NASA just released hundreds of never-before-seen vintage photos from its early space program

NASA has just released a treasure trove of never-before-seen photos from the early days of its space program.

The images are set to appear at an auction this month, but thankfully lowly folk like us can get a preview, and they’re unbelievable.

The auction “From the Earth to the Moon: Vintage NASA Photographs of the First Voyages Beyond Our Home Planet” will show 600 photos taken from the space program’s early history, including the first “selfie” taken in outer space, belonging to Buzz Aldrin.

From The Huffington Post:

One of the more memorable lots is a relic from 1969, the year Neil Armstrong first stepped foot on the moon. It wasn’t until two decades after Armstrong became a lunar hero that NASA discovered a surprisingly clear image of him standing near a module, taken by his Apollo 11 colleague Aldrin and subsequently stashed in a Houston archive. Before that, NASA believed the only photos from the lunar surface were blurry shots grabbed by a TV camera and a 16 mm motion picture camera.

The photographs, which are vintage Kodaks, are estimated to sell for anywhere between £300 to £10,000 ($462 to $15,390).

Click images to enlarge:

Harrison Schmitt, Portrait of astronaut Eugene Cernan, explorer of another world, Apollo 17, December 1972 Buzz Aldrin, First self-portrait in space, Gemini 12, November 1966 Eugene Cernan, Harrison Schmitt with the Earth above the US flag, EVA 1, Apollo 17, December 1972 Liftoff, Apollo 16, April 1972 James McDivitt, First US Spacewalk, Ed White’s EVA over New Mexico, Gemini 4, June 3, 1965 Edgar Mitchell, Alan Shepard and the American flag, Apollo 14, February 1971 William Anders, First Earthrise seen by human eyes, Apollo 8, December 1968 First high quality photograph of the farside of the Moon The Earth, July 11, 1969 Walter Cunningham, Florida Peninsula looking East, Apollo 7, October 1968 Buzz Aldrin, The only clear photograph of Neil Armstrong on the Moon, Apollo 11, July 1969 Eugene Cernan, The angry alligator, Gemini 9, June 1966 Pete Conrad, Alan Bean with the reflection of the photographer in his visor, EVA 2, Apollo 12, November 1969 Walter Schirra, On-board portrait of astronaut Walter Cunningham, Apollo 7, October 1968

(Images courtesy of Bloomsbury Auctions. Image captions courtesy of The Huffington Post)