In August 1961 the soviet cosmonaut Gherman Titov was in orbit round the earth. He was the second man viewing earth from that far. Few months earlier the soviets had sent the first man-held mission in space, performed by Yuri Gagarin. Titov although his bad health condition , he managed to shoot this earth view photo. It was the first photo ever taken from the outer space. Competition between the Soviets and the Americans in merely all aspects of power brought the ongoing success in space exploration during the 1960's