Sixty years after Neil Armstrong barely survived an emergency in orbit around Earth on Gemini 8, never-before-seen photos of his heroic return have been donated to the Ohio museum that bears his name.
Quick thinking saved Armstrong and fellow astronaut David Scott, who ended the mission early with a splashdown off Okinawa, Japan.
Previously unreleased photos taken by Ron McQueeney, an Army veteran and professional photographer who escorted Armstrong and Scott, show new angles of the pair.
Since the splashdown was unplanned, few members of the media were on site, though NASA and military photographers were there. People who were unexpectedly called to help with recovery operations, like McQueeney, played a key role in capturing the aftermath.
“Sometimes, an incredible event can actually be documented by some of the most ordinary means,” said Dante Centuori, executive director of the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Armstrong’s western Ohio hometown.
McQueeney’s widow donated the photos, which show Armstrong and Scott on the deck of a U.S. Navy vessel and waving to service members on land. One shows the Gemini 8 capsule being lifted into the air for transport.
One of the mission’s goals was to complete the first docking in space. Minutes after accomplishing this, both spacecraft started tumbling uncontrollably. The astronauts separated from the other spacecraft but the spinning got worse.
Armstrong made a calculated decision, deploying the craft’s thrusters to stop the spinning. In doing so, he ate into some of the vital fuel needed to get home. For safety’s sake, they had to end the mission early.
The duo splashed down about 10 hours after the March 16, 1966 launch. They were picked up by a recovery ship and brought to the Naha Air Base in Japan.
Centuori said one element of the photos that sticks out is the smiles on the astronauts’ faces, which he suggested shows their professionalism and ability to remain at ease even after a life-threatening mission.
Science historian Robert Poole said the grins point to something else.
“The obvious thing that sticks out to me is that they are very happy to be alive,” said Poole, of the University of Lancashire.
Armstrong’s ability to stay cool in a crisis was key to his getting picked as commander of Apollo 11, Poole said.
More than a half-century after the last Apollo mission, NASA is preparing to return to the moon with a lunar fly-around by Artemis astronauts in April.
Past missions are a reminder of the effort and preparation it takes to get to space and adapt when plans change.
“Seeing people launch to space frequently can suggest that it’s easy, but it’s very hard. And it requires a lot of resources and attention,” said Emily Margolis, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum.
The new images will help the Armstrong Museum fill in gaps when telling the story of the mission to visitors. The Gemini 8 capsule is already on display at the museum.
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