The rare photos that capture ‘deeply personal moments in space’

A “deeply personal” set of images filmed by NASA astronauts which includes the first ever selfie taken in space has been restored after years lying locked in a vault in Houston.

They capture moments from the early years of space travel, including Ed White on the first US space walk and Buzz Aldrin taking the first selfie in space.

Scans taken from footage of the Gemini and Mercury space missions have been restored and made public for the first time in an exhibition at Jodrell Bank Observatory in Cheshire.

Andy Saunders, who spent thousands of hours painstakingly restoring the images, said he hoped they would “shine a light on this incredible era in history”.

Mr Saunders said the image of Ed White, who was the first American to walk in space, was recovered from “really underexposed film” which had been locked away in NASA’s space centre for decades.

He said: “In fact, there’s two photos here digitally stitched together.

“This is a deeply personal image, it’s like we’re in the spacecraft with him.”

Mr Saunders, an author, digitally restored the images taken from film of the two missions that had been stored in NASA archives for a new book.

Project Mercury, conducted from 1958 to 1963, was the US’s first human spaceflight programme, while Project Gemini, which ran from 1964 to 1966, aimed to test and perfect techniques for the Apollo lunar missions.

He said: “Gemini was an incredibly important programme.

“It was tasked with demonstrating if it’s even possible to make a journey to the moon…I think people will be surprised at the level of risk that was taken.

“Neil Armstrong almost died on his Gemini 8 mission.”

Jodrell Bank’s Education Officer Lexie Southern said the observatory, and particularly the Lovell Telescope, played a vital role in the space race.

She said the radio telescope, which is the largest in the UK, tracked the rocket that launched Sputnik 1 in 1957.

“The probe could be tracked by the rocket itself couldn’t [but] we were the only place in the world that could,” she said.

Jodrell Bank also received and printed out the first pictures taken of the surface of the moon in 1966, and acted as the UK’s early warning system of potential attacks during the Cold War in the early 1960s.

Ms Southern said: “I think Jodrell Bank provides, not just an exhibition space, but a unique authenticity as a place to have the exhibition.”

The exhibition runs until January 2026.