Life Magazine

June 23 1969

This edition featured images from the full dress rehearsal for Apollo 11’s landing, and was published 17 days after its US counterpart.

(6.4 Mb)

July 21 1969

This edition featured biographies of the Apollo 11 crew, together with features on the Lunar Receiving Lab and the Astronaut suits.

It was published 17 days after the US edition.

I’ve missed out the tenuously linked articles on the tides and so on, but included the letters page with a contribution about Apollo 10, and a poem.

(17 Mb)

August 04 1969

This edition does a mission profile and has some great launch photos, as well as features on lunar science.

The publication date in the US was 10 days earlier, before they had actually landed!

Pdf version of Apollo related pages (9.5Mb)

Pdf version of Apollo related pages (3.7Mb)

December 22 1969

This edition contains mostly images already published in previous ones, but in a slightly different format (eg a close cropped view of Buzz Aldrin’s helmet from Apollo 11).

The US edition was published 4 days later.

The US edition was published 4 days later.

Pdf version of Apol l o related pages (3.8Mb)

December 12 1969

This is a US copy of Life, published on December 12 1969.

Pdf version of Apollo related pages (2.3Mb)

December 19 1969

This is a US copy of Life, published on December 19 1969. It features more on the Apollo 12 mission.

August 11 1969

This is the famous Life Magazine Special covering Apollo 11. Much of the background material is available in other editions of Life , but there are some great photographs from the mission included.

Pdf version of Apollo related pages (40.2Mb)

I was fortunate enough to attend a talk by Alan Bean in October 2013. I took along the above copy of Life and got him to sign it!

March 31 1969

This edition featured an article about the LEM design.

(5.0 Mb)

June 9 1969

This edition featured some material published in the US on May 16 1969. It shows some excellent views of Earth as broadcast on TV.

(6.4 Mb)

Pdf version of Apollo related pages.

March 17 1969

This edition features an article on the missions and the wildlife around the Cape.

It was published in the US 17 days earlier than the UK edition.

(8.9 Mb)

Pdf version of Apollo related pages.

January 20 1969

This edition featured photographs from Apollo 8’s mission, the first human circumlunar expedition.

The US edition was published 10 days earlier and was presented more as a review of the year for 1968.

(7.5 Mb)

Pdf version of Apollo related pages.

Alternative link

February 3 1969

This edition features interviews with the crew of Apollo 8.

The interview was published in a different edition of the magazine of the US, which was published on January 17, 1969.

(4.2 Mb)

Pdf version of Apollo related pages. (3.5Mb)

October 28 1968

This edition featured a short article on Apollo 7 and an Apollo related advertisement for Omega watches.

The US equivalent published 3 days earlier had a much more in depth article and many more photographs.

Alternative link

In the 1960s ‘Life’ magazine signed a deal with NASA that gave them privileged access to the Mercury, Gemini and Apollo programmes. The astronauts received a lump sum, divided between them, and in return they and their families were interviewed and photographed.

Highly regarded as a heavyweight publication and a leading pioneer in the field of photojournalism, the resulting articles contained stunning photographs of these missions, often published within days of the astronauts landing back on Earth.

It is often claimed that the only images from Apollo are those supplied digitally on NASA websites. This is clearly nonsense, and Life magazines (amongst other contemporary materials) are easily available on the open market. Providing they aren’t signed by astronauts, they aren’t too expensive.

I have a small collection of these magazines purchased from private individuals on eBay. They are all originals. Most of them are the UK edition, which tended to be published 10-14 days after the US editions, and which occasionally featured fewer, or different, photographs.

The following links are pdfs of scans of the relevant pages from Apollo related editions of ‘Life’, including advertisements for products related to the programme, such as Hasselblad cameras, Zeiss lenses, and the Omega watches that were given to the astronauts.

What the monitor doesn’t reveal is how impressive the Apollo photographs are when viewed in large format prints - the computer screens do not do them justice at all!

For best results, view the pdf in two page format. Enjoy!

Use the alternative link if the file you want is missing.

October 25 1968

This is a US copy of Life, published on October 25 1968.

Pdf version of Apollo related pages (6.2 Mb)

May 01 1970

This is a US copy of Life.

Pdf version of Apollo related pages (5.9Mb)

Pdf version of Apollo related pages (5.4Mb)

April 25 1970

This is a US copy of Life, published on April 24 1970.

Pdf version of Apollo related pages (1.3Mb)

August 20 1971

This is a US copy of Life.