Inscribed photo of astronaut John Glenn on the Capitol Steps with President Johnson and others.

On 20 February 1962, John Glenn became the first American to orbit the Earth during the Friendship 7 mission. Six days later, NASA rushed him to Washington, DC to address Congress. The Doorkeeper of the U.S. House of Representatives, William M. “Fishbait” Milller, reported that attendance broke all records with over 1,000 visitors squeezed into galleries that typically seated only 740. The photograph of the astronaut departing the Capitol is inscribed to Miller’s wife and daughter. Glenn became a U.S. senator in 1974 and remained in office for 24 years.

Apollo 8 was the first crewed spacecraft to orbit the moon in December 1968. The NASA photograph depicts the Earth as viewed from the lunar orbit, and the reprint of a Washington newspaper front page contains the signature of the three astronauts on the mission: Bill Anders, James Lovell, and Frank Borman.

Intended to land on the moon, NASA aborted the beleaguered 1970 Apollo 13 mission after the failure of an oxygen tank (reenactments of the hardships and improvisational repairs appear in the 1995 film Apollo 13 ). Mississippian Fred Haise was the lunar module pilot and served alongside Jim Lovell and Jack Swigert.