NEW YORK (AP) — 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.