First human taken photograph from space: Earth horizon and black sky of space from Friendship 7, 20 February 1962

Vintage chromogenic print on fiber-based paper, printed 1962, numbered "NASA S-62-6016" (NASA MSC) in black in top margin, with NASA credit stamp and "A KODAK PAPER" watermark on verso, 20,3 x 25,4 cm

One of the first and extremely rare photographs captured by John Glenn during the first orbit of Friendship 7.

NASA officials initially vetoed Glenn’s idea of taking a camera aboard his spacecraft for fear it would distract him from the mission’s primary goals.
After an appeal to NASA Director Robert Gilruth, Glenn ultimately received permission to use a camera.
However, the lack of a space photography department in NASA’s infant manned space program required Glenn to obtain his own camera.
He needed to locate a model he could operate in zero gravity while wearing the bulky gloves of his spacesuit.
After asking advice to famous LIFE photographer Ralph Morse, Glenn eventually discovered such a camera, a 35mm Ansco Autoset (actually a Minolta Hi-Matic, repackaged by the New York-based Ansco Company) with a 50mm lens and Eastman Color Negative Film 5250, in a drug store in Cocoa Beach, just outside of Cape Canaveral, Florida.
One of the first models that automatically advanced the film roll between shots, NASA technicians rigged the camera with a trigger mechanism Glenn could operate while in space.

“This picture is to the best of my knowledge [one of] the first hand-held camera picture(s) ever taken from space. I took it during [...] my Friendship 7 flight on February 20, 1962, during the early stages of our first effort to accomplish manned orbital flight. NASA knew that pictures from orbit were an important part of showing the public the beauty of space, as well as the importance of exploring it.
John Glenn (TIME Magazine)

time.com/4558781/john-glenn-influential-photo/

“As I looked back at the Earth from space, colors and light intensities were much the same as I had observed when flying at high altitude in an airplane. The colors observed when looking down at the ground appeared similar to those seen from 50,000 feet. When looking toward the horizon, however, the view is completely different, for then the blackness of space contrasts vividly with the brightness of the Earth’s. The horizon itself is a brilliant, brilliant blue and white. It was surprising how much of the Earth’s surface was covered by clouds. The clouds can be seen very clearly on the daylight side. The different types of clouds, vertical developments, stratus clouds, and cumulus clouds, are readily distinguished.”
John Glenn (Flight’s Pilot Report)