Navy divers from the USS
Wasp, in the Pacific Ocean,
during retrieval of the two-
person crew of the Gemini
6A spacecraft in 1965. At
the time, landing in bodies
of water was considered the
safest option for keeping a
crew alive and minimising
damage to the vehicle
after re-entry. The capsule
is currently on display in
the Stafford Air & Space
Museum, in Oklahoma.Previous: Alan Shepard in the
capsule of Freedom 7 on May
5, 1961, the day he became
the first American in space –
a huge achievement despite
the fact that Russia’s Yuri
Gagarin had beaten the US
into space by three weeks.
Shepard took a 15-minute
suborbital flight around the
planet, eventually splashing
down near the Bahamas.The prime and backup crews
for the Gemini 11 spacecraft
(which flew in 1966) relax
by the Mission Simulator at
Cape Kennedy. On the far
right is Neil Armstrong, who
was a backup command pilot
at the time. The astronauts
regularly undertook training
to prepare for accidents and
worst-case scenarios that
might happen while in space.Neil Armstrong descends the
ladder of the Apollo 11 lunar
module, on to the surface of
the Moon in 1969. But if he
was first, who is taking the
picture? As Armstrong exited
the craft, he pulled a cord,
which released a camera on a
tether, enabling the historic
first steps to be captured.
Half a billion people around
the world watched on TV as
images of the iconic “One
small step...” moment were
WO broadcast back to Earth.
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