2011.Incidentally,thefirst500C
spacecamera– asusedon
Mercury8 – soldat auctionin
November 2014 forUS$275,000.
It waspackagedwithan80mm
ZeisslensthatflewonMercury 8
and9, anda filmmagazineused
onMercury9.OnwardsAndUpwards
AsNASArushedtomeetthe
loomingdeadline– setby
PresidentJohnF. Kennedyin a
speechtotheUSCongresson
25 May 1961 – ofputtinga man
ontheMoonbytheendofthe
decade,theMercuryprogram
evolvedintotheGeminiProject.ThebiggerGeminicapsule
carriedtwoastronautsandused
a morepowerfullaunchvehicle,
theICBM-basedTitanII.Gemini
wasthesteppingstonetoApollo,
andthesemissionswerelonger- simulatingthedurationrequired
tomakea Moonlanding– and
involvedpractisinga varietyof
relatedproceduressuchasdocking
withanotherspacecraft.
TheNASA500Cwasused
ontheearlyGeminimissions,
includingGemini4 whenEd
WhitebecamethefirstAmerican
astronauttoconducta spacewalk - or‘ExtraVehicularActivity’to
usetheofficialterminology– on 3
June1965.However,Hasselblad’s
ultra-widefixed-lensSWCmodel
wasadoptedbyNASAforthe
laterGeminimissionsand,asthis
fully-mechanicalcamerawasmuch
simplerthanthe500-seriesSLR,it
didn’trequiremuchmodificationat
all.Infact,onlytheexternalbody
coveringsneededtoberemoved
andthestandardviewfinder
replacedbyonethatwaseasier
tousewhenwearinga spacesuit
helmet.TheSWCwasusedonthe
Gemini9,10, 11 and 12 missions
withonefamouslybecoming
“Sweden’sfirstsatellite”(toquote
a newspaperheadline)whenit
wasaccidentallydroppedduring
a spacewalk.AstronautMichael
Collinswastakingphotographs
outsidetheGemini 10 module
whenhereported,“Houston,I lost
myEVAHasselbladinadvertently,
I’msorrytosay”.
Collinswentontobecomethe
thirdcrewmemberofApollo11,
flyingthecommandmodule
ColombiawhileNeilArmstrong
andBuzzAldrinmadethefamous
firstlandingontheMoon.LightenUp
FromtheGeminiprogram
onward,Hasselbladtookover
themodificationofNASA’sspace
camerasusinga dedicatedgroup
ofengineersat itsheadquarters
in Gothenburg,Sweden.However,
NASAmaintaineditsownservice
departmentat theSpaceCentre
in Houston,asit wasmandated
thatthespacecamerasused
ontheGeminiandApolloflights
hadtobeservicedafterevery
4000 exposures.
TheHasselbladDataCameras
wereextensivelymodifiedfrom
theoriginal500EL,andthis
startedbyremovingtheleather
bodycoverings,thereflexmirror
mechanismandtheviewfinder
assembly.Thefocusingscreen
wasreplacedbyanopaqueplate.
Certainshutterfunctionswere
unnecessarybecausethelens“There was no
metering in either
the HEDC or HEC,
so exposures were
calculated based
on the position
of the sun or
the astronaut’s
activity.”
Another very famous photograph.
The Earth seen rising over the Moon’s
horizon and taken from Apollo 11
spacecraft.MOON LANDING 5O
th
ANNIVERSARY
FEAtuRE