# Has A Spacecraft Ever Captured Photos/Video Of Another Spacecraft? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [July 15, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140 "2019-07-15T17:42:23Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![HeyHomie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/heyhomie/32/207_2.png) [@HeyHomie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/HeyHomie)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/1 "2019-07-15T17:42:23Z")
I know that the Lunar Reconnaissance Orbiter (LRO) has [captured images](https://www.nasa.gov/mission_pages/LRO/news/apollo-sites.html) of the Apollo landing sites, including some equipment that was left up there. Is this only example of one spacecraft capturing images of another spacecraft? ---
**Author:** ![K364](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/k364/32/5_2.png) [@K364](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/K364)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/2 "2019-07-15T17:43:42Z")
Gemini had one or two tandem missions - there must be photos from those. ---
**Author:** ![Xema](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/x/9de053/32.png) [@Xema](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Xema)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/3 "2019-07-15T17:46:34Z")
We should not include cases of one spacecraft docking with another - right? ---
**Author:** ![CalMeacham](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/calmeacham/32/35_2.png) [@CalMeacham](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CalMeacham)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/4 "2019-07-15T17:50:17Z")
There are also photos of the Gemini-Agena rendezvous, including this failed mission showing the “angry alligator” that was the Agena Target vehicle, because one of the restraining straps refused to come off: [![](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agena_target_vehicle#/media/File:The_Angry_Alligator_-_GPN-2000-001354.jpg) ](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agena_target_vehicle#/media/File:The_Angry_Alligator_-_GPN-2000-001354.jpg) There are plenty of shots of vehicles docking with the International Space Station and its successors. And, of course, of the Hubble Repair mission. ---
**Author:** ![enipla](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/54ee81/32.png) [@enipla](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/enipla)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/5 "2019-07-15T17:51:01Z")
I think this is very, very cool - “Collins took this picture of the Lunar Module, containing Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong with Earth in the background, during the Apollo 11 mission. This makes him the only person ever to have lived who was not inside the frame of the photo.” [Michael Collins, the astronaut who took this photo, is the only human, alive or dead that isn’t in the frame of this picture, 1969](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/michael-collins-picture-1969/) ---
**Author:** ![Procrustus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/procrustus/32/2994_2.png) [@Procrustus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Procrustus)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/6 "2019-07-15T17:53:49Z")
The [Apollo Soyuz](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Apollo%E2%80%93Soyuz_Test_Project) mission had many. ---
**Author:** ![bump](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/7c8e57/32.png) [@bump](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bump)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 6:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/7 "2019-07-15T18:39:23Z")
Gemini VI and VII were launched slightly apart and rendevoused in space, taking a bunch of pictures of each other. [https://www.nasa.gov/feature/dual-gemini-flights-achieved-crucial-spaceflight-milestones](https://www.nasa.gov/feature/dual-gemini-flights-achieved-crucial-spaceflight-milestones) (look down the right side) ---
**Author:** ![WildaBeast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/wildabeast/32/6_2.png) [@WildaBeast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/WildaBeast)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 6:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/8 "2019-07-15T18:58:30Z")
I actually used to have such an image as my desktop background – a picture of the Space Shuttle docked at the ISS, taken from a Soyuz capsule. > **[Portrait of Shuttle and Station](https://www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery/image_feature_1969.html)** > > Newly released portraits show the International Space Station together with the space shuttle, the vehicle that helped build the complex during the last decade. The pictures are the first taken of a shuttle docked to the station from the perspective... As I understand this was the first time any images were captured of the Shuttle docked at the ISS, because generally other spacecraft weren’t allowed to maneuver around the ISS while the Shuttle was docked. This was a special case for some reason. It also happened to be one of the last Shuttle missions, but I don’t remember if that was the reason. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 8:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/9 "2019-07-15T20:08:33Z")
All the examples above, except the one in the OP, are of craft that are planning on docking with the other. I suspect that that’s not what the OP is asking for. Curiosity rover was [imaged](https://www.space.com/16946-mars-rover-landing-seen-from-space.html) from the Mars Reconnaisance Orbiter. That was taken while the rover was still descending by parachute. There’ve been other images of Martian landers/rovers (crashed or otherwise) taken from orbit. I think Curiosity or another rover may have seen an orbiter from the surface, but I could be wrong about that. ---
**Author:** ![mbh](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/a6a055/32.png) [@mbh](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/mbh)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 8:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/10 "2019-07-15T20:17:23Z")
Skylab, viewed from Apollo: [Skylab - Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Skylab#/media/File:Skylab_(SL-4).jpg) Apollo, viewed from Skylab: [spacecraft - What were the characteristics of the Apollo Skylab CSM white paint? - Space Exploration Stack Exchange](https://space.stackexchange.com/questions/9394/what-were-the-characteristics-of-the-apollo-skylab-csm-white-paint) ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 8:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/11 "2019-07-15T20:32:03Z")
LRO also took images of all landers on the Moon, not just of Apollo landers. That includes landers in various programs: Surveyor, Soviet Luna, Chinese Chang’e, and the Beresheet crash site. Also, I seem to recall a [documentary](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3659388/) of a stranded Martian explorer who was imaged from orbit numerous times. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 9:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/12 "2019-07-15T21:57:23Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I think this is very, very cool - > “Collins took this picture of the Lunar Module, containing Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong with Earth in the background, during the Apollo 11 mission. This makes him the only person ever to have lived who was not inside the frame of the photo.” > [Michael Collins, the astronaut who took this photo, is the only human, alive or dead that isn’t in the frame of this picture, 1969](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/michael-collins-picture-1969/) Cool picture! And it’s really crazy that there are comments on it saying that the moon landings were a hoax :mad: ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 15, 2019, 10:12pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/13 "2019-07-15T22:12:42Z")
I remember another example. One of the Apollo missions (Apollo 12) landed so close to Surveyor 3 that they visited and took some souvenirs home. That’s even better than taking pictures. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/14 "2019-07-16T01:32:18Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I think this is very, very cool - > “Collins took this picture of the Lunar Module, containing Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong with Earth in the background, during the Apollo 11 mission. This makes him the only person ever to have lived who was not inside the frame of the photo.” > [Michael Collins, the astronaut who took this photo, is the only human, alive or dead that isn’t in the frame of this picture, 1969](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/michael-collins-picture-1969/) I definitely have a problem with the idea that those who were not born are composed of material that was inside the frame of that picture. While the vast majority of any person certainly would have been, there are cosmic rays as well as particles of the solar wind that even if mostly deflected are visible at very least in the auroras. It is impossible to know whether the products of those particles interaction with the material on Earth eventually found their way into some people, and it would be ludicrously unlikely that absolutely none of them ever did for the last 50 years. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 2:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/15 "2019-07-16T02:42:33Z")
> [@dtilque](#): > > I remember another example. One of the Apollo missions (Apollo 12) landed so close to Surveyor 3 that they visited and took some souvenirs home. That’s even better than taking pictures. BTW, they also took pictures of Surveyor 3: [example](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Surveyor_3#/media/File:Surveyor_3-Apollo_12.jpg) > [@glowacks](#): > > I definitely have a problem with the idea that those who were not born are composed of material that was inside the frame of that picture. While the vast majority of any person certainly would have been, there are cosmic rays as well as particles of the solar wind that even if mostly deflected are visible at very least in the auroras. It is impossible to know whether the products of those particles interaction with the material on Earth eventually found their way into some people, and it would be ludicrously unlikely that absolutely none of them ever did for the last 50 years. Even more material comes from space as meteors. Those will range from tiny dust grains (shooting stars) to meteorites, which lose a large amount of material on the way to the surface of the Earth. The Earth collects tons of stuff from space every year in this way. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 3:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/16 "2019-07-16T03:15:46Z")
> [@enipla](#): > > I think this is very, very cool - > “Collins took this picture of the Lunar Module, containing Buzz Aldrin and Neil Armstrong with Earth in the background, during the Apollo 11 mission. This makes him the only person ever to have lived who was not inside the frame of the photo.” > [Michael Collins, the astronaut who took this photo, is the only human, alive or dead that isn’t in the frame of this picture, 1969](https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/michael-collins-picture-1969/) It would no longer be true if an equivalent photo was taken. Some of Clyde Tombaugh’s remains were sent off into deep space in 2006. ---
**Author:** ![dtilque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/d6d6ee/32.png) [@dtilque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dtilque)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 3:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/17 "2019-07-16T03:48:28Z")
Looks like MRO took another picture of Curiosity, and it was today’s [Bad Astronomy column](https://www.syfy.com/syfywire/orbiting-mars-robot-sees-roving-mars-robot-its-mars-robots-all-the-way-down). Is this a coincidence or what? ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 5:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/18 "2019-07-16T05:42:50Z")
Every manned Apollo mission that included a Lunar Module. Every Gemini mission that included a rendezvous with another Gemini capsule or Agena rocket. The Apollo Soyuz mission. Every Apollo Skylab mission. ---
**Author:** ![NorthernStar](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/c77e96/32.png) [@NorthernStar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/NorthernStar)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 11:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/19 "2019-07-16T11:28:55Z")
Presumably, many classified spy satellites have taken pictures of other spacecraft on the ground and in orbit. One of the better known (and confirmed) examples is of [a KH-11 satellite imaging _Columbia_ during the very first Shuttle mission, STS-1](http://www.thespacereview.com/article/3219/1). ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [July 16, 2019, 11:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140/20 "2019-07-16T11:48:16Z")
I was wondering if [J002E3](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J002E3) (thought to be an old Apollo 12 booster) was captured by any orbiting cameras but apparently not. A number of anti-satellite weapons, e.g., [ASM-135](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/ASM-135_ASAT), use, (e.g., infrared) sensors to detect their targets. Apparently no relay of ~images to ground before the kaboom. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/has-a-spacecraft-ever-captured-photos-video-of-another-spacecraft/837140.md?page=2)