First color image of the full illuminated Earth in 1967

The first colour image of the whole Earth was little known because it was taken by DODGE – for ‘Department of Defense Gravitational Experiment’ – the satellite was sent into a near-geostationary orbit in July 1967.

The hurricane above the gulf of Mexico is the Beulah hurricane. The image was taken with a black an white TV camera which took three photos with a red, green and a blue filter to create the color image. The small ball in front of the picture is a colour match card.

Earth by DODGE, 20. September 1967 by Robert Beal of the John Hopkins Applied Physics Lab