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The Controversial Dawn of the Space Age: Earth's First Selfie, 1946This grainy, black-and-white image holds a profound place in history: it's the first photograph of Earth taken from outer space. Captured on October 24, 1946, the photo was taken by a 35mm motion picture camera strapped inside a modified German V-2 rocket launched by U.S. Army personnel from the White Sands Missile Range in New Mexico.The rocket, a former Nazi weapon, soared to an altitude of 65 miles (105 km), providing humanity with its first clear view of the planet against the black void. The camera and missile were obliterated when the rocket crashed back to Earth at over 300 mph, but the film survived, protected inside a rugged steel cassette.When scientists recovered the film in the New Mexico desert, they were reportedly ""ecstatic,"" immediately recognizing the revolutionary nature of the images. This moment, occurring years before Sputnik, launched the age of rocketry and space imaging, forever changing humanity’s visual perception of its own world.#fblifestyle