New Delhi, March 23 -- 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 rol...