The First Photo From Space

The image above was taken on October 24th, 1946 by a US-built V2 missile and was the first time Earth had been photographed from space. The missile was launched from the White Sands Missile Range and snapped a new frame every second and a half as the rocket-borne camera climbed straight up. It then fell back to Earth minutes later, slamming into the ground at 500 feet per second. The camera itself was smashed, but the film, protected in a steel cassette, was unharmed.

Air & Space magazine has more images as well as a video.