Never-before-seen photos of Neil Armstrong’s near-fatal NASA mission surface 60 years later

Never-before-seen photos of late astronaut Neil Armstrong’s return to Earth following one of NASA’s closest calls 60 years ago are now available to the public.

The photos of Armstrong, who died in 2012, and fellow astronaut David Scott after their unplanned splashdown near Japan following their ill-fated Gemini 8 mission in 1966 have been donated to the Armstrong Air and Space Museum in Wapakoneta, Ohio, by the widow of photographer Ron McQueeney.

Armstrong and Scott were forced to end the mission early when both spacecraft started to tumble uncontrollably after the astronauts completed the first successful docking in space.

They separated from the other spacecraft but continued to tumble at one revolution a second until Armstrong decided to deploy the thrusters to stop the spinning, which burned some of the fuel they would have needed to complete the mission. The astronauts risked losing consciousness during the spinning. 

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The men splashed down off Okinawa, Japan, about 10 hours after their launch on March 16, 1966, and were brought to Naha Air Base.

McQueeney, an Army veteran, was called in to document the astronauts after the splashdown, an event little media was at because it was unexpected.

“Sometimes, an incredible event can actually be documented by some of the most ordinary means,” Dante Centuori, executive director of the museum, told The Associated Press.

The photos show the men on the deck of a U.S. Navy ship that brought them to the base in Japan and waving to U.S. service members once they got to the base.

Another photo shows the Gemini 8 spacecraft being lifted following the splashdown.

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“The obvious thing that sticks out to me is that they are very happy to be alive,” historian Robert Poole, of the University of Lancashire, told the AP.

He added that Armstrong’s composure under pressure was one of the key things that led to him being chosen for the Apollo 11 moon landing three years later.

Centuori said their smiles also show their ability to stay calm in a stressful situation.

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More than 50 years since the last moon mission, NASA is preparing to launch Artemis II, which will send four astronauts around the moon, next month.

“Seeing people launch to space frequently can suggest that it’s easy, but it’s very hard,” Emily Margolis, a curator at the National Air and Space Museum added. “And it requires a lot of resources and attention.”