Skip to content
SPACE NOWHistory

The past behind what's next.

Object

Hasselblad film magazine, Apollo 11 lunar surface

A film magazine used on the surface of the Moon. The camera bodies were left behind to save mass; the magazines, holding the exposed film, were what came home.

  • Revision: 1
  • Dates: 1969-07-20 (day precision)
  • Last reviewed: 2026-08-14
  • Status: Preserved in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection
  • asset-library: asset_8a0a65c87964fbcd5380

The object

Full frame first: the source before any crop, zoom or annotation.

A 70mm Hasselblad film magazine used on the lunar surface during Apollo 11, a rectangular metal cassette photographed in museum lighting.
Present day Preserved in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection.Credit: Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum; Transferred from the National Aeronautics and Space AdministrationSource: canonical item pageRights: CC0; AUTO_USABLE (evidence recorded 2026-08-09)Transforms: autorotate — EXIF orientation applied where present; resize — fit within 640 px wide, aspect preserved, no enlargement; encode — AVIF quality 55

What this object shows

That the return payload of the first landing included physical film that had to survive the surface, the ascent, and the journey back before anyone could know whether the photographs existed.

Orientation

Role: Exposed film return

Chronology

  1. day precisionHasselblad film magazine, Apollo 11 lunar surface enters the record.

Related records

  • part of

    Which half of the camera actually returned to Earth?

    Confidence: high · 1969-07-20 (day precision)

  • relates to

    One stayed on the Moon, one came home.

    Confidence: high · 1969-07-20 (day precision)

Inspect the record1 assertion, each with its source

  • Hasselblad film magazine, Apollo 11 lunar surface is held in the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum collection; the rendition shown here is exported from that catalogued record with its credit and rights basis recorded.

    Source class: museum collection recordSmithsonian National Air and Space Museum collectionView the source

CorrectionsNone recorded

No corrections recordedThis record has not been corrected since it was published.