Heritage Space Gallery

U-2 spy plane with fictitious NASA markings, USA, 1960. Creator: NASA

U-2 spy plane with fictitious NASA markings, USA, 1960. After Francis Gary Powers was shot down over the Soviet Union during a CIA spy flight on May 1, 1960, NASA issued a press release with a cover story about a U-2 conducting weather research that may have strayed off course after the pilot reported difficulties with his oxygen equipment. To bolster the cover-up, a U-2 was quickly painted in NASA markings, with a fictitious NASA serial number, and put on display for the news media at the NASA Flight Research Center at Edwards Air Force Base on May 6, 1960. The U-2 cover story in 1956 was that it was an NACA plane to conduct high-altitude weather research. But various observers doubted this story from the beginning. Certainly the Soviets did not believe it once the aircraft began overflying their territory. The NASA cover story quickly blew up in the agency's face when both Gary Powers and aircraft wreckage were displayed by the Soviet Union, proving that it was a reconnaissance aircraft. This caused embarrassment for several top NASA officials

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Buzz Aldrin stands next to the American flag on the surface of the Moon, July 1969

Buzz Aldrin stands next to the American flag on the surface of the Moon, Apollo 11 mission, July 1969. US astronaut Edwin E "Buzz" Aldrin, Jr, lunar module pilot of the first lunar landing mission, in the Sea of Tranquility during an Apollo 11 moon walk. The footprints of the astronauts are clearly visible in the lunar soil. Astronaut Neil Armstrong, commander, took this picture with a 70mm Hasselblad lunar surface camera. The Apollo 11 Lunar Module, code named Eagle, with Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin on board, landed in the Sea of Tranquillity on 20 July 1969. Apollo 11 was the fifth manned Apollo mission, and was the first to land on the Moon

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John Young on the lunar surface, 1972. Creator: Charles Duke

John Young on the lunar surface, 1972. Astronaut John W. Young, commander of the Apollo 16 lunar landing mission, jumps up from the lunar surface as he salutes the U.S. Flag at the Descartes landing site during the first Apollo 16 extravehicular activity (EVA-1). Astronaut Charles M. Duke Jr., lunar module pilot, took this picture. The Lunar Module (LM) "Orion" is on the left. The Lunar Roving Vehicle is parked beside the LM. The object behind Young in the shade of the LM is the Far Ultraviolet Camera/Spectrograph. Stone Mountain dominates the background in this lunar scene

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