Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo Digital Image Archive
Welcome to March to the Moon. This website serves as a digital repository for the hand-held camera photography captured during the Mercury, Gemini, and Apollo programs, which flew between 1958 and 1972. NASA team members at Johnson Space Center scanned the films in an ongoing effort to preserve, share, and commemorate some of the greatest historical achievements of humankind.
Following the completion of each mission, master duplicates were produced and the original flight films were placed into archival storage. These galleries are digital scans of the original films – and the first instance in which they have been provided on the Internet. Select a program below to begin exploring these amazing photographic moments in human history.
Mercury
Project Mercury was the United States' first man-in-space program. The objectives of the program, which made six manned flights from 1961 to 1963, were specific: to orbit a manned spacecraft around Earth, to investigate man's ability to function in space, and to recover both man and spacecraft safely.
Gemini
The Gemini program was the training ground for the Moon missions of Apollo. The Gemini missions, flown from 1965 to 1966, gave the agency crucial experience in real-time troubleshooting and advanced space operations - knowledge that paved the way to the Moon.
Apollo
The Apollo program, flown from 1961 to 1972, was a national effort that fulfilled a dream as old as humanity. The goals of the Apollo program included: establishing the technology to meet other national interests in space, achieving preeminence in space for the United States, carrying out a program of scientific exploration of the Moon, and developing man's capability to work in the lunar environment.