For many of us, the prospect of a journey into space holds the promise of fascinating insight and intrigue.
Yet these photos shot by NASA astronauts tells a bit of a different story.
The many thousands of images that Apollo astronauts shot in space decades ago, giving us a more three-dimensional picture what their time in space was really like.
To call it boring would be unfair.
These missions were undertaken by some of the bravest people who have ever lived, for the most noble of reasons.
But as we clicked through the photos, a pattern emerged: a single object suspended in space — be it a lunar lander, a satellite, or a view of Earth itself, set against a background of abyss.
There are more than 8,000 photos here taken during moon missions from 1969 to 1972.
The photo dump is part of a years-long process, beginning in 2004, when the Johnson Space Center began scanning unprocessed Apollo film negatives.
Some of the photos were used on the Project Apollo Archive’s website, but demand for higher quality versions eventually prompted Kipp Teague, who runs the program, to upload the whole cache in stunning high-res, he told The Planetary Society.
Here’s a few of our favourites.
