Those insights largely support and enhance what we learn from remotely operated satellites. What is learned from observations with the human eye and those assisted by cameras, lenses, or satellites provide new insights. Our “eyesight,” meaning our capabilities with cameras and other technologies, improved gradually. In the decades after the Apollo Program ended, beginning with Skylab missions in the 1970s, then Space Shuttle missions, and now the International Space Station, orbital locations were provided for astronaut activities, including setting eyes on the wonders of our home planet. Those images played a part in reframing a scientific and cultural understanding of Earth, suggesting a need to take a closer look at Earth. Descriptions from the astronauts of a glowing blue and white orb hanging in the void of space, contrasted with a desolate gray Moon, were now scenes viewed in print and on television screens around the globe.

The Apollo missions to the Moon gave people a completely new view of Earth and its natural satellite.

Earth view from space station