Hassleblad Is Offering a Chance to Meet Up With Space History

Edwin Eugene 'Buzz' Aldrin, Jr on the moon with the Apollo 11 mission. Neil Armstrong took the photograph with a Hasselblad. It is Armstrong reflection in the visor.

July 20, 1969. It’s almost been 40 years since Apollo 11 touched down on the moon. The photograph of Buzz Aldrin on the surface of the moon is one of the most recognizable of the Space Race era and the twentieth century. The excitement of that landing seems almost unmatched by any other landmark the space program reach simply because up until that point it seemed impossible until then.

All the nostalgia about the moon landing had me looking at the Hasselblad website and I found they marking the event in grand fashion. Hasselblad is offering a chance for photographers or space fans to have once in a lifetime experience at Kennedy Space Center with Buzz Aldrin to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the moon landing when they pick-up an out of this world camera. The Hasselblad company is giving an all expenses paid trip to Kennedy Space Center with the purchase of their H3DII-50 or H3DII-60 cameras.

Hasselblad customers who purchase an H3Dll-50 or H3Dll-60 camera between July 1^st and August 21^st 2009 will be eligible for an all expenses paid* trip to NASA’s Kennedy Space Center in Florida, USA between September 24th and 26th 2009.

*Certain restrictions apply to airfare.
Hasselblad website

The Hasselblad cameras have been in the U.S. space program from almost as long as there has been a space program. It started when astronaut Walter M. Schirra went to a camera shop¹ in Houston, Texas and purchased a off the shelf Hasselblad 500 C. NASA then modified the camera for Schirra to take on his Mercury-Atlas 8 (Sigma 7) mission in 1962. From that point NASA and the little camera company from Sweden started a cooperation that lead to some of the most memorable photographs of 20^th century. There is a lot of information about the Hasselblad space cameras here. If you are into GEO tagging photographs then you will want to pay attention to the Hasselblad 203S used on shuttle missions.

Here are some of the other nuggets of information buried in the small print of the Hasselblad website:

At the event, guests will be able to mingle with fellow professional photographers, industry insiders, and journalists, attend a gala dinner featuring a special lunar photography presentation by Buzz Aldrin, receive a “Condensed” Hasselblad University training course, participate in professional training sessions, and to take part in instructional lectures and other activities designed to help photographers get the most from their Hasselblad gear.

This is a once in a lifetime opportunity to hear about lunar photography from one of the men who was actually there, capturing some of the most famous images of our time. It is also a unique opportunity to meet Hasselblad CEO Christian Poulsen and the designers behind the Hasselblad H System cameras and lenses to discuss both the past and future of camera design.

It In addition, a special guided photo tour of the Kennedy Space Center will give participants an unforgettable, behind the scenes look at the world’s most advanced spaceport. Photographs taken during the tour will also be entered in a contest with valuable Hasselblad prizes presented to the winners on the second day of the event.

If this has got you all excited about ordering the Hasselblad H3Dll-50 or H3Dll-60, I’ve checked at Adorama, B&H Photo and Amazon are all showing the SKUs for the H3DII’s right now.

Sadly I’m not going to ordering one without selling my truck, taking second mortgage on the dog and the house then talking the kids into forgetting college. When I got my first Hasselblad 500 CM in 1982 (or 1983), Hasselblad gave away a copy of the Hasselblad Manual signed by Ernst Wildi and Hasselblad logo airline bag. The Manual is one the best text on the technical aspects of photography and Hasselblad System as any book I have ever read.

1 – I could not find the name of the camera shop in Houston, Texas that Schirra bought the Hasselblad 500 C at, if anyone knows I would love to know just for history’s sake.