--- title: NASA's Unseen Apollo Gallery Includes Humanizing Outtakes description: Here is a sampling of 'Apollo VII – XVII,' a new book that includes more humanizing outtakes of astronauts going to the moon. canonical: https://time.com/4718776/nasa-unseen-apollo-outtakes/ author: Jeffrey Kluger article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2017-03-30T19:54:36.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-10-08T08:26:37.584Z article:section: Science og:title: NASA's Never-Before-Seen Photos of Astronauts Are Incredible og:description: The gallery includes more humanizing outtakes og:url: https://time.com/4718776/nasa-unseen-apollo-outtakes/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1cd7f0d406630071/6988c09dcd1bba306d704848/unseen-apollo-video-space2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 1821 og:image:height: 1024 og:image:alt: unseen-apollo-video-space2 og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: NASA's Never-Before-Seen Photos of Astronauts Are Incredible twitter:description: The gallery includes more humanizing outtakes twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1cd7f0d406630071/6988c09dcd1bba306d704848/unseen-apollo-video-space2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # NASA's Never-Before-Seen Photos of Astronauts Going to Space Are Incredible > Sponsored content. 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Future Proof is TIME's weekly climate and energy newsletter, written by senior correspondent Justin Worland. It connects the energy transition to the decisions reshaping business, technology, policy and markets. #### Where can I follow the energy transition as a business story? Future Proof covers climate and energy as an economic and business story rather than only an environmental one. It publishes every Friday and is free at time.com/newsletters. #### Who writes Future Proof? Justin Worland, a senior correspondent at TIME and an award-winning climate journalist, writes Future Proof. #### Is Future Proof free? Yes. Future Proof is free at time.com/newsletters. ### Sources * TIME Newsletters: [time.com/newsletters](/c/time-nl-futureproof-2026q3/newsletters?i=97ffa0ef-7306-4a03-89cc-3fc9ae880e97&cr=time-nl-futureproof-2026q3-v1) ## Video: Unseen Apollo: Going To The Moon Through Astronaut's Eyes [Watch (HLS stream): Unseen Apollo: Going To The Moon Through Astronaut's Eyes](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/c43u4clG.m3u8) (3:13)  _Published 2017-03-30. Nobody ever accused the Apollo program of failing to deliver the goods. There were the 842 pounds of moon rocks and the raft of scientific spinoffs and the deep thrills that every one of the 11 missions delivered. And then, there were the pictures._  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 30, 2017 7:54 PM UTC Nobody ever accused the Apollo program of failing to deliver the goods. There were the 842 pounds of moon rocks and the raft of scientific spinoffs and the deep thrills that every one of the 11 missions delivered. And then, there were the pictures.  by [Jeffrey Kluger](https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/)  ## Jeffrey Kluger Editor at Large Mar 30, 2017 7:54 PM UTC There was never a photo studio like space — and there was never a studio in space that was anything like the moon, as TIME explores in [Unseen Apollo](http://time.com/unseen-apollo/), a gallery of previously uncirculated images. NASA knew it was up to something epochal what it began launching men on lunar expeditions, and the agency made sure there were plenty of cameras and loads of film aboard the spacecraft to document the trips. That created an embarrassment of riches. How in the world were the NASA photo editors to curate the thousands of images that came back and choose the very best ones for distribution? They ultimately did make their selections and the pictures they selected became icons: Buzz Aldrin’s crooked-armed pose in the Sea of Tranquility; the Apollo 17 flag pointing toward the Earth in the sky. What were missing were the more humanizing pictures: the outtakes showing the astronauts in a clumsy or unguarded moment; the moon bases looking like the sloppy campgrounds they were. Now, a group of European designers have selected the best of those unpolished images for a new book — _Apollo VII – XVII_. The video above includes a sampling of their work, and an explanation of why it matters. Here are the Apollo pictures and the stories behind them: [Unseen Apollo, Going to the Moon Through Astronauts’ Eyes](http://time.com/unseen-apollo/) ## Transcript [ INAUDIBLE ] Lift off. The Apollo Lunar missions were as much exercises in photographic reconnaissance as they were in exploration. [ MUSIC ] NASA was very good at selecting and curating the pictures they would release. What's left behind With the the thousands of outtakes, the rough shots. It was these things though, these unplanned images that captured the Apollo moon missions as the improvisational camping trips that they were. [ MUSIC ] Apollo 7 was the first test of the Apollo command service module in lower the orbit. No astronauts were going to get anywhere near the moon if the third stage of the [ UNKNOWN ] rocket didn't last the [ UNKNOWN ] of the orbit, and if the [ UNKNOWN ] couldn't turn around Open the pedals of a compartment on that third stage and extract the Lunar Module. This maneuver was practiced on Apollo 7, producing this picture of the third stage, and its open LEM compartment with no LEM aboard. The Lunar Module was usually a bright and busy place, but not on Apollo 13. When the crew had to take refuge inside and shutdown most of their power using the lamb as a lifeboat to make their way back to Earth. Here is a rare shot of what it looked like inside that cold, dark module. [ MUSIC ] On the last three Apollo missions, Apollo 15, 16, and 17. The astronauts carried with them an offroad vehicle known as the Lunar Rover. Here, Apollo 16's John Young leans almost jauntily against his ride. With the overexposed top half of the image, creating the overall effect of a casual vacation shot, snapped during an offroad trip In the desert Southwest. No limb could land at an incline greater than 15 degrees lest it become impossible to take off again. Apollo 15 pushed that rule touching down at a 10 degree incline. NASA was perfectly happy to release photographs of the Apollo 15 LEM, shot from in front. But profile shots were kept out of circulation. Rovers worked hard, and sometimes they broke down. After the first of three lunar expeditions, the fender on the right rear wheel of Apollo 17's lunar rover Broke off. This was a problem because fine lunar dust kicked up by the tires could foul machinery and potentially even the astronaut's life support equipment. The solution? Four lunar maps folded just so and fastened with what Commander Gene Cernan called good old fashion American [ UNKNOWN ] [ INAUDIBLE ] [ MUSIC ] ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4718776/nasa-unseen-apollo-outtakes/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4718776/nasa-unseen-apollo-outtakes/"},"headline":"NASA's Never-Before-Seen Photos of Astronauts Going to Space Are Incredible","datePublished":"2017-03-30T19:54:36.000Z","dateModified":"2026-10-08T08:26:37.584Z","description":"The gallery includes more humanizing outtakes","url":"https://time.com/4718776/nasa-unseen-apollo-outtakes/","keywords":["Space","Photos","Apollo","onetime"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1cd7f0d406630071/6988c09dcd1bba306d704848/unseen-apollo-video-space2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Jeffrey Kluger","jobTitle":"Editor at Large","url":"https://time.com/author/jeffrey-kluger/"}],"articleSection":"Science","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt1cd7f0d406630071/6988c09dcd1bba306d704848/unseen-apollo-video-space2.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"unseen-apollo-video-space2","caption":"","creditText":"Apollo VII-XVII/NASA","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/section/science/","name":"Science"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"/tag/space/","name":"Space"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4718776/nasa-unseen-apollo-outtakes/","name":"NASA's Never-Before-Seen Photos of Astronauts Going to Space Are Incredible"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Unseen Apollo: Going To The Moon Through Astronaut's Eyes","description":"Nobody ever accused the Apollo program of failing to deliver the goods. 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