The Apollo 17 mission took the Blue Marble photograph used on the current Earth Flag.
The famous image was photographed on December 7, 1972, during Apollo 17’s journey from Earth toward the Moon. It shows the fully illuminated planet against black space, with Africa, the Arabian Peninsula, Madagascar, the Indian Ocean, and Antarctica visible through swirling cloud systems. The image’s NASA catalog designation is AS17-148-22727.
John McConnell’s Earth Flag originally appeared in 1969 and used an earlier Earth image associated with Apollo 10. After the Blue Marble was taken, the flag design was updated; the Apollo 17 photograph became the version most people recognize on the dark-blue flag.
Apollo 8 is a frequent wrong answer because its crew produced “Earthrise,” the celebrated 1968 photograph of Earth rising above the Moon’s horizon. Earthrise and the Blue Marble are different images from different missions. Apollo 17 was the final crewed lunar mission and launched in December 1972.