Hasselblad and the NASA Apollo program

The Apollo program saw a Hasselblad camera go into space and the history books. Never before had a camera been to the surface of the moon. It was first used on NASA's Mercury program which began in 1962. Walter Schirra was a prospective NASA astronaut and owned a Hasselblad 500C. He suggested they adopt the camera platform for future missions. The camera was adapted and made lighter. This was done by removing many of the parts on a standard model including the reflex mirror, viewfinder and auxiliary shutter. The result was a camera that has become iconic in 20th century history. The camera shown in the picture is the 1979 edition '10 Years On the Moon'. It was produced in a limited edition and is now rare.