"I can see the Earth. It is so beautiful."
These were the first words ever spoken by a man in space. Yuri Gagarin was just 27 years old when he became the first person to see our planet from the Russian rocket Vostok on 12th April 1962.
Before Gagarin uttered those famous words, the Earth was being monitored from space by unmanned craft - satellites that orbited the planet within hours and returned data to the surface below.
Since the early days of Earth observation, techniques have become increasingly advanced, and the data gathered is now being applied in more ways than ever before.
In this section, we explore the different spheres of Earth, the most studied planet in our Universe.
