Overview
The Kodak DCS 460 was flown by NASA astronauts across 18 identified missions, in NASA service 1996–2002, contributing 5,194 identifiable frames to the public astronaut photography archive. Traced by manufacturer serial number, at least 12 physical bodies have been identified in the public archive. The Kodak DCS 460 was released by Kodak in 1994.
Body S/N 460-1298 is the most heavily documented in the archive, contributing 2,313 identifiable frames across 3 missions including ISS002, ISS001, ISS003. The other 11 identified bodies appear in more targeted mission windows, detailed below.
Lens metadata for this model is limited in NASA's public releases (Adobe processing strips some manufacturer MakerNote fields). Where lens identification is available in the archive, it appears below.
Exemplar photographs
Additional representative frames captured by the Kodak DCS 460 bodies in orbit. Full resolution is available at the linked NASA archives.
9/11 photograph of World Trade Centers pluming smoke
The 1st Earth observation still image downlinked to NASA
In NASA service
The DCS 460 was announced in 1994 as part of Kodak's DCS 4XX family and introduced a six-megapixel M6 imager on a Nikon N90s body — marketed at launch as “the world's highest resolution portable digital camera” at roughly $28,000 list. The 4XX family collectively saw over 5,000 units produced across the 410, 420, and 460 variants. The 460 was the subject of the only safety recall in DCS history, prompted by an internal battery charging fault that caused one customer's camera to explode in a studio.1
The DCS 460 began appearing in NASA astronaut photography around 1998 and served as the primary Kodak digital body until the DCS 760 succeeded it. Nikon retrospectively characterized the period from 1998 through roughly 2007 as the “F5 and Kodak DCS era” of NASA imaging — bracketed on the earlier side by film-based Nikon use and on the later side by the transition to the Nikon D2Xs.2
- McGarvey, Jim. The DCS Story: 17 years of Kodak Professional digital camera systems, 1987–2004. Kodak, June 2004.
- Gotō, Tetsuro. “宇宙用ニコン・スペースカメラの開発” [Development of Nikon Space Camera]. Journal of the Society of Photographic Science and Technology of Japan 73, no. 2 (2010): 65–69.
Commercial availability
Kodak DCS 460 on the used market
The bodies documented in this registry are the specific units NASA sent to orbit. The commercial market carries the same Kodak DCS 460 model at accessible prices for collectors, photographers, and researchers. Listings shown are the same model, not the specific bodies flown.
CARES LLC participates in the eBay Partner Network. Purchases via this link may generate commission at no additional cost to you. The listings shown are the same Kodak DCS 460 model used by NASA, not the specific bodies flown.
Bodies identified
Each identifiable body of the Kodak DCS 460 that appears in NASA's public astronaut photography archive, sorted by frame count.