The 50th anniversary of John Glenn's orbit of the Earth is an understandable cause of celebration in America
The 50th anniversary of John Glenn's orbit of the Earth is an understandable cause of celebration in America, not least because the 90-year-old astronaut-turned-senator remains an articulate and persuasive advocate of space exploration. His voyage was an important moment for science, and in the status wars with the Soviet Union. But it wasn't the moment when the space age changed the world. That was six years later, when astronauts on the Apollo 8 mission became the first humans to see the dark side of the moon – and, quite by chance, to see Earth rising above the lunar horizon. Two crew members, Frank Borman and William Anders, almost simultaneously took a series of photographs that have been described as the most influential environmental images ever shot. It was the moment that planet Earth was reimagined as a fragile, finite planet whose inexhaustible bounty could no longer be taken for granted.